Happy Tuesday everyone! Hope you had a great weekend and start to your week. Unfortunately SavvyScot got hacked over the weekend and I spent most of Sunday reloading the site… from scratch! The only positive that I can take from the experience is that I learned a lot about SQL and very much realised the importance of backups! If you are a blogger / photographer / videographer or use a home computer in general – I highly recommend a backup! All 200-odd posts and five thousand comments belonging to this blog would have been gone forever had it not been for my emergency backup! Perhaps I will write a post later in the week with all the technical details of the restore. That way if any of you are unfortunate enough to lose a blog, you will have a decent reference (can you believe that a proper guide doesn’t exist?!?).
Income Updates:
If you are interested in hearing about my blogging income, I am afraid you will have to signup to the exclusive club and join the monthly newsletter. If you sign up this week, you will be in time for February’s edition!
Advertisers continue to show a strong interest and I spend at least 45 minutes a day responding to emails. I mentioned in January’s edition of my newsletter that I would continue to write sponsored posts myself to prevent the ‘voice’ of the blog deviating. Nothing worse than reading another dull post about 5 reasons to take a payday loan. (note: I will never include a sponsored link to a payday loans site)!!
Blog Stats for January 2013:
Ignoring the disaster over the weekend things have been looking up recently:
- Average number of visit per day – 320
- Alexa Rank – Sitting at around 85K (I have been fluctuating through the 80s)
- Facebook Likes – 1257 – what can I say? I am awesome!
- Twitter Followers – 26.6k – What can I say… I’m mega-awesome!
- Feed Subscribers – 293
- Newsletter Subscribers – 90
Pauline over at Reach Financial Independence has set herself a new challenge to De-Clutter her Digital Life for February. I am pleased to announce that I will most definitely be taking part (it would be rude not to). While I reckon I am in quite good shape for most things, I could definitely do with paying social media accounts more attention. Sicorra’s awesome Blog Planner will definitely be put to good use!
What New Wit-You?
I continue to lead a very busy life. I am currently training for a Tough Mudder event in June:
Looks fun right? A half-marathon and a set of brutal obstacles! Why not right… At least it is something good to train towards. I might have also signed up for a second one in October – motivation to stay fit over the summer!
I also finished writing the book I am co-authoring with a bunch of other awesome PF bloggers… Can’t give too much away about it yet, but expect to see it smashing all the Kindle and Apple Store records soon 😉
2013 Goal Updates:
I set a bunch of different 2013 Goals back in December in various categories: Financial, Health Sport and Fitness, Relationship / Family and Other. Everything seems to be on track, with two already complete:
- Reduce Base Monthly Outgoings – I debated last week in the post ‘A Mobile Phone Dilemma‘ whether Mrs Scot and I should upgrade our phones or go with a Sim-Only deal. We decided against the new iPhone and stuck with Sim-Only. The result: £50 per month saving on phone fees – £600 a year (equivalent to £1000 gross salary on current tax bracket). Result!
- Continue Investing – Not really complete, but I invested another £1000 of SavvyScot earnings in the stock market in January (line 3 below). Valuation of total portfolio (started in November) is as follows:
Thanks
Just want to take a minute to say thank you to all the people who visit SavvyScot – whether you are a die hard or an occasional reader – it is YOU that motivates me to write and keeps this blog alive! An even bigger thanks goes to all my blogger friends for continuing to support SavvyScot through social networks and consistent commenting – it is much appreciated and I will be sure to send some link love your way soon.
Drew @ Objective Wealth says
February 5, 2013 at 7:39 pmAhh, I wondered what had happened to Savvy Scot. Glad to see you’ve got everything sorted again now. I make a backup after publishing every post, then I spread the backup all over the place, just to be sure! The longer we blog for the more there is to lose, it’s so important. I’d be interested to know how you dealt with this so quickly and successfully.
Drew @ Objective Wealth recently posted..Are You Materialistic Enough?
savvyscot says
February 6, 2013 at 11:19 amCheers Dude… was a stressful Sunday! Sounds like you have a bulletproof plan in place! I will definitely be writing a post to follow up on what I did and best practises!
Michelle says
February 5, 2013 at 9:20 pmI must have missed your first income update. Looking forward to this months!
Michelle recently posted..How To Start A Blog – Tips for a Beginner
savvyscot says
February 6, 2013 at 11:01 amMaybe I will send you a cheeky copy of the last one 🙂
John S @ Frugal Rules says
February 5, 2013 at 10:22 pmSorry to hear that you got hacked! That could not have been fun at all. I think there has been a bit of that going around from what I hear. I found out about a handy dandy little plugin that helps with this so I am thankful for that. If you’re not using one shoot me an email and I’ll let you know what it is.
John S @ Frugal Rules recently posted..5 Fun and Frugal Last Minute Valentines Gifts For Her
savvyscot says
February 6, 2013 at 11:00 amUnfortunately it seems that it was a Godaddy security loophole that casued it…. Hopefully this will not happen again!!! :@
Grayson @ Debt Roundup says
February 5, 2013 at 10:56 pmSorry to hear about your site. That sucks. Do you use a backup plugin? It seems you are doing quite well and I wish you continued success. My friends did the last tough mudder and they had a great time.
