Better Safe than Sorry!
Posted by Mike | Filed under Blogging, MiscellaneousYou guys can consider this post as (yet another) rant. This post is actually another proof that I can usually come up with a post or two when I’m pissed.
I was working on a blog post about making money online a while ago, and I decided to upload a couple of images using the cool media uploader of WordPress 2.5. I actually had around five hundred (500) words already, but because of the stupid upload thingy, I got a Firefox error. Lo and behold, I lost like half of what I wrote. If you’re wondering what happened to the post, well, I discarded it. 
Well… in this case, a blog post lost is a lesson learned, I guess. I don’t want this thing to happen to you guys, so here are some tips to avoid losing any kind of work — be it a blog post, an e-book, a sales letter, or whatever.
1. Frequently save your work. Come on. It’s not that hard to press the save button! Saving your work and sanity from being lost is just a click away. When I was writing the post, I completely relied on the auto-save feature of WordPress. Now I realized that I should utilize the “save” button. It’s there to make my life easier and safer!
2. Don’t use the WordPress editor when writing posts. Some of you may disagree with me, but I figured that the best way to keep your posts safe is to write it using MS Word or OpenOffice writer or whatever word processor you have. Browser errors may pop up unexpectedly and you can’t just risk what you’ve worked for like 30 minutes or so.
3. Always have back-ups of your sites/databases. Who knows? Your host might just suddenly lose all the data stored in their servers. Always secure your files by consistently backing up all of your files and databases. 
4. Always have the most recent working code of your websites. You might do some tweaking from time to time, but there are instances when you just mess up the code of your sites and your site becomes like a big pile of trash. Again, to be safe, keep the most recent WORKING code of your websites before you do some editing.
5. Save your sites and other files in at least two different file storages. Having it in one USB stick is not enough. Just recently, my 4GB Transcend memory stick corrupted for some unknown reason. Save your files (more importantly your blog’s database and your sites’ files) in your hard drive and one external memory. You can also have two memory sticks and have your stuff stored in both of them. In case one memory stick fails, you’ll have the other one to save your day!
It’s always better to be safe than sorry, guys. Utilize all the tools that you have access to in order to keep your work safe.
Just a short post for today, I’m working on other projects. 
I can’t agree more than that! Just an addition, in case some of your page/blog post is crashed and you did not store a copy for it, it’s still possible to retrieve it back by using google cache (provided your page is already cached by G of course). But still the best way is always save a copy in your hard drive!
This is very true advice…I have 2 websites on one hosting plan and one day while changing website #1 I had to delete my databases…well since I “knew” I wanted to delete it I didn’t bother making a back up…until I realized later I actually deleted the databases of website #2…boy was i mad at myself! Writing things in office first is a very good idea - your computer could freeze up or the power could go out and 9 out of 10 times your lost work will be waiting for you
Same kind of situation happens to me, while type type and type almost finished, and at last when click on publish, poof.. this page cannot be display… it is due to my connection problem here.. I learn that lesson well, and since then, i always type everything in a notepad, or wordpad, once ready and done.. copy..and paste, publish. Thats better safe than sorry too for me.
I know how it feel, jugg.
I dunno. I write it directly. And in wordpress it also autosaves timely..so its all cool
Hi Jug,
I agree on that. I use Windows Live Writer so my posts are saved locally before going online. Make a backup periodically also.
I also clone my hard disk and all my documents once a month at least. Maybe it sounds crazy, but for a year, the method has saved me numerous times. I never re-installed my Windows due to any problems!
I have recently started using Windows Live Writer (WYSIWYG blog post editor - it’s free) and I love it. I make a habit of hitting ctrl-s to save whenever I pause to think. I found the snagit plugin to be a great compliment to Live Writer. Simply click ‘ad snagit image’ do a screen capture and Live Writer will ad the image to your post and best of all, upload it to your blog! It can also keep track of multiple blog accounts. It’s really changed the way I post and I couldnt do without it now.
A snagit plug? I’ll go for it!
Thanks, Kit!
Good post Jug…I conclude that what you wrote above in short word is safe, safe, safe, safe, and safe, right? I guess most people have the experience of loosing data so for sure no one disagree with all your points above.
Never go straight from MS Word to your WP post. You will end up with all sorts of garbage code that Word inputs on its own…it could screw up your post.
Personally, I use the WordPress editor for all my blogs. Just hit the save button every so often. Even if you have an error your blog will be saved as a draft!