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Plugin Review: Jetpack

jetpack_logoWith over 11 million downloads, Jetpack is one of the most popular WordPress plugins in the world. Way back when, these features were only for the WordPress.com users. Finally they decided to share and Jetpack was born. Now the self hosted users have many of the same benefits in one simple plugin.

Features of Jetpack

  • Site Verification Tools: Verify your site with Google, Pinterest, Bing, and more.
  • Related Posts: Have links to other related posts under posts to keep the readers engaged.
  • Markdown: Write in plain-text Markdown syntax.
  • Monitor: Know when your site goes down and know when it is back up.
  • Jetpack Single Sign On: All your WordPress sites, one single login credential.
  • Google + Profile: Give yourself and the readers the ability to link to their Google+ account.
  • Photon: Acceleration from the WordPress.com CDN.
  • Infinite Scroll: Support for themes that have infinite scroll.
  • VideoPress: (Paid feature) Upload and host videos on your WordPress site.
  • Widget Visibility: Pick what widgets you want on certain pages.
  • JSON API: Applications connect to your WordPress site securely through the cloud.
  • Omnisearch: Database searches done easy.
  • Likes: Readers can show their love by liking your content.
  • Publicize: share with social media automatically.
  • WordPress.com Stats: Page statistics built in the dashboard.
  • Notifications: Know when you get site activity through the dashboard toolbar and your Apple device.
  • Jetpack Comments: Let readers leave their opinions.
  • Subscriptions: Give readers the ability to get your content in their email.
  • Carousel: Full page image sideshows made easy.
  • Post By Email: Publish via email.
  • Sharing: Let your readers share your content.
  • Spelling and Grammar: Check your spelling and grammar with one click.
  • Vault Press: (Paid service) Jetpack’s security and backup.
  • Gravatar Hovercards: Pop-up online business cards for commenters.
  • Contact Form: Let your readers be able to reach you without putting your email on your site.
  • Tilled Galleries: Showcase your pretty pictures.
  • WP.me Shortlinks: Make your URL’s shorter and more sharable.
  • Custom CSS: Customizing CSS without changing your theme.
  • Shortcode Embeds: Embedding the world without code.
  • Mobile Theme: Your theme on mobile but better.
  • Beautiful Math: LaTeX markup for math problems bigger than 1+1=2.
  • Extra Sidebar Widgets: More widgets to play with.
  • Enhanced Distribution: Share your content with the world.

Benefits of Jetpack

My favorite thing about Jetpack is that it has over 30 awesome features in a little living space. I am a minimalist when it comes to WordPress plugins and I enjoy the fact that I can have a multi-functioned plugin. Like my kitchen, I try not to use unitaskers unless necessary. I do like that you can turn off the services you do not wish to use while keeping the ones you do on. That is a handy feature because there are a few components I will never use. I like the fact that their website goes through each individual aspect and gives a brief description. This makes it helpful in deciding what can benefit you and what will not.

My favorite features are WordPress.com stats, publicize, sharing, and monitor. WordPress.com stats make life so much easier. I like being able to sign on to my dashboard and know right there how many views my site has. Publicize and sharing are a social media junkie’s saving grace. I love the click and forget aspect of it. The only thing I change with publicize is that I add in my hashtags before publishing the post. I am very particular about knowing what is going on with my site and I love monitor and its emails. It let me know that it was time to move a site due to downtime issues I might not have known as soon if I did not have that option turned on.

What to consider with using Jetpack

First of all check the speed of your site with and without Jetpack on it. Some have mentioned that the plugin makes their site slow. I have not had any problems with any of my sites but this is something that is site specific. You will also need a WordPress.com account. This is not the same as your login to your dashboard. Research it before you decide to put it on any of your sites. I hold that true to any plugin. Do not be scared that there is a lot to Jetpack. Their website it full of information and support.

