Marketing

Setting up a website to use Cloudflare on a VM hosted on Vultr and Namecheap

March 13, 2018 by Simon

This guide will show how you can set up a website to use Cloudflare on a VM hosted on Vultr and Namecheap

I have a number of guides on moving hasting away form CPanel, Setting up VM’s on AWS, Vultr or Digital Ocean along with installing and managing WordPress from the command line. This post will show how to let Cloudflare handle the DNS for the domain.

Update 2018: For the best performing VM host (UpCloud) read my guide on the awesome UpCloud VM hosts (get $25 free credit by signing up here).

Snip from here “Cloudflare’s enterprise-class web application firewall (WAF) protects your Internet property from common vulnerabilities like SQL injection attacks, cross-site scripting, and cross-site forgery requests with no changes to your existing infrastructure.”

Buy a Domain

Buy a domain name from Namecheap here.

Cloudflare Benefits (Free Plan)

DDoS Attack Protection (Huge network to absorb attacks DDoS attacks over 600Gbps are no problem for our 15 Tbps networks)
Global CDN
Shared SSL certificate (I disabled this and opted to use my own)
Access to audit logs
3 page rules (maximum)

View paid plan options here.

Cloudflare CDN map

Cloudflare CDN says it can load assets up to 2x faster, 60% less bandwidth from your servers by delivering assets from 127 data centres.

Setup

You will need to sign up at cloudflare.com

After you create an account you will be prompted to add a siteCloudflare will pull your public DNS records to import.

You will be prompted to select a plan (I selected free)

Verify DNS settings to import.

You will now be asked to change your DNS nameservers with your domain reseller

TIP: If you have an SSL cert (e.g Lets Encrypt) already setup head to the crypto section and select ” Full (Strict)” to prevent ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS errors.

Cloudflare UI

I asked Twitter if they could kindly load my site so I could see if Cloudflare dashboard/stats were loading.

Could I kindly ask if you are reading this that you visit https://t.co/9x5TFARLCt, I am writing a @Cloudflare blog post and need to screenshot stats. Thanks in advance

— Simon Fearby (Developer) (@FearbySoftware) March 13, 2018

The Cloudflare CTO responded. 🙂

Sure thing 🙂

— John Graham-Cumming (@jgrahamc) March 13, 2018

Confirm Cloudflare link to a domain from the OSX Comand line

host -t NS fearby.com
fearby.com name server dane.ns.cloudflare.com.
fearby.com name server nora.ns.cloudflare.com.

Caching Rule

I set up the following caching rule to cache everything for 8 hours instead of WordPress pages

“fearby.com.com/wp-*” Cache level: Bypass

“fearby.com.com/wp-admin/post.php*” Cache level: Bypass

“fearby.com/*” Cache Everything, Edge Cache TTL: 8 Hours

Cache Results

Cache appears to be sitting at 50% after 12 hours. having cache os dynamic pages out there is ok unless I need to fix a typo, then I need to login to Cloudflare and clear the cache manually (or wait 8 hours)

Performance after a few hours

DNS times in gtmetrix have now fallen to a sub 200ms (Y Slow is now a respectable A, it was a C before). I just need to wait for caching and minification to kick in.

webpagetest.org results are awesome

See here: https://www.webpagetest.org/result/180314_PB_7660dfbe65d56b94a60d7a604ca250b3/

Load Time: 1.80s
First Byte 0.176s
Start Render 1.200s

Google Page Speed Insights Report

Mobile: 78/100

Desktop: 87/100

Check with https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

Update 24th March 2018 Attacked?

I noticed a spike in and traffic (incoming and threats) on the 24th of March 2018.

I logged into Cloudflare on my mobile device and turned on Under Attack Mode.

Cloudflare was now adding a delay screen in the middle of my initial page load. Read more here. A few hours after the Attach started it was over.

After the Attack

I looked at the bandwidth and found no increase in traffic from my initial host VM. Nice.

Thanks, Cloudflare.

Cloudflare Pros

Enabling Attack mode was simple.
Soaked up an attack.
Free Tier
Many Reports
Option to force HTTPS over HTTP
Option to ban/challenge suspicious IP’s and set challenge timeframes.
Ability to setup IP firewall rules and Application Firewalls.
User-agent blocking
Lockdown URL’s to IP’s (pro feature)
Option to minify Javascript, CSS and HTML
Option to accelerate mobile links
Brotli compression on assets served.
Optio to enable BETA Rocket loader for Javascript performance tweaks.
Run Javascript service workers from the 120+ CDN’s
Page/URL rules o perform custom actions (redirects, skip cache, Encryption etc)
HTTP/2 on, IPV6 ON
Option to setup load balancing/failover
CTO of Cloudflare responded in Twitter 🙂
Option to enable rate limiting (charged at 10,000 hits for $0.05c)
Option to block countries (pro feature)
Option to install apps in Cloudflare like(Goole Analytics,

Cloudflare Cons

No more logging into NameCheap to perform DNS management (I now goto Cloudflare, Namecheap are awesome).
Cloudflare Support was slow/confusing (I ended up figuring out the redirect problem myself).
Some sort of verify Cloudflare Setup/DNS/CDN access would be nice. After I set this up my gtmetrix load times were the same and I was not sure if DNS needs to replicate? Changing minify settings in Cloudflare did not seem to happen.
WordPress draft posts are being cached even though page riles block wp-admin page caching.
Would be nice to have ad automatic Under Attack mode
Now all sub-domains were transferred in the setup ( id did not know for weeks)

Cloudflare status

Check out https://www.cloudflarestatus.com/ for status updates.

Don’t forget to install the CloudFlare Plugin for WordPress if you use WordPress.

More Reading

Check out my OWASP Zap and Kali Linux self-application Penetration testing posts.

I hope this guide helps someone.

Ask a question or recommend an article

[contact-form-7 id=”30″ title=”Ask a Question”]

Revision History

v1.8 host Command from the OSX CLI

v1.7 Subdomain error

v1.6 Cloudflare Attack

v1.5 WordPress Plugin

v1.4 More Reading

v1.3 added WAF snip

v1.2 Added Google Page Speed Insights and webpage rest results

v1.1 Added Y-Slow

v1.0 Initial post

Infographic: So you have an idea for an app

October 31, 2017 by Simon

I created this graphic as I was asked by multiple people how to develop an app. This does not include tips on coding but many people with the non-technical prerequisites to building an app.

