Simple.

It illustrates how easy I’ve made it for my blog to be backed up. I figure this is where I was the other day right about the time my computer kicked on and backed up my blog for me.

How easy have I made this process? As easy as me doing nothing after the initial set up.

Yep, that’s right. My entire blog’s backup process is on autopilot and takes no further work from me to do–and in this article, I’m going to show you how I do it. (Note that SyncBackSE links are affiliate links)

2 Methods You Can Use To Automate Back Ups

The best two methods I know of to automate your blog’s full backup process is either:

1. A combination of a free database backup plugin and the program SyncBackSE . . . or
2. The BackupBuddy plugin

Each method will cost you a little money up front, but hey… your blog is worth it, right?

I use method #1; but let me first explain how these two methods work and then I’ll explain why I use method #1.

Method 1: Using SyncBackSE and a Plugin (way I do it)

Cost: $30

Backing up the database on autopilot

There are a number of database backup plugins for WordPress you can use. If you don’t already have one, Google “WordPress database backup plugins” and I’m sure you’ll find a few. I use the WP-DB-Backup plugin by filosofo.

Make sure whichever database backup plugin you install lets you run “Scheduled backups” and then set up the plugin to email you your database backup once or twice a week.

Okay… database backup set on autopilot, now let’s move on to your web hosting files.

Backing up your hosting files

To create a full backup of your site, you need both your database backed up and your web hosting files.

SyncBackSE is an AWESOME program.

There’s a one time fee of $30 to buy the program (free to try) and it’s well worth the money. Imagine one day if you or a developer mess up your blog, or your blog gets hacked… this one time charge of $30 could save you hundreds, if not more, down the road.

Here’s a screenshot from their site of some of the things you can do with SyncBackSE

Once you got the program, use the scheduling feature to automatically download all the files on your web hosting account to your computer. You can even have it zipped up. The scheduling can be set to back up your site however often you want, and it’s so easy to set up.

One question you might have is, “How does this program automatically back up my hosting files if my computer is turned off?”

Yes this is a program which runs on your computer, not your web hosting account like plugins do. So the way around this is to simply tell your computer to “Hibernate” rather than do a full shut down when you turn off your computer. It’s perfectly safe.

This will let SyncBackSE automatically turn on your computer and run its scheduled backup.

Pros: For $30 you can back up an unlimited number of any kind of website–yours, your clients, test blogs, html sites, blogs, etc. Also, you don’t have to store backups online, they can be downloaded to your computer automatically.

Cons: You’ll have to make sure your computer is on for a scheduled back up. This can be worked around through the use of putting your computer in hibernation mode.

Method 2: Using the BackupBuddy Plugin

Cost: $45-$150

This is an excellent premium plugin (hence the cost) and it will back up your web hosting files and database. You can even set it up to run on autopilot. Here’s a screenshot:

Backing up the database

Just like other database back up plugins, make sure to set this one to regularly email you backups of your database. Database file sizes are usually small enough to do this.

Backing up your files

Have the plugin scheduled to automatically back up your hosting files and store them on a web server. From there, you’ll then be able to manually download this zip file to your computer. For security purposes, I highly recommend that you don’t leave full backups of your site on a web hosting server, so be sure to delete the backup which is stored online once downloaded.

PROS: Since the plugin resides on your web hosting account, it doesn’t matter if your computer is turned on or off, the script will run either way.

CONS:

More expensive to set up than Method 1 and without shelling out $150, you’re limited to a specific number of sites you can use this plugin for. Also, this plugin only works if you have a WordPress blog. If one of your other sites is an HTML site on another domain, it won’t back it up.

Conclusion

If you don’t have a good system in place for backing up your blog, find one! Keeping regular backups is extremely important and as a blogger it’s something you need to put on your to-do list.

I personally use Method #1 because for $30, I can use a plugin and SyncBackSE to automate the back up of however many sites I want, regardless if they’re a WordPress site or not. BackupBuddy is still a good option, though.

So pick a method and check that item off your blogger’s “to-do” list.

Related posts:

1. How To Fully Backup WordPress Anytime With Just A Few Clicks
2. More Web Tools To Make Your Life Easier & More Profitable Online
3. Blog Hacking Alert and What You Need to Do Today!

