The websites will be moved behind the scenes and you will receive more storage, faster load times and maximum security. My monthly fee for hosting will only go up enough to help pay for these improvements. It will be $16 per month instead of $12, a small hike for optimum hosting.

I also have some clients using shared hosting with Bluehost. I encourage these clients to take advantage of this great discount on improved security and speed. Bluehost will handle the move for a reduced fee. This will be easier for you, as I will be doing the billing instead of Bluehost and I can handle all of your questions.

More and more, security is a key issue with websites and I’m looking forward to offering a product my clients can trust. I will be in touch with more information and you can call me at any time.

All backups with the Perugi Design Basic Plan are saved monthly. If you wish to backup more frequently, let me know. For those of you not on my plan, but using Bluehost as your hosting company, you can reach out if you need help with backups or upgrading plugins and themes.

Please read the notice below and email me with any questions.

“In an ongoing effort to bring you the very best products and services, we’re excited to announce that we will be upgrading all of our servers to newer versions of PHP. In addition to improved data processing, which can boost your site’s speed and performance, you’ll also gain increased security. Newer versions of PHP have more frequent security updates to help protect your site against unwanted hacks or malware.

When will it happen?
At some point during the upgrade window — November 16, 2020 through November 20, 2020 — your account will be updated, and older versions of PHP will no longer be supported. You may experience a brief disruption in service, but we will work to upgrade your site quickly with the most updated version of PHP software your website will support.

Do I need to do anything on my end?
Yes, to avoid a negative impact to your site, we recommend that you upgrade all of your web installations to the newest PHP software available before we move your account. Newer versions of PHP are already available on your current server, and you can set your site to use those versions with this helpful guide. You should also backup all of your website files.”

CLUE #1: No one refers to me as DEBORAH ANN, so that is clue number one, albeit not necessarily a red flag.

CLUE #2: Now look at the link. It starts with http://… Most reputable sites, especially domain companies will be using httpS://… The S is for secure and many of us in the know have changed ours two years ago. And again, we see the signature area missing the S on http://.

CLUE #3: Look inside the link. A real url will be simpler. For instance it would read something like …bluehost.com/account/reactivation.html. Instead, we see “bluehost.com/cyberlegosite.com/account/reactivation .html. This is a fake site. Now here is your red flag!

CLUE #4: So if you have been unlucky enough to actually experience malware on your Bluehost site you might have taken the bait and clicked the link. Like me, you’d hopefully get the warning below. If you missed the first few clues, do pay attention to any warning…and call your web site manager to check it out!

P.S. I had a chat with Bluehost and they confirmed it was malware and they have been getting a lot of reports on this today.

Here’s a sad story one of my clients is going through right now. Five years ago, my client purchased a domain at Go Daddy as many people do. Then she hired me to create a website, still working today and hosted at Blue Host. Last week, she called Go Daddy to check that her domain was up-to-date and paid up. The domain is on auto renew, but Go Daddy took advantage and sold her a five year hosting plan. She paid them $99 additional to migrate the website to their server and they put it in a folder called “CloudTech”.

This came to my attention this morning when this client forwarded an email from Go Daddy listing suspect malware files in a folder named “CloudTech”.  Not smart if you want your wily ways to go undetected by the webmaster…!  Not smart to call attention to your own malware. Here’s the details. After a short conversation with the client, and logging into her account, I called Go Daddy immediately.  I received a call back from Sales and Security nineteen minutes later. The tech guy explained that CloudTech was legitimate and informed me the site had been migrated over. Confused, I exclaimed., “This does not make any sense, since the domain is still pointing to BlueHost…!”  Before instructing him to remove the folder I wanted to call the client to get her permission.

And the story gets worse.

Not only was the client duped into the extra hosting and migration, she has been paying them yearly hosting and SSL fees for at least a few years. Why do they take the money if there was no website being hosted? ….Because they can. Many people don’t know the ins and outs of internet set up and will pay what a large commercial company asks for. The tech guy’s excuse for the recommendation? The server was old and needed to be upgraded to php 7.0. Again, I pointed out, that BlueHost had already upgraded, so the website was fine. The old server they were referring to is theirs…

Lesson to small business owners: If you wonder why you are paying for hosting in two places, please contact your webmaster. If you are given an option to pay more money, consult with the person who knows what you need. There are 164 one star reviews of Go Daddy at Consumer Affairs. Posted, are many similar stories. It is unconscionable that a company with Go Daddy’s resources and reputation is taking advantage of small businesses.

