I added the Twitter Tools plugin to a few of my websites that has a plugin for the URL shortening service bit.ly. I’m troubled though. When the plugin is active the bitlybot is repeatedly trying to access my admin area using multiple IP addresses, usually right after I have been in the admin area. Is anyone else running a WordPress noticing this? In the interim the bitlybot is banned. Bye bye bitlybot.

IP: 174.129.127.192 September 13 2009 10:24:54
Request: /wp-admin/page.php?action=edit
Code: On our user agent blacklist
Accept: */*
Agent: bitlybot

©2012 Faster, better.... All Rights Reserved.

The great thing about the new WordPress Firewall plugin by SEOEGGHEAD is that you are notified by email each time someone tries an SQL injection or other attack on your blog. What an eye opener these emails have been.

Last night, Wednesday, March 11 at 1:11 AM EDST six, yes SIX, different attempts were made to hack into my blog from IP address 58.241.255.38. The hacker was focusing his/her attention on one particular plugin. Just in case there is a vulnerability I’ll notify the plugin author of the occurrence and not mention the plugin here and I would be happy to share the information with WordPress.

According to the IP look up at seoegghead.com the IP is from Nanjoing, Jiansu, China.

I’m bummed. I’ve never been disrespectful to our Chinese friends. Why anyone would want to hack into an unemployed American citizen’s blog is beyond me. I’m just thankful for this new plugin. Perhaps if I could use a fire hose I’d use it. Knock it off please.

©2012 Faster, better.... All Rights Reserved.

The Psychic Search plugin from MaxBlogPress is a unique tool a WordPress blog owner can use to monitor searches made from the blog search box. The plugin also records various search engine keyword searches where some of the keywords have appeared in your blog posts. The idea of this plugin is to give the blog author hints at the type of content visitors are seeking – especially those using your search box.

The first thing I discovered was that only hackers are using my search box. In the last three months I have seen three attempted mySQL injection attacks recorded. This was educational. Whether or not your search function is used may depend on the content of the blog you run. In my case the most marketable reason for using the plugin was a flop at my site. That isn’t the plugin’s fault. I have to write more stuff that people want to find in a local search!

I did however find reviewing the keywords used by potential readers in various search engine queries useful in a similar way. I have written articles based on the keywords used in these queries. There has been some growth in my visitor count.

Some of the same information is available through Google, Compete, and from the WordPress Blog Stats plugin available from WordPress.com. Psychic Search (currently at version 2.04) allows you to start seeing data just after installation from your blog dashboard. You do not have to visit another site to see the data. Even if you don’t find it it useful all of the time the information can be entertaining. Just reading the kinds of things people look for on the Internet has sparked some ideas for new posts.

I’m using the plugin at DougWeb.com and now at PopularWireless.com. Spending a lot more time writing at DougWeb has helped advanced the blog from a Google rank of zero to a four and my Alexa rank hovers around 225,000. I am pleased with the information Psychic Search provides.

As you install the plugin you are asked to send the plugin author your email address and blog address. A confirmation email is sent with a “plugin activation” link. This action also subscribes you to two of the author’s email lists. When you press the activation link in the email you are presented with an offer to purchase a product. You may unsubscribe at a later time if you do not find his emails useful. My sense was he could have sent fewer messages around Christmas time but what the heck a man’s got to stay in business to feed the Internet habit. The plugin is free to use but the author asks that you take time to write your own optional review. The plugin’s tech support is excellent. The author maintains a vBulletin Board system to provide public support.

I like the WordPress Psychic Search Plugin. It is another tool in my arsenal of SEO and writing idea stuff.

©2012 Faster, better.... All Rights Reserved.

In support of Plugin Developer’s Day I list my favorite WordPress Plugins, the plugins that I use at DougWeb.com and PopularWireless.com. WordPress plugin developers truly make the blogging experience a positive one. A blog without a developer’s plugin is just a naked blog.

Akismet

Akismet is absolutely essential. It may be the single most important plugin a WordPress blog can have. Akismet deals with spam. It prevents spam from appearing on your blog so you don’t have to. In addition to using Akismet I also have moderation set so that I have to approve all comments. Some think that’s lame but I consider it safe. Some link spammers get through and I do not want their link spam visible on my blogs where unsuspecting readers might click through. Akismet rocks!

