Right now there is a worldwide brute force attack targeted at WordPress sites.  This attack is extremely large scale and many of the large hosting companies are reporting impact.  The biggest impact to most WordPress based sites is a slowdown in performance due to the significant volume of traffic this particular attack is driving at hosting company servers. The WordPress attack is a WordPress brute force attack on the default admin account.  The attack tries to brute force compromise the Continue Reading

Last week, I announced on Google+ that I would be moving from the Thesis (affiliate link) WordPress theme to the Genesis (affiliate link) WordPress theme.   I've been using Thesis almost since it was first released, and this was not an easy decision for me to make.  In response to my Google+ posting, I received a number of questions and comments about my decision.  I've been wanting to do some video for a while, and thought this would be the perfect opportunity. I filmed my first video Continue Reading

I don't recall exactly how I found Evernote, but I do recall not being real impressed with it at first. Based on my oldest Evernote note, I began using Evernote early in 2008, mostly to keep text notes. A month or so later, I all but stopped using it. In hindsight, I know why - I wasn't using Evernote correctly. Fortunately after reading some Evernote tips articles, I tried it again. The second time around, I decided to put everything in my life I possibly could in Evernote. This Continue Reading

For those of you that might just be coming into this series on Google Analytics for your blog, this is the third article in a series.  Part one provided an overview of Google Analytics along with diving into the audience overview section.  Part two discussed the Traffic Sources section of Google Analytics. In this third part of the series, we'll explore the details of the Google Analytics Content section which allows you to view metrics data for the actual content of your blog or website. Continue Reading

I love to visit other blogging blogs and read their articles.  I enjoy seeing other blogs in my niche, reviewing their designs and reading about the unique perspective and writing style each blogger brings to the table.  The knowledge I gain from these visits helps me to better help you build a blog. Here's the problem though: the blogging advice on the internet is a mixed bag and you really have to be careful.  Some of the information is great, some is just frankly terrible.  This brings Continue Reading

Two weeks ago, I was working on my Friday Most Excellent article.  I made a couple of tweaks to the article after it was published and pressed update.  WordPress was busy saving for a very long time, then up popped the dreaded 500 server error message.  No big deal I thought, I'll just make the tweaks again and save it again.  I pulled the post up and all but the first couple of sentences were gone! My shock and dismay must have been a little louder than I thought, as my wife asked "What's Continue Reading

Over the past two months on Google+, I've been meeting lots of new people, and many of them new bloggers.   I always enjoy heading over to these new blogs to take a look, read over their content and try to add an encouraging comment. While visiting all of these new blogs, I started seeing some common mistakes new bloggers were making, especially related to post formatting. When I first started blogging, I really struggled with how to best format a blog post, and it took me more than a year Continue Reading

This is part 2 of a series I'm writing called Using Google Analytics for your blog.   If you missed the first part, which discussed what Google Analytics is and went over the Google Analytics Audience Overview section,  please head over and give it a read.   This article will dive into the next section, Google Analytics - Traffic Sources where we're learn how to find out who is sending you traffic. Remember, this series will touch on the basic information from each section of Google Continue Reading

I've been reading articles for years from various internet marketing gurus about the importance of email list building.  The consistant message I have always heard was: "The money is in the list". On my first blog, while I had a mailing list, I didn't use it effectively.  I only used the blog email list to deliver my latest posts via email to subscribers.  When I started this blog, one of my goals was to more effectively use my email list and provide my subscribers with unique value and Continue Reading

One of the key tools you should have set-up on your blog from day one is Google Analytics. Setting up Analytics is pretty simple, but understanding how to use it and all of the data it provides isn't.  I often receive questions like:  How do I use Google Analytics? and I have analytics set-up, but have no idea what I'm looking at.  Can you help me understand Google Analytics?. With those questions in mind, I thought I would put together a series that will overview what Google Analytics is, Continue Reading