Lately, I’ve had nothing but glorious time on my hands to think about an array of topics. And this topic happens to be near and dear to my heart.
I am wondering IF and HOW any of you ‘Back Up Your Blogs’? And how often do you back up your blog content? Daily? Weekly? Monthly? Never?
You see, I read a post by the one and only super adorable Terri Terri, after her website/blog had been hacked. And that really got me to thinking.
What would I do if my blog was to be “hacked”? Moreover, what you any of you do?
I suppose I would do exactly what Terri did. She was able to convert and carry over every single post and every single comment over to her new page and continue effortlessly in her awesome blogging endeavors.
Sweet.
I know most of us spend a great deal of time constructing our posts. We have labored intensely searching for the perfect words. We have carefully selected each image to compliment those words. We have deliberated for hours, even days, or months in some cases, about what topics to write about. A lot of us even count on our blogs to preserve our family memories like I do.
So how do we protect these words and how do we protect our memories?
I have been steadily blogging for two years now. (And loving every second of it.) I have written over 688 posts, many of which took forever and a day to complete. If anything were to happen to all of my work; that would be just about as devastating as having one of my limbs severed.
When I first started my journey as a blogger, I didn’t give much thought to needing any ‘protection’. I wrote most of my entries into good old fashioned Word documents. After running spell check, and upon satisfaction of my final draft, I would copy paste the document into my posts. This way, I always had a ‘hard-copy’ on hand.
I have gotten lazier over the last few months and stopped pre-writing my posts in Word, instead I’ve been writing directly into my blog. However, after reading about what happened to Terri, hard-copy word document posts are a practice I have since reinstated. Alas, that’s just not enough.
What about saving and preserving the comments? How can I ensure the safety of the beloved comments I receive? My fellow bloggers (who have also become my genuine friends) have left me some of the most totally-super-awesome, amazing, beautiful, heartfelt, funny, supportive, comments that I will forever cherish.
How do I protect YOUR words?
Fortunately, I am lucky enough to have not one, but two, girlfriends (in real life) named Leslie Poston & Jen Rinaldi who have backed up my blog and all of its contents to disk. And they have taught me how to do the same as well as how to download the data directly onto my hard drive! Thanks Ladies. You guys did a wonderful job. I am buying the both of you both dinner.
I am completely secure knowing in the event my blog/website were to be hacked I could, and would, be back up and running, in full force, within a matter of hours. Unscathed. Unharmed. With no data lost whatsoever. Yeah, it might be a little bit of an inconvenience, but that nothing worth losing sleep over.
I have also discovered a really cool external blog back up site. The lovely Olga The Traveling Bra told me about it. It was safe, easy to use, and free! I suggest everyone check THIS out.
So. Tell me. How many of you are protecting your blogs? And how?
Too lazy to protect my blog.
Good Morning Meleah. Let’s see, I thought as first I would die a thousand deaths if my blog was deleted or I lost it…I assume I would be “giving back” to the porcelain man…but I’d live.
I back up to my desk top and to my lap top as well. My hosting company backs up…daily I think (gotta check that). I think you can do scheduled backups as well, so it happens automatically to your hard drive. I haven’t tried that option yet. I know where I can find at least 4 back up copies of my blog, so I should be good. Also, on occasion, I email the back up file to myself…my free email account so if I had to go to someone’s house to restore it, I can do it from anywhere and not just my computers hard drive.
I will check out the site, one more won’t hurt. I’d cry like a mother, but I’d live. I think.
Later.
Now I’m worried because I don’t back up. I have a hard copy of all the stories I write but not the other stuff. I’d better sort this out because I’d hate to lose everything. Thanks so much for the link.
Good point. I need to figure out how to do it. I’ve got 900 posts that I may want to refer back to someday.
thanks for the idea.