Bottom Line

If you are new to WordPress or you are moving your site from WordPress.com to self-hosted I would definitely get this plugin. If you like having multi-functional plugins, get this plugin. If you are ultra-particular about what you put on your site and you only want what you want, then Jetpack is probably not for you. Personally, Jetpack is for everyone.

Preaching About Passwords

STRONGPASSWORDS  A strong password is the first line of defense for keeping people out of your information. If a person can not guess the password, then they can not get into your account. The more robots that are made to be key loggers and password guessers, the easier it is to guess a password and enter a site that the robot does not belong.

Strong passwords are at least eight characters with capital letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters in them. A great one has a mix of all four characters and ten to twenty characters long. The less legible the better.

 

Password Best Practices

  • Never ever never use “admin” or “user” for the username and “password” for the password. Never! Do not use pa55word or password123 either. Those are the first passwords to be cracked.  Just do not even think of this as being an option. Ever.
  • Capitalizing the first letter of a used word or name does not make it more secure either. JamesBrown is just as easy to crack as jamesbrown. Capital P is only important when spelling WordPress. It will not make your “Password” more secure. Again, the less legible the better.
  • Do not use words. If it something that can be guessed easily, the hacker can guess it as well. Even the combining of words are easily guessable. Using “iloveyou” or “cheersfriends” is as easily hackable as using your name. Adding numbers or special characters that look like letters like making a password of “Jam$areJ3lly” will make it a bit less hackable but only a very little.
  • Never use personal information as your password. Anyone’s name, birthdate, anniversary, dog’s name, address, etc. are never good ideas to use as passwords. If a friend or family member can guess it, the hackers can to.
  • Use a different password for every login. If you have the same password for every account you log into, then if a hacker finds out your password to your email, then they can get into everything. This is important because if you use the same password and someone gets into your email, then they have access to everything. They can get into banking information, credit card login, and much more. Definitely keep a unique password for each and every financial institution and email accounts.
  • Use a password keeper to store your passwords.  Personally suggest LastPass, KeePass, or 1Password for Mac. You only need to remember the one to login  for the application and they take care of remembering the rest. All have their own pros and cons. Try all three and see which one you like the best. With using a password keeper, you do not have to remember those passwords that are not words.
  • Use a password generator to make up your passwords. Most of the password keepers have them built into them. You can specify length and what type of characters you want within the password. Once you chose the one you like, you can save them to the password keeper as well.
  • One thing that is popular right now is “password therapy”.  Password therapy is where you make a password that is more like a mantra that you repeat. For example, you want to quit smoking. You make your password for all of your logins “smoke free”. For security reasons, this is a bad idea! keep separate logins for everything.
  • Do not email passwords. LastPass gives you an option to email a link to your password. Unless you have encryption set up, the email can be compromised.
  • Do not share your passwords with anyone who does not have a direct need for them. Login information should always be a need to know thing. If you can set up the other person with a separate user credentials it is always better than giving them yours. Always take the minimalist approach and only give out what they need and as much access as they need.

These steps will help to keep your information more secure. Just remember, nothing is ever 100% secure but it always better to do something than to do nothing. Keep your information up to date and do not share it with anyone.  There will always be new vulnerabilities coming out. Just remember the basic rules of passwords and that will help aid you to keep the bad guys out.

Plugin Review: iThemes Security

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Every time, and I mean every time I make a new WordPress site the first thing I do is install and activate the iThemes Security plugin. Hands down I do believe that it is the top in Security Best Practices plugins. With over two and a half million downloads, it is definitely a plugin you can depend on.  There are two versions of iThemes Security. They have a free and a paid premium version. This review will be discussing the free version of the plugin.

Benefits of using iThemes Security

The number one benefit i see in iThemes Security is that it helps keep the bad guys out and it lets you know when they try to get in.

