If you’ve decided to get into affiliate marketing like me, you’ve already realized that if you want to succeed in a 21st-century business, you’ve got to run your business on 21st-century terms. While there are some drawbacks to operating an online business, I’ve personally found the benefits to far outweigh any disadvantages.
Like so many others, you can realize that there’s a huge amount of potential in the online world, and take advantage of that by running a digital business. Why should I, or anyone else, do things the old-fashioned way, when everyone prefers to use the internet in so many aspects of their lives? You’ve probably spent a lot of money online yourself, and I’m here to tell you it goes both ways; you can make money online too, if you decide to commit to a realistic business venture, such as affiliate marketing.
As most of my articles are for those who are new to the online business world, I’d like to cover a basic but important topic in this article. I’d like to go over how to find the most secure WordPress hosting provider. I’ll explain some of the basics on how to go about this, and talk about a factor that really needs to be #1 on your list of things to look for in a secure WordPress hosting provider; security you can trust.
An Online Business Built On WordPress MUST Have A Secure WordPress Hosting Provider
There are as many different ways to make money online as there are in the physical world, though not all of them necessarily require a secure WordPress hosting provider. Some people make money by selling products on existing online storefronts such as eBay, Etsy, or Amazon. Others use the Internet as a way to sell their services, such as freelance illustrators, photographers, designers and other creatives on sites like Upwork.com or Freelancer.com.
However, if you intend to go into any type of e-commerce or affiliate marketing business while running your own WordPress site, you absolutely NEED a secure WordPress hosting provider.
Your website is where business is conducted, leads gathered, sales made, and referrals submitted. Having your site hacked or experiencing other site issues will hurt your SEO, site traffic, and may even get you banned from participating in affiliate programs. Do not cheap out on web hosting or WordPress security!
Once you realize you need a secure WordPress hosting provider, you have some decisions to make. We all generally understand why security is a good thing, but what is it that a secure WordPress hosting provider does for you specifically? Why does security matter? Here are the two biggest reasons…
#1 A Secure WordPress Hosting Provider Will Protect Your Greatest Asset
Without a secure WordPress hosting provider, you and all of the data that is either public or private on your website is vulnerable in many different ways. One of the most frightening ways that your vulnerability can be exploited is when you get not only hacked, but you lose control of your website and its information. You may also get hacked without even knowing it, allowing data from your site visitors to be stolen or resources on your web server used for various cyber attacks.
Another example is a technique known as the “data hostage” which locks you out of control of your own website or denies you access to your own information. You then receive notification from the person or group that has seized control of your data, telling you that you will regain access and control, provided that you make a deposit into an account as instructed. This is similar to ransomware. Failure to do so means you will be forever locked out of your own system, and any data they were in possession of will be destroyed. This can include all your backups if you or your web host do not properly back up your files in multiple locations. For anybody that has sensitive information such as financial data, this is a nightmare scenario.
#2 A Secure WordPress Hosting Provider Will Protect Your Customers
A secure WordPress hosting provider doesn’t just keep you safe, it makes your customers or clients safe as well. If you do any kind of actual business or collect data on your website, that means sensitive information, from credit cards to home addresses and email addresses may be stored there. Getting hacked means that intruders potentially have access to this information, and once it is seized, can actually be sold on the black market.
A hacker may also be able to install malware or viruses on your site that are difficult to detect. It is designed to infect computers that connect to your website, which puts everyone who visits your site at risk if you do not take security seriously. Malware does everything from spying to data ransom measures and more.
The Right Approach To Securing Your WordPress Site
If you’re thinking of starting an online business, and you appreciate just how important a secure WordPress hosting provider is, WPengine is one solution that I confidently recommend. They have a great track record as a secure WordPress hosting provider and they provide a bunch of useful benefits that I’ve always found makes running a business much easier, with a lot more peace of mind. I’ve had some real bad luck with other WordPress hosts, but I have never had a site compromised with WPengine. You can read more about how their security works here.
You’ll get tech support that keeps your website running, with a quick response if there are any issues that need resolving. More importantly, however, you get a secure WordPress hosting provider that you can trust. Every WPengine client, regardless of whether it’s a big company, or a small, at-home entrepreneur, enjoys Enterprise-Grade web security and protection. The company is constantly running its own internal audits and evaluations of security measures to see where things can be improved. And even if you can’t keep up with the updates to WordPress itself and the new security measures, you don’t have to worry, WPengine can automatically run those updates on your behalf and ensure they don’t interfere with your current security measure.
If you want the peace of mind that comes from knowing you enjoy a high level of protection from a secure WordPress hosting provider, WPengine is for you.
