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6 Best Plugins For Securing Your WordPress Based Website From Hackers

Photo by Schill via Flickr

Most everyone that has a WordPress website or blog does so out of the necessity to be creative and to generally express the thoughts that are screaming to dome out of your head onto paper (or in this case the screen). That effort to be me is where I get most of my fuel to carry on even on the worst days of cyber-attacks. A favorite quote comes from henry Ward Beecher, – In himself is a man’s true state of riches and power.

As most of you know WordPress is the very popular software that allows each of us to be who we perceive ourselves to be. With its ease of use and versatile approach to fulfilling each individual’s needs WordPress opens the doors to the virtual universe.

Thesis WordPress themes are responsible for that seamless creative time that you spend when setting up your site. But users beware! As great as this software is for the majority of people who are not techies, WordPress offers a wide open opportunity for hackers.

Thesis WordPress themes are great software products and it is an absolute necessity that you spend the little extra time that it requires to secure your blog or website against invasion by the cyber scum that inhabits our planet! With its vast library of plugins users can seamlessly manage their website without the added expense of a webmaster.

My Top 6 Selections for 2012 Best WordPress Security Plugins

1. Akismet is a program that checks comments left on your blog or website to see if they appear to be spam and then allows you to review the spam it does catch through the blog “Comments” admin screen. Akismet comes pre-installed with Thesis WordPress themes, and once you apply for and install your API key you will find the controls for it in your options panel in your Dashboard.

2. Website Defender WordPress Security plug-in is a free and comprehensive security tool that helps you secure your Thesis WordPress themes installation and offers suggestions for strengthening your passwords, securing your database, and lots more.

3. BackWPUp is a plugin that backs up your Thesis WordPress themes files and database and store them wherever you decide. You can schedule automatic backups and pick out which folders and tables you want to backup.

4. WP Security Scan raises the level of the security for your Thesis WordPress themes installation. It does this by scanning your site for security issues then suggests the methods you can use to fix them.

5. WP Secure plug-in provides security for your Thesis WordPress themes installation by hiding your plug-in directory and WP version from hackers and others. This is important to do because the cyber scum that inhabits our virtual world use the version and the list of plugins to locate one that they have hacked before to hack their way into your blog! Add this plug-in to protect your website or blog.

6. WP-MalWatch is designed to alert you when hackers have invaded your blog. When hackers do get into your Thesis WordPress themes blog site, they infest your site or blog with links to their sites. When you know they have invaded you can take the necessary actions to remove them from your world.

It is very advisable that you only use the plugins that are approved by the WordPress folks. They always test each plugin prior to posting it as available on their website. This is in no way speaking ill of the third party plugins that abound on the internet. It does suggest that you must do your own investigation of third party products so that you get a feeling of trust from the vendor.

Worrying about the safety of your site is not nearly as productive as installing the proper plugins to ensure that safety. Spend the time that it takes you to install the plugins that will protect your site! Like William Plomer once said, – The power to connect the seemingly unconnected lied within creativity.

Guest Author Bio: As a freelance writer and research hound Jason Monroe is a young (mid 20’s) single man adding content for clients from within the WordPress Dashboard. Jason has been online since 2003 and has been a huge fan of WordPress and the StudioPress themes since their inception. When he’s not writing premium WordPress Genesis themes reviews you might find him spending quality time with nature by walking the nearby mountain trails.

10 Invaluable WordPress Tools

If you want to make using WordPress an easier process, or just want to make the most out of what WordPress has to offer, check out these ten tools.

1. Bundlelytic

Bundlelyti

The great thing about this content package is that it is more than just beneficial for WordPress bloggers. It is also a charity package, which gives 100% of their proceeds to emergency programs through UNICEF. It comes with access to nine different services: Site5 Web Hosting, The Hello Bar, Themify, Pippity WP Plugin, Mad Mimi, CodeGuard, Sendible, OrganicThemes ‘Bold Theme’ and Themes Kingdom (5 different themes). Some of these, such as the themes, are one time purchases that give you full use rights. As for the services, they are between three and six month plans. In all, this is a $630 value package for $59, and all to help UNICEF. Definitely worth getting.

2. WPBeginner

WPBeginner

When you first go onto this site you might be a little confused. The format is a fantastic clone of the WP dashboard, complete with matching side icons. In itself, it is the perfect guide for the WP beginner. It goes through every element of the website, giving you a total tutorial to use. They also have a list of useful WordPress books you can read if you want to learn even more.

