May 2019 Newsletter
In This Issue
12 WordPress Plugins as Game of Thrones Characters
Game of Thrones is back for its final season, which means one thing: it’s time to take a break from crafting your “Cleganebowl 2019” giant foam fingers and make some character comparisons! Top Of The List’s Mandie Allietta realized that our friends in Westeros (and beyond) have a lot more in common with the realm of WordPress plugins than you would think. If you’re the person that likes both Game of Thrones and works with WordPress plugins, this is one blog post with fun and meaning for you!
Easily Find Your Passwords with Password Safe
Tired of misplacing passwords? Do you unwisely use the same password for all of your accounts so you only have one to remember? There’s a better solution for you! It’s a free, open-source password manager program called Password Safe.
With Password Safe, you create and remember a single password, then store all of your other passwords inside the safe. It’s encrypted and secure, and also allows two-factor authentication. We’ve been using it here at Top Of The List since our founding in 2007.
Some of our favorite features besides storing all those passwords:
- By adding it to Dropbox or a cloud sharing service, you can access it from desktop and your mobile phone.
- You can auto-generate strong passwords and not have to remember them… because they’re in Password Safe!
- Team members can create their own logins and access a shared Password Safe. This is great for small businesses like Top Of The List that need to remember and share some of the same passwords.
- You can group your passwords by category and add notes such as PINs or answers to questions about your first-grade teacher or favorite pet.
- You can access and log into a website all in one click. This only works if the website loads fast enough and puts focus on the username field, but it’s pretty cool when it works!
To give credit where credit is due, Password Safe’s original author is Bruce Schneier. Rony Shapiro updated the encryption algorithm and continues to add features as a volunteer developer.
Users have highlighted the program’s simplicity as its best feature. No excuses with this handy software around. Download your’s and do one thing that will keep you and your data safer!
HTTPS: Is Your Website Secure?
Many websites have wisely obtained an SSL certificate and applied it to their domain. This changed their website address to https and removed a “not secure” label that visitors otherwise see when arriving at their site. It also made both their website and its visitors safer from hackers. If you’re one of the laggers when it comes to this change, this article about https is for you! What’s more, Top Of The List can help you move your site to https, probably at a much lower cost than you think.
Tip of the Month
The case for lowercase URLs. Keeping standardization rules in place is hard enough, but when it comes to URLs there’s an easy rule you can follow. Make all the letters lowercase. This one process can prevent numerous issues with canonical tags, sitemaps and duplicate content. Preventing these issues saves time and money: Time investigating problems caused by mixed-case URLs, the effort spent to fix them, and the time to remember what was supposed to be upper or lower case. Money in the form of lost visitors and what they potentially might purchase from you. Of course, time is money too. So make things easy on yourself. Save both time and money with lowercase URLs!
Just for Laughs
Teacher: “If I gave you 2 cats and another 2 cats and another 2, how many would you have?”
Johnny: “Seven.”
Teacher: “No, listen carefully… If I gave you two cats, and another two cats and another two, how many would you have?”
Johnny: “Seven.”
Teacher: “Let me put it to you differently. If I gave you two apples, and another two apples and another two, how many would you have?”
Johnny: “Six.”
Teacher: “Good. Now if I gave you two cats, and another two cats and another two, how many would you have?”
Johnny: “Seven!”
Teacher: “Johnny, where in the heck do you get seven from?!”
Johnny: “Because I’ve already got a freaking cat!”
Our best for your success!
