iRadar: The 2 Best Non-Techie Ways To Backup Wordpress Blog

The 2 Best Non-Techie Ways To Backup Wordpress Blog: "

If you run a blog and you care about your data, you probably keep backups of your blog, right? What’s that? You don’t? Well, you should. If nothing has happened to your blog yet, you may be one of the lucky ones. What if your site crashes or is hacked? Your webhost keeps backups? That’s good, but what if something goes wrong on their end? It has happened.

Here at MakeUseOf we have covered the topic of how to backup a Wordpress blog before. In fact, I plan on referencing a couple of the articles in this article. What I have found through reading and experience is that there are multiple methods of storing your site files once you have backed them up.

I would like to share some of those methods to backup a Wordpress blog, some orthodox and some unorthodox, and share some of the pluses and minuses of each. Then I would like to share a few quick tips in order to have the safest backup possible.

First let me mention that there are several different parts to your blog that you will want to back up:

The database tables.

The files such as pictures.

Each part of your blog is able to be stored in the 2 methods I am about to share.

1. Back Up Your Wordpress Blog Locally

One of the possibilities when it comes to storing backed up website files is to back them up locally on your own computer.

Files:

In order to back up the files, you can use tools such as FTP clients FileZilla or Cobian Backup. Just access your site via FTP and copy over everything to your local machine.

backup wordpress blog

Databases:

In order to back up your databases one of the best plugins to go with is WP DB Manager (makes both backing up and restoring a cinch). A local copy gives the best control and flexibility.

The downside about a local backup is that you’re also vulnerable to a computer crash. What are the odds of both your site crashing and your computer at the same time? I don’t know but it does happen. You may want to also back up your local files remotely with a service like Mozy.

2. Back Up Your Wordpress Site To A Third Party Service

Another option is to rely on a third party to host your backed up Wordpress files.

Files:

The tip at the end of the last method is a good example of using a third party to keep a backup of your website’s files using Mozy. You can also save your files using Google Docs now that they allow you to save and access any type of file.

Just zip all the files (keeping the directories the same) and save them there, depending on how much data you have. However, for an easier solution, keep reading past the database section.

Databases:

A good example is how Online Backup for Wordpress works when it backs up the Wordpress database to the service’s server instead of your own computer.

backup wordpress blog

Both of the third party solutions for files and for the databases may work fine for you but if you want an easier solution that covers both, I have the plugin for you. Check out the Automatic WordPress Backup plugin. This plugin will backup both the files and the database(s) and upload them to Amazon S3 for you. Cheap storage plus an easy backup? Nothing to complain about.

The third party method has several pluses including not having to manage the files on your system, you don’t have to worry about your PC crashing, and a website restoration could possibly happen from any place if need be. The downside is that you may not want to rely on someone else to handle your precious data. What if they mess up? Like I said before, using multiple methods together is a better idea, just in case.

How To Restore Your Site From Backup

Knowing how to restore your site if something should go wrong is also important.

Files:

In order to restore the files, use an FTP program and upload the backup copy of the files keeping the same directory structure.

Database:

I mentioned the WP DB Manager plugin earlier. This plugin comes with a restore feature which does the database restoring for you. If you have just the database file, you can also use phpMyAdmin (the Wordpress site has a tutorial on this).

What type of Wordpress backup tips do you have? Are there any tools that I could have linked to in any of these methods? How do you backup your Wordpress blog?

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