3. Guest Blog Checklist

Guest Blog Checklist

As a blog owner, you are responsible for the content that is posted on your site. The biggest issue with this comes with guest bloggers. While you can easily control the genre or topics they write on, it is harder to handle format. Most writers will try to follow by the general layout used on other posts, or follow your instructions, they can often forget something. Which leads to more work for you in edit. That is why having a checklist for guest post formatting is a great idea. You can make your own, or use this one by the great Ann Smarty. Download and customize it.

4. 7 Tips For WP

7 Tips For WP

Copyblogger is a very informative site, and they aim to provide simple posts with plenty of advice for the average blog owner. In this edition, they give you seven tips on how to make WP work for you. It includes tricks for your sidebar, navigation advice and more.

5. Creating A WP Template

Creating A WP Template (Video)

WordPress has a large selection of templates for you to use. Most of them are free, and some of them cost between $15 and $200. All of them are customizable and easily adapted for your needs. However, you might want something entirely your own. In that case, you will have to create one. Luckily, this isn’t as difficult as creating other coding, such as traditional graphic design. This video will show you how to make a template for WP, step by step.

6. Designing For WP

Designing For WP (Video)

If you want more information on design for WordPress, this series is a good place to start. They have a few videos explaining the finer points of the topic, starting from the Starkers theme rather than a default. In all, the video series runs about two hours and fifteen minutes.

7. Putting Custom Headers In WP (Video)

Sometimes you love a theme, but you hate the header that it generates. Which is fine, because it is very simple to create your own header. On this video it will break it down for you, showing exactly how to make a header that will fit your blog. You will be ready in a manner of minutes.

8. Modifying WP Themes

Modifying WP Themes (Video)

The most confusing part of customizing a blog for more WorPress users is modifying an existing theme. It doesn’t take that much to learn what you are doing. Each part is in a different area of the coding box. This video breaks it down for you and shows you how to make changes.

9. ScribeFire

ScribeFire

ScribeFire is a great plugin tool for Firefox, Chrome, Safari or Opera. It allows users to turn their browser into a full blog updater. Create new posts, edit old ones, work on SEO and more through the plugin itself. But best of all is that it allows you to work on all of your blogs in one place.

10. Broken Link Checker

Broken Link Checker

An official tool from WP, this allows you to check for any broken links in your posts. This makes it really easy to keep track of them, and to be alerted to any problems in the future.

Conclusion

If you want to make WordPress really work for you, then these ten tools can help. From getting advice on how to create a better blog to learning how to properly code your theme, they have everything you need to get things started.

Guest Author Jessy is the tech blogger for VIP Reality blog. Vip Reality is a Dallas real estate company preaching a high-quality approach to online marketing. All images courtesy Jessy.

Useful Links: Textbooks by Sony, Ads by . . . you, A mashup of youness

Blyth education, a Canadian high school, announced that they will replace textbooks with Sony Readers. When U.S. schools tried to do this with the Kindle Reader, they were hit with accessibility lawsuits. Be interesting to see how it goes with the Sony Reader.

The Medium is No Longer the Message–You Are is an article at TechCrunch by the co-founder of socialmedia.com. The article itself is interesting, but the real significance behind it is what is happening to advertising at socialmedia.com. You should check out what this company is doing. Advertising will never be the same.

Post and Read via Twitter API combines Twitter with WordPress. The Twitter app Tweetie will be the first app to provide you with the ability tweet directly to your WordPress blog. This article puts me in mind of Posterous: My New Social Media Addition. Posterous offers a life streaming mashup of everything you post from everywhere. In some situations I can see a lot of value in these efforts to combine social media into one big bundle of youness, but I also think there are times when streams of information are best kept separate. What do you think?

Summary of eHow Articles for March

The bulbs stretched their heads above the ground, the trees bloomed, the grass took on a new green hue, and web geeks from around the world gathered in Austin for SXSW Interactive. Amid all those distractions, here’s what I wrote on eHow in March. More . . .

The bulbs stretched their heads above the ground, the trees bloomed, the grass took on a fresh green hue, and web geeks from around the world gathered in Austin for SXSW Interactive. Registration numbers were up by 25% at SXSWi, as the registration line pictured above suggests.

Amid all those distractions, here’s what I wrote on eHow in March.