Tips Tuesday – Photoshop Alternatives, Caching Tests, SiteLock and Patchman

Hello Happy Site Owners!

Tips this week include:

• HTTPS Redirects update
• SiteGround and WP Fastest Cache test update
• Why you need to split multiple sites into their own cPanels and how to do it
• What new tests and tutorials are rolling down the pike
• A progress report on turning my carving site into passive income
• What SiteLock acquiring Patchman means for you
• The end of Adobe Flash coming
• Whether or not Google uses Google Analytics to find new links to crawl
• 9 free or cheap alternatives to Photoshop and tutorials on how to use them
• Why video marketing is a big part of Facebook’s rising stock prices
• Easy ways for you to get started with video marketing

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BlogAid Happenings

HTTPS Redirect Fluke

I’ve been working the past two weeks with support at both Site Ground and CloudFlare trying to get to the bottom of what caused the redirect fluke during a recent HTTPS conversion for a client that recently migrated to SiteGround.

I had to blow up and recreate my test account on SiteGround a few times, using different combos of settings before and after the conversion, but I think we have it figured out.

And now I have an even better way to do redirects for HTTPS.

Along the way I learned a whale of a lot more about the underbelly of Let’s Encrypt and why some folks have trouble with it renewing properly and why it is still struggling to gain proper respect among SSL certificate issuers. Because it is self-signed and has such a short renewal period of 90 days, it doesn’t carry as much respect at certificates issued by Comodo and other such trusted entities. But, it most certainly is serving the purpose for site owners who don’t run a store on their site, or intake private info.

I also learned a whale of a lot more about all the facets of the Crypto and SSL and HTTPS related settings at CloudFlare and when to use certain combos with different scenarios, plus what’s required on the host side to make use of some of them.

Look for Level 3 Webmaster Training course tutorial updates in the coming weeks.

I’ll likely put out posts to the public about the settings you need to use at CloudFlare to coordinate with whether your host has already issued a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate for you or not as well.

Caching on SiteGround Tests

While I have this test setup going, and while I have the attention of support at both SiteGround and CloudFlare, I’m digging deeper into the rumor that SiteGround’s server-side caching doesn’t work well with WP Fastest Cache.

Well, with one client, we had trouble keeping WP Fastest Cache enabled when SiteGround’s cache was turned on. So, testing what was happening came to a front burner. And it is a fluke.

As you may recall from my head-to-head caching tests last year, WP Fastest Cache on SiteGround was a clear speed winner.

The site is especially fast when you combine all of that with CloudFlare.

But, SiteGround has changed their side of it slightly and I had to revisit those tests.

I’ll have a new post for you when I’m finished, and I’ll update my head to head test results post if needed.

Splitting Multiple Sites into cPanels on WHM Reseller Hosting

Having multiple sites in one cPanel account is a super bad idea these days.

It puts all of your sites at high risk for both security and performance issues.

Last week I helped a site audit client migrate his sites to a new reseller (WHM) account at A2 Hosting (aff link) and then I split the minor sites off into their own cPanels.

A WHM account already has the tools in it to make that type of split easy and I was delighted to have the opportunity to learn how to do it.

I’ll have a post about it out for you later, but I’ve already decided to start offering that service now.

New Tests and Tutorials Agenda

These current tests, plus an over-abundance of client work, required that I postpone the WP Rocket tests and tutorials, as well as the comment reply via email plugin tests.

But both of those are next up.

Right behind it will be the new tutorials for working with a WHM account in general, and how to split sites.

In fact, I was hoping to do an HTTPS conversion workshop in August. But I’m still waiting to hear back from the new online teaching platform folks because I’d like to set that workshop up in a way that folks actually get to do a conversion live. And, I need time to update the current tutorials with the new order of doing things and info I discovered during these latest tests.

So, I think I may put together a WHM webinar instead because I literally have to purchase a WHM account to do these new tutorials. Might as well do a webinar on splitting sites while I have it, don’t you think?

Webmasters look for a new survey to get a head count on interest for that. And I may open it up to the public too, just like I did for the Secure Site Setup Webinar that we did a few weeks ago.

Carving Site Update

As y’all know, I’ve been slowly working on my carving site in my spare time so that I can get deeper into the world that so many of my lifestyle and foodie blogger clients are in.

The backside of the site, and all of the content, need a major overhaul.

I’ll be converting it to HTTPS and putting it on PHP 7.

And then the older blog posts and images need to be redone. They’re like 5 or 6 years old.