I hope this graphic helps someone (It’s my first infographic/decision flow image, feedback welcome).

So You Have an Idea For An App: Graphic

Click for a larger version.

Standalone Image URL’s

v1.3 (22nd November 2017)
  https://fearby.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Infographic-So-you-have-an-idea-for-an-app-v1-3.jpg
v1.2 (4th Nov 2017, Added requirements and MoSCoW): 
  https://fearby.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Infographic-So-you-have-an-idea-for-an-app-v1-2.jpg
v1.1 (1st Nov 2017, Fixed Typos): 
  https://fearby.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Infographic-So-you-have-an-idea-for-an-app-v1-1.jpg

todo: Things to add Issues to fix in 1.4:
 - Add user personas and Epic, Story and Task stages.
 - How to capture good stories (and validated ideas (landing pages/interviews/problems/value/painpoints)

Define the problem(s) (pain points)

Before you start coding, do list your app requirements (problem’s to solve (pain points)).

Atlassian JIRA or Trello can help with this. I personally use (and like) Atlaz.io (now Hygger), I reviewed the BETA here).

Using Trello lists are also a simple way to capture tasks/ideas.

More on these Read more here also read my Atlaz.io BETA Preview here.

Nothing beats pen and paper too.

Moscow Prioritization

Must-Have Should-Have, Could-Have and Won’t-have are buckets you should sort ideas into. If you have trouble moving items away from Must to Should, Could or Won’t then assign a fictitious monetary value to spend on each item and that will help you decide what is more important.

Read this MoSCoW Method article at Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MoSCoW_method

Managing MoSCoW tasks on paper is OK if you do not want to use planning software.

More

Read my guide on how to prototype apps with Adobe XD guide here. You can also Prototype a Web app with Platforma (review here).

Read my post on how to develop software and stay on track.

Research

Do research your idea for market fit/need, competition, complexity, legal and validate ideas early. It’s best to find out early that Google will quote $60,000+ TAX a year to allow you to use Google map’s in your app early, then you can use https://www.mapbox.com for $499 a year.

Do you have competition?

Some people say “don’t develop an app that already exists”. Why would you develop a new Uber app? Henry Ford did make a new transportation mode when people were happy with horses, other car manufacturers like Tesla are moving in on the space so don’t be discouraged.

Landing Page

A landing page with a signup form (Newsletter and Register Interest) form is a good way to validate ideas and get feedback early (I would suggest you use a free Mainchimp signup form, a generated website with Platforma on a $5/m server for quick results). There is no point coding and launching to crickets.

Do you have an app Prototype or Mock-Up?

This is very important and easy step. Programs like Adobe XD CC (read my guide here) and Balsamiq can help you prototype an app, Platforma can help you prototype web apps.

Have you validated your idea (app) with end-users?

If you don’t do this you are mad. Watch this video to see lessons learned from Trades Cloud.

Is this app idea a hobby (passion)?

This can help you limit costs and expectations. Cheap serves exist (read here and here).

Do you have time to develop/manage this?

Developing and managing an app and planning (paying for) development cycle can be time-consuming and mentally draining.

Can you code?

Do you need to hire developers or learn to code? Blog post coming soon on how to hire coders.

Do you have funds?

Having funds on hand to set up and build an app is very important.

Do you want to hide developers (or get Venture Capital)?

This can help you get moving but you will have to give away a slice of the profits and or IP, managing mentors and VC’s can be tiresome.

Have you set failure criteria (post-mortem)?

Read this page on lessons learned from over 200 startup failures, save your favourites. Having realistic goals and limits is a wise idea, do stop when you reach preset limits.

Do you have a business case?

There is plenty of business case generator template’s, you will want to document some of the following.

What is your apps Purpose – App X will be..
What is your Mission Statement – App X will..
Who are your Target Customers – Retail..
Who are the Early Adopters – Retail..
What Problems does your app solve – App X will..
What Milestones will your app go through – iOS, Android, Apple TV, Web etc..
What Existing solutions exist – App: A, B and C..
How does your app Solve your customer’s problems (pain points) – App X will..
How will your app Find customers – Word of Mouth, Referrals, Advertisements?
What is your Revenue model – Sales, Ad’s, Subscriptions?
What is your apps Goal statement – App X will hit X users in X?
What are your apps Failure points – If app X does not reach X or monthly costs reach Y….
What is your Marketing message – App X will..
What is your apps Metrics – iOS, Android, Apple TV apps..
What is your Unfair Advantage – Why will you succeed over others?

Are you using a project management methodology?

Proven Methodology can help you develop software and stay on track, software like Atlaz, JIRA or Trello are highly recommended tools. Capturing ideas and processing feedback in tools is very important.

Before you code (or hire coders) use source code versioning software like GitHub and Bitbucket (guides here and here). You want to retain the code and insist on owning it.

Product Goal

Simon Sinek has a good video on companies (or Products) being in a finite or infinite game.

Are you in full control of your development stack?

If you are not a developer you may not care if you are in control, but you will if there are issues with hired developers or issues with service providers. I moved from CPanel to self-managed servers, moved from IBM Cloudant to Digital Ocean to AWS then Vultr servers where I can have full control or scalability, features, security and costs.

Can you forecast the costs?

Lowering cost and boosting performance is important and having spare money is a good thing.

I read recently that Telsla is burning through $6,000 a minute and is forecast to need something like 2 billion dollars in the next 2 years. Software as Service platforms will drain your budget quick (they do take on some risk and maintenance tasks), is this worth it?

Mark Fedin (CEO and Co-founder at Atlaz) has a great post on the topic of viability Stop Dabbling At Startups .

Are you using the right tech?

Don’t be afraid of changing tech along the way, you may start with MySQL and move to MongoDB, Redis, Oracle ot MSSQL database servers etc.

Do you have systems to capture customer feedback?

Self-explanatory, you are solving customer problems, right? You will pivot in the first year (trust me).

