Posted Friday, September 11, 2009 by momscashblog |
Last week I had a Malware Virus to deal with, so upon visiting my site you may have seen the blog but also gotten a warning to stay away from this site or you could get a virus. (Don’t worry, it’s very safe!) For those of you with certain virus protection you did not see my blog. In it’s place was a red warning page titled “Reported Attack Site” and a paragraph saying this site was under attack… which is how I found out I had a virus on my own blog! I thought “well, I’ll just go to my WordPress and see what’s up. (Duh!) My site was taken down so there was no WordPress to go to. Also my webmail was taken down, and my blog’s name and domain was removed from all search engines. I’m told that if my blog did get into the search engines it would have had a warning saying not to come to my site. Ouch! But with the help of Hostgator, GoogleWebmasterTools, and Lloyd Lopez, I got through the malware attack pretty much unscathed. I didn’t lose anything and in the end, it was much less traumatic than I expected. Of course, when it first happened I was stressed, but so far, so good.
The message “Reported Attack Site” is a little confusing to me. I’m thinking maybe they should say “Report an Attack to Google” because that is what you have to do. Google detects the malware virus and shuts the site down to prevent it from going any further and protect anyone visiting the infected site. It is then your responsibility to get it fixed and send a report to Google. When it finally gets a clean bill of health they will put your site back up.
I found out that many new bloggers just abandon their blogs when they find the “Reported Attack Site” message because they don’t know what to do about it.Malware virus/hacking is something that all bloggers could encounter, so I will pass on the process that I went through to get my blog back up and running. Keep in mind that there are many different types of hacking and viruses, but mine was a malware virus. To learn more about malware viruses and how to protect your blog, go to WordPress.
1. Call your blog hosting company. Whenever your blog goes down you should call or e-mail the company who hosts your blog. I’d much rather call than send an e-mail because I like instant feedback, so make sure you have the telephone number(s) of your blog host in a notebook ready for these occasions. I use HostGator for this blog and they’re also the host for the MCB Free Blog Tutorial. I cannot say enough good things about them. They are patient, very helpful and easy to talk to for a non-techie like me.
1a. Send e-mail to host security requesting help. HostGator told me I had a Malware Virus and that I had to send an e-mail to HostGator Security to request help and tell them of the warning Google placed on my blog. Security immediately sent notification that they received my request and gave me a case number for the process.
(Of course, you could skip the initial call [1] and just send an e-mail to Security [1a], but I’ve always communicated better through phone… or face to face… and the call was very informative and reassuring.)
2. Wait for notification from host security. It took a while but I finally got an e-mail saying that HostGator assessed my blog and I indeed had been hacked with malware. They told me I was hacked into from WordPress versions that had not been updated, and that my site was now clean.
Problem Solved! (Just kidding!) Now you have to notify Google and wait for Google to approve you.
2a. Report to your Google Webmaster Tools. HostGator told me I now had to let Google know that my site had been cleaned of all badware, so I did. I then checked off the box saying “Please review my blog”..
3. Let Google review blog. I assumed I was in the clear, but Google informed me that they were still detecting “badware” on my site. So I called HostGator and they fixed each problem as Google told us of them. In my case this whole thing took about 3 days before my site was declared “cleaned of badware” .
3a. Wait for OK from Google. I checked my mail constantly and on the third day I was finally got the message: “Status of the lastest badware review for this site. A review for this site has finished. The site was found clean the badware warning from web search are being removed. Please note that it can take some time for the change to propagate.”
Keep checking to see if blog has propogated and you should be up and running when you see your blog online!!
Since my older version of hacked WordPress was hacked into, I had to change my passwords (for Cpanel and admin. log- in too) and make them very strong and I will be changing them often. If you haven’t started a blog yet, make sure you have a notebook or two to hold all of your many passwords, telephone numbers, and dates of expiration for your domain name, blog host, etc.
To decrease the changes of being hacked make sure you have very strong passwords with numbers and symbols mixed in and change those passwords often! If there is anyone who has had this happened to them or can share more information on this type of problem and/or would like to share in comments section or interested in a guest post please leave a comment.
