Author Archives: ernie

Keep all Software, CMS, Plugins Up To Date

Leave a reply

Keep all Software, CMS, Plugins Up To DateWe have talked a lot about having great content on your sites. The content needs to be original and interesting or informative for readers. However there is another area that is equally important and that is, keep all software, CMS, plugins up to date. Why? There are multiple reasons why web designers and web site operators need to pay attention to. Security of your site is up to date and known vulnerabilities are dealt with. Website responsiveness is maximized. Functionality is also improved every time you upgrade. Let’s explore these issues in a little more detail.

Keep all Software, CMS, Plugins Up To Date

The writer recently updated this blog to use PHP7.1 from 5.4. The hosting provider had updated their servers to support multiple levels of PHP and was sending messages to indicate that website owners should take advantage of this upgrade. better processing speed, better security, and improved functionality were suggested.

The first test involved upgrading and trying to access my websites. A white screen was presented so obviously something was not working. After checking the error logs, it was obvious that an outdated plugin was to blame. Reverting back to an older version of PHP corrected the problem.

The next step involved finding new plugins with the same functionality which also supported the latest level of CMS(content management system) and PHP. Two plugins needed changing since there were no updates for the plugins I was currently using.

Once the new plugins were installed and configured, I was able to upgrade to PHP7.1 with no problems at all. All sites worked well and the new plugins had more functionality than the old ones did.

The site appeared to run much faster as well, although I have not fully tested this on all my sites. The final step was to test each site to ensure that they were working properly for desktop presentation as well as on mobile devices.

The moral of the story is to Keep all Software, CMS, Plugins Up To Date to ensure that security is not compromised and that your site runs smoothly.

For more posts about web hosting, click here.

Should I Carry some Debt into Retirement?

Leave a reply

problem for new retireesThe quick answer to the question, should I carry some debt into retirement is no, if you can avoid it. Obviously who would want to knowingly carry debt into retirement, however, there are lots of people that are retired and are carrying some debt. Whether it is credit card debt or a line of credit, it is another monthly payment that must be made and depending on the interest rate it can also be very expensive. Credit cards carry interest rates of 21% or more on any unpaid balances. Even unsecured lines of credit can be expensive. They typically are higher amounts and the interest rates are higher as well for anything that is unsecured.

Why You Might Answer Yes to the Question, Should I carry some Debt into Retirement

Sometimes life just gets in the way. The best-laid plans are foiled by early retirement. People get laid off from their jobs, are forced to retire early because of health or downsizing. If you find yourself in this situation and you still carry a mortgage, chances are you will carry it into retirement as well.

Many people decide to go on trips when they retire. Some will spend money on the house to freshen it up. There are many ways to spend money and if we are not careful it means we carry it into retirement as debt.

Debt in retirement does not always have to be a bad thing. Obviously we would prefer not to have any debt. Manageable debt that is declining over time through monthly payments is okay. Debt that is used for investments is obviously higher risk, but it can have a tremendous payback.

For most people, if you have debt, try to repay it as quickly as possible. Pay down the highest interest rate debt first. Renegotiate your debt to arrange for lower interest rates and fewer fees. Avoid missing payments. If you must, downsize your home and expenses to focus on reducing your debt as quickly as possible. Avoid spending money that you do not have. Prepare for the day when an emergency will eat up a lot of your savings.

For more about debt reduction in retirement, click here.

Senior Nomads AirBNB

Leave a reply

We recently read an article about older Americans who are living a nomadic life. In her powerful new book, Nomadland, award-winning journalist Jessica Bruder reveals the dark, depressing, and sometimes physically painful life of a tribe of men and women in their 50s and 60s who are living out of an RV or trailer. They travel around the US in search of good weather and, most of all, jobs. They find temporary jobs and work at these jobs while they last. Most are seasonal and very physically demanding. There is another sector of seniors who fall into the category of Senior Nomads Airbnb.

She also talks about some of them who live in Airbnb’s. These people have sold their homes or, at the very least, rented them out while they travel. They have more money and are out to see the world. Some will also work part-time jobs while they travel. They live off their pension and investments from their homes and are out to see the world.

Senior Nomads Airbnb – RV Nomads – Locked in Place

Many people cannot afford to travel and either rent a home or live in the home they have had for years. They can barely live on their incomes, and their homes are gradually falling apart because they cannot afford to keep them up. These folks might be termed locked in place. They cannot sell, and they cannot move because it would just cost too much money—money that they cannot afford.

