Long time no blog! During this quarantine, I’ve decided to dive back into journaling and blogging. It’s a great way to keep both you and myself entertained. You might feel like you’ve missed quite a lot, and honestly, it’s been a while since I last updated. I’ll try to catch us up as we go along. In the meantime, stay safe and remember to wash your hands.

So, here we are at day 40. One of my websites got hacked today. It’s not my main one, but it’s still a source of income. Now, I have to deal with a bunch of angry advertisers because their ads are not running anymore.

Another frustrating thing about getting hacked is that it messes up the links from other sites that were kind enough to link to my content. Many sites scan for broken links daily and will remove the ones that don’t work anymore. So, while it can take months or years to build those link relationships, they can disappear in seconds if your site is down.

I use Big Scoots for hosting and generally, they are pretty good. But the last time I got hacked, they charged me to clean my sites, moved them to separate servers, and upgraded my plan. And now I’m hacked again. It feels like all that effort and money was for nothing.

I’m honestly confused about what hosting services are supposed to do. If you store physical items in a storage unit and they get damaged, the storage company compensates you. But with online hosting, they charge you extra and you’re still not any safer after the fix. It makes no sense.

This time, I hired someone to clean up the mess. Unfortunately, the guy didn’t do a great job. There were still some weird files left afterward, but as soon as Big Scoots deemed it “good enough” to put the site back online, I let it go because my energy is limited.

What really brightened my day was the generosity of my readers. They contributed to my spontaneous fundraiser to help buy groceries for Guatemalan families during COVID. A huge THANK YOU to everyone who donated. If you want to learn more, click here.