Procrastination is the killer of all that is good, if you ask me. Let’s take blog security.

I don’t think there’s a person out there that after learning just how much of a problem WordPress hacking is that it’s a good idea to enhance the security of their blogs. However, something I’ve noticed over the years is that when it comes to securing their blogs, bloggers seem to be stuck in this *reactive* state.

They don’t do anything until something has been done to them… until something bad has been done to them.

I live in Las Vegas. Las Vegas seems to be on the “bad” list for just about everything, crime included. It’s sad that I don’t feel real safe at night, but at least I have a house alarm which makes me feel a little more comfortable. Yes it is a reactive security feature I’ve set up, but it’s a proactive step. Many people don’t install house alarms until guess what? …they get robbed.

Why is that?

Because they get scared. It seems being scared is a big motivator. I scared one person when I emailed them to let them know I found a huge security hole in their website. Take a look at what I found:

If you click on the image above you’ll see that those are all database backups someone did for their blog. I found this (as well as many others) online and ready for download. If I were a bad, bad person, I could have done a lot of damage here, but instead I emailed the website owner their security problem. Hopefully they fixed the problem.

Let Me Show You Why You Need to be Careful

Since scare tactics seem to be what drives some people to take action (or at the very least start thinking about the problem), let me shoot a few scare tactics your way.

Let’s pretend I’m Joe the Butt Hole Hacker. I have nothing better and more productive to do with my life than hack into people’s sites and blogs and make their lives miserable. I don’t care about all the hard work and time you’ve put into your blog, I just want to break it.

Here’s some things I might consider doing.

1. Hang out at a local coffee shop or some other public area where there is free Wi-Fi.

After spending a few days and hitting a few spots around town, I finally find a cafe which offers free, unsecured Wi-Fi and to my pleasure, there are a ton of people sitting around each day connecting their laptops to the “free” Internet service. I sit down and use my handy dandy Wi-Fi cracker tool and log myself into people’s computers… remember, they’re all on a shared network.

From there it’s easy, all I need to do is upload a virus or key logger program so I can track your keyboard movements. “Hey look at that, that girl over there is logging into her blog. Here, let me see what she’s typing in her username and password for something.”

Lesson: Don’t trust free Internet connections. At least make sure the place uses a secured Wi-Fi connection if you’re going to use it.

2. Create fake online profiles

Since I (our fictitious hacker Joe) has nothing better to do with my time, I’ll go ahead and set up some fake social media profiles. Here, let me go to your blog and check out who your friends are and who you trust.

Got ‘em.

Now let me head over to one of your friend’s sites and take a couple screen shots of their blog, personal photos, and note a few names.

Got it!

Now it’s time to sign up for a new Facebook account and use this person’s name and identity to pose as your friend. Once I get it all set up, I’ll be emailing you posing as your friend and asking you to be friends with me on Facebook (or Twitter, or whichever social site).

Cool, now we’re friends. “Hey buddy, I’ve started doing blog upgrades. Tell you what, if you’ll do a review of my Facebook page and give me a little feedback, I’ll upgrade your blog for you – no charge. I’ll just need your username and password.”

Or perhaps it’s your computer I want. Instead, maybe I’ll just befriend you on Facebook and send a link your way telling you, “You gotta see this video! Click this link here.”

Oops, did I forget to tell you that link is not really a video? It’s a virus I created just for you!

Lesson: Don’t trust anyone online at all times. Yes you might make friends and over time you might even trust them, unfortunately, someone can use that trust against you.

Case in point: the other day my wife was watching Dr. Phil in the other room and when I heard him say something, I got up, walked out of my office and asked her to rewind it (oh how I love TiVo).

Dr. Phil said that someone was posing as him online and asking people to do something, like download a file or something… sorry, I forget now what that was. He said it was a fake site and he has never asked someone to download anything of the sort.

3. Password Guessing

As I (our fictitious Joe the Butt Hole Hacker) knows, people have way too many usernames and passwords to remember. You’ve got Twitter, Facebook, your online banking, LinkedIn, two blog logins, FTP, web hosting, etc. accounts which all come with logins and passwords you need to remember.

If you’re one of the proactive ones, I might find it a little harder to crack your password. But if you’re one of the reactive ones, I might just get you.

