It can be very easy to get caught up in how fun it is to run your own blog. We don't want to think about the chance that something could go wrong. Unfortunately, sometimes servers crash, files get messed up or lost, or something else inconceivable happens. That is the main reason why backing up your content and your blog as a whole is extremely important.
At the bare minimum, you'll want to keep copies of your blog posts on your hard drive. That way you can get up and running quickly should anything ever happen to your blog. This is especially important if you're using a hosted solution such as WordPress.com or Blogger.com, since they can take your content down without warning.
Unfortunately, doing this will not be enough as your blog starts to grow and you put more work into it. That is why you'll want to make sure you make constant backups. It is easy to do when you have a cPanel host. There is a special area where you can backup your blog and even have the backup e-mailed to you! Save this on your computer's hard drive as well as on an external hard drive so you will always have it handy. Make backup a habit. There are even easy backup plugins for installing on WordPress and Amazon's S3 server for safe keeping.
In addition to backing up your actual blog, you'll need to back up your computer. Imagine if something happened to both your blog and your computer! While it's not very likely to happen at the same time, it definitely could. There are sites that will back everything up for you so you don't have to worry about a thing.
Here is a comparison of some of the best data backup online services:
· Carbonite.com. Price:$55 annual unlimited storage. Overall does a good job of inexpensively backing up key data and showing that it's been saved, but the interface is confusing to use. According to the company, it is working on a new version that addresses many of these concerns.
· IDrive.com. Price:2GB free; 150GB for $50/year (individuals); 500GB for $150/year (family pack); 50GB for $100/year, 100GB for $200/year, 500GB for $500/year(business plan)At first glance, the IDrive interface appears cluttered, crowded and unduly complicated, but that's because it does a lot. After a few uses the flow of the application becomes second nature. The animated videos that show the basics of the program are a big help in getting started.
· Mozy.com. Price: 2GB free; unlimited storage for $55/year or $4.95/month (individual account); 3.95 plus 50 cents per GB/month (business account)Mozy lets you create a copy of your online backups on an external hard drive, but they fall short of the full local backups that SOS offers. Plus, if the external drive loses contact with the host during a backup session, Mozy annoyingly deletes your online files.
· SOSonlinebackup.com. Price: 2GB for $20/year; 5GB for$30/year; $15GB for $50/year; various business plans. The service was only slightly faster than Mozy, but much slower than the others. It took 35 hours, 56 minutes (nearly a day and a half) to back up 22GB of files.
In running a profitable business efficiency is King! Backing up content is critical to your efficiency. When you automate your back up system, you ensure peace of mind that you can get your blog running again-no matter what happens. Blogging is fun - just don't let yourself get carried away without having Plan B (for blogging) ready to go.
About this Author
With over 25 years of experience, Thomas Reidy solves online-offline sales and marketing issues for entrepreneurs. Avoid being "road kill" on the Internet superhighway by getting his free report: "Internet Entrepreneurship Survival Guide" at http://ThomasReidy.com.
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