How would you feel if that actually happened??
I personally know MANY people this has happened to in the last month.
Examples:1. The client who’s website suddenly dissapeared without explaination or reason. The hosting company just said it wasn’t there.
2. The bunch of mastermind member’s who’s hosting company had a big glitch and multiple people lost partial and full websites.
3. The colleague who ended up getting hacked and had some very inappropriate links placed on every page of their website and blog.
Many of them are now asking a question they wish they’d asked sooner: “How do I backup my website?”
I created a video to show you the easiest way I know (or you can see the written directions below):
1. Log into your hosting cpanel.
2. Click on ‘Files’ > ‘Backup Wizard’
3. Click on ‘Backup’ (There are two options: I recommend doing a Full Backup, not a Partial one.)
4. Make sure your email address is entered into the box and click ‘Generate Backup’
5. Wait for an email to tell you your backup is ready. Then log back into cpanel and click on ‘Files’ > ‘Backups’.
6. Download your backup in a minimum of two (2) places. That’s it!
Do this on a regular basis if you are updating your site regularly. If you update daily, then backup daily if you don’t want to lose anything.
As you might already know I use WordPress software to create all my websites and I also teach other people how to do so. One of the great things about WordPress is that there are so many add-ons that help automate and simplify your workload.
In the next few weeks I’m going to be letting you know about a workshop I’ve got coming up about how to use Plugins to automate your backup, how to do security updates, safety measures to take and what to do if you actually DO have a problem.
UPDATE April 27th:www.WPSafetyMojo.com is available if you need more information on how to automate the process of backing up your websites and updating your WordPress installation. Check it out and save $20 with the coupon code below. There’s no reason why ANYONE with a website shouldn’t be backing it up properly so your investment of time, energy and MOULA is protected!** Coupon code: safetyrocks
(** There’s no guarantees you’ll never have problems, but you’ll be a very smart cookie if you do your best to prevent them BEFORE they happen **)
Keep an eye out for that and sign up for the email list to the right if you want more tips on websites, WordPress and keeping yourself protected!
Remember: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
PEACE 
Twitter: TrafficColeman
says:
I tell people to have a back up for the back up..it happens to all of us.
“Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”
TrafficColeman´s last [type] ..Getting Your Guest Posts Accepted 95 Of The Time
Twitter: AngelaWills
says:
Yep I totally agree. I think I’ve been WAYY too lucky so far as I’ve never had a problem (knock on wood). I have been helping so many people with this lately though that I know I’m just a lucky ducky.
this websit isn’t opened. pl cooperate. thanks
Twitter: AngelaWills
says:
Sorry I don’t understand. Can you explain what you mean? What website isn’t opened? Are you having a problem viewing the video?
Angela
I have been fortunate as of late but this reminds me of a time when I lost everything from a virus and had to pay a company to restore or capture only partial data, the rest was lost in computer nowhere….. Angela, do you recommend local backups or something online? I have been thinking about this as I tried an automatic backup on my desktop called Seagate and it also was infected at the same time as my computer.
Any thoughts?
tinaltweets
Tina @tinaltweets´s last [type] ..Hello world!
Twitter: AngelaWills
says:
HI Tina,
Thanks for the comment!
Yep I would recommend a local backup as well as a backup offsite. There is a plugin that I’ll be recommending in my course called Backup Buddy from pluginbuddy.com that will actually backup to Amazon s3 automatically on a regular basis. It will also send a backup via email which can be great.
As mentioned above it’s really smart to have backups for your backups to avoid what happened to you.
Hi Angela,
I am very grateful to find your post.
I am new to blogging with wordpress (I used joomla before) therefore the back up thingy is completely new to me too.
Your video is truly useful, thank you.
~J
Jenny@Superpad 10.2´s last [type] ..Superpad 102″ Tablet PC- Google Android 21- Webcam- GPS- HDMI- USB- WIFI- 2 micro SD card slots Review
Twitter: AngelaWills
says:
Glad you enjoyed the post Jenny! Thanks for the comment.
Great advice, and how wonderful you provide a video!
I once lost everything on my blog and had to recreate it. I had all of the blog posts on my hard drive, but it was so time consuming and stopped my business dead in its tracks until I could get it back online.
Great information!
Deborah Richmond´s last [type] ..Comment on Ebook by Paul
Twitter: AngelaWills
says:
Hi Deborah!