According to an article in the NY Times, one of the most popular passwords going around these days is 123456.

Lesson: Do I really need to say it?

I understand that since the birth of the Internet as we know it, things have gotten a lot harder to control and secure. People in 2010 assimilate 10 times the amount of information each day than people did in 1980 (that’s not a scientific study I did, just logic). I understand it’s hard to have a different username and password for all your online profiles, unless you use a program like Roboform (PC and affiliate link) or 1Password (Mac), which I HIGHLY suggest.

But realize that online security is something you really need to start thinking about. Don’t just be the reactive type, take steps to start protecting yourself today. Don’t let Joe the Butt Hole Hacker make your life miserable and turn all that you’ve worked so hard in creating come crashing down in a matter of seconds.

The point of this article is to hopefully get those of you who don’t think much about online security to start thinking.

So, did I put a little scare into you? Or is this just information you accept and figure if it happens, it happens?

Related posts:

1. WordPress Defender: 30 Ways to Secure Your Blog from Attack Anyone Can Do

It’s also almost Christmas and she’s almost finished shopping for me. The other day she asked me if there was anything I wanted which pertained to blogging.

I thought, “Hmm . . . that’s a good question. What kinds of gifts can someone get for bloggers?”

I headed over to Amazon.com and began surfing around for gift ideas. Here are some ideas in case you’re ever in this situation.

Computer Hardware

Books & eBooks (downloadable books)

		WordPress SEO Secrets (eBook) If the blogger you’re buying for is a WordPress blogger (you may have to ask), then one of the most important things for them learning how to do is to drive people to their blog. WordPress SEO Secrets will help them learn how to set up their blog and insert key components into their articles so that search engine users can find them.

		31 Days to Build a Better Blog (eBook) I purchased this book and loved it, and so will the blogger you’re buying this for. This book is written by probably the world’s most known problogger, Darren Rowse. If there’s one thing he knows how to do, it’s grow his blog and make money with it. In this eBook, he helps us blogger “build a better blog”. Well worth the money.

Write For The Web (eBook) If the blogger you know writes for a living, this is the eBook for them. Master copywriter James Chartrand of Men with Pens shows in this eBook how to get your writing business started and how to turn it into a real business. I have to say, this is the visually prettiest eBook I’ve ever seen, surpassed only by the content written in it. This book is a must have for not only writers, but bloggers who wish to learn how to write better articles for their blog and readers.

Software

		RoboForm Password Manager I cannot say enough about this product. I’ve used it every single day since I purchased it – many times a day, and if you buy it (or buy it for someone), you will too. Bloggers network on many different sites, such as Twitter, StumbleUpon, MySpace, Facebook, etc. All these sites require a blogger to have a username and password. For security purposes, it’s important not to use the same password for every site. RoboForm remembers and stores all their usernames and passwords in one place, encrypted, and with one or two clicks a blogger can be taken to and logged into their accounts.

		SyncBackSE (for easy backups of websites) SyncBackSE is another product I use all the time and highly suggest for bloggers. Bloggers put LOTS of time and effort into building their website and getting everything to look and read just the way they want. Unfortunately, sometimes blogs break and unless the blogger has a working backup of their site, everything could be lost. Furthermore, many bloggers don’t bother to keep updated backups of their files because, well, it’s not a fun process. SyncBackSE makes it easy for them to back up all the files contained on their web hosting account. Once set up, it takes about two clicks and you’re done. Nice, simple, and effective. It can also be set up to work on autopilot, so the blogger never has to worry about it.

Gifts For Bloggers Wanting To Start Video Blogging

Between my blog and WP Blog Host’s Television Channel, I do a lot of video blogging. Here are the products I use (or have used) and know you can’t go wrong with if the blogger you know is looking to start video blogging.

Other Ideas

Trying to figure out what to give as a “blogger gift” can sometimes be challenging. It’s good to know what the blogger really wants or needs (though sometimes they don’t really know what they need if they’re still new to blogging).

- Sometimes bloggers have a “Donate” button or “Amazon Wishlist” in their blog’s sidebar (see mine on the right). Use these to send them money or browse items they’re telling you they want.