Posted Friday, August 21, 2009 by momscashblog |
Since I get a lot of key word hits on buying and selling used books online I thought I’d revisit the topic. An acquaintance of mine was featured briefly on Oprah for buying and selling 18,000 books online in one year. He (runs his book trading business from the Island of Frenchboro, Maine (pop. 50) and I know of many island and coastal dwellers who buy and sell used and rare books for a living. One of the reasons book selling is so popular on the Maine coast (and other coastlines) is because many famous artists, writers, actors and actresses come to live or vacation in the summer months to get away from it all and “hide out” from the rest of the world. These people are usually well-educated, well-traveled and have a well stocked library with some very interesting and rare books… but depending on who they are, even an average book with their signature of ownership on the inside cover can bring in a pretty penny. These summer estates are usually second, third, or fourth homes for the rich and famous, so when they die or sell the estate, the content usually ends up being sold to local auctions or book buyers for a very good price. Sometimes they send someone to retrieve the valuables but the books are often overlooked. Who wants to pack up a bunch of old books and send them half way around the world?
Starting any home business online whether selling used books or any other type of business you choose is an excellent opportunity to make some extra money without the usual headaches. There are none of the conventional rules that are needed when looking for a “brick and mortar” business, like trying to obtain a bank loan or any of that other legal stuff that is needed to start a business. As far as looking for a store front no need for that, just some space in your house or garage where you can store some of your books is all you’ll have to find. You’ll need some packing materials, boxes, shipping labels, maybe boxes to ship the books, and work space. That’s it!
Of course you can always find books at yard, lawn, and estate sales, library sales and even at your own home where you always have books laying around. You may decide that you want to handle all and any types of books to sell or you may want to stay with a certain niche and sell just cook books, mystery, field guides, books by certain authors or specialize in rare and first edition books. Make sure that you let your family and friends know that you are now in the business and have them networking for you, when they see a yard sale or book sale somewhere have them call you. Search the newspapers for sale locations, use Craig’s List to find any sales or to announce your new business, and watch the internet for any sales on books. Have some business cards
made up at Vista Print and give them out whenever you get the chance to spread the word that you are now in the book business. If you have an existing blog/website not generating much money you can always sell your used & new books on the side. Books will go with any blog or website no matter what the subject. (more…)
Posted Saturday, July 25, 2009 by |
OK, I am back! I’ve had a lot of medical and legal things to deal with because of my hospital stay and I needed a little vacation. The good thing is that MCB makes money even when I’m not here and I actually made very good money while in a coma — but it’s not a good way to monetize a blog so I don’t recommend anyone try this at home! lol Now the first thing I want to do is thank everyone who wrote to me and let you know how I’m doing. Your prayers and good wishes were a big help to me. So, from the bottom of my heart, Thank You!
If you’ve read my last post, you know that I went into the hospital with kidney stones and ended up in an induced coma. What I didn’t say is that I was kicked out of the hospital after leaving the Critical Care Unit. When I say “kicked out”, I mean kicked out! I was told there was nothing wrong with me. I was in pain, very confused. I was being treated for pneumonia and could hardly talk after being intubated on a ventilator, but I managed to call my sister and tell her that a doctor/hospitalist told me I “wasn’t in a hotel and it was time for me to go!”
My sister called the Hospital Patient Advocate from the legal department and made arrangements to meet him in my room. A Patient Advocate is supposed to intervene in situations like this and legally should be on the side of the patient… but he clearly was there to represent the hospital/doctor and not me! At the same time, one of the nurses laid her job on the line and put a complaint in to the Legal Department about the doctor who was discharging me. So the Patient Advocate had 2 formal complaints, one from a nurse and one from my sister, but none of this mattered. He told us that if the doctor (hospitalist) said I was able to go home then I must go home. My sister said “I was told she had pneumonia and she clearly isn’t well, so I refuse to take her home!” He said “then we can have a van drop her off at her house.” She said “do you realize that just the other day she was in a coma?” He said, “yes, I’m aware of that, but she is fine now”. Sister: “then I will bring her right back down to the Emergency Room!”. Patient Advocate: “If you come to the ER we can refuse her.” They argued back and forth and his last words were “Sorry, but she has to leave.” So, I was given a dose of morphine for the pain and some discharge papers that said I had a “small bowel obstruction” (with no mention of kidney stones or anything else that happened) and sent home on one of the coldest nights of the year.
