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Block Spam from WordPress Contact Page

bgt — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 20:20:52 +0000

Have you been having trouble with Spam from your Contact Page on your WordPress blog? This is a quick way to Block Spam from a WordPress Contact Page.

Every good website has a Contact page to ensure that users can get questions answers, and customers can engage before buying goods and services. The trouble is that every bad robot spider trawling the web knows that too, and targets input forms and contact pages. Pretty soon after putting your Contact Page live you can expect to start receiving emails about Viagra, poorly crafted meaningless comments containing back links, or just random strings of characters. While the delete key handles these things quickly and efficiently, the net effect is to dilute our energy which should be directed a answering the real questions from our customers. What we need is a better solution.

What Stops The Bots?
To stop the spiders from even posting the contact form we need to install a WordPress CAPTCHA plugin. A CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) is a challenge-response test used to ensure that the response is not generated by a computer or Bot. It can be as simple as identifying if a picture of an animal is a cat or a dog, which is easy for a human, but a challenge for a Bot. The most common forms use distorted images of letters and numbers, which the human eye can easily distinguish due to pattern matching capabilities within our brains. Go humans!

How To Block Spam from a WordPress Contact Page
If you are using the Contact Form 7 plugin, there is a Really Simple CAPTCHA plugin which integrates right in to the Contact Form 7. While not strongly secure, it will at least stop the script kiddies and bots having an open door. To install it carry out the following steps:

In the Plugins section of the Dashboard, click on Add New
Search for plugins by keyword Term Really Simple CAPTCHA
Next to Really Simple CAPTCHA, click on Install Now

What Else Can Block Spam
If the Really Simple CAPTCHA plugin does not meet the requirements, there are a number of other measures we can use to block Spam from WordPress contact pages, including:

Secure CAPTCHA, which uses hard to break and easy to read secure CAPTCHA images from SecureCAPTCHA.net.
Contact Form by ContactMe.com, which is a fully customizable contact form which automatically adds your contacts to a free online contacts database.
Fast Secure Contact Form which supports sending mail to multiple departments, and redirects to any URL after the message is sent.

Hopefully using one of these methods we can see the back of spam contacts from the contacts page, and get back to the business of responding to or customers and genuine visitors.

Finally, some useful Resources to help block Spam from a WordPress Contact Page

WordPress Update Out Of Memory Error Fixed

bgt — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 15:42:58 +0000

Have you had a problem in upgrading your WordPress version on a website hosted on 1and1? This problem has been reported on sites hosted on both 1and1.co.uk or 1and1.com, but may occur on sites hosted with other providers too. It occurs when you attempt an automatic upgrade on a working WordPress site to elevate to WordPress 3.0 or greater.

WordPress Update Error
The first thing you know about the problem is an error part way through the automatic update process, which looks something like this:

Fatal error: Out of memory (allocated 28835840) (tried to allocate 3981531 bytes) in [Blog root path]/wp-includes/class-http.php on line 1426

According to numerous postings on other sites, this appears to relate to PHP memory allocation on shared servers, although checking the memory_limit on one of our problem sites using phpinfo() gives a much higher value than the problem scripts appear to require.

The error messages are not always the same, but samples which have been seen include:

Fatal error: Out of memory (allocated 28835840) (tried to allocate 3981531 bytes) in [Blog root path]/wp-includes/class-http.php on line 1426
(similar message) in [Blog root path]/wp-admin/admin.php on line 40
(similar message) in [Blog root path]/wp-admin/includes/media.php on line 268

We host and support a large number of WordPress sites, most of which have upgraded without experiencing this problem. However, where it has occurred it is a challenge, as you should always update WordPress to the latest version to ensure that any security fixes are installed.