- Do you offer a service or have a talent you can offer as a present? Free web design, graphics, writing services . . . all that will work for a blogger. If you’re a copyrighter, for example, offer to rework some of the wording on your blogger friend’s website to help them increase readership and sales.

- If your blogger friend hosts their own blog (i.e. pay a monthly or yearly fee for web hosting), offer to pay one more year of hosting for them. If they don’t yet have hosting, we offer it here at WP Blog Host.

So there you have it, gift ideas for bloggers. Please note that many of the links provided in this article are affiliate links, which means I make a small commission if you link over to the products and buy. Of course, you are in no way obligated to use my affiliate links to purchase any of the above.

If you’re a blogger, what else do you think might make a good blogger gift?

Related posts:

1. A-List Bloggers & Everyday Bloggers, They Do Things Differently
2. 6 Questions New Bloggers Ask Me
3. My Rant On Someone Else’s Rant About Bloggers

People’s blogs get hacked on a daily basis. A simple Google search for my blog was hacked returns 2,620,000 results.

I tend to think of blog security like the progression of driving a car through the years.

At 16 when you’re new to driving a car, you know driving a car safely is good, but you don’t do it. Instead, teens tend to drive more carelessly than older more seasoned drivers. However, the one time one of these teens get in a serious car accident, all of a sudden a light bulb turns on and they realize just how dangerous it is to drive carelessly.

The problem is, the process keeps washing its hands and repeating itself. As that teen ages, new teens begin driving and take to the roads, and can you guess how they drive?

The same holds for blogging. When newbies begin blogging either they don’t know the statistics of blog security or they don’t think it’ll ever happen to them. Then one day if they do get hacked, all of a sudden blog security becomes an issue. If, however, they are lucky enough to not get hacked early on (i.e. as they age), they begin to realize blog security is becoming more and more important since they have a lot more to lose (posts, comments, design, etc.).

2 WordPress Security Plugins You Should Consider

1. Chap Secure Login

In order to log into WordPress, you need to enter in a username and password. The problem is, unless you log in through a SSL connection (tutorial post coming soon), this information is sent through the Internet unprotected and can be seen by snooping eyes.

That’s where the Chap Secure Login plugin comes in.

Chap stands for Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol and what it does is encrypt your password through the use of the MD5 hashing algorithm in JavaScript so that it is sent to your web host in a secured manner.

Whenever possible, I suggest logging into your WordPress blog through SSL, but if that’s not an option for you, I highly suggest using this plugin; and the best part is, there’s no configuring, just upload and install the plugin and you’re all set.

2. WordPress File Monitor

Securing WordPress is great, but as I’ve mentioned before it’s impossible to completely secure WordPress 100%. Just as important as securing your WordPress from being hacked in the first place is knowing when your blog has been hacked.

Matt Walters developed an excellent file monitoring plugin, called WordPress File Monitor, which will monitor all your files for any alterations made to them.

Many times WordPress crackers will attempt to insert vicious viruses or spam links directly into your WordPress files. These viruses can be designed to do just about anything they want, including downloading viruses to your website’s visitor’s computers.

The WordPress File Monitor plugin monitors each of your files for changes that occur inside them. So, say for example, someone uploads malicious code to your footer.php file, the WordPress File Monitor plugin would capture that change and email you that a change has occurred. There’s also notification in your Dashboard.

Once notified, you can head over to that file and check for anything suspicious.

As a bonus, this plugin can also be configured to monitor and report changes to files outside of your WordPress directory. This is a huge bonus for those of you who run a static HTML website for your home page and have WordPress installed in a separate directory, like /blog.

Here’s a couple screen shots from this plugin:

Have you thought about blog security lately?

How would you feel if one day you found your blog has been cracked into?

Would you be prepared to deal with the problem and make your blog right?

If you’re interested in keeping up to date with the latest in blog security, WordPress, and my own personal blogging tips, you can subscribe to my RSS feed here. Also, if you’re interested in locking down your WordPress blog and add some security features to it, I can do that for you.

Related posts:

1. 50+ WordPress Plugins & Hacks Candy Store
2. WordPress Security: The First Thing You Should Understand
3. Increase Your WordPress Blog’s Security By Running It Through SSL

Since it’s been awhile, I figured it was time to update my list with a few other resources I’ve been using.

