Social Kind

Web Presence & Communications

Archive for category Web Presence

“It worked better than I could have possibly imagined.”

May 11

Posted by Kevin in Analytics, Blogging, Web Presence

The customer feedback from our latest project is in.

I just finished the development work for the Hydrocephalus Association’s website.  Most of the site was already built by a 3rd party.  The association turned to Social Kind to get help for the most complex lingering problems.

It was critical to the association that people be encouraged to register for the site when they clicked on certain links, but they didn’t want to lose visitors with a complex registration process.

Social Kind helped Hydrocephalus Association build a new login page that featured all the registration information right away.  The page also helps prospective visitors subscribe to categories on the site that they would like to receive regular updates on.  One of the problems with the WordPress sign-up process is that it requires you to check your e-mail for a message, and only then can you login to the site.  The association was noticing that when users finally got this e-mail and clicked through to complete the sign-up process, they had forgotten what they originally wanted to download on the site.  Social Kind helped build a WordPress plug-in that remembers where you came from and takes you back after the registration process.

Congratulation to the Hydrocephalus Association on their updated site!  They are fighting for an important cause, and I am proud to be a small part of it.

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Destroying your business in one easy step

Jul 7

Posted by Kevin in Security

HackedImagine your customer picks up your business card and decides to go see what you are all about.  Their first impression is a glaring red warning from their web browser.  What could be worse for destroying your reputation!

I just met with a new client who fell victim to this very problem. Fortunately for them, they reserved their domain months ago, but had yet to do anything with it. For small businesses that do business online, the effects could be chilling.

The client likely experienced this problem because of a keystroke logging piece of malware on one of their laptops. This problem is less rare than you think; there are millions of computers infected.  In a recent paper entitled Do Strong Web Passwords Accomplish Anything? researchers point out that phishing and key-logging schemes are the most likely culprits today. So by all means continue to use strong passwords, but this is useless if you allow malware onto computers that you use to update your website.

Many other businesses use FTP to update their website without knowing that the password they use to login is being sent across Internet in clear text for anyone to find. As Slashdot reports in a post R.I.P. FTP many attacks come from improper use of FTP to update sites. Instead, you should be using SFTP or FTP over SSH. If your hoster does not offer this service, find one that does.

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