(more…)
Posted Friday, April 17, 2009 by momscashblog |
From a coma to my blog — Part 1
It’s been 2 months since I went into the hospital with kidney stones and then had my “near death experience” and I finally feel pretty much back to normal — or as close to “normal’ as I’ll ever get! lol I’m told these are some of the first questions I had when I awoke from the coma… “Where am I?” and “What day is it?” and the strangest one of all, “Oh no, did my blog expire?” lol They say everyone laughed and was relieved that I hadn’t lost my memory and that I was pretty much all right in the brain department. They say I also worried about my cat, my bills, my finances, and my house… so basically I woke up worrying! lol
I think everyone has wondered what it feels like to be in a coma and now I know. For me it was confusing. The last day that I was conscious blurred into the day I woke up, but I do know that I was irritated, upset, and felt very helpless. Waking up on a respirator is not fun! I have since learned that they have to take the respirator and breathing tube out of you the moment you wake up… it would be nice for the patient if they could take it out BEFORE you are conscious. That way you could just open your eyes and wake up peacefully… like they do in the movies! But that’s not how it is done. If you were dependent on a respirator to breath while in a coma, they take the breathing tube out the minute you wake up. If they find that you can’t breath on your own, it goes right back in and you get heavily sedated until they decide what to do. Luckily, I could breath on my own and did not become dependent on the respirator/ventilator to breath for me. (more…)
Posted Sunday, April 5, 2009 by momscashblog |
Here’s a guest post from a fellow blogger who is truly inquisitive about the economy, stock market, and all things financial. Investment terms can be overwhelming and hard to understand, but if you study up on just a few terms a week, you can become a savvy investor in no time — or at least you can talk like one!
Learn New Wall Street Terms
by InquisitiveAboutFinance
This latest downtrend or recession has taught a common man many new financial terms. These terms are not new to the financial sector, they were just buried under the good economy for some time. Now, they are becoming part of our everyday conversations.
1. Ponzi Scheme: A Ponzi scheme is also known as a pyramid scheme. It’s a fraudulent investment plan promising very high returns to investors from their own money or money paid by earlier investors rather than from any actual profits earned. One common way for the Ponzi scheme to attract investors is with the promise of high short term returns. This scheme was named after Charles Ponzi who made this scheme popular in the 20s. Thanks to Bernie Madoff this scheme was brought again into the limelight!
The US Federal Trade Commission says that because of the pyramid’s very nature, at least 70 percent of those who invest in a Ponzie Scheme will NOT see any returns and will lose their investment. It is mathematically impossible to recruit enough investors to pay out to all levels of the pyramid. (more…)
Posted Tuesday, March 31, 2009 by momscashblog |
Here’s a post by a frequent visitor and good friend of MomsCashBlog who formerly had a blog known as consultelaine and who now has a blog named Bohemian Things. She shows us how sometimes we end up in a totally different place from where we began and just the process of starting a blog can get things rolling in the right direction. It’s a great story about finding your rightful place on the Internet and following your own heart.
The Life of One Blogger
by Elaine Murphy
When I first started blogging (again) my intention was to use my blog to make a profit. I will be the first to tell you—pick a subject that you have something in common with. Picking a subject you’re interested in, interested in learning about, or a subject you are already passionate about is a good way to go. This way you would avoid getting bored and run out of things to blog about. Okay, I got it.
As luck would have it I stumbled upon MCB free wordpress blog tutorial. The tutorial was very influential in helping me get set up with my first wordpress blog. Within no time I had a blog ready to go. Things were looking up!