What is your revenue/sales model?

If you don’t know how to make money then don’t make an app (apps are expensive to code and maintain).

Are you prioritizing task?

I have blogged about this before, do use the tools to stay on track.

Funny Bit

Donate and make this blog better

Ask a question or recommend an article
[contact-form-7 id=”30″ title=”Ask a Question”]

v1.5 Fixed typos and fixed CDN link issue.

v1.4 Updated the graphic to version v1.3.

Short (Article): https://fearby.com/go2/so/

Short (Image): https://fearby.com/go2/so-img/

Quick guide to using Adobe XD CC to design a prototype iOS app.

October 25, 2017 by Simon

Adobe has introduced (v1.0.x) Adobe XD CC, Adobe claims you can turn your best ideas into beautiful experiences — fast. Let’s give it a try.

Adobe Experience Design (Beta) is now Adobe XD CC. You can now design, prototype, and share amazing user experiences for websites, mobile apps, and more — all in the same app. Adobe XD CC is similar to Balsamic Mockup software.

Adobe XD Intro

Here is a great video demoing Adobe XD.

Install Adobe XD

If you don’t already have Adobe CC installed you can download a trial here. If you are wanting to install on Windows you will need Windows 10 (Anniversary Edition). Adobe has minimum system requirements listed here.

Start a Project

After you start an iOS project you will be looking for controls to add to your prototype. Adobe XD CC offers where you can download UI Kits direct from vendors (a shame when you are used to XCode or Visual Studio having controls preloaded).

Installing the Apple UI Design Resources

You will need to download the Apple UI Design Resources for Design XD from the Apple site (use the menu in the screenshot below or click here), they do not come with Adobe XD CC.

Here is more information on using Adobe XD CC UI Kits.

Download the iOS 11 UI resources for Adobe XD CC from the Apple site.

You can now extract the iOS resource files from Apple for use in Adobe XD projects. When iOS 12 and Android 9 comes out you can download new UI Kits.

Once you extract the files from the zip file, run the ./iOS-11-AdobeXD/Fonts/San Francisco Pro.pkg file to install iOS 11 font on yoir system.

I could not find a way to install the UI Kits permanently into Adobe XD CC (Searching revealed you need to open templates (as a separate process or open file in Adobe XD (double-click on the file)) and paste elements into your project). This seems clunky.

Why use Adobe XD

You can use Adobe XD to prototype interfaces around the common activities, a person may perform while using the apps you are prototyping. You can design an app’s onboarding, intro or user screens before actually developing the app.

http://bundle.greatsimple.io/

https://platforma.ws/ also has an extension for Adobe XD to allow you to get a prototype fast with ready to go layout elements. I will write a new blog post using https://platforma.ws/ in Adobe XD.

iOS Prototype Project

Let’s create an iOS project. Start a new iPhone 6/7 Project AND open up a UI template file in a second Adobe XD program (e.g ./iOS-11-AdobeXD/UI Elements + Design Templates + Guides/UIElements+DesignTemplates+Guides.xd).

Now you can drag and drop elements from the UI template (from Apple) into an XD CC app prototype project

TIP: Apple has a great site explaining how you can design and deliver apps (open the Apple Human Interfaces – iOS Design Themes page here). Apple also has assets and guidelines available for marketing your apps here.

To make buttons interactive you will need to click the Prototype tab and then drag the blue tabs to the right of interactive elements to the target screens.

You can learn more on making interactive prototypes here.

Tip: Don’t forget to add interactive links back to the home screen.

You can then press the play button to preview the app prototype simulated in software.

Export

You can now save and export your prototype app project to PNG, PDF, Web or other formats to others to send for review.

Adobe XD is big on saving to the Adobe Cloud allowing others to see changes in real-time. If you have linked assets in your prototype project (say Photoshop files) anyone viewing an XD prototype on the Adobe Cloud can automatically see changes in real-time (see then Adobe XD intro video above).

Running Prototypes on Real Devices

I was able to install Adobe XD app onto iOS, log in with my Adobe ID and the prototype popped up when I connected my iOS device to my Mac. More info here.

I was able to install the Android Adobe XD app and also sync a prototype app (Android was a bit slower to find the project but still the same process as iOS).

More Help

Adobe XD CC Official User Guide

https://helpx.adobe.com/xd/user-guide.html

30 Adobe XD CC/Adobe Comp tablet app tips

Conclusion

Pros

Adobe XD comes with Adobe CC.
Ope to feature enhancements.
Loads or 3rd party tools and user forums.
Automatic detection of duplicate actions (copy and paste grid items) and suggestion of repeating grids by pressing Command+R.

Cons

Unable to import UI Kits permanently into Adobe XD (I have to run multiple XD apps and paste UI elements between). Why would I no just stick with Adobe Photoshop?
Placement of UI elements like fonts feels clunky when compared to XCode and Visual Studio.
Duplicating prototype forms was not an option in the right-click (copy and Paste worked and so did ALT+Drag).

On the positive side, Adobe is openly allowing people to suggest and vote on features here https://adobexd.uservoice.com

But with Adobe XD you have the flexibility of having a design and prototyping product in one package with new monthly features.

More to come.

Donate and make this blog better

Ask a question or recommend an article

[contact-form-7 id=”30″ title=”Ask a Question”]

Revision History

v1.2 added https://platforma.ws/ information.

etc

Short: https://fearby.com/go2/prototype/

Manage Social Media posts with Buffer

October 10, 2017 by Simon

Here is a quick setup guide for Buffer.com where you can connect to and post (manually or scheduled) to multiple social media platforms.

You can view pricing here. You can signup for a free Buffer Individual plan: https://buffer.com/signup. Signup to Buffer (Free, Limited)

Post Signup Setup

Connect Buffer to Social Media Platforms

Type post content

Change the default image

Choose the platforms and images

Schedule the Post

You can manually share to a platform at any time.

TIP: If you share now you will need to manually share on each platform separately.

Results

Buffer features I like

Good Free Plan
Post Scheduling
Image Creation Integration (Paid)
Reply integration (Paid)
Manage all your social accounts from one simple dashboard
Ability to set custom posting slots.

