Welcome to our website, book and course on how to build a secure website! Our goal in this course is to help you create your own secure website using free open source web building tools. This course is intended for those who have already had their websites hacked and want to learn a more secure way to build hacker proof website. It is also intended for those building their first website who want to learn a better way to build a website. It is also useful for anyone wishing to help others build more secure websites.
People may work years to build their website – not knowing that their website home can be destroyed in a matter of minutes by leaving an “open back door” for the hacker to take over their site. We therefore spend more time than any previous web building course describing how to prevent these open back doors. We cover not only several free tools to add to your website to make it more secure, but also how to secure the computer you use to build your website and how to obtain a secure server to host your website. Our goal is to change the way websites are built by providing you with a better, more secure way to build your next website.
While other courses claim to teach website security, most fail to even mention the main way hackers gain access to your website – which is through a hacked Windows computer. This lack of knowledge about REAL website security is why the Internet is currently a Hacker Heaven. Hackers seek out and attack online stores, schools, colleges and other organization websites – costing website owners BILLIONS OF DOLLARS every year.
Insecure websites are a prime target of hackers who use flaws in your website to take over your website. We don’t just help you build a professional looking website, we help you avoid business-killing Ransomware attacks!
Our mission is to help you create a more secure website using a new generation of free open source web building tools. These free tools include the Hestia Control Panel and the Joomla 4 web building framework. Open source means the source code, or software, is free and can be shared by anyone with anyone for any purpose. Open source is like a public library...free and open knowledge shared with the community for the common good. No patents, no hassles, no barriers, no limits!
We will Show You how to Build Your Website on a Solid Foundation
Ideally, your website should be thoughtfully structured like a well organized book. It should be a means of sharing information in an efficient and interesting manner like a well designed course. The problem is that this important process of sharing knowledge in an organized and secure manner has gotten lost in the marketing hype of folks setting up their own website as quickly as possible. Many sadly replace security with convenience.
People fall victim to the lure of a pretty looking website without realizing that underneath the pretty face, their website will soon become a hopeless mess. Novices fail to understand the need for a solid foundation and wind up building their website on a bed of quicksand. Most websites become a dead end as people get locked into inadequate and insecure web tools that can not evolve over time and are easy for hackers to take down.
If you want to build an online business or grow an online community, you need to take a closer look at the foundation of your website. If you want a truly secure website, we will show you how to build it – not the fastest way – but in a way that will actually help you achieve your goals, communicate your ideas and grow your online community.
What about just hiring a consultant to build your website for you?
The traditional system for commercial businesses has been to hire a staff of consultants to build and run their websites. This system of farming out your website to computer programmers works well for larger corporations that have the funds to hire a full time technology staff. But this top down approach does not work well for small business owners and organizations who cannot afford to hire consultants.
The problem with outsourcing your website is that even the simplest of changes requires hiring a consultant familiar with computer programming for a fee of hundreds to thousands of dollars. If you want to send your community a newsletter, that is another thousand dollars per year. If you want to set up a virtual shopping cart, that is another thousand dollars. If you want to promote a new line of products or a new set of services, that is another thousand dollars. Even after spending thousands of dollars, business owners are too often left with an insecure website they cannot manage.
We have created a new and better path. We will teach you how to build a secure website where you have full control over the appearance, content and function of your website without computer programming – simply by clicking on a series of buttons!
Join the Online Revolution!
There is an online revolution occurring in the world today. Businesses are increasingly selling their products and services online. Educational organizations are teaching courses online. Social organizations are building their communities online. Authors are promoting and selling their books online. Families are shopping and researching products online. The sharing of knowledge and ideas is increasingly occurring online. It has been estimated that more than one billion people now use the internet on a regular basis with total sales soon to exceed one trillion dollars! If you want your business or social organization to succeed, it is time to join this online revolution. With our course, you will be able to build your own secure website to bring in new customers, organize your community members and expand your online programs to accommodate future growth.
There is another online revolution occurring at the same time. Web 1.0 brought the internet to the entire world. But folks could only look at websites. They could not interact with them. Web 2.0 allowed folks to interact with websites by clicking on buttons and filling out forms. But business websites were still very insecure and difficult to control. With our books and courses, we are introducing Web 3.0 – real website security and full control over the appearance, content and function of your website – simply by clicking on a series of buttons! With our books and courses, you will be able to build your own secure website to bring in new customers now and expand to accommodate growth in the future.