All in One SEO Pack

This unique plugin optimizes your blog for search engines. It works right out-of-the-box. No set up necessary.

Awsom News Announcement

This plugin allows the blog owner to include a news item at the top of the blog page. While you can now make any post stick to the top of a WOrdPress blog after version 2.7 this plugin includes additional time and event based functionality.

Blog Copyright (by BTE)

Simple plugin that inserts a formatted copyright statement into the blog footer.

Contact Form 7

This is a neat contact form for a WordPress bog. AKismet users are protected against spammers that WILL try to use the form.

DDAY

The DDAY widget is an event calendar that shows the number of days preceding the date of a specific event. You can also show how many days since an event took place. You have to enter all of the dates yourself. It is an entertaining plugin, great for a blog that has an organizations with lots of events.

flickrRSS

I like flickrRSS because I can show the first several photos from my favorite flickr sets. This was the easiest of the various plugins for me to master.

GoSPress

A spell check plug in for those folks not using a browser that includes one.

Google Analyticator

I use Google Analytics. This plugin makes using the service very easy on a WordPress blog. The fewer blog templates I have to edit the better.

Google XML Sitemaps

This neat plugin creates a sitemap that Ask, Google, MSN, and YAHOO can use. Each time to you crate a post or a page the map updates or you can update it at will.

http:BL WordPress Plugin

I STRONGLY encourage membership in Project Honey Pot. The only good spammer is one that has been identified and put out of business. Data from Project Honey Pot is used to block identified IP addresses from spamming your blog.

Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu

This replaces WordPress Admin menus with a CSS drop down menu bar. I really like the functionality of these menus. There are fewer clicks from here to there within the blog. The default side-mounted menus are hard for me to get used to. The top menu bar makes the blog look more like a Windows application. My only gripe is the noisy way the TOOLS menu wraps when it wraps at 15 items.

SEO Smartlinks

Do you find yourself adding links to favorite words, names, titles, or places? Using this widget you can do it automatically.

ShareThis

In my opinion, this is the better of the various sharing plugins.

Sphere Related Content

Sphere functionality allows your users to find other articles on the net asscoiated with the same topic. It is a very slick service that adds a suit-and-tie appeal to a blog.

Times to Come Stop BOT Registration

When I found this plugin my anti-spam arsenal was complete. Spammers are the vandals of the Internet. This great plugin skims the pond scum from the surface of the Internet. When a comment spammer’s bot tries to register the plugin prevents it. My impression is that the plugin is 99.9 percent effective. I knew that lots of the new registered users were not real but until I used this I had no clue many of the new registrations were actually done by BOTS.

Times to Come Tripwire Plugin

When my website was hacked by a religion of peace to leave a message of hate and discontent I needed to know when it happened. Using this plugin I was able to determine what file in my site was modified and when.

Wassup

This unique plugin gives you a visitor-by-visitor view of your blog. You can see the spammers, bloggers, registered users, and so on. Using a GOOGLE Maps API Key you can even see where your users are from on a real-time basis.

Wavatars

Giving each user a wavatar is fun. It adds character to the blog.

What Would Seth Godin Do

I like the idea of displaying a custom welcome message. That’s what this plugin does.

WordPress.com Stats

Take advantage of this service from WordPress.com. You get a day-by-day, page-by-page, post-by-post view of the success or lack of same of your blog. Between WordPress.com stats and Google Analytics I have a pretty good idea what I’ve done write or wrong with my blogs.

WP-reCAPTCHA

This CAPTCHA type product helps prevent bots from posting comments on your blog. It is easy to set up and easy to use. A very good choice for new bloggers because of its simplicity.

WordPress Database Backup

This plugin allows me to backup my database. Backup often.

Plugins by Lester “GaMerZ” Chan

Lester writes really great and extraordinarily useful plugins. Looking over his work you can only be amazed. Using his plug ins you can only be impressed. Lester rocks. I use these plugins by Lester:

WP-Print

Displays a printable version of your blog posts.