I copy all my story posts into a single Word doc and the images I have stored elsewhere. My original blog is on blogger and at one time I transferred everything to WordPress, which in essence copied my entire blog. Still, if my blog somehow disappeared, I’d have a lot of trouble recreating it. Looking forward to checking out the link you’ve posted. 🙂
Blogger does not offer the option to back up my blog, so what I have done in the past is copied my posts straight from the blog onto a Word document, but it has not captured the comments.
I just went to the last link you listed and have registered to back up my blog there. Thank you for the link. I am happy your blog is safely backed up should anything happen.
Hugs.
I used to save all my posts in Word on my original Blank Forever but this time, I only save the comments in my Yahoo… all 7900 of them… mainly for reference.. you know.. to catch people in lies haha
I guess if I got hacked I would just start fresh. Honestly, once the post is written and read do we really need to see it again? I’ve saved a couple posts, ones that I took a lot of pride writing, personal ones that involve my childhood or sexual endeavors but most of them? Who cares really.. they’re not exactly like a good book that you need to read a bunch of times to pick up on the story..
I need coffee. And a shower.
My hosting company backs up daily too. Of course, I still might lose some, if people have commented or I’ve posted and then it gets destroyed before the daily back up, but loss would be minimal. I should keep a record of my posts though, I guess, because I write them on site and it would be nice to keep a copy on disk.
When I’m backed up I usually masturbate.
Wait…what was this post about again?
Oh great, something else to ask Jen. LOL
She’s my blog master!
I started writing my posts in Word and then copy/paste them into my blog after I was done. This was done, in part, because Blogger was being an evil whore and eating my edits and pictures.
It doesn’t happen so much on WordPress, but I still do the ritualistic writing in Word the pasting it into a post.
I save all of my posts to a memory stick once a month or so. There are way too many brain cells offered up for me not to preserve them well.
Angry Man:
And I thought I was lazy. I work way too hard on these posts to loose them!
Valerie:
Yeah. My host is pretty good like that too. I’m just OCD about having everything saved like 25 times in 25 places. Just In Case
Selma:
Woman! Back Your Blog Up. Your stories are INCREDIBLE. They could be a BOOK as far as I am concerned. You better click that link and giddy up on that. I would FREAK OUT for you if your posts were ever gone, missing, hacked, Ect.
Hammer:
It’s REALLY easy. My whole blog was backed up in a matter of seconds. I know you’d hate to loose some of your hard work too!
Tree:
I am back to saving everything in Word too. Yanno Just in case. I think you will find that link super cool and very handy.
Ingrid:
That LINK is awesome. It saves all your comments to. And, if something were to ever happen, there is a handy EXPORT button that just moves all of your content! Whee!
Tesco:
I take a lot of pride in 99.9% of what I write here. I also depend on this blog to preserve my family stories and family memories as well, which makes this worthy of protecting. In my opinion. I also like to go back into my archives as a place of reference to see how far I’ve come.
Jay:
My website hosts backs up too, but I am crazy paranoid about protecting my words and my comments. Can’t be to careful right? I figure better to be safe than sorry.
Moooog35:
ROTFLMAO
Thanks for that hardy chuckle. It’s my 1st day back to work in a week and I really needed that laugh on my lunch break
Oscar:
Jen will help you. She is awesome
Diva:
Hmm…I like that save to stick idea.
Thanks!!
Oh geez. I never thought about that, but I would literally FREAK OUT if my blog got hacked or if I lost my posts. Some of my posts contain stuff I want to remember, like stuff about my kids.
So…THANK YOU for this because I am going to back up my blog TODAY!!!
P.S. Check your email, writing budding. 😉
i guess i should think about this…ruh roh
My blogs are backed up once a month by exporting the WordPress XML file which is a copy of all the text of every post and every comment. All the images are stored in a folder on my hard drive.
To restore my blogs if needed, the XML file is imported and the images from the hard drive are uploaded.
If I recall correctly, free WordPress.com also backups all Blogs hosted with them whereas, self-hosted WordPress Blogs may or may not be backed-up depending on the contract with the host provider.
I used to use BlogBackupOnline until my Blogs exceeded the 5 MB Free Limit.