Got your bookmarks fired up? Ok, let’s go.

Megaproxy

If you’re into toying around with your blog’s design or decide to slap up a maintenance page in which everyone but you are redirected to that page, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to navigate to your site as if your computer was located on a different IP address?

Ok, in another words, to check and see what your site looks like from another computer.

Megaproxy lets you do that.

You can try it free straight from their website. This tool has an additional use; it also provides for safer browsing while online because other websites which collect your computer’s IP address (sometimes gets you spam) will be recording the proxy’s IP address, not yours.

Shrink O’Matic

Shrink O’Matic lets you batch convert images to a specific file size (meaning you can convert a bunch of image files all at once to be the same size). This is nice if you have a bunch of images you need to upload to your blog or personal family website but all the images are of different sizes.

Saves lot’s of time doing them one-by-one.

TredoSoft

TredoSoft is a neat little website for those of you who design websites yourself and want to know what your site design looks like in different versions of Internet Explorer.

I’m a Firefox user myself, but I also have IE8 and Safari installed so I can see what my sites look like in other browsers. One day, however, I did notice in my statistics that a number of my site visitors were using older versions of Internet Explorer, like IE6.

Thanks to TredoSoft, I can see what my site looks like in older versions of Internet Explorer.

Hetemeel.com

Hetemeel.com let’s you add text to popular images. The one I linked to here leads to Einstein writing on a chalkboard. You can replace his writing with your own.

Pretty cool.

Cool Text

Cool Text is an online graphic generator. If you’re not good with Fireworks or Photoshop but need to add professional looking text (in image format) to your site, you gotta check this one out.

BigDump

Ok I know that just doesn’t sound right, but the program can be a life saver for some of you.

BigDump is a nifty little program which solves a huge problem for many WordPress bloggers in need of restoring their large database.

Basically, restoring your WordPress (or any) database requires you to first delete all the data in your online database and then uploading your backup. Sounds easy, right?

Well if your database is over about 15 to 20MB, you might find that you’re having a hard time uploading it. That’s because your web browser will only wait so long before it times out; meaning, if you hit the upload button and your web browser has to wait too long for the upload to complete, you’ll get a timeout error.

BigDump fixes this by staggering the upload into chunks.

If you ever need to use BigDump, check out our video channel and look for How to Restore Your WordPress Database Using Bigdump – For Larger Databases.

Now your turn.

What web tools can you add to the list?

Related posts:

1. 30.1 Web Tools For Online Success And To Make Your Life Easier At The Same Time
2. Fatten Up Your Wallet by Using Online Videos
3. Adding The "Cool Factor" To Your Website

Here’s an incredibly easy trick you can do to reducing that “but wait”-time for your blog to load. In most cases, it’s as easy as copy & paste.

Now who doesn’t like the copy, paste, and done tutorials?

Let’s first show you what to do and then for those who are interested, we’ll talk about what we did (in easy terms).

Copy This and Put It Here

Copy

<?php if (substr_count($_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING'], ‘gzip‘)) ob_start(“ob_gzhandler”); else ob_start(); ?>

Paste A (for WordPress users)

For WordPress users, paste the code up at the very top of your header.php file (above the DOCTYPE line). If you’re not sure how to do this, see the video at the end of this tutorial.

Paste B (for static .html pages)

If your website is coded in html and not php, then what you’ll need to do is copy the code above and paste it up at the very top of each web page you want to compress (above the DOCTYPE).

The one change you’ll need to do here is change the extension of your web pages from .html to .php.

So for example, change: index.html to index.php

What Did We Do?

Without going into a bunch of techno talk, we basically instructed, through PHP, that the Web server compress files for transit to your visitors’ Web browser by use of gzip.

I’m sure you’ve seen zip files before (myfile.zip). Zip is a compression utility that takes a bunch of data and files and compresses them into one smaller size file.

By using gzip, we compressed your blog’s data into a smaller file size before sending it over to your visitor’s Web browser. As a result, your blog loads faster for your visitor.

Simple. Easy. Works.

How To Test It

Of course you’ll want proof that your site is loading quicker. You should notice a difference in load time just by clicking around your blog before and after the line is pasted in. But if you want to see actual data, head over to http://www.port80software.com and type your blog’s address in the Compression Check box.

