How to profit from hackers

12 May

Here’s a quick business idea (more like “consulting”) one of you can run with.

I got this “Pharma Hack” on my WordPress blog a few days ago.  Apparently it doesn’t have any effect on WordPress blogs, except it changes your title tags in your database (so you can’t easily change them) to promote pills…..this is what it did to my search rankings:

Sooooo……apparently NevBlog now sells Viagra :-)

It’s actually not a “hack” but rather a small “exploit”.

ANYHOW, I ended up paying to get it removed (yet it still came back).  I REALLLLLYYY wanted to do a search for “WordPress Pharma Hack” and see a sponsored result saying:

….instead I found nothing.

I had to personally call Chris Pearson who wrote the most detailed post about the pharma hack to get a recommendation for the removal of this brilliant little exploit.

But these large-scale exploits seem like a GREAT opportunity for WordPress junkies to make a bunch of extra money.  If someone charged $200+ to just “take care of this shit” for me….I would’ve GLADDLLLY paid.

-Nev

 

P.S.  In case you’re wondering, I’m currently moving this blog to WPengine  and they’re cleaning it up right now.

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    24 Responses to “How to profit from hackers”

    1. Fadi May 12, 2012 at 10:43 pm #

      I used to do this on twitter whenever I have nothing to do and wanna make quick money, search #wordpresshack and offer help.
      btw try cloudflare.com its really good and they got free plan

      • Neville May 14, 2012 at 12:11 pm #

        That’s actually a great idea!

    2. Geert May 13, 2012 at 6:00 am #

      Nev, I would have GLADDDLLYY taken care of that for you for free … give me a tweet next time! Those exploits can be a pain in the A$$
      If I can give you some tips, I use 2 WP plugins to secure my sites: “better WP security” and “wordfence Security”. They help to prevent this kind of hacks and warn you when they happen and so far they really work their magic for me.
      If you don’t want to install these, another easy trick I use is Google Alert. Just create an alert for your website and keywords like Viagra, etc .. And then when your ‘hacked’ page gets indexed,myou will get an Alert, so you know you’ve been hacked.

      • Neville May 14, 2012 at 12:12 pm #

        Thanks man! Shoulda called you first :-)

    3. The Heasman May 13, 2012 at 3:42 pm #

      Oh yes, WPengine are THE SHIT, I got instantly converted after reading about them on Kalzmeus’s blog http://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/02/09/why-i-dont-host-my-own-blog-anymore/

      Unfortunately I wasn’t blogging at the time, hence I’m using some other shitty hosts. Thanks for the reminder, gonna change over to them asap.

      • Neville May 14, 2012 at 12:13 pm #

        Yeah….it seems WAY more expensive, but since my blog is kinda part of my business, it’d be worthwhile to have it beefed up a bit!

    4. Benjamin Williams May 14, 2012 at 11:12 am #

      I cleaned up an eval() and base64_decode() hack from a guy’s WordPress powered site. Said I would do it for “public thanks”. Burned a weekend removing it from multiple sites he ran that all were infected due to everything being “on one server”. I never got the shout out.

      • Neville May 14, 2012 at 12:13 pm #

        “gimme money” is better than “public thanks” ;-)

    5. Arik Ermshaus May 14, 2012 at 6:15 pm #

      First thought I got when seeing the “hacked” title:

      Nev got a new, wired business idea going :D

      • Neville May 22, 2012 at 12:37 pm #

        hahahah…..nope, just plain got HACKED!

    6. Mark Syrus May 15, 2012 at 4:07 pm #

      I’ve used WPengine for an number of my WordPress sites. The major drawback is the price. If you have a blog that’s no an extension of your business or you sites doesn’t get a lot of hits, then it’s better to have your WordPress blog hosted somewhere else.

      • Neville May 22, 2012 at 12:37 pm #

        true.
        fortunately my blog sorta DOES tie into my business, so I’m good on that end. Otherwise it’d be major overkill to use WPengine vs. a $3/month hosting account.

    7. cheap accountant May 19, 2012 at 12:34 pm #

      I didn’t know anything about this but was great to read your blog, much wiser now.

    8. Dr Mark May 22, 2012 at 6:24 am #

      If someone charged $200+ to just “take care of this shit” for me….I would’ve GLADDLLLY paid. EPIC LINES Sir

    9. andrew woo May 22, 2012 at 12:05 pm #

      Our blog got hacked along with two big info-marketers I bought stuff from and have even been featured on Appsumo.

      • Neville May 22, 2012 at 12:39 pm #

        It happens to the best!

        This is why I’m moving to WPengine…..I don’t wanna deal with it.

        Instead I will pay monie$ to someone else to handle it (WAY better than I can).

    10. Chris Ramsey May 24, 2012 at 3:07 pm #

      I just sent my VA detailed instructions on finding clients for this service.

      Thanks for the idea Neville. Lovin’ it.

      P.S. Liam Martin’s supposed to be sending you a message from me. If he doesn’t, kick him until he does. It’s very important. :P

    11. Connie May 24, 2012 at 4:45 pm #

      Hey Nev,

      I just wanted to reach out on behalf of GoBankingRates.com to congratulate you on a great site! I’d love to see how we can work together.

      Please shoot me an email if you’re interested in chatting :)

      Thanks!
      Connie

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    13. natpatsorn taweeparn May 31, 2012 at 3:30 am #

      I known WordPress. but I not like Viagra. so bad hacker.

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