Today is Friday and that means we have a guest interview and today is another great one. We will hear from Salima Singletary about designing a life you want to live, specifically how she has set things up to be the way she and her husband wish to live in the long term — and along the way she has learned skills, started a new business, and generally had fun adventures.
Travel teaches some great lessons that apply to normal home life and side hustle living. Today, I will talk through 6 things that occurred to me this week.
2 tickets left for the spring workshop!
Today is Friday so it is a Thought of the Walk day and I got a little weird this week. I started thinking about social networks, censorship and the Bonfire of the Vanities. So we will discuss how social networks are behaving much like Friar Savonarola’s rein of terror is mich like what is starting to happen now on what have become major publishing platforms.
From Josh at GetaHostNow.com
This is NOT in order of importance.
1. Install SSL security license (I give you one for free.)
2. Keep your WordPress website version up to date
3. Keep your plugins up to date (remove and replace ones that are not supported or compatible with your WP version)
4. Keep your Theme up to date
5. Backups, and more backups. OFF SERVER. The Updraft Plus plugin will let you connect to Google Drive (15 GB of storage!) When you log into WP, do a backup, afetr you make changes, do a backup. Always pays to be safe.
6. Make all passwords STRONG and update them a couple times per year to be safe. (cPanel Pass and WP pass)
7. Install Security plugins: Wordfence (a WP firewall) and Sucuri (hardens the site, and monitors all changes) or something comparable. THe settigns can be a bit challengins, but its not impossible to configure. I can advise/consult with you privately if needed as there are a lot of settings.
8. Do not store Credit Card, Social Security on your site if you can possibly avoid it!
Any thing that seems weird or unusual that might indicate a hack – IMMEDIATE call your web host.
Now what you are really probably wondering…
AFTER AN ATTACK – WHAT YOU CAN DO
Based on cleanup article: https://fixmysite.com/website-
Your web host is the first person/company that can offer assistance after an attack. A great web host will go into lock-down mode until the problem is resolved.
IMPORTANT TOOL: Sucuri Site Scanner (FREE!) – https://sitecheck.sucuri.net is a free site scanner tool, the results of the scan can be linked to, so once one your domain test clean, save that URL.
Assuming you or your webhost has already changed your passwords to prevent bad guys from logging in, and that your site is scanning as clean, these tips should help if your site was blacklisted.
IMPORTANT TOOL: Blacklist (email) checker – https://mxtoolbox.com/
1.) Google: https://search.google.com/
This is where webmaster register their domain and verify that they own it. (Requires a meta tag or a html file they give you uploaded to your root folder) It is the BEST way to inform Google that a compromised site is now clean. Make sure to provide the link to the Sucuri scan show the domain is clean. can take up to 72 hours.
2.) Norton: https://safeweb.norton.com/ (requires a verification file or meta tag added to site)
Anti-virus company who maintains their own blacklist.
3.) McAfee: https://www.trustedsource.org/
You may request also request that McAfee Review of domain – link to your Sucuri scan results when requesting review (as proof)
4.) ESET Removal (if needed, Sucuri site scan will tell you): Manually request removal with proof
Anti-virus company who maintains their own blacklist.
5.) https://postmaster.google.com/
Requires Cpanel. When adding a TXT record to DNS, the domain is written: yourdomain.com.
The code they tell you to paste in (“enter text” area) MUST be in quotes
our web host can always help with this.
6.) Request help if emails with your site links get blocked at this Google Forum:
https://productforums.google.
Another useful tool if you are analysing the IP addresses of who is visiting your website…
Today, I thought I would talk about something all of us in Tennessee have been doing for a few weeks and that many of you will soon need to do: helping your plants through morning frosts that happen in the spring as the earth embraces spring, gets warm, then spikes down below the freezing point at night. I’ve got 5 things you can do without spending a ton of cash – and these are especially important if you are playing early spring plant roulette as I am.
#HollerHatWednesday: Where is she and who is she with?
Today, I want to examine gratitude and how being grateful for what you can do, what you have and what being grateful for others are in your life can do to help you find a pathway toward growth and success – and ultimately build the life you want to live rather than fall back into old habits of living up to everyone else’s expectations.
We are 3 seats away from being sold out for the Spring Workshop! Read more
Today is Friday so we have a guest interview. When I got to know Jessica Mills, AKA “Dixie” from Homemade Wanderlust, I was impressed with her no nonsense, friendly and empowering approach to everything. She was fun to talk with, eager to share information, and genuinely interested in seeing everyone around her do well. This, paired with her ability to get things done well no matter what, made her a great person to interview. Join me today as I talk with Jessica about building your dream job, establishing a personal brand, backpacking, self-reliance and more!
Today we run through things to thing through for the transition from winter into spring on the homestead. And not just for the homestead, but really, with a few minor tweaks for any household that is looking toward ongoing, steady management instead of the “on demand” approach to living and lifestyle.
#HollerHatWednesday: Where is she and who is she with?
Today, we will talk about My3Things – and more specifically – how to use it to balance your long term success with short term needs. As the group that shares accountability online grows, subtleties are beginning to appear in the approach – as well as some confusion on what #my3things is and how it works. So I will quickly review the basics as well as talk about your long term success strategy and how to build it into your daily and weekly life.
Because today is a Wednesday, we will be talking about a homesteading topic – and one that is near and dear to many a heart. At the request of Victoria from the LFTN Coffee break group, I thought I would share with you 5 tools that I think every homestead should have – even the off-grid ones. But remember – if you ONLY can have 5 tools on your homestead, these are not they. Rather – these are 5 I truly wanted to highlight and each for a different reason.