One of my major reasons for moving from Blogger to WordPress was to reduce the threat of the Blogs being hacked. Hackers generally love to use javascript contained in widgets to hack a blog. WordPress restricts the use of widgets. On the other hand, WordPress uses Plugins which can cause problems with the Blog being loaded preventing visitors from viewing the blog.
A general rule of thumb is to keep Plugins to a minimum (under 10 Plugins). Deactivate all plugins before upgrading to a new version of WordPress. Reactivate one plugin at a time to verify it works with the new version.
The primary key to protecting Blogs on any platform (Blogger, Typepad, WordPress, etc) from being hacked is a strong password. Gibson Research Corporation (at: https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm) generates 64 character random passwords.
This password example was generated for this comment:
2$e#HW}”H]ve’Q1Df/HOiHg[*uT!:v1^PhH~.aVI.7
to reveal what a strong password looks like. Some may not want to deal with a long password yet, any password less than 10 characters can be highly vulnerable to hackers intent on invading your privacy and/or destroying your work. A 10 to 20 character passwords changed on varying schedule are as effective as using a 64 character password.
Random Chick:
I know. I would FREAK OUT too.
Go and sign up and start backing up…
Like Now!
(I will check my emails as soon as I get out of this hell hole known as my office! xxoo)
Miss Burrows:
Um. Yeah!
Miss Money Penny:
Wow! You are awesome and crazy smart about all of this! Thank you so much for all of that wonderful information! You Kick Ass!
(I am checking out that link as soon as I get home too!)
xxoo
I did sign up too. Like I said, one more place won’t hurt. I’ll list the site with a link back to you on my other blog of: here you might like this, i know i did.
thanks mHr!
is it time to go home yet?
Hm…I actually don’t do much, other than save each post as a document to my computer (in case I want to further edit for some future lofty goal…), but I’ll certainly check out BlogBackupOnline, for I am quite intrigued.
Plus, I’d be livid if something happened to all my precious posts!
Thanks for the heads up-
I keep a lock on my keyboard … that’s about it!!
There are many posts that I would not miss anyway 😉
Moneypenny is a genius – that’s why I like her so much.
Valerie:
Your welcome.
xxoo
My Favorite Rev:
Check that Mo Fo site out. Its great. At least I think so!! And, check out Miss Money Penny….shes got some GREAT advice ALL OF WHICH I will be investigating!
Speedy:
Dood! She (miss money penny) is the bomb.
I have too many good memories written and stored here.
I’d DIE if they were lost.
i had something really witty here, but forgot to back it up before submitting. it is now gone. sorry.
Olga told me about that too…so that’s what I use. I really should print it out or copy it to word or something. I never have tho.
Right on, I dig that.
Aww Meleah. Thanks for the shout out.
And you just reminded me to back mine up again! You never know with those crazy hackers! I think I would die if all of hard work for over a year tracking my journey through photography was gone. I would have a mind melt. I would turn to a mushy pile of sadness and it would take another year to get over it. LOL!
Off I go to back up my blog again and to put it on my Outlook calendar as a monthly reminder as well.
And just to be safe I think I will save a copy of the back up at work and maybe on my families computers…in case my house goes up in flames. (HEAVEN FORBID!)
As much blog-shifting as I’ve done, I have done a pretty good job of saving old posts to Word. The only huge bummer is losing the comments. Precious as they are to me. All of them. I’d love to know how to save them to my hard drive.
I never thought about backing up my blog. I HAVE however started backing up all photos and have put them on my new external hard drive. Since we almost lost everything TWICE, I try to keep contracts and stuff on the external. Now that I look back at my blog, I would miss this stuff!
HollyDolly:
ha ha ha ha
Drowsey Monkey:
oooh! hmm…printing…YES!
Olga is good like that!
Tesco:
Sweet.
xxoo
Jen R:
Now I toad-ily want to back this up on my moms computer, and JCH’s, and the office!!
Thanks for all your help. I would FREAK OUT if you lost all your photos for over the last year too.