Buffer features I Don’t like

Manual Share to all feature missing.
Timezones earlier than US Timezones appear to be untouchable (my Timezone is set)

Buffer FAQ’s: https://faq.buffer.com/

Tip: Create custom posting slots

More soon (reply automation and image creation).

Donate and make this blog better

Ask a question or recommend an article
[contact-form-7 id=”30″ title=”Ask a Question”]

Revision History

v1.1 Added Posting Slots Info

etc

Setting up Google Analytics on your website

August 22, 2017 by Simon Fearby

Google Analytics is a popular easy to install and use statistics and reporting tool that you can add to your website (and it’ free)

To setup, Google Analytics go to https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/ and create an account. From here you can add a site and generate a tracking ID.

The website tracking code was (I changed the code to 555555555).

<script>
  (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
  (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
  m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
  })(window,document,'script','https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');

  ga('create', 'UA-555555555-1', 'auto');
  ga('send', 'pageview');

</script>

I opened WordPress and went to Appearance then Editor and selected header.php and added the tracking code under the <head> HTML tag.

This tracking ID allows Google to generate stats from your visitors.

I was unable to update the file in WordPress until I set permissions in Ubuntu in (Read these guide to setup an Ubuntu Server on Vultr for as low as $2.5 a month of setup a $5 a month with Digital Ocean or AWS). I have guides on moving WordPress here or setting up WordPress from the command line here). If you update WordPress you may need to re add the tracking ID.

sudo chmod 666 /www/wp-content/themes/twentyseventeen/header.php

I loaded my WordPress website and verified that the tracking code was loading in the HTML source. You can also embed the tracking code in static HTML websites.

After a few days, you can view your sites statistics. from the Googe Analytics home portal. This will allow you know when to publish, know how popular your content is, know what new content to create etc.

Page Hits

The best feature of Google Analytics is page hit information. To me, the total number of hits is less important than Avg. Time on Page and Bounce Rate.

Dashboard

The Google Analytics dashboard home is very informative.

Google Analytics Terms

Google has a glossary for terms here.

Users – The unique user that visited your site.
Bounce Rate – The percentage or users who loaded your site and left after viewing the initial page.
Active Users – The total number of active users reading your site.
User Retention – The percentage of users who have returned to your site.
Device – The device (Desktop, tablet or mobile device) that was used to read your site.
Organic Search – The number of users who found your site via a search engine. Having a highly efficient SEO will see a higher Organic search percentage.
Sessions – The number of unique sessions that your users have accessed your site.
Direct – The times a user has directly typed your website URL (or have visited your site in incognito/privacy mode).
Referral – The percentage or know referrals from other websites.
Social – Known number of visits to our site from social media platforms.

Overview

You can watch in real-time users accessing your site. This is important when you send out mailing list to users when new content is posted, will 1,000 visitors take down your site? Are you posting at the right time for your sites visitors timezone?

Audience Overview

This report will tell you a lot about who and where people are visiting your site form and what language they speak, OS they use, what browser they use and what city they are from.

Google Analytics allows you to drill down on most captured data.

I can see Apple devices are the most popular mobile devices accessing my site (but mobile devices in total only take up 12 % of my site’s traffic).

The User Flow report is a great way to see how people interact with your site (where they come from, what they do and where they drop out).

Google Analytics has a handy page speed tool that you can use to identify what you need to do to speed up your site.

Google Analytics have goals that allow you to set targets to meet. Usually, Google encourages you to assign a monetary value to a goal then suggest you buy Google Ad’s to achieve these goals (this is why Google Analytics is free). Read my guide on setting up Google AdWords on your WordPress blog.

You can set email alerts on key stats.

More to come later.

Donate and make this blog better

Ask a question or recommend an article
[contact-form-7 id=”30″ title=”Ask a Question”]

v1.1 added page hits information

Securing Ubuntu in the cloud

August 9, 2017 by Simon

It is easy to deploy servers to the cloud within a few minutes, you can have a cloud-based server that you (or others can use). ubuntu has a great guide on setting up basic security issues but what do you need to do.

If you do not secure your server expects it to be hacked into. Below are tips on securing your cloud server.

First, read more on scanning your server with Lynis security scan.

Always use up to date software

Always use update software, malicious users can detect what software you use with sites like shodan.io (or use port scan tools) and then look for weaknesses from well-published lists (e.g WordPress, Windows, MySQL, node, LifeRay, Oracle etc). People can even use Google to search for login pages or sites with passwords in HTML (yes that simple). Once a system is identified by a malicious user they can send automated bots to break into your site (trying millions of passwords a day) or use tools to bypass existing defences (Security researcher Troy Hunt found out it’s child’s play).

Portscan sites like https://mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx?action=scan are good for knowing what you have exposed.

You can also use local programs like nmap to view open ports

Instal nmap

sudo apt-get install nmap

Find open ports

nmap -v -sT localhost

Starting Nmap 7.01 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2017-08-08 23:57 AEST
Initiating Connect Scan at 23:57
Scanning localhost (127.0.0.1) [1000 ports]
Discovered open port 80/tcp on 127.0.0.1
Discovered open port 3306/tcp on 127.0.0.1
Discovered open port 22/tcp on 127.0.0.1
Discovered open port 9101/tcp on 127.0.0.1
Discovered open port 9102/tcp on 127.0.0.1
Discovered open port 9103/tcp on 127.0.0.1
Completed Connect Scan at 23:57, 0.05s elapsed (1000 total ports)
Nmap scan report for localhost (127.0.0.1)
Host is up (0.00020s latency).
Not shown: 994 closed ports
PORT     STATE SERVICE
22/tcp   open  ssh
80/tcp   open  http
3306/tcp open  mysql
9101/tcp open  jetdirect
9102/tcp open  jetdirect
9103/tcp open  jetdirect

Read data files from: /usr/bin/../share/nmap
Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.17 seconds
           Raw packets sent: 0 (0B) | Rcvd: 0 (0B)

Limit ssh connections

Add Google AdWords to your WordPress blog

July 30, 2017 by Simon

Google says “Turn your passion into profit. AdSense is a free, simple way to make money online by placing ads on your website.” How hard is it to setup Google AdSense on your WordPress site?

