Pretty much everywhere you look this days on the web, everything is setup with some type of content management system (CMS) and the most popular choice is of course WordPress. It's not just a blog publishing tool or application or whatever the correct term is... It is a full blown system that can pretty much do everything that you can dream up and need it to do. There is so many cool add-ons for it and the system is pretty damn stable as long as you know what you are doing and keep up with the maintenance. It is very dependable and flexible. A lot of cool stuff can be done with it. Did I mention it's free too?! :)
So of course it is the #1 choice of bloggers and webmasters and so on because it is free.. But many businesses choose to go with WordPress as well. Why? It's really simple... Because of all of it's features. It has been the best CMS for a couple of years now and things just keep on getting better and better. Why look elsewhere?! You got the best of the best, for free. It's simple to setup. Easy to control and manage your content and all functions of the website's. It gets the job damn really well. Not too many people have ever complained about WordPress in that it lacks a certain feature or doesn't do this or that...
So, yea... WordPress is pretty cool and all, I am all for it. I am down with it and have been using it for at least five years now with some heavy modifications. Content management systems such as WordPress help organize websites and simplify the workload quiet a bit. It helps you get more done at the end of the day and continue to be productive. No need to manually edit any files, link up stuff, download, upload.. Nope. That is so old school. WordPress will take care of all of that stuff. Publishing content is as easy as a few clicks and you are all set. The features list of WordPress is massive but the best thing about it is that it is very flexible. Everything can be customized... Great, right?!
Way before WordPress had even existed and even before blogs were the "it" thing, I remember PHP-Nuke being the most popular web-based content management system which was widely used by many top webmasters. This was right around 2000.. Almost 10 years ago heh. The system was also open source and free of course. The biggest issue with this open source systems and scripts that are free is security. That is the #1 concern. You really have to know what you are getting yourself involved with and what precautions you need to take in order to stay safe. Sure the functionality and tons of features are cool and all... But security and stability should always be the #1 thing on your mind.
It's funny because I was criticizing some of the mini-site developers who are launching all this weak and wierd looking mini-sites on WordPress... Which I think is totally pointless and counter-productive.. I pointed out one issue and beef I had with all of this over at Alan's New Found Names blog in the comments section... Not sure anybody took it seriously or even paid any attention to it or not but exactly one week later, Andrew's Domain Name Wire website which is of course setup on the WordPress open source platform gets "hacked" and this was just one of the thousands or tens of thousands of sites that this happens to... Daily! There is lots of cases... The dangers are REAL.
First thing that I don't get is why are you going to setup a website on a CMS if you are never going to update the content. All this mini-site developers that are setting up their clients with the shitty mini sites on WordPress aren't thinking... They simply do not know what they are doing. You see, open source software get hit with tons of vulnerabilities and you have to update your system. Andrew didn't... and look what happened. So, you mean to tell me that domainers are going to update their WordPress each and every time there is a new release across dozens or hundreds of domains?! Yea right... Or is the service provider (web host) going to?!? Yea right... Or is the mini-site developer going to take care of all of this... YEA RIGHT!!
I just don't get it how people can be so stupid. That was just one issue which I simply don't understand the reasoning behind... Another one is that they setup all this wordpress mini-sites on one server. On one web hosting account. That is just asking for trouble. It is not good SEO practice and it is totally asking for trouble. Hackers are going to be targeting those servers that have hundreds and thousands of outdated WordPress builds running. They will be working extra hard trying to hack them and do some damage. You can count on that. It's what they do. You are all sheep and you will get owned sooner than later.
If you are going to be running any types of content management systems, scripts or doing anything with databases... You need to be isolated. You need a secure and reliable virtual private server at least. You don't need a dedicated server unless your web site is going to be eating up a lot of bandwidth and resources. Virtual private servers are the perfect solution which guarantee you safety. VPS servers have been around forever now and they are affordable. You can sleep much better at night and stay worry free. I do not understand how people who say they are serious about doing business online who make money with their web sites still host some of their best web sites on shared web hosting accounts with others. It doesn't make sense to me personally.
Hackers have gotten smart over the years. They don't just deface a web site anymore or delete all your files.. Sure, that was all cool and fun.... But this days it is all about the money. They will "hack" your CMS or script and plug in a few lines of html code here and there. Stuff that is hard to detect. Sometimes it will be for spyware. Sometimes, like in Andrew's case it will be for viruses/trojans. Sometimes they just plug in links for SEO juice. Sometimes they will swap your AdSense or other affiliate ID's with their own. They are really creative this days and this is big business... You are their target.
So, I hope you understand that if you are going to be using WordPress or any other script / add on... You need to have it secured. You need to stay on top of things. People say "yea... it is all on auto-pilot.. you don't gotta do jack once it is installed and configured properly" which is not true. You have to monitor the system and do the maintenance. If you ignore it.. Well, you know what can happen and it will happen. All it takes is one screw up and you can lose everything you worked so hard for. You gotta be smart and do back ups. Routine scans. Update all systems / software running on your web sites and so on. If you are serious about your online business.. You better take the time to understand what is at stake and how you can be proactive about this stuff.
Below you can see a live example of a WordPress site I setup in less than 5 minutes the other day... The installation / configuration doesn't take much time but the customization is always the tricky part and can take hours.. Sometimes even days. You gotta know what you are doing with this stuff and try not to screw anything up. There is tons of options available and it's always difficult making the decision on what add-ons to go with and how to go about getting them deployed the best way possible but I personally try to keep it simple and to the point... Especially when you can always add more stuff later on.
Articles at WannaDevelop.com
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