Epiphany:
That link will SAVE YOUR COMMENTS TOO!
I am not sure how to save your blog contents to your hard drive with blogger as your platform. Maybe someone else here knows that one?
Chef Mom:
See! Try that link too. Just. In. Case. And because you really would miss your blog posts and all the comments! I LOVE my comments. You guys are some of the funniest bunch!
I really need to learn how to do this. I don’t fear hackers or computer crashes though. I fear myself. I tend to mindlessly do a lot of things, like thinking, which is very hard to do when mindless.
We’re supposed to be backing stuff up? I never did that. Then again, the brains behind my self hosted blog belonged to BlogPaul and he took care of all that stuff for me, as well as converting everything over to a free wordpress site. I’m running to check out that link now! Thanks!
Michael C:
You are adorable.
Terri:
I don’t know if you HAVE to, but I am.
You just never know. yanno?
I have a “BlogPaul” of my own named Leslie.
They are really HANDY!!
Ok you’ve just put the fear of god into me. I have never for one moment thought about backing up my blog! I think it’s time I seriously looked in this aspect of things. I’d sorely miss some of my posts and the comments I’ve received if anything ever happened to my blog!
Thanks for the link Meleah. It’s so easy to setup and start but extremely necessary for us blogger. If I lost my archives here, I might quite blogging all together. So thanks for that.
Nick:
ha ha ha ha ha…
well calm down.
*deep breaths*
Its very easy to do.
Roshan:
Your Welcome.
Ahhh good question! I haven’t even thought about it.
Now I’m going to start backing up, and I’m sure I’ll bitch about the painful backup process.
But if I don’t back it up, and if it got hacked, well I’ll bitch too.
Looks like I’ll bitch anyway.
Urg!
RMH:
Who doesn’t love a good BITCH Fest?
xxoo
I back up my blog everyday at noon.
Plus it is stored on each of my computers in Dreamweaver so I can instantly upload it if something happens.
I think I am in backup overkill.
You know? That’s a question that I have never thought about. I am a Techno – DUH so I wouldn’t BEGIN to know how to do it aside from printing every post that I have ever done.
I wonder if the Geek Squad would help me with this?
Jen
No backups here, not anymore though. Used to do it soon after I started but now I trust Google to archive everything…
Monique:
Wow. You are very effective!
Jennifer:
I dont know anything about the Geek Squad, but all you have to do is click the link and enter your blog URL, and wait 5 minutes. And your DONE. Including saving all the comments
Rog:
I dont trust Google like THAT!
this really motivated me,, i am a circumstance back upper.. i do so when i am in fear of losing things.. i did sign up for the on line service and made a full backup as well when i read this.. it is the every day stuff i have a hard time with,, and with the service you suggested that seems to take the guess work out of it.. thanks meleah….
Paisley:
You are welcome!
That site requires NO WORK on our end.
Its the bomb!
I have a mega external hard drive which gets the bulk done. Not too bad, I guess. But the link is pretty cool, too! Since I lost my photos a couple of years ago, that sealed it for me and I’m pretty cautious. Good to have a reminder, though…
KellyPea:
Yeah, that link is quick and easy and great! I would DIE if I lost all my photos. Not only do I have them on hard drives, I also have them on disks, and of course Flickr.
Weyuhl…Great question…I subscribed to my own RSS and email feed, so if worse comes to worse, at least I have all the posts. Then, I discovered in Blogger that I can export my blog, and then import it into a new or existing one. So recently I decided that my heart wasn’t into my GloboGeek blog and so I exported it and then imported it into Omyword. I had the chance to publish all of them right away, or manually publish them. So I chose manual and I’m about halfway through that task. Once I’m done, I’ll probably delete the GloboGeek blog.
Now, I need to set myself a schedule probably, and export my two blogs once a month, just to be safe.
OhMyLisa:
I just learned how to import/export blogs in Word Press. Its pretty bad ass! I dont think I can be too careful!
🙂
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