Plagiarism in writing isn’t always as obvious as copying and pasting someone’s entire blog post. Sometimes it’s subtle. Sometimes it’s accidental. But no matter how it happens, plagiarism can harm your credibility, damage your reputation, and even lead to legal trouble. Continue reading “Plagiarism 101: What Writers Need to Know (and How to Stay Safe)”
It seems like it’s getting harder and harder to ensure that our websites function per the multiple changes to Google’s algorithm updates. The September Helpful Content Update (HCU) is not the latest review but it is worth mentioning. Recovering from Google HCU is not easy, but it is possible. Continue reading “Recover From Helpful Content Updates”
Have you ever searched Google for a celebrity, author, or company and instantly seen a clean, structured box with their photo, quick facts, and social links?
That box is called a Knowledge Panel.
It looks simple enough, but what’s happening behind the scenes is far more powerful than most people realize. That panel isn’t just for show — it’s a signal of trust and authority. It’s powered behind the scenes by Google’s Knowledge Graph. Continue reading “Google’s Supercharged Knowledge Panel: What It Is and Why It Matters”
In a competitive market, trust is what matters most. When you build trust with your audience, you strengthen your reputation — and that’s how businesses succeed. But what does it take to build trust and improve reputation? Continue reading “Build Trust: How to Strengthen Your Reputation as an SMB”
When I first started writing, I focused heavily on SEO tactics—things like adding keywords, backlinks, and metadata. But Google’s algorithm has evolved, and so has what ranks well. Today, it’s not just about optimizing for search engines. It’s about solving customer pain points. Continue reading “Why Solving Customer Pain Points Is the SMBs Smartest SEO Strategy”
Creating content for your business website can be challenging, especially if you’re a small business owner (SMB) or a freelancer just starting out. Knowing your audience is one of the most crucial aspects of successful content creation. In this article, we’ll explore what an audience is, why it’s vital for your business, tips you can use to identify your audience, and how to create engaging and relevant content. Continue reading “Knowing Your Audience: The Key to Successful SMB Content Strategy”
Imagine shipping out thousands of packages, trusting that customer information is safe—only to find out that 14 million shipping labels were exposed due to a preventable security flaw.
That’s exactly what happened in the latest Hipshipper data breach. A misconfigured AWS cloud storage bucket left sensitive customer names, addresses, and tracking details open to the public. Let me explain how that can happen.
An AWS cloud storage bucket is a safe and scalable container in Amazon S3. It’s widely used in industries like e-commerce and cloud computing. Many businesses use it to store and manage data like images, documents, and backups. In other words, companies use it as a digital storage unit to store, retrieve, and organize data remotely.
If security settings are wrong, these buckets can be open to the public. This exposes sensitive data to cybercriminals. That’s precisely what happened in the Hipshipper breach, where an unprotected AWS bucket leaked 14 million shipping records.
For SMBs, this is a warning that cybersecurity strategies are critical to keep data safe.
A misconfigured AWS bucket means the security settings are wrong. This could mean that default settings were left unchanged or permissions were incorrectly assigned. This makes the data available to anyone, even without logging in. Common mistakes include:
Data leaks can be expensive. Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) using AWS should begin using these security best practices:
Proper cloud security isn’t only for large corporations—SMBs are just as vulnerable. In fact, 93% of small businesses utilize cloud computing services, with cloud backup and email/web hosting being the most popular applications. (SBE Council, June, 2023) This widespread reliance on cloud infrastructure makes security misconfigurations a serious risk. A simple error can expose customer data, leading to financial losses, reputational damage, and regulatory penalties.
Hipshipper, a logistics platform used by major e-commerce sellers on eBay, Shopify, and Amazon, did not configure the security settings of its cloud storage in the right way. This occurred during the height of the international shipping time of the year.
It’s unfortunate, but misconfigurations are more frequent than you might think. These occurrences have led to serious breaches. Most are caused by false assumptions:
The impact of a data breach doesn’t go away quickly. Moreover, it can last for a long time and cause serious consequences. Below are some of the more serious ones you might see:
For SMBs, the adverse effects of security flaws can be devastating. Some reports indicate that 60% of SMBs never recover from a data breach and go out of business within six months.
With careful planning, data breaches like this are often avoidable. All it takes is following sound cloud security practices. Here’s what businesses can do today:
While 14 million shipping labels being exposed sounds like an enormous breach, the Hipshipper breach is only one of billions that occurred in 2024. For example, the COMB Data Leak had a massive global impact a few years ago.
It only takes one mistake to put millions of records at risk. So, if you are an SMB, you must prioritize security or risk losing money, customers, credibility, and maybe even your livelihood.
Is your business doing enough to protect customer data? If you’re unsure, now’s the time to strengthen security before it’s too late.
