Web Hosting Blog at ASO | Hosting Tips to Advance your Website

A Small Orange Affiliate Tools: How To Use Footer Badges

Posted by Jim Moscater on April 22, 2013 in News

Howdy! Not too long ago we released our A Small Orange Brand Guidelines for customers and affiliates alike in case they wanted to use the A Small Orange Logo on their web properties. Today, I wanted to quickly run down how you can use one of our beautiful footer badges and embed your affiliate tracking link with HTML.

First and foremost, before we get started you are going to want to head over to our guidelines page and download the .zip files for the footer badges. The badges look something like this:

Also, if your not affiliate you can quickly and easily sign up here.

Now let’s get started…

Once you have your image, upload it to a directory on your site (if you have WordPress, you can easily upload it to the media library and copy the link)
After Step 1, you are going to want to open a text Editor on your computer (say TextEdit for Mac or NotePad for PC).
Then we start with some basic HTML. Let me give the sample code and then I will break down what you need to change to make sure it works for you:

STEP 1: replace the link above with your affiliate tracking link: <a href =”your aso tracking link here”>. Once people click on the badge, they will be sent through your affiliate tracking link.

STEP 2: for the image source (img src): insert the link for where you uploaded the image on your directory (as mentioned in the very first step). This will be where the badge is hosted.

STEP 3: Put in the alt text describing the element, so when someone drags their cursor over the image, it gives a small explanation (this is also useful for if there is ever a case your image link is broken, it will still tell the user in text what it is supposed to be).

4. Copy + Paste your code in the footer of your website, where you’d like the image to show up. That’s it!

Need more help?

Perhaps you want to make sure your badge is aligned right, the perfect size, etc. for your site. Check out W3Schools.com for more tutorials on how to tweek your code to display how you want it.

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A Small Orange Weekly Digest: 4/15 – 4/19

Posted by Jim Moscater on April 19, 2013 in News

Welcome back to the A Small Orange Weekly Digest.

A round-up of all things ASO from the week.

WordPress Security And Password Tips

We published two posts this week in regards to WordPress security. Check them out here:

Security For WordPress

WordPress Password Management

Posterous: Less Than 2 Weeks Left!

Remember, Posterous is shutting down April 30.
Need a new home for your content?
Move to a hosted WordPress Blog on ASO.
It’s easy- here’s a video we made that tells you how to do it:

Ninjas Wanted

If you’re interested in web hosting and exceptional customer service (not to mention a sweet benefits package and great company culture), we’re looking for more skilled Ninjas to join our team. Take a look at job openings here, and apply today!

Get Started With ASO + Save

Save 25% off your first month with us on any hosting package.

Just use the coupon code “FACETWEET” when you sign up with us.
Get started here!

Links We Shared This Week

Swift Development Techniques For Landing Pages
[Design Mag]

Creative Block 101
[Web Design Tuts]

10 Awesome Examples Of E-Commerce Sites Using Responsive Design
[Business 2 Community]

Mobile Development: Platforms & Frameworks
[Effective UI]

The Best Way To Learn CSS
[Web Design Tuts]

ASO Social Outposts

Join ASO on Facebook.
Follow us on Twitter.
Pay us a visit on Spiceworks.
Visit us on Google+.
Find us on Linkedin.
Check us out on Pinterest.

Thanks for reading!

Need hosting with great support?
Check out A Small Orange’s Shared, Reseller, Business, or Dedicated hosting plans.

Ninja photo via Daniel Y. Go

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WordPress Password Management

Posted by Martin Johnson on April 17, 2013 in News

Photo by Intel Free Press

No matter how many security measures you set up with your WordPress site, almost all of them are only as strong as the password—or passwords—you choose. Unless you’re truly a newbie to the ways of the web, you know that you don’t choose an obvious password—no Jackson 5-inspired “abc123” or the paranoid “trustno1”—and you don’t use even the best password on every site you visit.

While any password is at risk of being compromised, your WordPress passwords are particularly vulnerable. Someone who breaks into your account can then enlist your site in a broad-based attack, making it more valuable than your social network login. Here are a few tips to create and manage secure passwords:

Know what a strong password is, and use one

While everyone recommends that you create a strong password, not everyone knows what one is, and even fewer people use strong passwords in every instance. But, choosing a strong password can keep you and your account safe.

A strong password is at least eight characters long (the longer the better), uses a mix of upper- and lower-case letters, and includes numbers and symbols, preferably in the middle. If you’re tempted to find work-arounds to make your password easy to remember (such as substituting a 3 for an E), consider creating a simple strong password (http://simplestrongpasswordgenerator.com/) that combines simple words into a memorable, but secure password. Alternately, you go to sites such as SafePassWD which will automatically generate random passwords that, while difficult to remember, are very secure.

Use a different password for each account, and consider a password manager

If you’re running a number of WordPress sites, or have multiple accounts on the same site, or are just one of those people who have dozens of account to tend to, you probably can’t remember a strong password for each and every account. But, a committed hacker can, after cracking just one of your accounts, worm their way into dozens of other accounts.

