Is your blog plagued by comment spam? Most spam is generated by automated software. Find out how those bots find your blog, and what you need to change to hide your site from them. Read More

Custom 404 Not Found Page

The default 403 and 404 pages are short plain text messages that do not encourage visitors to stay on your site. Customising these pages is usually achieved by creating 403/404.shtml files. However there are other solutions each with their pros and cons. Read More

Include code listings in your posts: this tutorial shows how to trick highlight_file into using classes; add line numbers; and make them easily identifiable for copy and paste. Read More

The lazy bloggers guide to displaying syntax color highlighted PHP code for your articles, posts and tutorials. Line numbers optional! Covers display in both native php pages and CMS (e.g. Wordpress) posts. Read More

How to get highlight_file and highlight_string to list your source code using CSS classes instead of inline styles; and reduce the size of your page. Read More

Your first line of defence in preventing common vulnerability scans, directory traversal, and code injection attacks. A must read, if your web-site is hosted on either Apache (Linux) or IIS (Microsoft) servers. Read More

Google and Yahoo advise against using “CSS @import”. However; tutorials on creating Wordpress Child Themes (including the Wordpress Codex) invariably use the “@import rule” in the child stylesheet . Find out how to avoid CSS import .... Read More

Last month there were reports that a cyber-criminal gang had infected 30,000 Wordpress blogs to market “anti-virus” software. Wordpress is a popular target; keep your version and plugins up to date; and don't expose your site to unnecessary risks. If you require users to register before posting comments, for no other purpose than as part of your spam prevention strategy, then think again: ............ Read More

Index: Introduction. Just show me how to do it. Plugin verses Child Theme – pros & cons. Inspiration. Skeleton plugin code. Read More

This article is about one of your first lines of defence – using an Access Control List (e.g. htaccess on Apache sites) to block unwanted visitors/bots from your site, by country IP location. Part 2 will look at blocking by User Agent. Read More