WordPress Security & Maintenance Plans

February 21, 2017 by Ray

Wordpress websites

WordPress is by far the world’s most-used content management system (CMS) for building websites. It’s estimated that over 25% of sites are WordPress websites. The good news to the business owner is that most web designers are familiar with it and that it’s easy to find help or plugins or themes if you do it yourself.

The downside of WordPress being so prevalent is that it’s a big target for hackers, viruses, and other people with bad intentions. Keeping your site secure and up-to-date is becoming more and more important. There are numerous plugins to choose from for you or your webmaster to combat threats. I will share some of the ones that I recommend.

Website Maintenance Plans
Many designers now offer bundled packages to ensure that your site stays online and doesn’t crash. Simply not installing WordPress updates, Theme updates and Plugin updates can make your site vulnerable or could cause it to stop functioning. Typical plans cost anywhere from $100-800/year, depending on how many features they include. WordPress software updates and regular backups of your site are important for security and site performance. Features include any combination of:

Regular backup of content (text, images, documents)
Regular backup of WordPress theme (site structure and design)
Installation of software updates
Installation of plugin updates
Removal of comment spam
Security & Malware Scans
Free Malware Cleanups
Website Support
Monitoring of your site for alerts or issues

Wordpress maintenance plan

Hosting Plans and Security
Some designers bundle maintenance plans with the yearly or monthly hosting fee. They may jack up the price by showing you the long list of features. Hosting alone is typically $60-120/yr for small business shared hosting, but adding the maintenance package can bring it to $50+ per month or $600+ per year. To pay just a fraction of that, see my Attraction LLC WordPress Care Plan and Web Hosting prices.

Support & Content Edits Included!
I even include Website Support (email & phone) and 4 minor content updates per year (1-2 images, 1-5 lines of text, spelling corrections, 1-5 price changes, embed one YouTube video, add links, edit page footer, additional administrator instruction, etc) in my low cost. This has the added benefit of encouraging business owners to at least update their content a bit, which helps google rank as well as human visitors.

Maintenance & Security Terms
Core updates – WordPress provides core updates periodically for the entire platform. Always check the website afterward, to ensure that nothing has been corrupted or made non-operational.
Plugin updates – Plugins can be broken or degraded after updates, so don’t allow revisions to pile up.
Theme updates – Themes and theme frameworks need updating on a regular basis.
Content backups – Data should be backed up daily, weekly or monthly, depending on how actively the site is managed. The entire website should be backed up on weekly or monthly, should there be a need to revert to an earlier version.
Security monitoring – The extraordinary popularity of WordPress has made it a very inviting target for hackers, so more and more hackers are being drawn to WordPress sites.
Uptime monitoring – Software should be used, to be aware of weekly and monthly uptime.

Best Security & Backup Plugins
You can install and maintain these yourself, search for alternatives, or just contact Webmaster Ray to integrate them for you:

Wordfence Security – Secure your website with the most comprehensive WordPress security plugin. Firewall, malware scan, blocking, live traffic, login security & more.
UpdraftPlus – Backup and restoration made easy. Complete backups; manual or scheduled (backup to Dropbox, Google Drive, Rackspace, FTP, email + others).
W3 Total Cache – improves server performance, caching every aspect of your site, reducing the download times
Email Encoder Bundle – an obfuscator to encode mailto links, email addresses, phone numbers and any text to hide them from (spam)bots. Mailto links protected automatically.

Secure your site today!
If your small business website runs on wordpress, log in to the control panel to update your plugins and install security measures — or call me at 302-633-1482 and I’ll start my WordPress Care Plan to keep you protected right away.

Webmaster Ray’s Bio

February 9, 2017 by Ray

Wordpress website security I tell prospective website and mobile app clients that Attraction LLC is different from other web designers in that I create sites from a business perspective, rather than from an overly technical or artistic perspective. That’s why I believe that my product will be more beneficial. The bottom line is what matters: attracting traffic, generating interest, and selling your products or services! Our goal is to give you an online presence that brings results!

This no-nonsense (vs. overly “cool” sites or using heavy technical jargon) business approach is based on my background in operations management.

New York & San Francisco
I grew up in Queens, New York and graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, then learned leadership skills as a Naval Officer for a few years. Living for 12 years in the San Francisco Bay Area before moving to Delaware, I held sales, retail management and operations supervisor roles. When the internet was born in the ’90s, ISPs competed with each other for business by offering extras such as “your own website”. With my beer bottle collection as the topic of my own site, I enjoyed it as a creative outlet and quickly became intrigued by the power of the internet.

Beer affiliate marketing Technical Experience
The vast majority of my web design, SEO, internet marketing, HTML code, video, social media, and now mobile app skills were self-taught. With over 11 years in business full time, I still enjoy going to my office every morning (all the way across the hall from my bedroom). Not only does a home office help me with low overhead, it makes working with clients more personal when they come to my “Beer Room” to discuss their goals. I tell them how collecting beer bottles actually helped lead to my business. But dwarfed by the shelves of bottles in that room, I have my 27 marathon finisher medals displayed on one wall.

Although not as prominent, the medals represent my hobby of running (since 2002) which has been a much larger influence on my life. The training for and successful completion of these races has not just given me the “runner’s high”, but it’s greatly improved my self-esteem and confidence, both personally and as a business. I can literally say that “I go the extra mile” for my customers, and I have the resolve & determination to provide a winning result and help you reach your own professional goals!

Nun Run race coordinator 2016 Community Organizations
Besides treating my clients’ projects as if they were my own, I also donate my skills toward community and charity groups. I’ve created websites for Pike Creek Valley Running Club, my Knights of Columbus council, my USMMA college class, and the Little Sisters of the Poor, where for 6 years I was coordinator of Nun Run 5K, which raised over $100,000 for the needy elderly over that time period.

