Blogging Journey: Spring for the upgraded security on your website

This post is one of many in my Blogging Journey. Follow along, because those pros are ignoring some hurdles that we can jump over together. 

Did you know that if you haven't sprung for an SSL Certificate yet for your blog, your credit card information can be found and attached to all of your contact information?

I didn't.

Since I followed my own advice and created more content before tinkering with the website layout any longer, the technical side of my website design took a brief hiatus.

Today’s “What Should I Have Done?” moment is brought to you by the letter “S” for Security.

I can only speak for Bluehost because it’s my website hosting choice and I haven’t worked with others, but I imagine they work similarly. Each provides a basic, entry-point level to get your foot-in-the-door and allow you to get acquainted with their program before deciding what add-ons you may or may not need.

In standard fashion, I wait to pay for the best value until doing some research. No need to increase your expenses pointlessly, especially in the early stages or if you are only writing as a hobby.

Very quickly, I started learning that it is absolutely worth it to upgrade your hosting site for added privacy and security settings.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Starting a blog? Spring for the added privacy and security settings. You won't regret it. ” quote=”Starting a blog? Spring for the added privacy and security settings. You won't regret it. “]

Unsolicited Calls

I bought three domains across a few weeks (classic over-achiever in me) and while not a single one had yet launched, I suddenly had more “Unknown” or “1-866” phone calls in the last few weeks than I had total in the last six-months, so I found it hard to believe it was for any other reason than my new registrations.

Oh that, and of course the fact that one call that I did opt to answer was from a Web Design Company offering to build my new website… one which I never heard of and when I had never solicited any information for help to build my new site.

Public Contact Information

I stumbled around social media with complete “newb” questions. A high school classmate I hadn’t spoken to in years kindly reached out to help.

Within minutes of providing him my domain name, even though my site wasn’t even live, he quickly told me he found my phone number, address and full name as the owner of the site, which can be quickly linked to credit card information (see below) and how many people find themselves down the rabbit hole of identity fraud.

Even if you intend to build a small, personal site to share with only friends or family (or even just yourself,) be aware that the second your information goes online, somebody can and will find it. Keeping costs low is important, especially if you will not be monetizing your site, but sometimes the upfront cost is better in the long run.

I quickly opted to pay the upgraded privacy fees, and have not noticed this problem since.

Get the SSL Certificate

When you go to a new website and you get a popup warning you that the certificate is not verified and asking if you trust it, what do you do?

I usually click away and decide there are plenty of other resources out there.

If you want your site to register as a trustworthy resource and appear to all web searchers, you need an SSL Certificate.

The bigger problem is that any computer between you and the server can see your credit card numbers, usernames, passwords, and other sensitive information if it is not encrypted with an SSL certificate.

The bigger problem is that any computer between you and the server can see your credit card numbers, usernames, passwords, and other sensitive information if it is not encrypted with an SSL certificate.

How scary is that??

Some of us just like to write, others seek a sense of community… many unknowingly opting into what otherwise would seem like the “plenty good enough beginning package” of website hosting.

Luckily, Bluehost has been easy to work with and you can quickly upgrade at any time.

I’ll be sure to keep you posted as I learn more about security and privacy issues. Maybe the helpful strangers on the other side of the 1-866 phone lines have some words of wisdom!