How to Protect Your Computer in Case of Disaster, Plus 10 More Excellent Tutorials

Posted May 28, 2015 | Laura Christianson

In this updated version of helpful blog posts from around the web, you’ll find links to 11 excellent tutorials about website security, search engine optimization (SEO), e-mail marketing, and website essentials. Click on each headline to access the full article.

Website Security Tips


SECURITY

How to protect your computer and data in case disaster strikes

I desperately needed this 10-step tutorial (from TNW) and I suspect you will, too. The checklist details the following:

  1. Get a Dropbox account
  2. Set up your emergency scenario
  3. Generate a system report
  4. Make a hard copy of your computer’s specs
  5. Install Prey and/or Undercover
  6. Start using a password manager app
  7. A trick to help you remember passwords
  8. Generate secure passwords (this is really, really important!)
  9. Lock your computer (I always do this when I travel with my laptop)
  10. Back up, back up, back up!

10 steps to a secure WordPress website

The last thing you want is for your website to get hacked. Jerod Morris outlines 10 practical tips every WordPress.org site owner should do to make your site more secure. (Source: Copyblogger)

10 vital WordPress security tips

You’ll also want to check out 10 more tips from John Philips. My favorite is #6: Don’t use “Admin” as a username! (Source: ProBlogger)


Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

A breakdown of all your website’s traffic sources

If Google Analytics mystifies you, this article by Corey Eridon (HubSpot Blogs) provides a no-nonsense overview of what Google’s measurement tools  mean:

  • Organic search
  • Referrals
  • Social media
  • Email marketing
  • Paid search
  • Direct traffic
  • Other campaigns

5 cool web analytics tools to spy on your website visitors and customers

You’ve likely heard of Google Analytics. But are you familiar with Rankwatch? KissMetrics? Wistia Video Analytics? ClickTale? Zapbi?

Pratik introduces you to each tool, and explains practical ways to use them. (Source: JeffBullas.com)


E-MAIL

How to use your domain name with Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail

If you love using a free email service, but want your return address to display as the more professional-looking you@yourwebsiteaddress.com, here’s a quick tutorial from Daniel Scocco for how to do it. (Source: DailyBlogTips)

How to make your email open and click-through rates skyrocket

When you go to the trouble of creating an e-newsletter, you want people to open it… and read it. And click the links in it. This article suggests how often you should consider sending out emails to different levels of subscribers. (Source: Kissmetrics)

7 WordPress plugins to grow your email subscribers

You may hate pop-up forms that invite you to subscribe to a mailing list, but they really work. Ian Cleary explains how to use unobtrusive pop-ups (if there is such a thing) and other techniques in ways that are beneficial to your site’s visitors. (Source: Social Media Examiner)


WEBSITE ESSENTIALS

How to make your WordPress site lightning fast

Even if you have a fantastic website, if your page doesn’t load in two seconds or less, visitors might leave before they see your website design. This comprehensive article by Scott McQuin outlines 12 important things to check to ensure that your site loads as quickly as possible. (Source: SiteSpex)

What you need to know to pair fonts well

The bane of many self-designed websites is fonts. Too many fonts. Ugly fonts. Fonts that clash. If you are typography-challenged (as apparently, millions of us are), you must read this article by Amber Leigh Turner immediately. (Source: TNW)

42 ways to scare off your customers with bad website design

Thankfully, music that plays automatically when a website loads went out of vogue 15 years ago. But I often visit websites where I have to squint to read the type or the images are thumbnail size.

If any of ‘s 42 items apply to your site, consider contacting Blogging Bistro. We create custom, mobile-friendly WordPress websites.

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10 responses to “How to Protect Your Computer in Case of Disaster, Plus 10 More Excellent Tutorials”

  1. Thanks for the links to the free fonts, Laura. I did in fact “need” the “1942 report” and the “Lemon Chicken” fonts, haha…
    And more good info this article too- very cool!

  2. Thanks for the links to the free fonts, Laura. I did in fact “need” the “1942 report” and the “Lemon Chicken” fonts, haha…
    And more good info this article too- very cool!

  3. Jennifer – Somehow, I have no problem believing that you would have used those two fonts! 🙂

  4. Jennifer – Somehow, I have no problem believing that you would have used those two fonts! 🙂

  5. Scott McQuin says:

    Thanks for this resource! I will certainly be returning to refresh!

  6. Appreciate you contributing a link to your helpful article, Scott.

  7. Katherine Jones says:

    Appreciate these great tips! I’ve tried changing my Admin username before (and again just now) and it says I cannot. What am I missing?

  8. Katherine,
    I believe you have to create a new user and make sure you transfer all your blog posts to the new username (otherwise you’ll lose them).

    Once no content is associated with the “admin” username, you should be able to delete it. Make sure you do an FTP backup of your site before doing this, as you wouldn’t want to accidentally lose any content.

  9. Katherine Jones says:

    I just changed my Admin username by using a Plugin (Username Changer). Once completed, I deactivated the plugin. Simple. Took me all of 3 minutes from start to done, and now I feel a bit more secure. Thanks again for having my back!

  10. It seems there’s a plugin for everything these days, which is nice. Good that you deactivated it after using the plugin — allowing too many active plugins to pile up on your site uses bandwidth and could eventually slow down your site load time.

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