Constantly Learning
Because online marketing is constantly evolving, I learn something new on every project and enjoy each challenge. I also enjoy playing an important role in the success of my customers, so I learn lots about their individual businesses. Every day is exciting, so I know that it’s unlikely that I’ll ever want to retire.

Mobile Apps for Small Businesses

February 2, 2017 by Ray

Delaware mobile apps Bring your customers back for repeat business!
Mobile Apps offer small businesses an inexpensive tool to compete with larger competitors and national chains. For a small, fixed monthly marketing budget item, you’ll see results and your customers will feel more connected to you.

Download Attraction LLC App
I created an app that I use to demonstrate most of the available 20+ features that can be included for as little as $59/month plus the affordable one-time set-up cost. On your smartphone, download Attraction app or call me to set up a time for a live demo. You’ll score your first reward in my loyalty program, just for downloading it. That’s a great sample of how you can entice your own customers to see the value in downloading your app. But you’ll need to publicize it by having a page similar to mine on your website, along with prominent links on Home page or all pages to download your app. I create that page for my clients, along with a poster that they can display in their storefront window, at their front desk, handed out directly, or even emailed. Some examples of what you’d highlight:

Restaurants & pizza shops can offer online food ordering or reservations.
Salons & fitness centers can allow appointment scheduling and display photo gallery.
Non-profits and associations can list events and make donations easy.
Real Estate Agents can offer one tap access to property listings and send timely push notifications.
Bars & Clubs & Coffee Shops can offer Loyalty coupon programs & event schedules.
DJ’s and entertainers can show lists of events, newsletter opt-ins & photo galleries.

small business mobile apps Each feature has a number of options. For example, a pizza shop can include delivery, pick up or dine in or any combination of those. They can accept credit card payment via the app, accept cash, or either one. Either a custom ordering system or an existing third party platform such as grubHub, olo, yelpEat24 or iMenu360. A custom delivery radius can be set up around your location so that people out of your area will only have pick-up option. Delivery charges, optional tips and other conveniences are included to make it easy for people to place orders. Once they’ve ordered once, the likelihood of repeat business increases dramatically.

More Repeat Business, More Referrals

Show your customers all of the features and tell them to watch for app-only specials! Send periodic push notifications with value, such as discounted meals or services or menu items. The loyalty rewards feature allows several different promotions to run simultaneously so there is something for everyone. For example, a pizza shop could give rewards per slice of pizza or per pizza or both.

The “open-rate” for push notifications is astronomical compared to that of regular email messages or newsletters. You can even target different geographical areas or pre-schedule them to send at a later day or time.

How Your Business Will Benefit

mobile app Brand Loyalty – Repeat Customers
Loyalty programs/coupons + Push notifications updates

Increased sales opportunities
Mobile Coupons & Offers + Instant notifications

Increase exposure
People have phones on them 24/7 + Company is in their phone

Get ahead of competition
Take advantage of the “buzz” + Social Network visibility

Measure your marketing
Review your analytics + Control your deals instantly + Very affordable
See more app info!

Celebrate with Webmaster Ray at Free Networking Event

July 19, 2016 by Ray

NCCCC

My Attraction Web Design business turned 10 years old last Fall. New Castle County Chamber of Commerce has been a great supporter and offered to celebrate with a ribbon-cutting at their building.

I invite you to join me this Thursday 7/21 3:00-5:00pm for networking, appetizers (Sherm’s Catering), and drink — soft drinks, sorry no beer ;-( However, the room will be decorated with a sampling of my beer bottle collection.

Meet my other customers and NCCCC staff! See my new advertising banner! Learn about my new Smartphone Apps!

Extra Credit: I’ve donated many, many hours over the past 6 years to coordinating the http://NunRun5k.org for the Little Sisters of the Poor in Newark. Please contact me if you’ll consider being a sponsor for this year’s big 10^th Nun Run — or register to participate in the Sept 17 event. Starts at just $250 and you get great publicity. Visit website for details or call me soon.

NCCCC has great parking and is located at
12 Penns Way, New Castle, DE 19720

RSVP appreciated, but not required at all. Share this with someone I should meet!
Stay cool,
Webmaster Ray

Attraction Web Design serves Wilmington, Newark, New Castle and all of Delaware and surrounding areas with mobile websites & smartphone apps.

Wilmington Delaware Business Directory

March 8, 2016 by Ray

Submit your business to local directories to get more website visitors, but also to improve your website rank in google, bing and yahoo. You can add your company profile to important online directories including Google+, Yahoo Local, Bing Local, Manta, Superpages, and many more. You may also find a directory for your own city, or town that can give valuable exposure. For example, in New Castle County, DE, submit to my upgraded Wilmington Delaware Directory for free!

Your business listing can include address, contact info, link to website, description and even a map to your location. The extra inbound link will improve your google rank. You may update information at any time. Low cost advertising is also available, so you can take advantage of visitors searching in your target market.

The directory is a source of information for the City of Wilmington, Delaware and surrounding counties. Find restaurants, schools, churches, stores, homes, associations, contractors, and other yellow pages type of listings for New Castle County, Cecil County Maryland, and Chester & Delaware Counties of Pennsylvania. This is an online business directory where all company profiles have been added by the owner. If you know of a business, non-profit organization, club or other entity, suggest this site so they can receive free publicity!

Included are firms in Newark DE, Hockessin, New Castle, Claymont, Pike Creek, Elsmere, Christiana, Bear, Middletown, Kennett Square, West Chester, & Dover DE & Elkton MD.

It takes only a few minutes to add your listing. And don’t forget to attach your logo!

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