My passion is hair. I love doing hair, and talking about hair. Although I am not a licensed cosmetologist, heck I could pull it off…easily. This was a passion of mine since I was a child so I naturally started to blog about natural hair care. Easy enough, so I thought. Let’s get started.
My blog talked about the latest hair trends, recommended products, and celebrities with natural hair styles. Whatever pertained to natural hair, I wrote about it. Things were starting to change — I was distracted by the template, and started wasting hours nitpicking and altering it out of boredom. I found myself changing templates more often than I would post. It was then that I realized I did not want to talk about hair every day. I asked myself…what is going on here? I became disenchanted with chasing a way to make money online and took a break from it all.
“I quit”, I told myself. Shortly thereafter I removed the blog. Here’s the irony—the blog was not, nor was it ever, about the hair. What I was essentially doing was finding someone else’s products to sell and incorporating that into my natural hair care blog. This wasn’t working for me… as much as I enjoyed talking about hair it did not seem like that’s what my blog should be about. Blogging became tedious and exhausting for me, and I did not know what I was doing. I quickly found out that I needed to learn a few things about the business…SEO, (search engine optimization), key words, Google Adsense, strategies, tips, tools, etc. I felt this extra stuff was keeping me from enjoying the process. This route took the fun out of a passion, a love I’d enjoyed all my life and still to this day. I needed to go back to the basics.
One day I received an email from JJ inquiring about my now non-existing blog—she had been keeping her eye on me and wanted to know what was happening with my blog. I had explained to her it was temporally down and assured her that I did not give up on blogging. I did not want to admit to her that I did stop. She had always encouraged me to keep trying and to stay in the online business.
Then on January 14, 2009, I popped over to MCB to get my weekly fix of encouragement and what was the title of the blog “Start a blog today.” I truly felt like it was written with me in mind. I decided to give it another try. I had missed blogging.
I would blog again only without pressuring myself to make a profit with affiliate marketing. I changed my outlook and the course of my blog… it evolve into an extension of who I am and what I do. I would write about me and my creative process and my own products instead of selling for someone else! I am an artisan. I find great satisfaction in creating with my hands, and blogging about the things I create. I create whatever my heart desires.
Now I maintain a blog showcasing products I enjoy creating. I joined a great community of like-minded crafters and artisans over at IndiePublic. I create products that are an extension of me, products I would be proud to promote. I have a shop set up on Etsy “a place to buy and sell all things handmade” were I sell my Bohemian Things with no pressure whatsoever. I truly love blogging and I never run out of ideas for a post because I am consistently creating and that’s what I found I was meant to blog about.
Had I not stuck with it, I would not have received this wonderful opportunity to share my creativity online and also have a guest blog here at MCB about “The Life of One Blogger”.
Thanks JJ. I owe it all to you.
Posted Saturday, March 21, 2009 by momscashblog |
The e-mail that accompanied this post made me really appreciate the many kind and wonderful people I’ve met with this blog… and there’s a lot of them! Of course there were some jerks in the beginning, but I don’t even remember their names. It’s the good ones that make a lasting impression on me and this guy, Sean, is one of them! Here’s an excerpt from his e-mail:
“I don’t even have the time or money to invest into the website I was building, but I checked yours and saw that you were sick. It reminded me that money isn’t everything and health is the most precious thing. I wanted to pay my respect by making a post. I know this economy is full of negativity. It only takes a change in prospective for people to appreciate what was right there in front of them from the start.”
This guest post is a thought provoking op-ed (opinion editorial) about America in a time when it’s so easy to feel negative about our circumstances. After the touching e-mail, I had to know more about Sean and I asked for a bio. As it turns out, Sean’s bio is an interesting story all on it’s own. He was a successful day trader who lost EVERYTHING in this economic downturn! He’s only 22 and full of ambition, with an attitude like his I have no doubt Sean will succeed in whatever path he chooses.
Thanks Sean, I’m so glad to have met you! (more…)