At least the folks who live out of their RV’s and travel around the US have a place to live and a home such as it is. As long as they can continue working, they can live and put food on the table. If they get sick and need medical treatment, they will be destitute and broke from medical bills.

If you are a senior and own a home, perhaps by creating an Airbnb in your home, you can add a little money to your income and live more comfortably. There are many people who love to travel and spend many days each year going from city to city for vacation as well as work-related activities. This approach could add thousands of dollars to your budgeted income and make life just a little more comfortable.

Use Airbnb’s guidelines to help you make arrangements, accept credit cards, make deposits, and more.

Security of Your Old WordPress Website

1 Reply

Whether you are using a WordPress content management system or another system, the security of your site is of paramount importance. Security of your old WordPress Website is one area that many website owners forget about. There are many hackers and trouble makers that attempt to hack sites every hour and minute of every day. Some do it for the challenge while others are hack sites for malicious reasons.

Many owners of websites figure that they have nothing of value so why would a hacker be interested in them. They aren’t interested in your site. They are interested in gaining access to the server your site sits on and from there doing damage to other sites and systems. Your website will go down in the process as well, or deliver content that you may not want your clients, friends, and family to ever see.

Improving the Security of Your Old WordPress Website

If you have a site that is running an old version of WordPress, update it immediately. This is the first step since older versions leave known vulnerabilities available for hackers to exploit. Before upgrading always make sure you have a backup of your content in case anything goes wrong.

Once you have upgraded, test your site to make sure that it is operating the way it usually does. Make any changes that are needed.

If you do not already have an application that checks for hackers and uploads that contain viruses, consider using WordFence. They have an excellent app that has a free component and one that has more features that has a subscription fee.

Always keep all of your apps and WordPress or whatever content management system you use up to date. New releases will have bug fixes, vulnerabilities closed, and new features to consider.

For more posts on cybersecurity and strategy, click here.

 

 

Living a Nomadic Semi Retired Lifestyle

Leave a reply

A disturbing trend appears to have developed since the 2022 depression and the real estate crash. Many people are living a nomadic semi-retired lifestyle. Many people lost their homes due to foreclosure, job loss, and loss of savings. The value of homes plummeted, and many found that their home was less than what they originally paid and less than their mortgage. Many chose to walk away.

At the same time, the stock market fell over 50%. If you sold your investments, you locked in your losses and never recovered. With so many companies going bankrupt and cutting back, many lost their jobs. What’s left for these people? They rent homes, they have low-paying jobs, and some live in RVs and follow the temporary job route.

Living a Nomadic Semi-Retired Lifestyle

These seniors do not have sufficient savings to retire. They buy older RVs and live in trailer parks or other temporary locations around the country. They need to work and will go wherever they need to go to find temporary work.

Of course they would like something more permanent, but these kinds of jobs are long gone. They work at seasonal jobs for companies like Walmart and Amazon, or worse in the fields planting and picking crops. Hard work and they walk many miles every day.

These folks are trying to survive and live as nomads traveling around the country, many living on less than $1000 a month. They lost their 401k investments in the market, they do not have a pension, and they are too young in many cases to collect state and federal handouts. They need to work and survive on little money wherever they can.

This is a rough life for seniors Living a Nomadic semi-retired lifestyle or really anyone at any age trying to get by with this lifestyle. For more lifestyle-related posts, click here.

Save

Save

Senior Nomads Living in AirBNB’s

Leave a reply

Just read a post about a couple that rented out their home and then began traveling. They have traveled for the last 4 years, staying in Airbnb’s the entire time in over 68 countries. They are living a dream life, touring, meeting people, and running a blog about their travels. These are Senior Nomads Living in Airbnb and living their dream travel life. The picture on the left is of one of the BNB’s they stayed in. They try to stay in locations that are interesting and also under $100 a night.

For many seniors, this is a dream they may never follow. For one reason or another, seniors may not have the money, they may find it too risky, or they may be afraid to travel to other locations. Like exercise, you cannot run a marathon without training for it. Traveling and staying in airbnb’s should start small and gradually increase as you become more comfortable with the approach.

Senior Nomads Living in Airbnb

We recently stayed in an Airbnb in Montreal, Canada. It is located in the plateau area near Laurier St, near restaurants and shopping. A beautiful treed street within a block of everything you might need. A grocery store, drug store, local coffee shop, liquor store, and restaurants. The metro is only a 5-minute walk. Visitors can travel all over the city.