I receive emails when bot or person tries unsuccessfully to log in to my website. After three failed attempts to login, iThemes Security will notify the admin via email that someone has been locked out due to too many failed login attempts. Here is an example of the email you will receive. You can adjust the number of times of failed login attempts before locking them out. It is recommended to not put this at one. This feature will help your site to avoid brute force attacks.

site_lockout_email

If you notice you are getting a lot of notifications that there are site lockouts due to failed login attempts, it is more than likely the site is under a brute force attack. If you change your login slug to something other than the defaults, that typically helps to reduce brute force attacks tremendously.

404 detection is very important with WordPress security. What that means for a brute force attack is they are trying to find pages and they do not exist. This causes a 404 detection. The admin will receive an email for brute force/404 detection bans as well. You can change how many 404 errors are made before a host is locked out. It is recommended not to put this to 1. Personally I say leave this at the defaults.

Since it has happened to me, I enjoy the hide backend feature. I was hit with a horrible brute force attack and received over 40 emails of site lockout notifications one morning due to someone trying to get into my personal blog. Finally, I enabled the hide backend feature and changes the login slug. I have yet to have another site lockout notification on that site due to failed login attempts. If they can not find where to log in. They cannot log in. Great feature!

Another great feature is that you can set a clock to where your site’s dashboard is unavailable for different times. While, I myself do not use this, it is awesome. I have a tendency to writing blogs when I should be sleeping. It is great for business websites when they do not want people in their site when the company is not open.

With dealing with passwords, you never want to use an easy one. iThemes Security will enforce strong passwords for all or some of the user rolls. This is a great feature to have if you have more than one user on the site. Please remember, “password” is never a good password.

Finally one of my favorite features is the database backups. You can set up a schedule to have a backup file of the WordPress database to be emailed to you. For an extra fee you can have the full backups sent to a remote location with iThemes Backup Buddy. If you worry about losing your site, I highly recommend using both. You can change the settings to only backup some or all of the database.

Things you should know about iThemes Security

  • If you use the hide backend feature, you WILL NOT be able to use the default WordPress slugs. Please remember what slug you used for the login page.
  • If you do find yourself locked out of your website, you can always FTP into your site and delete the lockout to get back in.
  • If you are getting a lot of emails for site lockout notifications, please read your logs before blaming the plugin. Typically it is just the plugin doing its job.
  • Nothing is ever 100% secure. Never.
  • You do not have to turn everything on. The plugin is set up for the user to pick the features they want to use.

 Final Decision on iThemes Security

I would, and I do put this plugin on all of my sites. I have yet to encounter a major problem. Anything that I have had an issue with was minor and mostly due to simple error. This plugin is ever evolving and updated very often. If you chose to not use this plugin, please chose some kind of security for your site. Anything is better than nothing. If you are looking for a great, free WordPress Security plugin, iThemes Security is definitely where it is at.

The reviews made by Can’t Speak Geek are at the transgression of the author of the post. They are in no way skewed by the plugin authors or owners. Can’t Speak Geek may be given compensation via products or discounts  to review, but compensation does not have any bias on the review. Can’t Speak Geek is not affiliated with any companies they review.

Lock It Up

Untitled design (2)Information security means a lot to me on many different levels. Unfortunately, nothing is completely hack-proof. First and foremost, I like any other internet user do not want any of my private information to get in the hands of anyone it is not supposed to. I do all the normalcy of running an antivirus on my PC’s and my Mac, I have up a decent firewall, and watch what sites I visit. Also for personal internet security, I do not use any duplicate passwords. The best thing to do is use a password keeper apps like KeePass, LastPass or OnePassword.

With what I do in my professional life, privacy and security are big business. Internet security, more importantly WordPress site security is a very passionate subject for me. When there is a WordPress site that has been hacked, I come in and clean the site up. It is cheaper to take the necessary steps to keep your site secure than to have someone come in and clean it. Weather using WordPress to aid in the design of your website or building it straight from code, the developer must add security to their site or information can get out and the uglies can get in. Now adding too many security plugins can be an issue as well. Too many plugins will not play well with each other and then you will be locked out of your site.

