Topics:

• What’s New With ActiveBlogging.
• WordPress 3.0 – A Sneak Peek Under The Hood. Coming Real Soon Now is WordPress 3.0, a big upgrade to the latest WordPress. This issue we take a peek at some of the new features – and the ones that will make the biggest difference in how you use WordPress in the months to come.
• Twitter For Business – The Secrets Unfolded. Business use of Twitter is on the rise – but being used and being profitable are not the same thing. Here’s the tips and tricks on using Twitter in business – profitably.
• Getting Personal With WordPress – How To Set Up Your Own Server For WordPress Work. Tired of uploading test files online? Want to create themes with less fuss? Plugins with less muss? Then consider setting up a web server for WordPress on your own computer – and get your design and development working faster and more secure than ever!
• Internet Offers And Current Deals

Check the ActiveBlogging Reports Section for this issue.

Topics:

• What’s New With ActiveBlogging.
• Top 10 Tricks to TurboCharge Your PLR With WordPress Blogs. This month, members get a free copy of my latest WordPress ‘Top10Tricks’ report. Learn how PLR Can and Will improve a site, and what to watch out for!
• Tweaking the WordPress Theme From the ‘Top10Tricks PLR’ Report. As included in the report ‘Top 10 Tricks to TurboCharge Your PLR With WordPress Blogs’, the SEO optimized theme should be a boon for anyone looking for an easy theming solution. I take members for a look inside it, and explain some of its features…
• Testimonials Are Good For You!. Testimonials are great – sellers get feedback, but they can be useful for buyers as well. Here’s how to include testimonials as part of your promotion efforts.
• Internet Offers And Current Deals

Check the ActiveBlogging Reports Section for this issue.

Topics:

• What’s New With ActiveBlogging.
• Easy Text Tweaking With Regular Expressions! Continuing last month’s article on Regular Expressions, we look into using them to solve many common problems. If you’ve spent hours replacing line breaks, or grabbing every sixth item in a list, you’ll be glad to use these steps – and get the job done much faster.
• How To Convert Your Website Over To a WordPress Blog. You’ve decided your old site needs to be converted into a WordPress blog – here’s how you can easily transfer it over fast. And as a bonus, you’ll preserve your search engine listings so you won’t miss any of that valuable traffic!
• Scary! Plugin Security Leaks. We’ve talked about the security problems involved in Themes. Time now for plugins – and an overview of how hackers can split wide open your blog and website if you let them.
• This Month’s “Best of ActiveBlogging.com” The past month in writing: a summary of some of the best posts from the ActiveBlogging.com site.
• Internet Offers And Current Deals

Check the ActiveBlogging Reports Section for this issue.

I admit it – I bored my way through the Oscars on Sunday like far too many world wide. And I actually was surprised when Kathryn Bigelow won for best director – not because she isn’t talented, but because James Cameron seemed poised to win and win and win.

But it was when they mentioned the people who had died that I was disturbed the most – not because Bea Arthur and Farah Fawcett were left out (I didn’t find this out until later), but that some of the people who did die this year had a very strange connection – Kathryn Bigelow herself:

• Ron Silver passed away in 2009. Among his many movies was a co-starring role opposite Jamie Lee Curtis in Blue Steel, directed by Kathryn Bigelow
• Patrick Swayze succumbed to cancer as well in 2009. Known for Dirty Dancing, he was also known for a movie called Point Break, along with Keanu Reeves, and directed by Kathryn Bigelow
• Natasha Richardson died from a freak head injury n March of 2009, leaving behind her husband, actor Liam Neeson. And along with Harrison Ford, he starred in K-19: The Widowmaker, directed by (you guessed it), Kathryn Bigelow

Now of course it’s just random (freak) coincidence – but I’m curious if there were other projects Kathryn was on that had people pass away in 2009. Anyone know anything? And while on the topic, has this occurred any other time to any other Oscar award winner?

I’ve talked in the past of the dangers of using ‘just any’ theme out there, and of course you should always update your blog as soon as a new security problem is fixed.

But are plugins an issue?

Now I’m not reporting about a specific plugin here, one that is doing bad things. However, the potential IS there, and here’s some reasons why:

• A plugin, when activated, has access to all of WordPress, and to your site. MYSQL info, Admin passwords (encrypted, although it’s not hard to replace it with one of your own choosing via their plugin – or even add a new user), user lists, and even files on your site.
• Even a deactivated plugin still can be called on your site. At the very least, you can call a plugin directly via a URL and get an error message which reveals a bit about your site; at worst, the plugin will actually do something independent of WordPress.
• Open source does not mean ethical, legal, honest. I can conceive of a plugin that has buried in it is some nasty code. And to add insult to injury, by calling it Open Source, this bombshell can appear on the WordPress plugins site, ready to automatically download and install.
• Even a ‘good’ plugin may have problems due to security (after all, look how often bugs crop up in WordPress itself). For example, if the plugin author doesn’t follow strict security rules when writing the plugin, there can be leaks. Combined with it being Open Source, someone may read the source code and use those leaks to crack open a site.

So with so many potential issues, what should you do?

• Go for trusted. If a plugin has been in use for months, and the programmer is respected, that’s a plus. If the plugin is brand new and unknown, that’s a minus. Not that new plugins can’t be good – but unless you know about plugins in general, you might have a problem, which leads to our next point.
• Ask your tech person. Someone who knows PHP and WordPress tech can tell you if the plugin is odd or not. It’s time consuming to go through a plugin line by line (I know, I do my fair share when vetting them for my ActiveBlogging members), but essential.
• Use few plugins. The fewer you use, the fewer security issues you have to check over.
• If you program your own plugins, program securely. Learn about PHP security. Read all you can on the topic. And make your plugins bullet-proof. Even a line like this at the top helps:

  if (!defined('WPLANG')) exit();

  This call checks if the WPLANG value is defined, which it is in WordPress; but if you call this plugin directly, it isn’t, and fails silently.

• Delete unused plugins. Log into your site and remove any you aren’t using if at all possible.

The issue of security is a huge one – and like anything on your website you need to be on guard against broken ones. It’s a real shame, but that unfortunately is the price you pay to be on the ‘wild west’ of the Internet.