Here’s the results for my blog. I circled the parts that showed my after compression data.

As you can see, my blog loads more than 4 times faster with the gzip compression enabled.

Also, the file size transmitted over the Internet and to my visitor’s browser was reduced from 60,241 bytes to just 12,963 bytes. That’s a 47,278 difference in file size!

WordPress How-To Video

For those who like videos, here’s how to copy and paste this command into your WordPress header.php file.

Share It

This little tip has helped many people decrease how long it takes their sites to load. If you have a moment, please consider sharing it through your social networks like Stumble Upon, Twitter, etc. While you’re at it, feel free to follow me on Twitter.

Related posts:

1. Hammering Down 2 More Ways To Speed Up Your WordPress Blog
2. How To Install Google Analytics On A WordPress Blog Without Using A Plugin
3. WordPress Management: Cleaning Up Your Root Folder

A few days ago I published a post, How To Install WordPress Manually and Why Beginners Should Do It. It was my first time using blip.tv to broadcast my videos and I have to say, I’m very pleased with the results.

The one great reason I think to use blip.tv to broadcast your videos over YouTube is video quality.

Basically, when you upload a video to blip.tv, it seems the video quality remains pretty much the same as what it looks like right after you record your video and watch it on your computer. When I upload videos to YouTube, on the other hand, I get a little loss in video quality.

Take a look. The two videos are the same videos I uploaded from my computer to both sites. You’ll notice in addition to a little better video quality, blip.tv did not resize my video when I copied and pasted in my embed code.

blip.tv version

YouTube version

YouTube does have one distinct advantage over blip.tv.

Can you guess what it is?

Popularity.

I’m sure more people will see my videos on YouTube than blip.tv simply because YouTube is so popular. So for now, I’ll upload my videos to both sites, but the ones you watch from my blog will be embedded from blip.tv.

Have you started video blogging (vlogging) yet? If not, you might want to consider it. I think we’re on the road to seeing a lot more of it.

Related posts:

1. Videos To Help Craft A Better Website & Attract Attention
2. WordPress 2.8.2 Has Been Released & Provides Security Fixes
3. How To Upgrade WordPress Manually Video

One of the topics I see all around the web is how WordPress can be installed easily with Fantastico. And yes, in fact it can. However, just to set the record straight, if you’re looking to start a WordPress blog and someone tells you that you need to look for a web host that has cPanel and Fantastico, there’s no reason to listen to them.

Trust me, as a guy whose been online for a long time and knows a thing or two about web hosting, there is no reason to limit your options to web hosts which only match this criteria. There’s a lot more you need to consider and understand.

What is Fantastico?

Fantastico is bundled set of software which can be used to install several different applications to your web hosting account. One such program is WordPress.

Are There Issues with Fantastico and WordPress?

If you visit the WordPress Forums and do a search for problems with Fantastico, you’ll most definitely find a lot of people have problems using it to install and upgrade WordPress; however, I think using it to install WordPress isn’t too bad (you can do better), but using it to upgrade WordPress wouldn’t be something I’d do. For that, use the WordPress built-in auto upgrade feature.

Why You Might Not Want To Use Fantastico

Security

If you’ve read my blog for awhile now or you look up to our main menu, you’ll see one of the topics I’m constantly talking about is WordPress Security. One of the major problems with WordPress when it comes to security is that every default install looks exactly the same.

The primary folders start with wp-, your login page is located in the same place (directory-wise) as the next guy’s, your database table prefix is 9xek3pd_, etc. In other words, the default installation of WordPress is very “cookie-cutter”.

And how does Fantastico install WordPress? The cookie-cutter way.

You miss out on the learning experience

Another reason why you might not want to use Fantastico to install WordPress on your account is the learning experience you’ll miss out on. By installing WordPress yourself (it’s not difficult and I’m always here to help), you’ll learn a thing or two about the program you’ll be working with for many years to come.

It’s like my days back in college and the time when I took Calculus. We learned a very long and difficult way to do derivatives. I remember doing the homework and hating every second of the long drawn out process of figuring out the answer. Then the next day our instructor showed us a very simple and quick way to find the answer (instead of the long drawn out process). At first I hated the fact that he made us go through such a difficult process to find the answer when in fact there was a much easier way to do it.