First, you will need to create a Google AdSense account here and add your site to Google AdSense. Don’t forget to add your account and payment type here.

You will need to add a bit of HTML script from Google to your site to verify you own the domain you are adding ads too. Lucky for me my theme Genesis allows me to paste code straight into the header and footer sections for my site.

Google AdSense steps are quite clear and will let you know what you need to do (I monitor this from my phone).

After your site is verified (automatically) you will have to wait up to 1 week for Google to review your site. You will receive an email when Google has approved your site.

Then you are ready to log in to Google Adwords page and create an Advertisement style that matches your site. Now you can create your first ad type in the Google AdSense screen.

I created a “Text and Display Ads”.

I then entered a name and chose “Automatic Size” and “Responsive”, feel free to add your own colors here and customize.

From the Google Adsense page go to My Ads, Content then Ad Unit, Now you can click get the code.

I can use this code to place auto responsive ad’s on my web pages.

I should have embedded this code into my WordPress theme but I decided to place the code manually into each of my posts (in text mode).

This is how a Google AdWords Ad looks in this post (below the first paragraph). Very smart that Google chose to serve an AdWords company Ad in my post about Google Ad Words.

Here are my earnings 10 minutes after adding my first ad to my blog ($0 as expected). I plan on using any revenue to speed up this website as the host is very slow.

If you like this post please click my Ad’s. I will update my revenue numbers here in the future.

Thanks to Emma who runs a great blog and encouraged me to blog years ago and big thanks to my wife Alison who ran a blog for years (way before me with loads more visitors).

Payment

It appears you can’t add a payment method or add a payment method until you reach $100 earned.

It looks like earnings will be paid monthly if you meet the target. Payment placeholders are available at https://play.google.com/store/account# I guess new payment methods can be added here.

AdSense Mobile app.

I use the AdSense mobile app

FYI: For me, Estimated revenue on the mobile app is in Australian dollars and estimate revenue at https://www.google.com/adsense/ is in USD.

Searching reveals that estimated revenue will be evaluated at the end of the month and the final amount will be reduced.

Content

Make the content relevant to the reader to gain revenue. I guess I need to look at Google Analytics and blog more of what people want.

SEO

Don’t forget to ensure your sites SEO is working as expected. Also, a slow website will have poor SEO so consider a faster private VM from Vultr or Digital Ocean.

Ad Glossary

Page RPM – Page revenue per thousand impressions (RPM) is calculated by dividing your estimated earnings by the number of page views you received, then multiplying by 1000.
Page CTR – The page click through rate (CTR) is the number of ad clicks divided by the number of page views.
Impression CTR – An impression is counted for each ad request that returns at least one ad to the site. It is the number of ad units (for content ads) or search queries (for search ads) that showed ads.
Cost Per Click – The cost-per-click (CPC) is the amount you earn each time a user clicks on your ad. The CPC for any ad is determined by the advertiser; some advertisers may be willing to pay more per click than others, depending on what they’re advertising.
Impression RPM – The impression revenue per thousand impressions (RPM) is the average earnings per one thousand impressions.
Page ROM – Page revenue per thousand impressions (RPM) is calculated by dividing your estimated earnings by the number of page views you received, then multiplying by 1000.
Coverage – Coverage is the percentage of ad requests that returned at least one ad. Generally, coverage can help you identify sites where AdSense isn’t able to provide targeted ads.
Maximum CPC Bid – A bid that you set to determine the highest amount that you’re willing to pay for a click on your ad.
CPM Bid (Cost Per 1000 Impressions) – CPM bidding means that you pay based on the number of impressions (times your ads are shown) that you receive on the Google Display Network. Starting this year, CPM bidding will be replaced by viewable CPM bidding.

How costs are calculated in AdWords.

Read the Google AdSense Glossary and help here.

Ad Sense Rules

Ad Sense Beginner’s Guide – Stay compliant with our policies.

Summary:

Don’t click your own ads.
Don’t ask others to click your ads.
Don’t include any prohibited site content, including adult content, violence or excessive profanity, drugs (including alcohol and tobacco) or copyrighted material.
Don’t modify the AdSense code.
Do follow our Webmaster Quality Guidelines.
Do provide a good user experience.
Don’t place more ads than content on any page.
Don’t place images near ads in a way that may mislead users into thinking that the images are associated with the ads.

Google Webmaster guidelines.Payment

Payment

You will be unable to receive payment until you verify your address.

If you are on a 14-day free trial you will need to setup billing before the trial expires

Tips

Do add the show ad’s code to WordPress over manually adding to pages or posts.
You can only add one script to your page once (e.g Header or Footer (not Both)) or multiple ad banners will be visible and only one will be clickable.

Bonus

Read my guide on managing WordPress via the command line where I automatically (with one command line added the word Advertisements) to over 80 post and pages.

sudo wp search-replace '<script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com' 'Advertisement:<br /> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com'
sudo wp search-replace '<script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com' 'Advertisement:<br /> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com'

Update June 2019

Google is now demanding you add a /ads.txt file to your site (with this format).

I added the following to mine

google.com, pub-9241521190070921, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0

I used this site to validate my ads.txt file

Donate and make this blog better

Ask a question or recommend an article
[contact-form-7 id=”30″ title=”Ask a Question”]

Draft: v1.91 June 2019 ads.txt info

Self Service Status Pages

June 12, 2017 by Simon

I am a big fan of companies having external (and internal) self-service status pages that list the statuses of application and services. If you have an online presence, are developing an API or service you should consider developing an automated status page to list your services statuses.
Currently, users can check if a website is down by visiting sites like http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/

An app with multiple/ secure back ends will be harder for customers to diagnose if they are down so offering inbuilt status screens is essential. It is a good idea to create a dedicated system status page (e.g https://status.youproduct.com) and have that page show various statuses from a separate server or the same server, you don’t need a dedicated subdomain (a subfolder will do). Apple and Google use subpage status pages.

A good status page will show the status of services you offer. e.g.

Online shopping cart: UP
Online forum: UP
Payment Gateway: UP
SMS gateway: UP (Resolved connection issue 12 mins ago).
App API: DOWN (expected restoration in 12 mins).