After trying a number of suggested cures unsuccessfully, including

Setting memory_limit = 48M in php.ini (No difference)
Editing the file with the error to add ini_set(’memory_limit’, ‘48M’); (No difference)
Adding define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ’64M’); to wp-settings.php. (Yep! No difference)
Adding a line php_value memory_limit 32M in .htaccess file (Which causes a fatal Internal Server Error)

WordPress Update Out Of Memory Error Solution
The fix for the WordPress Out Of Memory Error, on the problem site at least, was to disable all the installed plugins, and then carry out the automatic upgrade again. This time it ran like a dream, and the site was back in order once the plugins had been re-enabled, with WordPress 3.2.1 installed.

The only regret in finding the solution is that we did not disable the plugins one at a time, in order to see which one was the trigger. However, on a working site with a large following, that extra delay it did not seem appropriate.

Thanks for this blindingly simple solution to the Out Of Memory Error when upgrading WordPress go to David Orlo at DavidOrlo.com.
Click here to see how he found the fix

Important WordPress Security Update Announced

bgt — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 21:26:59 +0000

In a direct email from Matt Mullenweg via the WordPress.org announcement list, news has reached our ears about an important WordPress Security Update, WordPress version 3.0.4.

Apparently, they have fixed a critical vulnerability in WordPress’ core HTML sanitation library, and because this library is used lots of places it’s important that everyone update as soon as possible.

We have already been busy updating dozens of WordPress sites we support, mostly without incident. We recommend you back up your site before upgrading, but upgrade soon.

We would like to wish all our readers, supporters and colleagues a merry Christmas break and a Happy New Year. Blog On!

Quick Links to WordPress Resources

bgt — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 12:13:52 +0000

You probably know by now that WordPress is a world renown blogging platform, with millions of installs and active sites. You also know that at TechCo Systems we understand the need for small business to boost their Internet marketing without spending a fortune on advertising. That is why we recommend using a Blog to give you an Internet presence for boosting your marketing, or getting your message out there.

Here are some Quick Links to useful WordPress resources, which should help you to get started with a Blog based site to increase your marketing:

There is also a warning from Matt Mullenweg, one of the creators of WordPress about taking things too far:

6 Steps to Kill Your Community

If you want

Finally for those who like to see and hear the speakers tell you how to do things, see WordPress.tv

The Network for the Post-Bureaucratic Age Featured Blog

bgt — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 20:20:07 +0000

The featured Blog this week is The Network for the Post-Bureaucratic Age, which is a WordPress Blog hosted at WordPress.com. It uses the Freshy theme by Jide and may be described as a comparative newcomer in the blogosphere, with its first post date-stamped on 28th June 2010.

The current headline post dated 8th September 2010 is a leader for a report entitled Better for Less: How to make Government IT deliver saving. This critical report by Liam Maxwell investigates the quagmire of government IT. In fact you might say that he has slammed the whole way that Government IT procurement is handled. The report is linked from the site, and should be read by anyone in government IT with responsibility for procurement.

The main reasons for singling out this site as a featured blog, is more about what it represents rather than it’s august history. This is a Think Tank, close to government which is criticizing the status quo. We consider that at least five of the seven examples of potential saving have merit, and the others may be examples where savings could be made without massive changes to the infrastructure

A test environment for development companies with easy access to rack-space
Open Source on the desktop through the use of Open Document Format
New models sought for software framework (may we suggest Apache, My SQL, PHP for a start)
Commoditization of Email and office productivity
Common Security Framework
Migrating Schools to Free email services
Prizes for IT innovation in education

Plaudits to The Network for the Post-Bureaucratic Age for hosting this message on WordPress.com and using the most popular blogging platform on the planet – WordPress!

Click here to visit The Network for the Post-Bureaucratic Age

Theme Update for TechCo Support Site

bgt — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 20:20:40 +0000

Those of you who visit TechCo Support regularly will notice that we have now updated our theme to Atahualpa 3.5.1. Atahualpa is a highly configurable WordPress theme which allows you to change hundreds of parameters and features to suit your needs

There are a huge number of configurable items, (268 according to BytesForAll, the theme creators) with five separate categories for changing the header area alone. The theme will support five columns, with one or two sidebars on either side, each of which can have a number of combination such as display on Pages, or Categories, or not. The sidebar combinations alone would fill a substantial article, so let it suffice to say that you can configure them to meet most requirements, no matter what they are.