Here is a summary of our course:
Use a Linux computer to create secure LibreOffice documents. Then use a Debian VPS and the Hestia Control Panel to create a Joomla website with a Helix template. Then install a few important security tools to help monitor your website and stop hackers.
Here are 20 key benefits of our course on how to create a secure website…
#1 We have Real Business Website Experience…
Our unique website building process was created by David Spring M. Ed. David built one of the world’s first business websites in 1994. Since then, David has trained thousands of business owners how to build their own secure business websites.
David is an experienced teacher with a Masters Degree in Education and more than 20 years of experience teaching college level technology courses. With our unique step by step process, you get more than just a pretty website with an About Us page. You learn how to build a SECURE website that hackers can’t take down!
#2 We Cover Real Computer Security…
Website security begins with computer security. Hackers take over business websites by finding and using open back doors.
One of the main back doors hackers use take over your website is by infecting insecure Windows computers with Windows Ransomware. The only way to avoid being a victim of Windows Ransomware is to use a Linux computer to build and run your business website. We therefore teach you how to create and use a secure Linux computer. People are surprised to learn that Linux is easier than Windows!
We explain how hackers attack Windows computers and hide in insecure, closed source document programs like Microsoft Office.
We then show you how to use free open source Word Processing and Image Editing programs such as LibreOffice to replace insecure, closed source programs.
Proof that Linux and Joomla are much more secure than Windows and Wordpress
The US maintains a database called Mitre, of all reported computer and website security flaws (which are called computer vulnerabilities or CVE). In 2021, there were 915 Wordpress security problems compared to only 25 for Joomla. More important, while all 25 Joomla problems were fixed, many Wordpress flaws were never fixed!
Also, the Windows operating system had 759 reported security flaws while the Debian Linux operating system did not have a single reported security flaw! This is why learning Linux and Joomla is essential for creating a secure online store!
In January, 2020, thousands of Wordpress business websites were hacked using a weakness in a PayPal form plugin. Hackers took over these sites and directed users to pages filled with malware. Hackers even set up a fake version of the Wordpress Plugins Directory which would download fake Wordpress Plugins filled with malware – allowing the hackers to take over even more Wordpress websites.
As yet another example of how insecure Wordpress is, here is a September 6, 2020 article describing an attack on “millions of Wordpress sites”:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/millions-of-wordpress-sites-are-being-probed-attacked-with-recent-plugin-bug/
Hackers upload a malicious image file through a Wordpress plugin called File Manager. The image file then executes hidden code allowing the hacker to completely take over infected Wordpress websites.
Even if your Woo Commerce site is not hacked, all Wordpress business websites wind up becoming a disorganized mess over time due to Wordpress missing important essential features such as Image Category Management, Menu Item Type Management and User Access Control Levels. I have personally helped countless hacked Wordpress and Woo Commerce business website owners replace their hacked and hopelessly disorganized Wordpress sites with much more secure Joomla websites.
#3 We show you how to build a secure foundation…
Real website security requires a secure foundation. This includes not only using a Linux computer and LibreOffice to create your website documents but also using a Linux Server with a Hestia VPS manager to host your business website.
#4 We use many more images
The first thing you will notice as you go through our course is the huge number of images. Our course has over 400 images – ten times the number in a traditional course on building websites.
Many of these images are useful in helping you see what the screens should look like when you are building your own website. Other images are intended to promote multi-modal learning. While some students learn best by reading words, others learn best by looking at images. Images have been vastly under-rated both in books and on websites. The human brain has learned from written words for less than two thousand years. But learning from images goes back millions of years and is deeply embedded in the human brain. There are web building books with page after page of text and almost no images. Such text intensive books make learning web building harder than it needs to be. Books and websites should devote much more space to images than they currently do. In this book and on our website, we are trying to set a good example. Later in this course, we will show you how to add and organize images for your own website.
#5 We use simple Click Here buttons, not complex computer programming.
We won’t overwhelm you with complex computer programming. We will do our best whenever possible to stay away from technical computer jargon. Instead of computer slang, we use plain English.