Thanks for the comment. Sorry to hear you lost a whole blog once. Great point about having the posts on your hard drive. Having a way to automatically add that back in (such as having a full database cpanel backup) is so important but I see you learned that the hard way.!
Glad you liked the psot
Twitter: italysound
says:
Hi Angela,
I have always used Dreamweaver so the WordPress backup thing is new to me too. I have been holding up on backing up (never did it before) as I understand there are two parts – backing up the regular files (images, posts, etc.), and backing up the WP database. The instructions you gave, is that just for the files or does it backup the database too? If just the files, that’s ok too as one can always recreate the site if you at least have your files. But, I am still bugged about the database part, or will you be getting into that in your course?
Because I am new to making WordPress blogs, I am quite anxious to learn all I need to, to be functional and protected. Can you estimate when your workshop will be? Also, I did go through the settings for the security and learned you need to upload an .htaccess file (for added security). Though I am not totally understanding the full function of this file, I did find a website which addresses this issue and it gave a small code, to be put in an .htaccess file, needed to upload to the WP-admin area, but I am not comfortable doing so without checking it out with someone who knows this stuff. Will you be covering that too by chance in your workshop?
One last thing, will your workshop be covering mobile marketing? I know WP has mobile-phone-ready templates, but if your blog is already created, is there a plugin to convert it so it is mobile ready?
This turned out to be more than just a comment. Hope you don’t mind.
Diane´s last [type] ..Learn What Search Engine Optimization Can Do For Your Website
Twitter: AngelaWills
says:
Hi Diane,
thanks for your comment.
In the video the method I showed also covers the database. It’s a good idea to also backup and restore your database as it can take a long time to recreate posts and pages if you don’t have the database to pull in.
I’ve actually decided to create a video tutorial course rather than a workshop so that my customers can refer back to the information again and again. I will definitely consider providing information about the .htacess files.
As for mobile websites, no, that doesn’t get covered in the security course. I do have another course called Website Design Mojo where I will be covering that in the next section. It’s here:
http://www.WebsiteDesignMojo.com
Twitter: italysound
says:
Thanks Angela for your response. You answered all my questions. Will consider the WebsiteDesignMojo.
Diane´s last [type] ..Learn What Search Engine Optimization Can Do For Your Website
As a website owner, I know how much of a pain it is to manually back up my websites. I created http://www.backupmachine.com out of that frustration. It’s an automated daily website backup service that works with any website and web host. I hope that a few of your visitors find it useful.
Twitter: AngelaWills
says:
Hi Andi, thanks for the comment and the link. Looks like you’ve got a good service there.
I looked on your site but didn’t see the answer: where do the backups get sent to? are they put on the server?
I’ll be checking out your service
Hi Angela,
Thanks for checking out Backup Machine. We use Amazon S3 for storage, which is the same high-level storage used by services such as Dropbox. It’s secure and reliable, so is the perfect option for a service like ours.
Thanks!
That’s interesting–I didn’t know you could backup files from the cpanel. I installed a database backup plug-in a while back. Good thing; I also didn’t know people’s websites disappearing was so common (could that depend on how well the hosting runs the servers?).
Emily´s last [type] ..The Reluctant Survivalist
You hear all the time: do backups of your site. But do I listen?? NOOOO. HOWEVER, after listening to the webinar and then looking for more info on MarketerMojo.com I decided to do it. It was very easy and I had all the intentions of doing it on a regular schedule. About 10 days after I backed up my sites (I have 8 sites – of course not all I’m working on.), I was deleting some old files of domains I no longer have that were on the server. I’ve done this before with NO problems. After I finished cleaning out the files, I went to one of my sites to do some work. It was gone. I found all my sites were gone. Even the new site that I had just put up all my pages and 4 article posts. Even the site I’ve had up for 2 years. GONE! The hosting account had a backup that was before mine, so I went on and used mine. It worked AND it also restored the new stuff I did after the backup. So go figure. So I lost nothing.
So, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you! The timing was right. Your nudge saved me from disaster. (Of course, I wouldn’t lived. lol)
BTW, I back up on a regular schedule AND before making any major file deletions.
Donna
Twitter: AngelaWills
says:
Hi Donna,
Thanks so much for your comment! Wow it makes my day to hear my advice was so helpful to you. Good for you for doing your backups and saving your site from disaster