Addendum: I spoke with another Go Daddy associate today. He has cancelled the hosting account and the ssl and returning almost $300 to the client. I doubt that this includes the migration fee of $99 however. I’m also giving free hosting to the client for the rest of the year to make up for some of her lost revenue for the excess hosting. Lesson learned: add a line to the contract that clearly states where the fees should be paid.

Owners of these businesses have busy schedules and sometimes the attention to their website is stop and go. We travel, get ill, have sick relatives and generally just get overwhelmed with too much to do. That’s ok. It allows me to juggle the work and attend to emergencies that sometimes come up from time to time.

A few weeks ago three of our sites went down because of a needed php upgrade which is done on the server. The php 7.1 is a large update that came after a big update to WordPress. All three website’s php were updated and the sites came back immediately. Then, another site was in need of repair and down due to old coding and software. I spent hours on the phone with two Buehost technicians testing and figuring out how to repair a broken website that had been updated to php 7.1. We reverted the php to 5.6 but it was still broken. That particular site was set up by an associate over three years ago, and she came out of retirement to the rescue by reverting it back to php 5.4. It’s theme had been dropped by the developer and could not be updated. Needless to say I am remaking that website into one that can be updated without errors.

I make weekly software updates to all websites that subscribe to the Web Care Plan (see Services page). I also back up your site monthly, or more often at your request. These backups are in addition to ones you may (or may not be) getting through your hosting company. Folks at Bluehost recommend having more than one backup of your website on hand. I use these backups to restore your website if something brings it down, such as malware or unusual circumstances such as those I discussed above.

I understand that your website is important to you and your business and I work hard when you need it most, to get your site back up and running fast!

Here is a way to circumvent the WP builder, which is not at all user friendly. Divi users are already have a beautifully working builder and why would we want to change? Divi also, in answer to this new WP update, went ahead and reworked the design of their interface and it is slightly less user friendly than the Classic, but will be fine once you get used to it.

[Be aware that I may have already changed your settings. If you don’t see any difference, then you are all set.]

Now for the instructions: In your Divi Theme Options, you will see the default General area, turn off the two Minify options which are just above the black css panel. Save. Then go to the Tab labeled “Builder” and open its Advanced tab. Here you turn off what is currently on and enable the New Divi Builder Experience and The Classic Divi Builder. Save.

Now, when you go to your pages, look for the Return to Classic Builder button on the bottom right hand side. Immediately you will return to the familiar interface of the Classic Builder.

During the updating process, a couple of clients, including me, lost some recent edits in their website. I’ve talked to both BlueHost and the Elegant Themes people (who design Divi), and no one seems to know why. Remember, though, that I have monthly backups and can revert you back in time to that version. Some clients may want to consider weekly backups. Let me know if you prefer that service. It is only $2 more per month. All Pro Users now get this in their package as part of their subscription.

For those of you who do not use the Divi Theme, there is a plugin (https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic–editor/) that will get you back to the classic editor. Support will continue for the Classic Editor into 2021.

Here’s to a happy and healthy New Year with no more big WordPress updates!

“A colleague just called and told me her website had been hacked.  It was now all in French and only the home page was visible.  She has no back up and warned me to find out if I have one.  Do I?

I just took some screen shots of the pages – but does BlueHost – or do you – keep a backup in case I were to be hacked too?  Just wondering….”

Imagine you spent several weeks writing and honing the text and choosing just the right images for your web site, only to lose it overnight to a hacker months later. The above message is an actual email I received this week, and a perfect opportunity to discuss what Bluehost, Perugi Design and you can do to protect your web site and restore it to its original state. Whether your site is old or new, you want to keep text, posts and images for the next iteration, so you won’t have to recreate the wheel again.

For starters, Bluehost, amazingly, backs all sites on its servers every day… for free. I must admit, I have had to rely on them a few times when a site was lost. One client forgot his dashboard password and instead of submitting for a new password at the login page, he went into Bluehost and reinstalled WordPress. Yikes! But, that’s a story for another day. Not every hosting company does this for free. Not even Go Daddy. However, Bluehost asks that you arrange for additional backup as well, just in case.

The minimal approach
You could copy and paste the text into a text editor. But, that does not protect the theme layout and code installed with WordPress. Instead, try this. Go onto the dashboard and to the Tools button on the side bar. Hit the Export button. That will download an xml file of your site. Keep this somewhere safe inside a folder, but not on the desktop.

Amazon S3 backup in the cloud
Perugi Design also offers regular monthly backup to Amazon as a yearly service. The tool we use also allows us to clean out spam comments, update your plugins on a weekly basis and check for malware monthly. Ask us for more information.

So, if you are hacked and your site is in French and all but gone, don’t fret. Bluehost can restore the site to a previous week. It’s a good idea to ask also your web developer to look for possible weaknesses in the site and check for malware.