Plus, getting started with the passive income parts of it have been very time consuming. That’s what I’ve been focused on for the past month. I have about 70 products to use as affiliate links. I’m starting with Amazon, but have already signed up for affiliate programs with other retailers, such as Lowes and Home Depot.

I’ve also started following more Pinterest folks, including a wonderful Facebook group. Wow, I’ve got a lot to learn about how to drive traffic with Pinterest.

If you know of folks that I should be following, please do drop a link in the comments, or anywhere you see this post online. I really appreciate it.

I may only be able to work on these site-related things for 30 minutes a day, and only a few days of the week, but I am making progress. And that’s good.

That’s all the news from around here. Let’s jump into this week’s tips.

Site Security Tips

Sitelock Acquires the Patchman Security Scanning Service

Patchman is a pretty good scanning service that is built specifically to scan CMS based sites, like WordPress, for malware and security breaches in code.

A2 Hosting uses it, and it has done a good job of letting site owners know they need to do an update or check their sites for the most part.

I’m sad to say that SiteLock has acquired Patchman. I am no fan of SiteLock. They work like some insurance companies do.

Like most scanners, they don’t prevent malware from getting into your site. They just tell you about it after the fact. Their real money is in fixing the mess, and I can’t say that I’ve ever heard of them doing a good job with that. And then they charge you more per month simply because your site has been hacked.

That’s messed up.

Rumor is that SiteLock is now looking to partner with some of the bigger hosting companies, all of which are less than stellar hosts, and some that no webmaster or developer would wipe their feet on like, Bluehost, InMotion Hosting, and 1&1 Hosting.

You know what they say, birds of a feather, right?

It’s too early to tell what will become of Patchman on the hosts that use it and don’t use SiteLock, like A2 Hosting.

I’ll keep you updated as I hear more.

In the meantime, you can watch my BlogAid Today Tip with more.

And do subscribe to the BlogAid Facebook Page and the BlogAid YouTube Channel so you can always get this kind of breaking news as it happens.

End of Adobe Flash Coming

I can hardly wait for this. I will be so glad to see Adobe Flash die, die, die. It has had major security issues for years and we all need to get the player for it off our computers and devices.

So, if you still have .swf files, you need to convert them to .mp4 and switch them out on your site.

Stop Leaking Your Username – Set Byline in Genesis

UPDATE 8/1/17: This is one of the breaking news items covered in the Live video recap. See it for more details, and watch the video tutorial linked above to see how to better secure your login credentials by removing your Username from your byline.

SEO Tips

Does Google Use Google Analytics to Discover New Links?

The short answer is no, it doesn’t.

And I hope this definitive test from the nice folks at Stone Temple Consulting puts that rumor to rest.

What Google does use is links inside your content, including links to more of your own content.

And that’s what the new internal and external link counter in the Yoast SEO plugin is all about.

Plus, the more links something has to it, the more important Google thinks it is.

So, get linking and stop worrying about Google poking around your Analytics data.

Performance Tips

The 9 BEST Alternatives To Photoshop That Are Either FREE or Cheap

Image optimization is the biggest bang for the buck you can get to speed up your site.

Photoshop is one of the best programs to use for creating and optimizing images, but it is overkill and too expensive for most of us.

My buddy Rob Cubbon has a super post on 9 super alternatives to Photoshop that are either free or cheap.

Once you decide on the one you want to use, jump on over to this post from webmaster Mary Iannotti with tutorials on several of those Photoshop alternatives and see how to use them to optimize your images better.

Content Marketing Tips

What Video and the Rise in Facebook Stock Means for You

One huge reason Facebook stock prices are rising is due to greater adoption of video.

Find a way to get on this bandwagon consistently.

Denise Wakeman has a post right now about a super easy way to create video trailers for your blog posts.

Krishna De covers every video platform and has tips to get started and make the most of all of them.

Lou Bortone is running a Go Live Every Day in August Challenge to help you get past every excuse and intimidation you have about being on camera.

Even though I’m already making decent use of video marketing, I’m using this challenge to help me take it up a notch and expand to more platforms.

Remember when blogging was new, or Twitter and Facebook were new. Yeah, the pioneers on those are now the rich gurus today. And while there are folks already firmly established on video, there’s still plenty of room for newcomers to make their mark and build their tribe. Every major social media platform is now focusing on video. That should tell you all you need to know about just how big this is.

Catch this boat, build your audience, and get more eyeballs on your content.

Wrap Up

That’s a wrap for this week’s Tips Tuesday.

Find these tips helpful? Share them with your peeps!!!!

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