A common problem with many website building books is that they are written by computer programmers who usually have no background in Education or Learning Theory. It is often difficult for programmers to explain concepts and tasks in non-technical terms. Their instructions are often over the head of the general public. It is difficult to be both a good teacher and a good computer programmer as these are completely different skill sets. In our course, we try hard to stay away from computer programming and its convoluted jargon. With the new generation of web building tools we cover in this course, you do not need to become a computer programmer to achieve your goal of creating a secure website. Instead of complex computer programming, we build our website by clicking on buttons. Our focus is on meeting the needs of people who have no background in computer programming. We understand the importance of organizing information into small chunks to ensure that you can become a confident website builder.
#6 We provide you with a Flexible Template System…
A template controls the appearance and structure of your website. The Helix Ultimate template is a free, open source template that allows you to easily customize the appearance of every aspect of your group website. The Helix template also comes with a customizable Mega Menu allowing you to create an expandable main menu which in turn allows website visitors to visually understand how your group website is structured and quickly navigate to the area of the website they are most interested in.
Crucially, the Helix template also provides you with an easy way to add more rows of content to your website as your website products, topics and group membership grows. The Helix template framework also automatically create a mobile version of your website for shoppers looking at your online store from their mobile phones.
#7 Email Newsletters… With most email newsletter tools, someone else controls your customer email database and you wind up paying huge monthly fees just to stay in touch with your customers. We provide you with a free email newsletter tool that allows you to keep direct control over your customer database. Equally important, you also retain full control over the appearance and timing of your newsletters… giving you complete freedom to send newsletters.
#8 Full Control over your website, your data and your future… Many website owners make the mistake of handing over control of their website to someone else. We show you how to create your own secure website so that you retain complete control over every aspect of your website and have the ability to change any aspect of your website at any time.
#9 We show you how to use many more tools
Another difference between course and a traditional web building course is that we spend over half of the course demonstrating how to add and use extra tools called extensions to your website. We cover not just the Joomla core web tools – but also how to select, install and use essential Joomla extensions.
For example, we show you how to create a free customizable slideshow… Display featured articles with titles, descriptions, links and Read More buttons!
#10 We Show You How to Use the Rainbow Template System
We show you how to add much more color to your website with our unique Rainbow Template System!
We show you how to create colorful content with just the click of a button. Our revolutionary Rainbow Template System provides 20 primary color presets, 20 gradient color presets, 20 border style presets, 20 button style presets and 20 full feature box style presets. All of these preset styles allow you to easily and quickly change the background of any menu item, feature box, row or page of your Joomla website.
Add More Color to Your Website Feature Boxes!
But you aren’t limited to just the Preset Styles. We show you how to change these preset styles to make your own designs. Making a colorful website has never been so easy. Our Rainbow Template System works on more than just Custom Joomla modules. It will work on any of thousands of Joomla module types - allowing you to style Joomla Feature boxes quickly and easily.
#11 We use categories and folders to organize website content.
We spend more time than most other web building courses focusing on how to use predefined categories to structure your website content and menu items in a manner which can grow as your website pages grows. This crucial step is as important as planning the positions of your walls when building a home.
#12 We use a Step by Step approach to Website Construction
In our course, we break down complex tasks into a series of simpler tasks. Too often, traditional web courses are presented in an almost random fashion which only confuses readers. We present topics in the order that they are needed to build a secure website.
Another problem with traditional Joomla courses is that there are huge gaps in the instruction with many important topics not covered at all. For example, all of your web pages should have lots of images. How to handle these images is barely touched on in most courses.
We provide you with detailed instructions on how to organize, transfer, store and post images onto your website. Here are 5 Steps for Writing and Posting Articles with Images:
There are plenty of courses that claim to help you set up your business website in a matter of minutes. But a clear and complete set of instructions is always better in the long run than shorter but incomplete instructions.
Create a Secure Website Course Overview
This course consists of the following 9 sections.
We begin by outlining options for using a Linux computer to create and organize your business website documents. We then explain how to create a Debian VPS, how to install the Hestia Control Panel and how to use Hestia to install Joomla with a flexible template called Helix. We then explain how to organize your website content into categories that are then used to create your website menu. We next review how to add colorful content boxes called modules and how to promote and manage your website to keep it secure over time.