Like many cities, Montreal is bike-friendly. Of course, you can rent bikes on the street, and there is a bike rental location just around the corner.

Traveling and staying in other people’s homes can be fun and safe. Only rent from Airbnb hosts with a 5-star rating to ensure that the cleanliness and quality are superior. The Airbnb we stayed at can be found at †“Click Here.

 

For more posts about lifestyle and senior living, click here.

Save

How Will SEO Change in the New Year

1 Reply

Trends for SEO in the New YearEvery year we take a moment to review what the Trends for SEO in the New Year will be and building websites to make a living off the internet. This year there are two major trends that appear to become even more significant than they already are. If you have not been paying attention to them, it is time you did. They will affect everything we do in the future. These major trends are – focus on mobile everything and smarter more intuitive search. Google has stated that this is the direction they see the networks going. They believe that consumers will naturally follow. Anything Google has to say usually becomes reality since they are such a dominant force in the online environment.

Trends for SEO in the New Year

We will discuss both of these areas in more detail. They are also interwoven to some extent as well and we will discuss these issues too. Trends for SEO in the new year include mobile and long-tail keywords.

Focus on Mobile

Whether it is a smartphone or a tablet the world is clearly going in that direction. There are still lots of personal computers around and there will be for many years. They are needed to do the heavy lifting and prepare articles like this one. However, the vast amount of net surfing, email response, and messaging is now done on a smartphone or tablet. They are convenient and easy to carry around on your person. If your website is not mobile friendly, it will be quickly be passed over by the person surfing the net. Google will soon if not already not even present nonmobile friendly web pages to the mobile user.

If you are using a content management system to manage your website, converting to mobile should be pretty straightforward in most cases. Apps for most of the popular CMS systems are available that can be added to your installation. These apps detect what kind of device is being used by the visitor and then renders the appropriate content in the format that is friendliest to the device the visitor is using. These apps can be installed in a matter of minutes and then configured to meet your personal needs for your content. Don’t wait, get on this trend immediately if you haven’t already.

Smarter More Intuitive Search

Google still uses keywords to find whatever the user is looking for. The keywords and search activity is changing. Instead of entering a few relevant keywords for Google to try to figure out what the person is really looking for, many people are now posing full questions. They are using voice search commands and posing their questions accordingly as if they were talking to another person.

For example, if you wanted to know how old Pamela Anderson is, you might enter her name and the wordage. Goggle would figure out that what you really wanted to know was, how old is Pamela Anderson. Consumers with smartphones and voice recognition are using these tools to initiate a search by simply asking the question, how old is Pamela Anderson.

Web site managers and content administrators need to configure their content accordingly to help Google present the most relevant information and websites to address this sort of search instead of just focusing on keywords. The use of long-tail keywords is becoming even more popular than it already was.

Stay tuned for more posts about various trends in the new year. For more ideas about SEO, content, and web site design, click here.

Retirement is a Dangerous Time for Many People

Leave a reply

Retirement is a Dangerous Time for Many PeopleThere are many factors that consumers should consider when they retire whether it is by choice or they are forced to retire through downsizing or economic upheaval. Suddenly they are not going to work any longer. They do not see their friends and they may have lost their reason for being. Their self-image was tied too much to the job and now they are stuck at home with nothing to do. Sure there are hobbies, golf and the repair jobs around the home. These run out over time and perhaps are boring when there is no challenge. This is when retirement is a dangerous time for many people! They gain weight, their blood pressure goes up and they are stressed for no apparent reason. These are all indicators of health problems that may get worse.

Retirement is a Dangerous Time for Many People

Common sense says that humans cannot really sit around and do nothing without getting into some kind of trouble. In this case, we are discussing a retired person without anything to do, not stimulated, bored and letting their activity level decline. This is a recipe for going to a senior home or worse.

Every person knows themselves the best. If you do not have hobbies and do not want any, go back to work or volunteer. Gain the personal interaction back that you crave. You may even make a little bit of money while doing this work. If your volunteering, you never know where it will lead.

The writer is a retired person and is busy investigating what works for them.  Teaching myself to first code HTML and then later build websites with a content management system like WordPress was the challenge and stimulation I needed. Although it is a hobby that interests me, it also pays a little bit as well. Enough for my coffee in the morning!

The point is to find something that keeps your mind working, your body exercising and something you find challenging. This is the best way to avoid the Retirement is a Dangerous Time for Many People syndromes.