Atahualpa features a distinctive rotating header image, which changes every time you load a page. This can be further rotated selecting from the WordPress dashboard, Appearance, then Atahualpa Theme Options, Header Images, Rotate header images with Javascript, and setting a value in seconds in the dropdown.

For this to work, you will need a selection of images of the correct header size: 1300 pixels width, by 160 pixels high by default. You can also select to have the images transition by fading out then in, in the same place.

To install the Atahualpa theme, there are two methods:
Automatic Install From the WordPress Dashboard

Click on Themes, Under Appearance
Select the Install Themes tab
Type Atahualpa in the textbox under Search for themes by keyword, author, or tag.
Ensure Term is selected in the Dropdown, and click Search
When the Atahualpa theme appears below, click Install
After the transparant overlay appears, click the Install Now button
You should then see messages including the following:
- Unpacking the package…
- Installing the theme…
- Successfully installed the theme Atahualpa 3.4.9.
Activate the theme by clicking the Activate link next to Actions, and you are in business!

Manual Install
Alternatively, for those used to manually installing WordPress themes, you can download the package, unpack it and then upload it to the Themes directory on your site. You should end up with a directory called atahualpa351, or whatever is the version number. Atahualpa versions will happily coexist with earlier releases, so if there is something you do not like you can always revert to the earlier version.

This versatile theme from BytesForAll is available currently as version 3.5.3, which we are actively evaluating at the moment. The latest version of Atahualpa also includes support for the new WP 3+ menu system integrated with 2 Menu Locations (called Menu 1 and Menu 2). The original Page Menu Bar and Category Menu Bar will work if you don’t setup a menu with the new system. We will let you know as soon as we apply this update to our live sites

If you are interested in using Atahualpa on your own WordPress blog, then see

Bytes For All

Atahualpa Support Forum

Featured WordPress blog is Twingly

bgt — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 20:20:11 +0000

The featured WordPress blog this week is Twingly Blog, and more specificly a post by Martin Weiger called Europe’s 50 most popular startups according to the blogosphere.. Using data from their Twingly Blog Search they rank blogs in the global blogosphere from May 1 to July 31. This gives you a useful list of web and tech startups to check out for inspiration.

The blog has posts going back to September 2006, and provides lots of interesting comment and links to resources. It also contains the observation that A blog is a timeline; The fact that every blog is an ordered record of thoughts and opinions makes the aggregated data of many blogs very valuable.

This is a useful tip to remember when you are structuring your own WordPress posts, as you should consider that you are also writing for history, as well as promoting your latest product or venting your spleen. Surf back through the Twingly timeline and see how the writing style has progressed, and the rated Social Media sites and tools have emerged. Consider the way your own posts might be viewed in three months, or after a year, or in five year’s time.

The Twingly Blog uses the Neutra Theme, by Artmov which is a simple and elegant free theme. The site is hosted at WordPress.com.

Resources to check out:

3 Top Tips For Marketing Via Your Blog

bgt — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:20:14 +0000

In response to a number of inquiries about How to boost your Search position on Google, here are the three
Top Tips For Marketing Via Your Blog which we cover on our Low Cost Marketing Using WordPress one day seminar.

Chose a Compelling Title
Keep It Simple and To The Point
Tell Your Readers What They Want To Know

In order to boost your search engine rating on Google, Yahoo! and Bing, and make the most of your marketing effort, make sure that your blog posts take account of the advice they give about SEO. SEO is an acronym for “Search Engine Optimization”, and describes the techniques of improving the visibility of a web site or a web page in search engines via the natural or un-paid search results.

In the context of marketing your business, using your WordPress Blog to tell people about your goods and services is a great idea, so you want the most people to see it. This is the way to make Blogging help your business for very little cost, and so get the word out to as many people as possible. A good Blogger grabs the attention of their readers, and holds it long enough to establish an emotional connection, so that they will want to return.

