How To Protect Your Site From Hackers

There are basically two assets in every online business.

  1. Our customer list
  2. Our content (membership site, information products, etc)

Today I want to talk to you about content protection, but not in the ‘membership site’ sense.

I’m talking about site protection against hackers.

Although WordPress is an excellent platform for running a membership site, it is also prone to hacking.

Here are some interesting facts…

  • 26 million of 36 million self hosted WordPress sites run little or no security
  • It takes 152 days on average for a webmaster to notice they’ve been hacked
  • There are over 200 WordPress core & plugin exploits
  • Only 15% of webmasters have upgraded to the latest WordPress version

And the consequences to both your content and your customer list?

  •     Reduced Response from future mailers
  •     Long term loss of subscriber credibility
  •     Big increase in unsubscribers
  •     Substantial drop in mail marketing revenues

I’ve had sites hacked in the past… it’s a very uncomfortable experience.  Since then I’ve put things in place to mitigate this risk as much as possible.

Here’s what I’ve done.

  1. Installed several free plugins that work together to address some of the bigger exploits in WordPress (watch the video)
  2. Installed a good backup application so you can restore your data (I recommend Backup Creator)
  3. Learned the ropes with it comes to WordPress security (here’s a good one… BlogDefender)
  4. Continue to stay on top of changes in WP security.  As hackers continue to find holes in WordPress, new products are being developed to counter these attacks.

Follow these 4 steps in your business and protect your most valuable assets.  It will save you a world of grief if you are the victim of an attack.

Trust me, it’s no fun, and it will cost your business money!

[S3VIDEO file=’hackers.mp4′]

 

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