How To Back Up Your Blog

As discussed previously, redundancy is your friend. If you only have one copy of ANYTHING, rest assured something will happen to it. Do you have ONE set of car keys? Probably not. How about your house keys? I doubt it. Why? Because we've all "misplaced" them at one point or another. I told a story about a person who "lost" her keys at a gas station, somewhere between Phoenix and San Diego...with three toddlers in tow. Frantic!



Redundancy is all about having a backup. Sometimes even a backup to your backup. I wrote about the lesson I learned Three is Two, Two is One, One is None. There is supreme serenity in knowing you have a backup plan. As I was sifting through my blog posts and comments tonight, it hit me:

What would I do if Blogger crashed and all my posts and comments were lost?

Me: "*&^^%^&%^%@%@&$%*^%(*^(* !!!!!!!!!"

Don't tell me its not a possibility to lose everything, even if it IS owned by the mighty Google. I've written enough term papers to know computers can and WILL crash just when you are editing your final draft. Always have a backup of your work. So, I thought I would do a post about backing up a blog.  Fortunately, there are some easy options.

1. Email it to yourself. After completing your latest, greatest post...cut and paste it into an email to yourself. I've had the same email address for several years and being able to use a "search" function for a specific email has done wonders for my memory. This is only good for keeping a copy of the actual written post, not the comments, images, ads, etc.
   
2. Make a full copy. Windows users can use the free HTTrack, "the web site copier."  This program will create a fully working, interlinked local copy of your blog for browsing offline. Use this if you ever want to hand out copies of your blog, like SurvivalBlog does for $19.95 as a sort of archive reference. If you have a family blog, full of family pictures and stories, you can burn your copy to dvd and hand it out as Christmas presents. Mac users can use the free app WebGrabber and do the same thing. Note: these options download EVERYTHING on your blog, all your ads, images, links, etc.
3. Save it via XML. Use Blogger's built-in Export Blog feature by clicking the Settings tab once you are in your blogger Dashboard. This feature downloads your blog in XML format (aka Blogger Atom format) which allows you to upload your blog to other blog platforms (moving to WordPress or your own hosted site.) I've downloaded the file but I've never tried to upload it to another blog platform. My guess is that it will only transfer your blog posts and (maybe) images. Not your sidebar ads, layout, css, etc

You've put a lot of hours into writing down your memoirs. It would sure be a BIG disappointment to lose all that hard work now. Do yourself a favor and make it a habit to perform regular backups. Set a reminder in your smart phone alarm or write it down in your daytimer. Make it at least a monthly routine and you'll have one less thing to worry about.

Do YOU have another way of backing up your stuff? Post it in the comment section below.