It’s Christmas morning.
My only tradition at Christmas is to ring a few select. And very old. Special friends. Early in the morning. To wish them a Merry Christmas.
To get a head start before this, I’m up early. 3AM. To catch up on emails. And do whatever office and website housekeeping that needs to be done. To get it out of the way.
This email from my hosting company changes my day. And every day thereafter. For a month.
“We’re sorry to inform you that your website was hacked late on Christmas Eve. The hackers left code on your site that enables them to send spam emails to addresses on yahoo. We tried to stop this. But were unable to. Because of that, we’ve had to shut your website down. And take you off the internet. WordPress. And your theme. Are very unsafe. We will not allow you back on the internet until you upgrade your wordpress site. And change your theme. In spite of this, we hope you have a Merry Christmas.”
Ugh!
We – me and my partner, Victor Pleshev – are in shock. Absolutely. Numb.
Because.
The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover And Other Goodies is our main source of revenue.
There we are on Christmas morning. Being told our revenue stream is now dry. And frantically trying to find a theme that’s as beautiful as the one we fell in love with.
Three days later we finally find one. Not as fabulous. But close.
And for the next 13 days we work from 5am to 7pm. Customising a theme to suit us.
On Sunday, 10th January 2016, we notify our hosting company that we’ve completed all their instructions and are ready to go live on the internet.
At 6pm on Sunday evening we’re back!
But there is a huge penalty. Until Christmas Eve, we have been on the first page of Google for all our search terms for many years. Without paying.
Now we’re nowhere on Google.
On Friday, 15th January, I discover that we’re back on the first page of Google for one of our search terms.
We’re elated.
At 9am on the 16th of January 2016 I receive an email from our host company that we’ve received an all out, full scale attack from countries in Asia, Europe and the USA.
They take us off the internet again.
With their help, we clean up our site and are back on the internet on Sunday, 17th January 2016.
We are hacked again at 11:30pm that very night!
We’re back to nowheresville.
Our host company says they cannot allow us to use WordPress as we’ve been targeted too many times. And WordPress is notorious for being able to be hacked.
I now dread receiving these stomach crunching emails first thing in the morning.
On Monday, 18th January, I ring several web developers. To create a new website on a start from scratch platform will cost $6k – minimum. And no one can start before March 2016.
We simply can’t afford to be off the web that long. It will ruin our business.
And we can’t justify $6k for a new website. Period.
Not only that. We love WordPress. It’s versatile. And easy to change at the drop of a hat.
It allows us to not only be a web developer. But it also allows us to be instantly responsive to customer suggestions. For instance, if a customer tells us they don’t quite understand something we’ve said. We can go into the site in the blink of an eye. And change it. Without standing in the queue of a third party web developer to do it for us.
Victor searches the internet for help.
And comes across a site in Queensland called Hack Rescue.
Ring us! They shout. If you’ve been hacked. 1300 228 100.
We’ll be on it today. We’ll clean up your site. Harden it against hacking. And if you like, we can monitor your site 24/7/365 to make sure you’re not hacked again.
Is this too good to be true?
It is true!!
We ring. They clean up our site. Harden the code against future hacking. And now monitor the site 24 hours a day to prevent further hacking.
For a very small fraction of the cost of developing a new site.
Not only do they do what they promise.
But they do it with charm and much humour. And a steady stream of emails to keep us up to date with what is happening.
Their managing director, Jason Hawkins, is my direct, and constant, line of communication. And I can’t help but comment to him that using them is like paying protection money.
Which it is.
They are the bodyguards who protect our site.
And they’re worth it.
Where are we on Google? Back on the first page for every one of our search terms!
We now have . . . Peace! At! Last!
Well. Almost. I’m still not over the extreme anxiety I feel when checking emails!
~Carol Jones, Ironing Diva❤
I Am The Purveyor Of The Tantrum Free Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover And Other Goodies
Made with love and care in RURAL Australia by men and women who have a disability.
It’s not for everyone.
But it’s definitely for you if you’re fussy about the cover you iron on.
And if you love to support Australian made.
And want to put something back into the community when you make a purchase.
The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover cover has more than 350,000 customers in 29 countries. Because it lives up to its name. It ‘Fitz Like A Glove™’ every time you iron.
And these are the ‘Other Goodies’
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Have a question? Email me.
Or phone me, Carol Jones, in rural Australia on 02 63 588 511.
Photos of my rural property are courtesy of me, Ironing Diva – who is also known as Paddock Paparazzi – and taken at sunrise every morning.
Wedge-tailed Eagle
PS. And I have a fabulous newsletter ‘A Smidgen Of Gossip’. This is what a subscriber says about it. “Carol. Just had some time to read it and found that it is, as with everything you do, rather wonderful. A great read. W” You can subscribe to it by clicking this link. It’s FREE! This is not a lifetime commitment. You can Unsubscribe at any time. Don’t miss out. Click this link now!
Wedge-tailed Eagle In Barren Stringybark