While most major browsers now have the capacity to save your passwords for you, if someone finds their way into your computer they can easily access all of your other passwords. Web-based password managers, like LastPass are a better option. Desktop-based password managers, like the open source KeePass are also good, though your access is more limited than a web-based solution.

Help Your Users Create and Manage Their Passwords

While you can easily control how often you use and create your passwords, it’s more difficult to keep track of the users who are authorized to use your site. With Simple User Password Generator, you’ll create strong passwords for your users by default, and encourage them to maintain passwords that won’t make your system vulnerable.

Use Two-Step Authentication

While all of the above steps will help you maintain password security, the best way to protect your accounts is to adopt two-step authentication, which requires users logging in from a new computer or other device to confirm their identity by entering an automatically generated code that was sent to their smart phone or other device. (If you use Google’s version, you already know how it works).

For WordPress, you can install the plugin WordPress 2-Step verification, which adds an extra level of protection to your account without adding too much trouble for your users.

Creating strong passwords and managing them well is critical for any secure WordPress site. Following these tips will make your site much safer without making it too difficult to access and use.

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Security For WordPress

Posted by Martin Johnson on April 15, 2013 in News

Photo by Jason Bain

Every year the National Car Insurance Bureau releases its Hot Wheels list of the most-stolen cars in the United States. While the cars on the list change every year, they all share two characteristics: they are among the most popular cars out there, and they’re easy to steal.

If you use WordPress, you’re running the most popular content management system out there, which is great if you need themes, plug-ins, and other services. But, the downside is that every hacker out there knows the WordPress system in and out, making your site vulnerable to attack.

But as every owner of a Toyota Camry or a American-made pickup truck knows, if you think your site is vulnerable, you can protect it with extra security measures. Here are a few tips to make your WordPress site more secure.

Ward Against Brute Force

Even the best car security system can’t stop a thief with a bit of technical know-how and a rock. Web sites aren’t much different, and the so-called “Brute Force” log-in, where a hacker just throws thousands of passwords at your system in hopes that one is right, is among the most effective way to access your site.

There’s an easy way to prevent this: just limit the number of logins any one user can use to access your system. By installing a simple plug-in, Limit Login Attempts, you can stave off the simple-minded hackers who try to just force their way into your system.

Limit Editor Access

Even if you’ve kept your own username and password secure, your site contributors might not have taken the same precautions. In the default setting for WordPress, editors can change your site design, making it easier for someone to get into your system and change its theme. To prevent this from happening, make this simple modification in your functions.php file:

define ( ‘DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT’, true );

There’s No Place Like Home (to control your site)

The best—and worst—thing to happen to your personal website is for a post of yours to go viral, and attract visitors from around the world. At best, these new visitors will bring welcome attention to your site, and you can monetize this fame by selling more ads, more products, or both.

The downside, though, is that a vulture discovers the vulnerabilities in your newly popular site, and shuts it down for hours, even a day, causing you to lose out on thousands of potential customers.

One simple way to prevent this is to modify your .htaccess file for more detail in order to give even a small site the security you need. For example, by limiting access to your WP Admin directory to a single IP address (yours), you can stop all but the most relentless hackers.

Backup Your System

With a good hosting company, like A Small Orange, you can be sure that your site won’t crash when you need it most. But if you do happen to suffer an attack, having a good backup program ensures that you’ll be able to get all your content back in short order. While there are a number of WordPress-specific back up solutions, we like the free plug-in BackWPup, and, for a more sophisticated program, Backup Buddy.

Save 25% off your first month with us on any hosting package.
Just use the coupon code “FACETWEET” when you sign up with us.
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A Small Orange Weekly Digest: 4/8 – 4/12

Posted by Jim Moscater on April 12, 2013 in News

Welcome back to the A Small Orange Weekly Digest.

Come Work With Us!

We’re growing fast, and looking for new recruits to join our group of Ninjas.

Check out our job openings right here.

Posterous: The End Is Nigh

Posterous is shutting down April 30.
Need a new place for your content?
Switch to a hosted WordPress Blog on ASO.
It’s simple- and here’s a video that tells you how to do it:

The ASO Affiliate Program

If you’re interested in earning some extra money for recommending us to your friends and co-workers, take a peek at our Affiliate Program. Here’s Taylor Barr, ASO’s Arbiter of Affiliates and Partnerships, to explain the basics:

Links We Shared This Week

User Testing For Web Accessibility
[Six Revisions]

10 Social Media Management Tools
[Social Media Today]

4 Things All Freelancers Should Be Doing Online
[Web Design Blender]

5 Things To Consider When Finishing A Site
[WP Tuts]

HTTP: The Protocol Every Web Developer Should Know : Part 1
[Net Tuts]

ASO Social Outposts

Join ASO on Facebook.
Follow us on Twitter.
Pay us a visit on Spiceworks.
Visit us on Google+.
Find us on Linkedin.
Check us out on Pinterest.

Thanks for reading!

Need hosting with great support?
Check out A Small Orange’s Shared, Reseller, Business, or Dedicated hosting plans.

Save 25% off your first month with us on any hosting package.
Just use the coupon code “FACETWEET” when you sign up with us.
Get started here!

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