For more posts about life style and seniors, click here.

Setting Up Minimal Viable Security

Leave a reply

Setting Up Minimal Viable SecurityWhat is the minimum that a web owner or administrator should consider for the security of their site and the content? This is a question lots of people wonder about. They typically do not take any action until they have been compromised. Then it is too late. Setting up minimal viable security is actually quite simple, it just takes a little effort on a regular basis depending on the size and complexity of your site.

Always use a content management system. They will help you to be much more efficient and consistent with the design of your sit. WordPress is a very popular site that many web owners use. Always keep it and the templates you use up to date to protect from any vulnerabilities and hacking attempts.

What Other Things are Needed for Setting Up Minimal Viable Security

Choose Your Host Provider

Your host provider should have good account isolation between your account and anyone else who is on a shared server. If not, a hacker who gets into another site can easily migrate to your site and compromise it. There are lots of hosting providers. Choose one that has been in business for some time and one that has a good record.

Keep Your Content Management System Up To Date

Always update your CMS (WordPress), themes, and plugins as soon as they are available. Updates will include bug fixes. Updates plug vulnerabilities. New updates add new features. Always use a reliable source for any themes or plugins that are employed on your site.

Use Strong Passwords

Use a password generator to generate your passwords. They will be strong and more difficult to break using blunt force attack approaches. Always use caps, lower case, numbers, and special characters. Keep your passwords unique across various sites and applications to provide added security.

Delete Old Account Names

If you had a guest account or an account for a writer that is no longer doing work for you, remove the account. Only provide access to trusted resources with limited functionality.

Avoid using Default Account Names

Most content management systems including WordPress use the default account name, Admin. Everyone knows this and it is one less thing the blunt force hackers have to try to figure out if you are still using this account name, Change the name before you begin adding a lot of content. Rename your account name now if you are still using Admin.

Use Automatic Updates

If you maintain many sites, you will appreciate the time-saving nature of this suggestion. Also, it means that if an update is provided to plug a hole, your site will be updated quickly before anyone has a chance to break into it.

Install Firewalls and Malware Scan

Wordfence is one that provides both a free version as well as a paid subscription with more features. These systems will scan IP’s coming to your site. They monitor their activity. These systems will lock them out if they are suspected of nefarious activity. There are literally millions of attempted hacks every day. These systems are constantly updated to catch the latest techniques and block them.

This may seem a lot to cover for Setting Up Minimal Viable Security, however, in today’s world it appears that this is what we need to do to protect ourselves. For more information on cybersecurity and protecting your content, click here.

Seniors Saying Yes too Often are Getting Into Financial Trouble

Leave a reply

Money Management for KidsMore and more often we are hearing about seniors saying yes too often. They are getting into financial trouble and then have nowhere to turn. Some may be supporting elderly parents who themselves do not have sufficient funds. They have to pay for their own health care in long term stay homes. Then there are the children who used to a life of never wanting for anything. They expect the same thing as grownups. They forget that their parents worked hard for the money and saved before they bought a big home, car etc. We see many of our friends dealing with these issues. They agonize over how much money to hand out. Should they give money now and jeopardize their retirement?

Why are Seniors Saying Yes too Often are Getting Into Financial Trouble

In most situations, they just want to help their family members now while they are still alive. If they help them now they can also enjoy what their financial gifts have purchased for their kids. Quite often it is the children putting pressure on the parents for them to help out.

Perhaps a down payment on a home or a new car. There credit card bills are due and they need help paying the bills. It might even be verbally worded as a loan, however one the money is given, most never see a penny back again. If you do give money to a family member, assume you will never see it again. If you do it is a bonus.

Can You Give Away Too Much Money

Seniors sometimes give too much money away. Then they find that they are living longer than anticipated and run out of funds to pay for whatever expenses they have. Many are forced to take roommates, move in with the kids or just downsize to a one-room apartment. If only they had been more careful with their money and perhaps had held back a bit. If only their kids were now in a financial situation to help them now.

Sadly, the money is gone and no one has enough to support their parents in this kind of situation. The answer is that every senior should evaluate the impact of loaning or giving money to a family member. Will it impact their lifestyle or quality of life in the future? What will be the impact if you never see this money again?

Make plans now to set up a budget. Ensure that you will have the funds you need to pay all of your bills and living expenses. Then if you think you will have money left over, you might consider gifting funds to your family while still alive.

For more information on lifestyle issues and retirement, click here.