Compelling Title
First of all chose a Compelling Title to grab the reader’s interest and attract them to visit your site. This may be repeated in the content, which will help the search engine spiders correctly rank your site. On Google, the PageRank will determine how close to the top of the search results your site or page appears in the list returned to the user. Make sure your title is relevant to your content and brings visitors who want to know more about your subject.

Keep Content Simple
Once your visitor has arrived, you have only a few seconds to give them enough information so that they can chose that they want to read on. Keep your content simple and to the point to hold their attention, and if possible provide a bullet pointed list near the start to aid comprehension. This will allow them to confirm that they are on the right site for their needs without wasting time reading the detail. It is better to have someone decide that they do not want your content and leave quickly, than have them read to the bottom and leave disappointed.

Give Them What They Want
Finally, tell your readers what they want to know, rather than what you want them to know. That means you have to write to satisfy your readers’ need for information, rather than for your need to tell people about your new Widget making process! Tell them what they will find immediately useful, so that they will feel grateful and want to visit you another time. A happy reader is more likely to buy from you than a resentful one who has had to wade through all your marketing copy to find the nuggets.

A word of caution about taking the optimization too far: some SEO experts will claim to get you to the top of Google using secret techniques known only to a few, for which you will pay a premium. As Google will tell you, deciding to hire an SEO is a big decision that can potentially improve your site and save time, but you can also risk damage to your site and reputation. Make sure to research the potential advantages as well as the damage that an irresponsible SEO can do to your site.

So in summary

Chose a Compelling Title to grab the reader’s interest
Keep your content simple and to the point to hold their attention
Tell your readers what they want to know, so they will visit you another time

To maximize the potential of your visitors, without spending a lot of money on marketing, apply the three tips listed above and you will satisfy your readers’ needs, help them to feel good enough to want to come again, while aiding the search engines put you it the correct place in the rankings. That has got to be a good deal,and a win for everybody.

Other Resources:

The Spending Challenge Featured Blog

bgt — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:22:40 +0000

The featured WordPress blog this week is actually a UK government site called The Spending Challenge.

It uses a Theme in a directory called Coalitiondocdg, which may be a custom solution, with Contact Form 7 plugin by Takayuki Miyoshi to capture your feedback. It also uses Recent Posts with Excerpts plugin by Stephanie Leary, which lists your most recent posts with excerpts, optionally limited to a category.

According to the home page, The Spending Challenge is your chance to shape the way the UK government works, and help us get more for less as we try to bring down the deficit. It seems to be open initially to people who work in the public sector, but after 8th July the process will be opened up to the wider public. It is easy to make a suggestion via the site, and the email address is optional, so there is a level of anonymity.

For what it is worth, my suggestion was to allow (or even ecourage) organisations to save money by using open source web applications like Apache, MySQL and WordPress on the national infrastructure to provide a low-cost generic platform for non-critical applications.

To visit the site and see an example of WordPress in action in government click here to visit The Spending Challenge.

If you are interested in adding either of the plugins to your WordPress site, see the links below:

You can download the plugins from the links above, or alternatively, if you are in the Install Plugins section of your site Dashboard, search for Recent Posts with Excerpts or Contact Form 7, and the when you have found the right one, click on Install Now.

If you are interested in those plugins, you may also be interested in the Contact Form 7 Widget by Stephanie Wells which allows you to use Contact Form 7 Forms in your sidebars.

Maximizing WordPress Through Social Networking

bgt — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 22:22:18 +0000

Our featured blog this week is the WordPress hosted Smoke-Free Texas if for no other reason that it has a good message!

However, check out the sensible inclusion of Latest Flickr photos, Twitter feed and Smoke-Free Texas on Facebook links, maximizing their targeted inbound traffic potential. There are useful WordPress plug-ins for these Social Networking sites available from WordPress.Org Social Network