Has it ever happened to you? You log on to your blog only to find some sort of error on the page where your beautiful creation should be? If you’re on a cheap web host, and let’s face, a great many of us are, then you will want to take precautions to back your blog up. There will be nothing worse than facing the day when you experience data loss and your host is very apologetic, but can’t do anything to help you.

If you haven’t thought about blog backup, then start thinking about it now with these easy pointers, because if you aren’t backed up then you could lose out on some serious money:

• Plugins are your friend: There are a number of plugins designed for Wordpress that specifically deal with backing up your blog. Use these plugins, as they often allow you to work without having to use a PHPMyAdmin. The Wordpress Database Backup plugin is easy to use. Just install it like any other plugin and then use it via the “Manage” tab on your dashboard. This will back up your posts, comments, categories, and so on, but it won’t back up your pictures and themes.
• Backup everything: Most hosting services have an option that allows you to back up all your files. If you’re using cPanel then it’s simply a case of hitting “Backup” and waiting for the file. Once you’ve got the file on your server, you’ll be needing an FTP client.
• FTP: FTP clients are incredibly useful tools that allow you to move the files of websites you have access to. With an FTP client you can move files between your hard drive and your website. I use the open source FTP client Filezilla. It’s easy to use. Once you have it installed, fire it up and enter:
• Address: yourblog.com
• User: the name you use to access your domain
• Password: the domain password
• Port: enter “21”
• Now you can access your backup file and drop it into your hard drive. An FTP client is also useful if your host does not provide you with some sort of control panel.
• Backing up using PHPMyAdmin: When you access PHPMyAdmin you ought to check if any of your databases have overhead, or else they might stop working. If any of them have overhead then select the appropriate check boxes before selecting “Repair table” from the dropdown menu. That’s one problem taken care of.
• Click this, check that: To backup a database, click “Export”. Highlight the “WP” files and check “Add DROP TABLE” and “Complete inserts”. Then check “Save as file” and “None” for compression. Click “Go” and save away. Easy. Some blogs have problems running the Wordpress Database Backup plugin, so you may have to use PHPMyAdmin.

So… back up, back up and back up.

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