Information available includes:

1. Visits via Social Referral
2. Conversions Assisted by Social
3. Conversions with Last Interaction Social
4. URLs that were shared

That’s the clearly labeled stuff, though. In addition to those raw numbers and data are the things that you can learn from that data. Things like new social media sites (or what Google considers social), conversion values per channel, and which visits are considered to be bounce visits.

Issues we’re still seeing include:

1. Pinterest shows sporadically at best.
2. If they can do assisted attribution with social, then why not everything else?
3. Social is still considered a type of referral traffic.

Still seeing is a little unfair, of course. The tool as a whole has existed for about a month, but I would be lying if I told you that patience was my strong suit.

Looks like March brought bad news for that guy.

In March, Google really did send out a load of letters asking people to clean up their act. It was a warning that went in conjunction with a warning posting in their Webmaster Tools accounts. We are fully white hat around here so we haven’t seen any of these letters or warnings yet, but I’m not going to pretend for an instant that we are immune.

So what can you do to keep this from happening to you?

1. Don’t buy links in bulk.
2. If you use an automated link building service, then stop.
3. Do include link bait on your site.
4. Make sure your page is generally engaging.
5. Do not panic.

When the dust has settled, if you’re doing quality work then you will come out ahead and you don’t have anything to worry about. If you’re a little spammy spammer, then Google’s coming to get you.

If you’ve been following me on twitter, then you already know that we’re working hard to plan this year’s WordCamp for you. We’ve added a few new people to our planning committee this year and have decided to move the event downtown.

We’re thinking of the Crossroads area. You know, right near where we hold our MeetUps!

Registration is opening this week, so clear the first weekend in June on your calendar and prepare to become the envy of all your WordPressing friends.

Add your own plugin suggestions in the comments!

Baby Steps
1. Keep WordPress updated.
2. Make sure your computer is protected, you have a reputable hosting company and use secure passwords.
3. Report security issues when you see them.

There are more Advanced Options…
1. Consider hiding your indexes
2. Change table prefixes
3. Create a whitelist with your IP address

Back that Stuff Up – Manually or with WP-DB-Backup – easily backup your core WordPress database tables and other tables in the same database – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-db-backup/

Known Threats
- SQL/link Injection (text is hidden with CSS)
- Tim Thumb Vulnerability – Acular script is uploaded to the cache directory. Check for it. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/timthumb-vulnerability-scanner/
Admin SSL – encrypts admin panel/post/etc  w/ SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/admin-ssl-secure-admin/

Monitoring Plug-ins
AntiVirus -Malware protection for your blog – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/antivirus/
WordPress File Monitor – Monitors your WordPress installation for added/deleted/changed files; alerts you via email – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-file-monitor/

Status Plug-ins
WP Security Scan – checks your WordPress website/blog for security vulnerabilities and suggests corrective actions – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-security-scan/
Exploit Scanner – searches the files on your website, and the posts and comments tables of your database for anything suspicious. It also examines your list of active plug-ins for unusual filenames – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/exploit-scanner/

Login Plug-ins – (btw, login error messages on WP are telling)
Login Lock – (User Locker also recommended) Enforces strong password policies; provides emergency lockdown features; monitors login attempts; blocks hacker IP addresses; and logs out idle users – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/login-lock/
Limit Login Attempts (like LoginLock but w/ forward and reverse proxy) – Blocks an Internet address from making further attempts after a specified limit on retries is reached, making a brute-force attack difficult or impossible. – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/limit-login-attempts/

Comment Spam
Akismet – checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not and lets you review the spam it catches under your blog’s “Comments” admin screen – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/akismet/
Keypic – checks forms against the Keypic Web Service to see if they look like spam or not and lets you review the spam it catches under your blog’s “Comments” admin screen – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/keypic/

Untested
BulletProof Security – protects your website from XSS, RFI, CSRF, Base64, Code Injection and SQL Injection hacking attempts. One-click .htaccess WordPress security protection. Protects wp-config.php, bb-config.php, php.ini, php5.ini, install.php and readme.html with .htaccess security protection. One-click Website Maintenance Mode (HTTP 503). Additional website security checks: DB errors off, file and folder permissions check… System Info: PHP, MySQL, OS, Memory Usage, IP, Max file sizes… Built-in .htaccess file editing, uploading and downloading. – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/bulletproof-security/

/raiseshand
/bothhands

I know you’re dying to learn, too, so I’m going to ignore the fact that I can’t actually see any hands raised.

Join us tomorrow night at 7:00pm at OfficePort in the Crossroads to learn from Tom Jenkins the basics of BuddyPress. He’s the best and you deserve it.

See you all there!
Josepha

1. Twitter Persona – You don’t have to be exactly “yourself” on twitter, but you do have to be real and consistent. Whether you’re Katie the 24 year old helping teachers or Nick the 46 year old community expert, create a profile for the account and stick with it.
2. SEO Pros – There are a lot of varying opinions on how to optimize a site. Matt Cutt’s has pointed out to us recently that optimizing isn’t a requirement, but when it’s being done we always would hope it’s being done within the confines of best practices. Consider hiring a professional for a better use of your time.
3. Social Media Uses – A phrase that I learned from Blue Zoo sums up the way Social Media circles can be used: Twitter = Happy Hour, facebook = The Livingroom, LinkedIn = Your Office. Use these tools as they were meant to be used, primarily for creating/enriching relationships, not spamming people.

There were so many great sessions being taught and I hope that the takeaway was just as valuable in those I couldn’t attend as they were in mine.

Huge kudos to the coordinating team for such a fabulous conference! Crossing my fingers for a great one next year as well!

First impressions, however, are positive.

Instant feedback about who is on your site and what they are looking at could be immensely useful for anyone who has an off-site campaign to compliment their on-site work.

Immediately apparent downside is that it does not work on any filtered profiles.

The more I learn, the more I’ll share, but I foresee a lot of nerd time in my future!