Grayson @ Debt Roundup recently posted..My Piling Up Bills Problem + $999.99 Giveaway
savvyscot says
February 6, 2013 at 11:00 amCheers dude. Yes – it was a dropbox backup plugin. I am going to write a post on best practises and what you actually have to do to recover an SQL backup. Thanks for the kind wishes – Super excited for the Tough Mudder 🙂
thestarvingartistcanada says
February 5, 2013 at 11:00 pmI had a HD fail on me a few years back. The recovery company said it was $2500 to get it restored to a new drive.
Fortunately for me, I had almost all the data on another drive… There is now a 6 month hole in my archives, but thankfully I was not prolifically busy during those months. One client project did get abandon due to the cost.
As for getting hacked, there are various theories about what’s a better password. Some think that the mish-mash of numbers, letters, symbols and caps are best, but as well as I know how computers enable brute-force attacks, even the combination of 4 words (even without caps, or special characters) are orders of magnitute harder to come across. The potential for various word permutations is astronomically greater than a one-“word” password.
Pick 4 words and use that as your password for example:
“starving artist blog awesomeness”
This would take ZILLIONS of computational cycles to come across using brute-force techniques.
Additionally, there should be some “lockout” code you can add to your site. So after 10 failed attempts to goes “lock-down” for 4 hours.
Locking out the attempts is the key to preventing brute-force attacks.
Unfortunately if you were logged by a key-logger than none of these techniques would help. Only wiser password handling. (no internet-cafe machines, no open-wifi, and NO non-secure computers… windows is horribly insecure!) A permissioned OS like any flavour of Linux, or your nearest Mac computer will offer you VERY safe computing.
thestarvingartistcanada recently posted..MONEY: Options trading update, Feb 2013
savvyscot says
February 6, 2013 at 10:58 am$2500!??!?!? That is MENTAL!
Glad to hear that you had your own backup. I am also with you on the random words combination! The more characters, the more exponential number of possibilities!!! I didn’t get keyloggered.. I am careful with that – it seems that it was a godaddy loophole!
Edgar @ Degrees and Debt says
February 6, 2013 at 1:32 amTough Mudder is cool. Theres another one that comes through my area called Spartan Race
Edgar @ Degrees and Debt recently posted..January 2013 Recap
savvyscot says
February 6, 2013 at 10:57 amAh yes! I wonder if that is the same as the Spartan Challenge? I have heard that is pretty tough too…
[email protected] says
February 6, 2013 at 2:20 amI’m sorry about the hacking. I was pretty concerned when I read it this weekend, but I’m glad that you had a back-up.
[email protected] recently posted..The Benefits of a Mortgage Free Retirement
savvyscot says
February 6, 2013 at 10:56 amCheers Justin! I was terrified that it would put people off coming back to read and also potential advertisers!!
Rika | Cubicle Throwdown says
February 6, 2013 at 3:41 amWow – bummer 🙁 I don’t know how to back up my stuff at all… now you’re scaring me!
Rika | Cubicle Throwdown recently posted..Million dollar toilet paper folding.
savvyscot says
February 6, 2013 at 10:55 amYou should definitely get on it Rika! I am going to write a post detailing exactly how to set the backup and what to do if you need to restore… it is MUCH more complicated than I originally thought! 🙂
[email protected] says
February 6, 2013 at 4:43 amHacking is very scary as I would have no idea how to restore. That is about the only thing I pay for other than hosting is an offsite backup service that can restore if necessary. You are truly mega-awesome. I hope things keep on rolling for you.
[email protected] recently posted..Money Decisions to Make in Your Twenties
savvyscot says
February 6, 2013 at 10:54 amGlad to hear you have thought about it! I am definitely going to write a how-to guide. Thanks for thinking I am awesome… at least I can look back and smile and know that I beat it! 😀
[email protected] says
February 6, 2013 at 12:04 pmGreat job on everything. That is a good idea ton invest your blog earnings in the stock market!
[email protected] recently posted..Club Thrifty’s Valentine Confessional
Glen @ Monster Piggy Bank says
February 6, 2013 at 1:07 pmThat sucks, I’m glad you got everything back.
Do you know how you got exploited?
Glen @ Monster Piggy Bank recently posted..How to Avoid Unnecessary Purchases
Jordann @ My Alternate Life says
February 6, 2013 at 1:30 pmWow a tough mudder, that’s so badass! I’d like to complete one some day, but I’m going to try and reach my first goal of a full marathon first. Glad to hear the site is back up and running again without any real damage.
Jordann @ My Alternate Life recently posted..A Very Expensive Valentine’s Day
Budget and the Beach says
February 6, 2013 at 3:01 pmI would’t know what to do if my account got hacked! Glad you were able to recover things, but what a pain. Things in the blogging world look really good for you right now. Keep it up!
Budget and the Beach recently posted..Designing Your Dream Job
The Happy Homeowner says
February 7, 2013 at 6:35 pmYikes about the hacking–so happy you were able to get it all back!
I’m doing the Tough Mudder this year, too 🙂 Although ours is in May–good luck with the training!
The Happy Homeowner recently posted..Saving Money While Shopping…And a $500 Giveaway!
Pauline says
February 8, 2013 at 4:02 pmWoohoo the SS loads even in Guatemala! 🙂 glad you’re back, and congrats on the stats, doing great!
I have backups on hostgator and thought that it was just about clicking “restore backup”, not tons of SQL… how often do you backup? I need to find an automatic one, so far I am lucky if I think about doing it once a week. when you’re done, let’s organize those social accounts!
Pauline recently posted..Zero food waste challenge update: reuse and repurpose to avoid getting bored.
savvyscot says
February 12, 2013 at 6:31 pmYasss I am glad your are able to view again! 🙂