WP-ServerInfo

Everything you need to do about your server environment. Lester!

WP-DBManager

My host uses a shared database environment and does not provide access to the required mySQL options like mySQLdump so backups using this plugin are not possible but other essential functions are possible. Again Lester rocks!

WP-Ban

My favorite of Lester’s plugins. You can ban an IP address from accessing your blog. Spammer IP addresses are blocked here.

WP Super Cache

This very fast caching module can improve the responsiveness of a popular blog.

©2012 Faster, better.... All Rights Reserved.

Over the holidays I found a blog theme tool called Artisteer. The new look was created with that tool. Faster, Better went from a two column to a three column format, When that happened some title bars were cut off and other minor anomalies showed up. I’m working on those at the moment.

This new tool is terrific, particularly if you don’t code in WordPress. Artisteer allows you to control so much of what you see. Using the theme you create with the product you spruce it up with your widgets and gadgets and away you go. I found Artisteer intuitive enough to learn without spending a great deal of time reading the docs. Before I purchased the standard edition I spent about a day creating different themes and basically judging the character and usefulness of the software.

My sense is Artisteer is going to be a big hit in the blogging community and may even be a big hit for web designers.

©2012 Faster, better.... All Rights Reserved.

I have no Admin menus and I do not know why. This evening using Automatic Upgrade I upgraded to WordPress 2.7. I did not disable OZH Admin and I also have another plugin that prevents other users from seeing my Admin screens.

The ONLY screen I can see is one marked NEW POST. All other ADMIN functions are missing in action.  All I can do is add new posts and pages. There is no access to any settings or plug- in menus.

CURE: Using FTP I visited the site plugin directory. This allowed me to disable the ADMIN MENU plug in by Ozh used in 2.65. Once that was done my screen-left  WP 2.7 ADMIN menus returned. This wasn’t immediately apparent during the upgrade. It only became an issue after I pushed the button to reactivate plug ins that were active before the upgrade took place. Whew! Happily a NEW version of this terrific plug in was created for WP 2.7. I too like the desk top feel. Side menus give me a crick in the neck. Ozh rocks! Contrary to what I have read elsewhere OZH and Automatic Upgrade still work fine. No other anomalies observed.

©2012 Faster, better.... All Rights Reserved.

Does anyone have a clue how to determine the path to mySQLdump and mySQL at this web host?

©2012 Faster, better.... All Rights Reserved.

Near as I can tell when you use the Network Solutions automatic install of WordPress the new Automatic Upgrade plugin will report that it does not have the rights to write in the WordPress directory.  I was able to eliminate this problem by installing WordPress 2.5 manually after creating my own database using their PHP interface. The Automatic Upgrade pre-test passes once you have installed the blog manually. Lots of folks have written about this issue in various places. Maybe this will give someone an idea where to look for a cure. 

It is not rocket science. You can do it.

I used the WP interface at Network Solutions to obtain the server name for mySQL. They just upgraded to mySQL version 5.0 and that value has changed with the IP address. They do not tell uyou what this value is and Tech Support has no idea what it is. All they can give you is the IP address of the database server which might work but I have never tried it. When you use their interface to install a blog inspect the created myconfig.php file. The value is written there. It might be different for other customers so I won’t share it here. You then delete the blog you created adn follow the WP 2.5 install procedures.

Network Solutions is stuck at WP 2.3.3. You don’t want anything less than 2.5 anyway. Last I checked, they have no idea if or when they will ever upgrade their interface. Since it is clunky and doesn’t allow access to your database from myPHP don’t use it.

All you need to do is upload all of your WP 2.5 files to a directory at your site. You use the Network Solutions interface to create a database for your blog. By default they use 82 MB of space so I chose 100 mb. You then create a username, database name etc. Wirte it all down so you can fill out the few blanks on your new myconfig.php file from the previous blog you created. Send that to your new blog directory. Run the install routine and you are in. The steps are in the WP 2.5 readme in your WP directory.

Ask questions here if you think I can help.

Get the Automatic Upgrade Plug in so that when the updates are published you can install them with virtually no hassle.

©2012 Faster, better.... All Rights Reserved.