Be First to Know When Your Twitter Account Gets Hacked

When we heard about recent high profile hacks of the Burger King and Jeep twitter accounts, our heads filled with terrifying what if's:

"What if a jilted ex-lover took over our account (because they know we use THE. SAME. PASSWORD. FOR EVERYTHING) and posted pictures of us in a retainer and whitey tighties?"

"What if hackers replaced our beautiful default background and witty profile description with a rainbow background and Justin Beiber shout out?"

"What if we weren't tweeting regularly when this happened? How would we ever find out?"

That's when a hypothesis hit: our Montastic free website monitoring service could help. It might not prevent the hack, but it might be able to send us an alert email shortly after the hacker strikes. To confirm our hypothesis, we started an experiment with the Twitter account of an employee. That employee was me.

I was elected to figure out how to use Montastic as a sort of booby trap for my Twitter account (Spoiler: it worked). Read below to see how I did it.

3 Steps to Get Alerted When Your Twitter Account Gets Hacked

Step 1: Set up a Montastic checkpoint for my Twitter home page URL: https://twitter.com/ryanluedecke

Step 2: Pasted in exact text from my profile description, telling Montastic to alert me if this text is not present: "2013 Goals: Dunk a basketball, learn guitar, code a website."

Step 3: Hacked my own Twitter profile, changing the background and profile description (see photo above).

Alert Email Example

Success. Seconds after I hacked my own profile, I received this Gmail alert.

The 'Status code: 150 - text verification failure' indicates a change to my profile description. From there I could report the hack to Twitter and regain control of my compromised account.

Damage controlled. Crisis averted.

Want try the experiment for yourself? Sign up at http://www.montastic.com. You can monitor your Twitter account and 2 other checkpoints totally free.

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{Note from the author: As of writing this, I still haven't changed my Twitter profile as I kind of like the new look and I heard Burger King got 30,000 new followers post-hack so maybe I'll get a few thousand new followers after hacking my own account. ;)}

Google Apps Developers: How to Get More Traffic for Your Google Apps Marketplace Listings

Traffic (Are you ready?)                        Photo Credit : Smoking Permitted

Author's Note: Ryan Luedecke here. This blog post shares a case study that's relevant to app developers looking to increase traffic for their listing in the Google Apps Marketplace. If you're in a rush, skim the bold font for the key takeaways and then come back later to read through the details. Let's get started...

I was intrigued to learn that the Google Apps Marketplace has more than 25 million active users and 2 million business accounts. I was thrilled when I realized they weren't just window shoppers. Leading business apps were being installed by the thousands and receiving hundreds of positive reviews from satisfied customers. Talk about scale.

When we first released our Mojo Helpdesk app in the Google Apps Marketplace two years ago we immediately saw results. Our app trials rose 100 percent over the next year, however with increased competition, the traffic we generated slowly started to trickle off. After two years in the Marketplace, we only had ten user reviews and ranked low in search, often several pages back for keywords relevant to our app. We had to adapt quickly or risk being forgotten.

There weren't many resources available on how to grow traffic for established apps so I did an exhaustive review of the Marketplace to see which apps rose to the top when I shopped in predefined categories or conducted a relevant keyword search. I reviewed the listings of the top rated apps in several categories, looking for patterns and commonalities in how they marketed their apps.

Interestingly, most of the top rated apps were doing the same things. Some of the techniques were more subtle than others, but one thing was clear - there was a recipe for success.

Fast forward to today and now we're #1 in search for ticket tracking, #3 for issue tracking, and #6 for helpdesk - all keywords that our target customer might use to find our app in the Marketplace. We've tripled our number of user reviews and new installs are coming through at a faster pace. And we did this all without spending any money.

So how did we do it? And more importantly, what steps can you take to increase traffic and installs in the Google Apps Marketplace? Find out the exact steps after the jump.

Track Your Site and Server Status with the Montastic App

You can now monitor your websites and servers from your iPhone with the brand new Montastic App. Thanks to Cybertron Technologies, the developer of the app, you can easily see the status of your site with colored arrow icons. The app allows you to add, edit, and delete websites and servers. You can also turn monitoring on or off for each site directly from the app.

This gives you even more ways to keep track of your site's status no matter where you are. You will need a Montastic account first. If you don't have one, sign-up for a free account here. Then, download the new app and keep track of your site's uptime from your iPhone.

Monitor Your Website with Montastic Widgets

Montastic has several widgets and apps that make it easier to keep an eye on your servers. Normally, Montastic sends you an email when your site goes down, but with a widget or app you can monitor your websites from your computer or phone. Whether you are on a Mac or a Windows machine, there is an app for you.

You will need a Montastic account first. If you don't have one, sign-up for a free account here. Then, visit our widget and apps page to download a Montastic app and easily stay informed of your site's availability.

Win a $50 Amazon Gift Card from Montastic

Montastic is holding a Twitter contest the week of January 30th.  Each day, we will give away a $50 Amazon gift card to a lucky Twitter follower.



To Enter:

1. Follow @montastic on Twitter.
2. Retweet the following message each day to be entered for that day's drawing:
   Follow @montastic, the free website monitoring service, and RT this for a chance to win a $50 Amazon card. http://bit.ly/zpwy0H

We'll announce each winner on Twitter the following day and contact them by direct direct message.

The last day to enter is February 3, 2012.
Contest is limited to the US only.