Back up Blogging

Considering I’ve had a very stressful and quite shockingly realistic week I’ve decided that I would use the experience that I gained and the lessons I learnt during the last couple of days to write an article on why it is important to back up your blog. This article will be a three part series the first one is looking at why you should back up your blog’s web files. The second will be looking at what to do if you lose your internet connection and the third will look at what to do if your computer breaks.

Backing up your blog, why you should do it?

If you are one of those people who only have a copy of their website on the server that your site is hosted on you should really think carefully whether you should really take such a major risk.

Backing up your website should be a chore that you complete each and every week especially if your posting new information on your site daily. Your taking a major risk if you have not got another copy of your web files saved to either a remote site or on your computer. The reason for this is because most hosting companies do not guarantee that your website will be backed up every week, even every month or even once! It is not regarded as a part of their job or service that they should provide. It is usually regarded as being the web owners responsibility which I agree with. Why should the web host take responsilbity for keeping a backup of your website. Obviously if I owned a web hosting company I would try and back up all of my clients web files just incase their was a major incident which was actually my (the web hosts) fault. However this isn’t always the case most web hosting companies say in their terms and coniditions whether they will back up your website or not so make sure to read your web hosts terms and conditions.

Last week I had a shocking suprise to find that my hosting account had been suspended (most of you probably saw this when trying to enter my site). The first thing I did was contacted my hosting provider and my friend who I have an agreement with for free hosting. However whilst awaiting a reply what was running through my head was the fact that I had no recent back up of my website including no copy of my unique wordpress theme or back up of my website’s content. It was a nasty reality to consider that if the web hosting company had not replied to me or had told me that my site had been totally deleted from their server that I would have to start all over again after a years work.

Not only this but whilst my web host had suspended my account my blogs traffic, all my readers and the potential new subscribers were coming to my site and being told that my account had been suspended which is both unprofessional and a waste of time for me and the reader.

Luckily after two days of no sleep and stressing instead of concentrating on University work my friend contacted me and now its been all sorted. I have now backed up my website with a brand new back up and all is good. However the point I am trying to make is because I hadnt planned for an event like this I was not prepared and it could of been much worse.

I want to make sure my readers are not put through the stress that I went through last week, I want my readers to be prepared for any unplanned event that could take place so they don’t loose out on time, money or potential subscribers.

Please remember to backup your blog!

There are two main ways you can backup your blog the first being

Remote backup this is a backup which runs from a completely different server than the one your site is hosted on. The advantage with making a back up of your website on a completely different server and preferably a different hosting company is that if the current hosting provider you are with has a fire or the building is destroyed or the servers are destroyed or anything else that you will always have another backup saved some where else.

The second way you can backup your website is by downloading your website on to your computer this is a backup strategy most people seem to use and its one that I think works best. If the server your site is hosted on deletes your website’s files either by mistake or delibrately then at least you will have a backup of these files saved some where else.

A third way of backing up your website is through burning the files on to a disc or tape this way you have an external source for your website’s files. It is away from the threats of hackers or being sabotaged by other means.

Overall I think every website owner should backup your website in every way possible just in case. You never know when your hosting provider is going to make a mistake or when the server is going to delete your files or make an error along the way.

I hope this article motivated you enough to back up your blog or website. Thanks for reading.

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