Crazy things can happen to any blog at any time. Some make sure to be prepared for these things, and others may not be as prepared.

Crackers, hackers, massive floods of traffic, database errors and many more things are all preventable. With the WordPress community being as large as it is, there have been many great people who have stepped up and created some awesome plugins to help you keep your blog safe from any kind of mishap.

I do my best to ensure that all of my blogs are as best off that they can be. Whether they be as secure as possible, or as easily accessible as possible. On my two blogs, these are the plugins I always have on standby in case something bad were to happen on my blog.

1. Theme Test Drive

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This is a plugin I always have on my blogs that stays deactivated. This plugin is useful because if you ever need to make changes to your theme, whether they be big or small changes, you can easily hide the work you’re doing until you’re done.

The thing that is so great is you can work on editing your design without anyone else seeing it. So if you are designing a new theme for your blog, it’s best that you work on your own blog so you can see what your theme will look like when you activate it.

Theme test drive makes developing on a theme easy and will save your viewers from seeing anything messed up on your blog.

2. Maintenance Mode

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This may just be the most important plugin in the list. When you activate this plugin, it will create a splash page for your blog over your regular blog look. This is extremely useful for when you update WordPress and you may find errors on your blog.

The options that come with this plugin are immense. You can edit how long the plugin can run for, create a message for why your blog is down and give an estimate to when your blog will be back.

This plugin is a must have for any blog, and while you should just keep it activated when you need it – this plugin will save you from losing readers and also save you the embarrassment of having a blog full of ugly looking errors!

Options WP-DBManager come with

3. WP-DBManager

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This is without a doubt the best database manager for WordPress. And that’s not an opinion, it’s a fact! The options this plugin has are so comprehensive, and there are even options that aren’t just for backing up a database.

If you don’t like going into cPanel to get a copy of your database, then let this plugin do the work for you. You can backup your database right in the admin panel, and download it too. Schedule automatically when you want your database to be backed up, and set a time for when your database should be emailed to you.

Also from the admin panel, you have the ability to repair and optimize your database. Those are both important maintenance strategies you should do to your blog. And guess what? You can also schedule how often the plugin should optimize your blog.

There are also more database management options like running SQL queries and dropping database tables. It’s like this plugin replaces phpMyAdmin for you!

4. WP Super Cache

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This is most likely a plugin you have already, but do you know the true benefits of it? Sure, it makes your page load faster without a doubt, but what is the other purpose that you may not know about?

If you are active in Social Media, then you are probably aware of the large amounts of traffic these sites can send to you. Sites like Digg, Delicious, Twitter, etc. are all sites that can send you massive amounts of traffic – traffic that will crash your site.

Quoted from the download page:

This plugin generates static html files from your dynamic WordPress blog. After a html file is generated your webserver will serve that file instead of processing the comparatively heavier and more expensive WordPress PHP scripts.

This plugin will ultimately save your blog if you ever do reach that Digg frontpage, and should be something you activate if you have a high traffic blog.

5. Login LockDown

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This plugin serves as a prevention tool rather than something that will save you after it’s happened.

Basically, if someone tries to break into your admin panel and has the wrong password, this plugin will count how many times they have done that, and if they reach a certain number of failed attempts – they are automatically locked out for however long you set.

It is easily editable from the “Settings” panel of your admin panel. You never know how many people try to break into your admin panel, and with this plugin – you will.

6. WP Security Scan

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This a great plugin I just recently found, and it really opened my eyes to some things I have not been taking care of on my blog.

A basic lowdown of the features and options this plugin has:

• Password Manager
• File Permissions (CHMOD) tool
• Database Security Methods
• WordPress Version Hiding
• WordPress admin protection/security
• Removes WP Generator META tag from core code

I am still figuring out some of the stuff in this plugin, but it really is a great tool for preventing possible attacks on your blog. The thing is, it points out things that we don’t realize can harm our blogs and fixes it for us.

Now Your Blog is Better Off

I have covered ways to secure your blog not just from hackers, but to save your blog from high traffic, hide errors quickly and professionally, and develop behind the scenes.

Always be sure to work out every scenario in your head. Think that everyone is out to get your blog, and make sure there are as little ways as possible for your blog to get messed up.

Good luck, and if you use any plugins I haven’t mentioned, please let me know in the comments!

Photo by Gilbert Rodriguez

Related posts:

1. Mapping out a new blog: Choosing a great theme and some killer plugins

2. 6 Plugins to Help You Get More Comments on Your Blog

3. 7 WP-Plugins No-One Wants To Tell You About!

Blog security is often overlooked by many bloggers, but is a very important precaution to take. There are many things you can and need to do to protect your blog, and Melvin will go over a handful of some important security tips.

One thing that almost all bloggers are not paying attention to when starting their own blogs is its security. Most would just go with setting one up, then brainstorming ideas on each blog posts, thinking of a good design and so on. Blog security is something that is oftentimes overlooked.

A lot of bloggers run their blog through WordPress and that’s why most hackers and geeks are also busy finding flaws in it. Today I am going to make a short list of ways to make your WordPress blog more secure. Read on:

1. Get a Strong Password – Believe me or not, 70% of people don’t get this done (including me). There are tons of password-breaking scripts that can easily break you’re pass if it’s not that strong and easy to guess. Getting a strong password doesn’t just protect your blog, it gets the job done 50%! You might want to check out an older article here, on how to make a really strong password.
2. Protect your WordPress Directories – I recently made an article on my blog on how anyone can sneak into your wordpress folders without you knowing it. Surprisingly a lot of bloggers don’t seem to mind it. You can easily protect your folders by including the line Options - Indexes in your .htaccess file
3. Keep your database user name and password secure – You can do so by adding <FilesMatch ^wp-config.php$>deny from all</FilesMatch> into your .htaccess file. What it does is simply protect your account in case of a server error.
4. Update your plugins! – A lot of people are too lazy upgrading their own plugins. Remember, plugins are updated mostly for security purposes and if you have yours not updated, then expect it to cause security problems to your blog.
5. Backup your Database – Making regular database backups for a blog is a must. For me I do it everyday and it’s really helpful just in case everything goes wrong. WP-database plugin is one tool I would really recommend.
6. Protecting the WP-Admin Folder – Having everything listed above is not enough. Protecting your admin folder should also be a big concern as well. Most hackers use brute force attack to guess the correct login details for the blog. You can prevent it by installing a plugin called “Ask Apache Password Protect“. The plugin just simply adds a 2nd layer of protection by requiring a username and password to access any in the admin folder. It uses an advanced technique of encrypting your password in .htpasswd file and rewrite the .htaccess without messing it up. The tool is a must-have for everyone.
7. WordPress Should be Up-to Date – Having your wordpress version up-to date is a no brainer. Like updating plugins, updating wordpress itself is crucial because it eliminates security flaws from the previous versions. WordPress Automatic Update plugin probably will get the job done right for you.

Having a blog with nice content, lovely design and active community is great. Securing a blog is another story though. So make sure everything is secure with your blog so don’t need to worry about getting it hacked. Remember a blog cannot be profitable if it has a lot of security flaws.

Photo by Rafael López Diez

Related posts:

1. 7 WP-Plugins No-One Wants To Tell You About!

2. 10 Tips to Prevent Hackers

3. Mapping out a new blog: Choosing a great theme and some killer plugins