If things are down it is good idea to add a balloon message or alert to live systems (and link to your status page), not everyone remembers maintenance windows or keeps up to date.

The status page can also contain other data that may help internal teams diagnose faults like:

Server Room Air conditioner temperature: 39c.
Room temperature: 41c.
Floor water sensor #1: TRUE.
Floor water sensor #2: FALSE.
Humidity: 89%.
Secure Server room 001 photos ( link 1, link 2)
AD server: UP.
DNS: UP.
Server Rack 001 Intake Temperature: 38c.
Server Rack 001 Internal Temperature: 78c.
Server Rack 001 External Temperature: 64c.

Pro Active v Reactive monitoring

It is a good idea to proactively detect and automatically remediate issues before you are forced to reactively resolve something. Don’t rely on an email from a monitoring service saying your server is down (or was down) or for a user to report an issue (users will often sit back and use the outage to do something else (this affects your service reputation and tusks your business)).

I would monitor in this order.

External HTTP checking (External monitor checking your server).
External Application checking (external verification of logins or application services).
Internal Server stats (network link up status, link speed, network connections and network failure rates. A status screen can be easily built importing server stats and server performance).
Known historical issues (monitor what has caused your sites to break before).
Data from applications (historical patterns or known triggers).
User Error Reports

Waiting for user users to report errors is bad. Sites like www.trello.com and www.onesignal.com have good programmable services like web push, mobile push and or phone and SMS alerts that can be connected into your support processes.

Performance

Showing current service performance and endpoint status allow your customers to set their expectations and this shows you take your services uptime seriously.

Data

If you have logs or data available from applications you may as well automate and summarize it. “Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.” – W. Edwards Deming

Ignoring data and not reporting issues is a recipe for poor service.

Archiving multiple data points

It is a good idea to log and archive network usage, service CPU, and usage (app, web server, I/O etc) to allow you to find correlation data and failure points. The analysis is key.

ETA’s

Do provide ETA’s on resolutions when things fail as you resolve an issue.

Maintenance

Listing planned and scheduled maintenance (e.g code rollouts, server reboots etc) allow you prevent support calls.

Automation

You can automate many things from a status page if a certain event happens you can attempt an automated resolution (e.g reboot a server) or let diagnosing staff know a resolution has happened.

You can automatically change email autoresponder text (mentioning things are down) when you reply to incoming emails, tickets and or automatically post status changes to social media. Automatically informing users (instead of ignoring and burying problems) this goes a long way to building trust.

You can automate the notifications of potential problems to internal staff from the status page and automatically inform key staff when certain things happened (e.g when say secure certificates will expire, when the network or API is overloaded or network is congested).

Information Validity

A good status page will list when the status was last updated (e.g. 3 minutes ago).

Statistics and Graphs

Statistics like up time and historical graphs (uptime and latency) can be good to help keep track of the reliability trends.

Inform your user when everything is ok.

Don’t forget to inform staff when everything up is, generally, staff will stop using a product or service until a system is back up. Generally, users will not sit there pressing refresh for long. Offer web push or RSS feeds.

Internal considerations

Improve your documentation, having good documentation (and known past problems and resolutions) on hand will allow for quicker resolutions in future.

Followers

Allows customers to subscribe to status changes (via RSS) or use dedicated status accounts on social media. Providing a JSON feed also shows your commitment to openness to your service.

Adding website headers to inform users of upcoming outages is a good idea. The Department it Industry, Innovation and Science do it right.

Social Media

You should also setup social media status accounts and pin status information like civocloud do

History

Allow customers to see your past problems (description, date, time and resolution), allows the customer to know the risks and allows you to focus on remediation.

Example Status Pages

Notify users

No one wants to look bad but tell users when things are down but let the users opt out of notices.

Status Page ( systems, validity, ticket )

https://www.apple.com/au/support/systemstatus/

AWS Status Page ( history, more, regions, subscribe, validity ).

https://status.aws.amazon.com/

Digital Ocean Status Page ( history, description, and resolution ).

https://status.digitalocean.com/

Use this links to get a free server for 2 months.

Rack Space Status Page ( general notices, current status, maintenance ).

https://rackspace.service-now.com/system_status/

Heroku Status Page ( history, apps, tools, services, subscribe ).

https://status.heroku.com/

Discord Status Page ( services, history ).

https://status.discordapp.com/

Google Cloud Status Page ( history, description, and resolution ).

https://status.cloud.google.com/

Shopify Status Page ( response times, services, validity, subscribe, history ).

https://status.shopify.com/

Playstation Status Page ( services ).

https://status.playstation.com/en-au/

Github Status Page ( validity, response time, history ).

https://status.github.com/

Vultr Status Page

https://www.vultr.com/status/

Team Viewer Status Page ( validity, services, history, subscribe ).

https://status.teamviewer.com/

Office 365 Status Page ( services ).

https://portal.office.com/servicestatus

G Suite Status Page ( services, history ).

http://www.google.com.au/appsstatus#hl=en-GB&v=status

Telstra Status Page ( Status, web page )

http://servicestatus.telstra.com/

Commercial Status Page Services

If you are not into developing a custom status page you can use a commercial status page service (but they are expensive)

e.g https://www.statuspage.io – $49 a month ( Atlassian owned ). I’d rather develop my own status page on a $2.5/m Vultr server with a LetsEncrypt SSL certificate.

Sites like Cloudflare offer auto failover and load balancing features for your site.

Donate and make this blog better

Ask a question or recommend an article
[contact-form-7 id=”30″ title=”Ask a Question”]

V1.7 added auto failover features

Digital marketing and user engagement 101

June 3, 2017 by Simon

Digital marketing is not hard, your customers are well educated, technically savvy, informed (and impatient).

You need to engage with your users 24/7 on the platforms where they can be found. Don’t put an email link, phone number form on your website asking people to call in the age of online platforms.

Your customers demographic may indicate where you may find them. Generally, young people may on Snapchat hiding from parents why are on Facebook, technically savvy people may be on Linked-In or Google Plus or Twitter.