Vladimir Prelovac is the Founder of ManageWP, and is a frequent contributor to the WordPress community – in the form of numerous plug-ins, tools, and a book by the title WordPress Plugin Development. His blog, accessible via the weekly notices you get when you subscribe, provides timely and interesting posts, such as the aforementioned Shellshock security nightmare.

If you are a diligent web developer, you try to make your client’s sites as secure from infection and inform them when their site has a problem. Viewing their dashboard on a weekly basis is necessary. When ManageWp sends me the email, I follow the link to my ManageWP dashboard and make the updates right away. While there, I can easily enter client’s WordPress dashboard and poke around.

I looked into ManageWP, as Bluehost recommended, was because I wanted to offer hosting as a reseller for clients who wanted their websites managed. For a small monthly fee, I can follow up to 30 websites, But, the hard part was, moving their sites into my reseller server area. Bluehost charges $100 for each website move and Go Daddy even more. With ManageWP, I can do it in minutes and charge just for my time.

Back up is also a handy tool. Before you make any major updates to the sites, they should be backed up. I have an account on the Amazon S3 cloud and all I have to do is create a bucket for the new site on Amazon and ManageWP handles it with the push of a button. One more great feature incorporates Google Analytics. You can import the data and create a report to email.

If you are running your own site, or fewer than 5 sites, the software is free. Check it out and let me know how you like it and or if you have any questions. Better yet, contact them yourself, as they have a pretty good help ticket desk on board.

1. Constant Contact
Last month,You heard about our partnership with Constant Contact. The limited offer of one free set up is still good for the first ten customers who sign up here.This is a great way to reach your customers and their associates, by going where they read every day… their in-box. If you already have CC, you can still take advantage of this offer! Or, if you recommend someone, you can both take advantage of the offer!

2. Bluehost Hosting
P.D. also has become a partner with Bluehost, a company Deb has worked with for over five years. Their 24/7 support technicians always continue to be knowledgeable and helpful. Most of our clients are on the Bluehost servers, but not in a managed area. If you would like your site to be migrated and managed by Deb, let us know. She will fill you in on the details.

3. Site Management
P.D. can also manage your site even if it is not in the hosting package. We currently have slots for ten clients. With this service, you get site backups on Amazon, analytics and all WordPress theme and plugin updates detailed on quarterly reports.If we grow to over ten clients, we will be adding SEO to the package. More on that later.

4.Shopify
Some people like the ease of use Shopify affords for shopping cart web sites. If you plan on selling a lot of products, virtual or downloadable, this may be the ticket. We offer this product as an alternative to the standard WordPress Woo Commerce shopping cart setup. It does, however, come with a monthly fee.

That’s it in a nutshell. If you are interested in knowing more abut any of these services, feel free to call 508-879-7347 or email.

Here’s why. The easy part is setting up the email account. You go to the c-Panel, and into the email account and add an email address with your domain name. (Providing you already created it when you set up hosting) Create a password that is in the strong range. It should be something you can remember but also with numbers, capitals and symbols. Be sure to ask for Unlimited emails, so your emails don’t suddenly stop coming into your mailbox because you forgot to clean it out every month or so. That’s it. The mail should start flowing! Hold on…

The mail software you use—now has to be set up to “Receive” on both your laptop and smart phone. It involves a lot of settings, which is why Bluehost nicely made all those videos to show you how. I had a client that used IMAP and when he switched his mail server from VistaPrint, he lost all that mail for almost an entire day. Bluehost helped him find the lost mail, fortunately, for both his reputation and his clients safety. For this reason, I ask my clients to use an IT professional in this process. But…

Here’s the good news! You can easily create a Gmail account and set it up to receive your POP email you made at your hosting company. Here is what you do:

1. Create the POP email using your cPanel’s “EMail Accounts” button of your host company.
2. Go back to the cPanel and to the same Mail area and button for “Forwarders”. Forward your POP email address to the new gmail address you already use or created.
3. Inside Gmail open the “Settings” and go to “Accounts and Import”, then click on “Add another email account you own”.
4. Put in your me@mywebsite.com there and follow the steps until Gmail says it will send you a confirmation email.
5. A confirmation code will come to your Gmail inbox which you then put in the area on your gmail account.

That’s it!

Here’s another idea: If you use a domain name that is too long for your business cards, create a new shorter Gmail address and use it on your site and all print materials. Or, forward the POP version as described above. Many people prefer the state of the art Gmail software to the ones provided by hosting companies. It’s the best of both worlds. You can also follow the same steps for Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.