Privacy and security need to be important and on the top of the list because no one wants to deal with the aftermath. In personal issues it involves changing all your financial information, login information, and anything else you put on the web. Professionally, it can be the biggest headache one has ever had. It can take hours and dollars to fix a broken site. One of the best things to do is have a backup. Backup your files, your information, your computer. Backup everything. I have my photos and music in 3 separate locations so I never have to worry about losing any of them. Here is where a cloud based service like Bitcasa or Dropbox work for you. Also, keep your information hidden. Use a service to keep your passwords. Writing them in a file is much more easier to retrieve. When using a public network be more aware of what sites you are visiting and what information you are putting out. Update your services, passwords, plugins, and everything else on a regular basis. It is good to change you password every 3 months.

What do you do if your desktop or laptop gets hacked?

This happens all the time. Viruses and worms find their way into your desktop or laptop.  First and foremost, always keep some sort of antivirus up to date on your unit. If your box does get something on it, typical virus removal is not the cheapest service in the world, but it is easily done. Find a company you can trust, and get the viruses off your PC.

What do you do if your site gets hacked?

Finally if you are hacked, it is not the end of the world. While it does take time and sometimes money to get back to normal, you will get there. If ever in that situation, take a deep breath and tackle it. If you have a website that you feel has been hacked, come see me over at WP Security Lock and we can get you taken care of.

FourSquare Your Business

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Foursquare has gotten to be a big hit in social media. Is your business on Foursquare? More than likely your business is already on there and people have already “checked in” to your business. You more than likely already have a “mayor” of your business that has been there many times. Foursquare is a free location-based mobile application. There are over fifteen million registered users on Foursquare right now. If your business is retail, restaurant, or has a service to offer you can benefit from Foursquare. Why not use it to your advantage?

First a little about what FourSquare is all about. Once someone is registered and using the account, every time they go someplace new they “check in”. What that means is they go onto the FourSquare app and say they are at a certain place. This can be any type of place from home to the grocery store to the local park. The person who has the most checkins at that time is the “mayor” of the place. A user will also get points for every time they check in and it runs on a weekly total.

Many restaurants and stores have already uploaded specials or contests for their customers to use when they check into their establishment. It has been a fantastic free advertisement for them. Once your social media manager or marketing manager sets up a special or contest on Foursquare for your customers, you will see a rise in sales and new customers. Consumers are drawn to what they can get at a lower price. It is a basic principle of marketing.

There are many ways your business can use Foursquare. You can also have more than one special running at a time and can change them out at your leisure. First time customers can have 20% off their bill while every check in a person makes can have 10% off of theirs. You can also run a special that is for every tenth check you make gets you a discount or something free. Plus you can give the mayors of your establishment a bonus special that only they can use.foursquare_checkin
When a person goes to check in to a place on Foursquare it will show the places close to where they are that. If they click on the Specials tab it will show them only the area businesses that are running specials at that time. For example, if a couple check in to a movie theater then clicks on the specials tab it will show them only the businesses in their vicinity that are running a special for check ins. When your business is showing in the Specials tab you have an upper hand over the places that are not using Foursquare as a marketing device.

Also customers can leave tips and comments about your business on the application. John S can say you have fabulous customer service while Mary N tells everyone to try the tomato soup because it is so good. I have even seen a tip where the business had the cleanest bathrooms in town. Users are already leaving comments on millions of businesses already. Their comments have quite probably already helped or hindered your business.

I personally check in to every place I go. I frequently look at the specials for the area I am in, especially if I am in a new area. When I cannot decide on a restaurant, I always let the specials make the choice for me. Whoever has the best special has earned my business for the day. It has been a great personal tool on trying new businesses and showing loyalty to my favorites.
The choices are endless to what you can do on Foursquare. It is up to you on how you want to use it. Put Foursquare on this year’s marketing strategy plan and watch your business grow.