Rough social media user counts per platform:

Facebook – 2 billion
YouTube 1.49 billion
Twitter 400 million and falling
Instagram – 275 million
Linked in 250 million
Reddit – 125 million
VK – 120 million
Tumblr – 110 Million
Pinterest – 100 million
Google Plus – 100 million
more http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/social-networking-websites

Read this TechCrunch article on active users.

Q1) Are you talking to your customers and on the platforms they are on.

Check out https://namechk.com/ to see if your company name is available online.

Don’t solicit reviews

Don’t solicit reviews on trip advisor and other review sights by giving away free products as the reviews will sound fake. Try and explain to the customer that you value feedback online and listen to that feedback.

Stats and growth

If you are sharing to attract more sales then record what works and do more of what works. This company shared how they make nixie tubes and now they have more sales than they expected.

How to capture new users

Create Content about the products or services you sell and post it online so Google Google and search engines can find it in turn customers will find it (and you will spend nothing on Ads). Inform people about your product in the form of a blog video VLog.

If you sell coffee beans show people the process of roasting and packaging your coffee beans ad talking about your coffee bean sourcing process. Your customers will learn something and will feel a connection with your brand, the next time they see or smell coffee beans they will think of your product.

If you sell apps or software design services educate people about the app development process so they understand your experience, passion, and thoroughness as this cannot be learned for free or sourced from elsewhere.

Sharing information gives back and allows people to binge on your story (product, service or process). Telling your story in a format that gives back is sought after compared to traditional advertising.

Separate Social Media Accounts

It is a good idea to separate (create new social media accounts if need be) accounts and post personal and business information separate to personal content.

Support

If your customers need support make it easy for them to contact you and do try and be informative (I have no idea where to log a ticket with BitBucket).

Samples

You can send out free samples to online influencers to generate awareness.

Consistent information

Also, you should have and give consistent information across all communication channels. Providing different (or lacking) information across different channels is a big turn off for customers.

Live streams

Consider doing live streams of the things you do on Facebook or Periscope. This costs nothing and it is an easy way to start sharing what you do.

Know your competition

Know your competitions prices, products and customer engagement strategies,. Your customers will periodically re-engage with other vendors and if they are cheaper will switch if you don’t have retention mechanisms like discounts etc.

I asked the competitor to @digitalocean (@vultr) for a similar coupon code and had no reply

Link the problem and solution?

Customers are great at finding content and services online and ensure your content solves a problem and you are not selling too hard as this can turn people away. Use long descriptions for any content you post online to ensure search engines find your content, search engines love words in the title.

Posting blog post frequently can be a good way of engaging with customer and validating assumptions. If you have nothing to report and are stuck about what to share then think of what you have been asked in the week previous and start with bullet points of how you can help and go from there.

Use users previous activity data to create reengagement

Like Facebook do.

Newsletters, Teasers and loyalty coupons.

Blogs and video VLogs are a great place to inform your customers about upcoming products or services. Capturing users email addresses in return for the occasional exclusives and coupons can increase sales and engagement. Posting regular content is enough to engage with your users but asking users to sign up to a newsletter

Stats

If you are sharing to attract more sales then record what works works do more of what works. This company shared how they make nixie tubes and now they have more sales than they expected.

Automation, Analytics

https://hootsuite.com/ is a great service that can allow you to manage all of your social media platforms from one dashboard, with Hootsuite you can individually see your engagement in social media platforms (likes, shares, retweets, visibility etc) but it is advisable to generate trackable links on your website and have google analytics Google Analytics (https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/) measure the hits so you can compare apples to apples yourself.

Microsoft for years have directed people to a web page that forwards people to the right content but tracks the request at the same time for free https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=245999

You can set up a similar page with a PHP file on your web server using the following code (you will need your own website that you can place files on)

<?php

header("Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate");

header("Expires: Sat, 26 Jul 1997 05:00:00 GMT");

header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8');


/* Sample Usage

http://www.yourwebsitedomain.com/go/?link=blog

http://www.yourwebsitedomain.com/go/?linkmain

*/


// Insert your google tracking code here

switch (htmlspecialchars($_GET["link"]) 

 {

            case ("blog"):

                        header( 'Location: http://simon.fearby.com/blog/' ) ;
                        break;


            case ("main"):

                        header( 'Location: https://www.fearby.com' ) ;
                        break;

            // add more here

            default:

                        echo "I could not find a page for the URL you specified.";
                        break;

}

?>

Community Advocates for your brand

Encouraging customers (outside of trade shows and events) to promote your brand (and rewarding leading advocates) is a must. Run competitions to encourage users to promote your product online and retweet and share your customers created content. If customers love your product reward them with extra product or prizes. Everyone loves competition.

Notifications and triggers

Notifying customers before a product is set to be replaced (e.g coffee bags or pods), and offering a paid replacement (with or without discounts) will help the customer. Discounts (or free) 10th purchase is a good long term sales strategy.

Availability

Monitor your websites if you host them yourself the extra traffic may cause your site to go offline (driving people away). Hosting on other platforms may require you to upgrade your hosting plan. Having a fast website can be key in ensuring your customer’s experience is positive.

I would not pat yourself on the back if you have a 400% social media growth rate, you are after sales and conversions and not social media follower numbers. Make sure you generating more sales and leads from the effort put into social media?

Mobile

It is also advisable to participate in the platforms you choose 24/7 from a mobile device so you can respond to customers queries, feedback or questions. Chances are your customers will go to your competition via mobile within minutes or are using a mobile device doing research in bricks and mortar store.

Phone numbers

You may want to talk to your phone carrier and set up a number of phonetic compatible landline, mobile and 1300 numbers. Companies like www.twilio.com allow you to programmatically use numbers from your business. Looking professional can mean a lot to the customer but be prepared to use/man those numbers.

Don’t use automated phone numbers to cut costs and push communications like my bank does (ignoring incoming text).

I called my bank (re the above) and they had deleted my application in a new call centre and failed to tell me and ask me to visit my local branch to learn more. Thankfully good old fashioned face to face was able to assist me (not an app, online, call centre or SMS).

Engage with your customers.