Just when you are feeling pretty good about your website, you are starting to lose visitors, and you can’t figure out why. You are working on your Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and there is improvement in your traffic, but it’s dropping. Let’s look at EEAT SEO Techniques. Below is what I’ll discuss in this article. Continue reading “Complete EEAT SEO Techniques for SMBs”
Let’s face it. From Halloween all the way through Christmas and Hanukkah, holidays are stressful. During the holidays, all the way from Halloween to New Year’s Day, stress runs rampant daily. And even if it’s not the holidays, there are many cognitive benefits of puzzles. Take a read with me at what we’re going to discuss in this article.
1. Benefits of puzzles
2. Types of puzzles
3. Puzzles for older people and individuals with long-term diseases
4. How puzzles can help ADHD
***Disclosure: This post and our website contain affiliate links. I receive a small amount of money when you purchase using one of my links. Please see our affiliate disclosure.***
Completing puzzles offers numerous advantages for both cognitive and emotional health. Puzzles engage both the right and left sides of the brain, providing a workout for the entire brain. The right side, associated with creativity, is exercised along with the left side, connected with logical thinking and attention to detail.
It’s amazing the benefits adults can receive. Let’s see what they are:
1. Improved memory
2. Better problem-solving skills
3. improved reasoning – both visual and spatial
4. Increased IQ – Who would even think this would be possible?
5. Delay the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s.
5. Mood improvement
6. A reduction in stress
7. Increased attention to detail
8. Think better to increase production
9. People interact with each other better.
10. Puzzles make wonderful gifts during the holidays.
11. They’re just plain fun!
There are numerous types of puzzles available, catering to different skills and interests. Jigsaw puzzles, for example, can enhance spatial reasoning and patience. Crossword puzzles can improve vocabulary and general knowledge. Sudoku can help with logic and number skills. Additionally, 3D puzzles and Rubik’s cubes can challenge spatial and tactile skills. Moreover, there are more types of puzzles. Let me catch you up.
1. Jigsaw Puzzles: Comprising of interlocking pieces that form a complete image, they can range from simple puzzles with a few pieces to complex ones with thousands of pieces.
2. Crossword Puzzles: These are word puzzles where you fill in a grid based on clues. Excellent for improving vocabulary and language skills.
3. Sudoku: This number puzzle requires filling a 9×9 grid so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3×3 sub-grids contain all digits from 1 to 9.
4. Logic Puzzles: Puzzles that require logical thinking to solve. They often involve a narrative or a set of conditions that must be met.
5. Cryptic Puzzles: These involve solving riddles and cryptic clues to find the answer.
6. 3D Puzzles: Puzzles that form a three-dimensional model or structure, providing a particularly challenging and engaging experience.
7. Mechanical Puzzles: These physical puzzles involve manipulating an object to achieve a specific goal.
8. Mazes: Path-finding puzzles with the objective of navigating from the start point to the endpoint.
9. Word Search Puzzles: These involve finding specific words hidden within a grid of letters.
10. Rubik’s Cube: This classic 3D puzzle involves rotating a multi-colored cube until each face is a single color.
As a wrap-up, there are many cognitive benefits of puzzles. Each type of puzzle offers unique benefits and caters to different preferences and skill levels for all ages, making puzzles a versatile tool for cognitive enhancement.
The world of puzzles has so many benefits and many choices of different types of puzzles. In addition, puzzles have been known to help people with Parkinson’s, and it was even mentioned that MS patients can also receive help from doing them.
It’s been said that puzzles stop the progression of memory loss, dementia, Alzheimer’s, ADHD, stress, and even depression. They make excellent gifts during the holidays and are also good for birthday presents. Play your heart out!
If you or someone you know is facing mental health challenges or thoughts of suicide, there is help out there. One important resource is the 988 crisis hotline. What could be easier than dialing three easy-to-remember numbers to get help when you need someone to talk to? This article will explain what the 988 crisis hotline is, how it works, and how it can provide the mental health support you need. Continue reading “Understanding the 988 Crisis Hotline”
Do you speak a foreign language? Maybe you speak French, Spanish, or Chinese, or some other language. Or, perhaps you use sign language. Today we discuss markdown language, what it is, and how to use it.
So, just what is markdown language? Out of all the research I have done, I like the way Firefox explains it the best by explaining:
“A markup language is one that is designed for defining and presenting text. HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is an example of a markup language.
HTML is different than markdown. Using HTML is more difficult because of the tags that you use. For example, the opening tag does not have a slash; however, the closing tag does have one. If you use it, I suggest you do not give up on it, but you can make things so much faster when you use simple coding like markdown.
Other examples are this. You can use simple coding if you want to have your web content recognized as a paragraph, a list (ordered or unordered), a heading, a link, or other formats.
For one, the primary purpose of markdown is readability and ease of use. Not to mention, you can use specific characters or punctuation marks to format material to make it bold or italic.
As a quick summary, you can also use simple markdown coding for things like forum posts, blog posts, website content, and applications. It’s also used quite a bit with static site generators.
Summing up, if you are a beginner or advanced developer, and you know HTML, don’t give it up. But if you want a more straightforward way to format your content, why not give markdown language a try. It’s easy to learn, especially with the tips we’ve given you here.