Don’t be afraid of asking for feedback and ideas from engaged users. Ask users what they want to know or see and ask for stories in return for discount coupons. An engaged customer is more valuable than 100 potential customers. I once gave feedback to an IPSOS call center who called me regarding a survey they were running and it was clearly not getting past my spam filters (Spam Assassin), I told them this multiple times and I still keep getting calls saying I have not completed the survey (thanks for not listening IPSOS).

Engagement Times

Do set an average engagement time and measure and record average engagement time over time. Starting out at an average of 12 minutes and ending at 28 days is bad.

How not you do it

I asked @twilio a question on Twitter and did not receive an answer for a 15 days.

I asked Alibaba Cloud a question 5 days ago and just got a reply.

I am not happy with @digitalocean twitter as everything just seems to be “talk to support” or “log a ticket”.

The best option for Digital Ocean or me?

Who does it right

@ParallelsCares monitored a keyword and pro actively found a tweet of mine and contacted me with a solution.

@namecheap on twitter are good at replying to questions

Tracking

Modern website platforms can track users activity on your site (either via cookies assigned on the first-page load or ensuring a trackable unique token is used with each page on your website e.g https://www.yoursire.com/folder/page/index.html#UniqueTrackableToken )

Google analytics can also allow you to see the most common country, web browser, platform and device type.

Paid Advertisements

If all else fails you can spend money and advertise your product and or service. Read this article on advertising terms http://webanalysis.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/cost-of-advertising-cpm-ecpm-and-cpc.html

Paid Engagement Staff

One option for the busy business owner is to pay someone to manage their online engagement and interactions. This can free up time but ensure that person intimate with your product and or service. Often I have had calls from company so called representatives and they clearly know nothing of the companies products, my history or interactions.

Tools

I am a big fan or the Atlassian Trello and Confluence tools to manage the ever growing things to do and research. Atlassian Service Desk is a nice feedback and FAQ Helpdesk/ticket system https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/service-desk and Atlassian I use Jira Software for managing my pipeline tasks.

Keywords and Hashtags

Your jobs is to find your customers online and acknowledge them and educate existing customers and turn them into advocates.

Platforms like Twitter have hashtags that can allow #brand1 to differentiate to #brand1 by using a hashtag to trigger a search on that platform. A hashtag can be a unique string usually starting with a # symbol.

Beware

Platforms come and go and don’t get comfortable. Always ask customers where they hang out online and follow them.

And remember to give things a go and measure everything, without data you just have an opinion.

Good luck

Post bought to you by http://netconstructs.com.au/what-is-seo/

Donate and make this blog better

Ask a question or recommend an article
[contact-form-7 id=”30″ title=”Ask a Question”]

v1.7 digital ocean

4 Winning Tips for Online Startups

August 10, 2016 by Simon Fearby

Are you trying to improve sales and visibility for your online startups? If you run a startup, you might have already realised by now that merely creating a stellar product or service isn’t enough. To sell your product or service in the digital world, you need to ensure the voice of your business reaches your target audience. When it comes to successfully running an online startup, the challenges are many and budget in most cases is limited. These four tips will help you improve the presence of your online startup and create a winning brand.

A Good Website Design

If you want to showcase the professionalism that your customers seek, you need to create a good website. A good website design can instantly win the heart of your prospects and make them browse through the pages of your website a little longer. The longer they stay on your website, the more are your chances of selling your products and services. So, invest in a good website design that will make your online startup look professional, reliable and trustable. A bad web design will immediately put your customer off and you definitely don’t want that to happen. See a professional web design company to create great website designs for your online startup.

Great content

As an online startup, you must have a solid web presence. Having a great web design is just one side of the coin. Think of your website as a vehicle and the content as passengers. So, you need to create great content to amplify your online presence. To start with, you can create a blog update it once a week and share those on social media platforms. By doing so, you will not only drive traffic but also boost your brand awareness. Make sure you load your product or service page with high-quality content that highlights the benefits of your products and answers customer’s questions. If you are running an e-commerce startup, paying attention to this aspect is imperative.

A Little Marketing

As a startup you can’t afford to spend big bucks on marketing. But, allocating a small portion of your budget towards digital marketing doesn’t sound too far-fetched, does it? In fact, with the help of inbound marketing, your return on investment could be tremendous. There are various agencies and individuals who provide such digital marketing services. If you don’t want to shell out a lot of money, these freelance internet marketers can help you out. So, don’t forget to tap into the power of digital marketing.

Attractive Discounts and Promotions

If you are selling products and services and you relatively new in the market, consider providing discounts and other promotional offers to improve sales. Through promotional offers, you can also improve the word of the mouth factor. Referrals can work well too. That way your existing customers will help you bring in new customers. In the past and even today, companies have leveraged promotional marketing techniques to transform their startups into market-leading businesses. A perfect example of this would be Uber.
With the help of this 4-point strategy, you can greatly improve the revenue and profit of your online startup.
Guest Post by www.webdesignperth.com.au

Guest Post by https://www.webdesignperth.com.au

Donate and make this blog better

Ask a question or recommend an article
[contact-form-7 id=”30″ title=”Ask a Question”]

Type	Protocol	Port Range	Source	Comment
HTTP	TCP	80	0.0.0.0/0	Opens a web server port for later
All ICMP	ALL	N/A	0.0.0.0/0	Allows you to ping
All traffic	ALL	All	0.0.0.0/0	Not advisable long term but OK for testing today.
SSH	TCP	22	0.0.0.0/0	Not advisable, try and limit this to known IP’s only.
HTTPS	TCP	443	0.0.0.0/0	Opens a secure web server port for later

Personal Development Blog...

Coding for fun since 1996, Learn by doing and sharing.

Buy a domain name, then create your own server (get $25 free credit)

View all of my posts.

Marketing

Setting up a website to use Cloudflare on a VM hosted on Vultr and Namecheap

Infographic: So you have an idea for an app

Quick guide to using Adobe XD CC to design a prototype iOS app.

Setting up Google Analytics on your website

Self Service Status Pages

Digital marketing and user engagement 101

4 Winning Tips for Online Startups

Popular

Security

Code

Tech

Wordpress

General

Marketing

Footer

Popular

Security

Code

Tech

Wordpress

General