But you know what? I learned something. I learned how and why the shortcut worked, which made me understand.

Now I’m not saying you should never use an easy installer to install WordPress. If you do, fine. But if you first experiment and try installing it on your own, you might find you are learning something.

Alternatives To Fantastico For Easy Installations

WP Blog Host’s Alternative

WpBlogHost does not use the script library Fantastico; instead, we use a bundle set of applications included free with all hosting accounts which allows you to easily install a number of programs (nearly identical to Fantastico). Of course, one of the programs you can easily install is WordPress.

The thing I like about our installer over Fantastico is the fact that your installation, although not 100% secure, installs a WordPress blog a little less cookie-cutter than Fantastico.

Elefante Installer

Some hosting companies use a program similar to Fantastico, called Elefante Scripts. It basically works the same.

EasyWP Install Script

Through my Google Alerts set up to notify me about things around the web on WordPress, I found a blog article called EasyWP – Install WordPress in Seconds! by a young web designer named, Joel Drapper. Thanks to Joel, I’ve learned there’s a program out there called EasyWP WordPress Installer.

The installer, though not as easy as Fantastico or our installer, can simplify the WordPress installation some. The one downside is you still have to create your own database, which in my experience is probably the most difficult part of installing WordPress people have. It’s actually not difficult, but since working with a database is foreign to most every day web users, this seems to be the part they hate dealing with.

My Take On Fantastico

If your web host has Fantastico, by all means use it to install WordPress if you don’t want to go through the learning experience of installing it yourself. But whatever you do, don’t let the fact if your web host uses Fantastico or not sway you from your decision on which web host to host your blog with.

Some companies, like ours, offer easy alternatives.

If you’re looking to start a WordPress blog and are trying to figure out which web host you should go with, check out my article on How To Choose The Best WordPress Blog Hosting Company.

Related posts:

1. How To Install WordPress Manually and Why Beginners Should Do It
2. 6 Things I Tell People Who Are Looking To Start A Blog
3. Start A Blog: Free or Paid? WordPress or Blogger?

Today I want to show you how to fully backup your WordPress blog using two easy-to-use programs.

Creating a full backup of your blog is a two part process:

1. Backup your WordPress hosted files and directories
2. Backup your database

There are many ways to do this and I’ll betcha most of you who have been blogging for awhile already do database backups, but I also bet most of you don’t backup your WordPress files nearly as much.

Why? I bet it has to do with simplicity. Using a database plugin for WordPress makes backing up your database cake. In fact, you can even set it on autopilot and email you copies regularly without even lifting a finger.

But those files and directories sitting there in your hosting account are important as well, especially the wp-content folder. Here’s what the two backups actually backup:

1. Backing up your WordPress files and folders will ensure your theme, images, .htaccess files, plugins, misc. uploads, CSS settings, and more are all backed up and saved in case your blog ever crashes and you need to do a restore.
2. Backing up your database will ensure all your posts, comments, login information, etc. are all saved.

Since doing a full backup is *critically important* for your blog, and since we are all lazy and need this entire process to be as simple as possible for us, here are two ways fully backup your WordPress blog which should make the entire process real easy for you.

Note, too, that this my preferred method – I wouldn’t suggest the two following programs if I didn’t use them myself.

How To Easily Backup Your WordPress Files and Folders

There is a really neat program out there which is called SyncBackSE which once installed on your computer can be a very powerful tool in keeping a full backup copy of your hosted WordPress files. You can download a free trial version of the software right here.

After the free trial period the program costs $30. Trust me, that’s a small price to pay when it comes to blogging and feeling confident your blog is fully backed up and everything is safe. Nothing will crush you more than to one day find out something’s wrong with your blog and you don’t know what to do.

This is a huge step many people miss. I frequent the WordPress Support Forums and I see practically on a daily basis someone has a problem with their blog which “has just popped up out of no where”. They always seem to have a database backup, but rarely do they have their hosted files backed up. Many times the problem is their site got hacked and they only noticed it when either Google has stopped sending traffic their way (their site has turned into a spam site in Google’s eyes) or their site spontaneously starts acting up.

Here’s why I like SyncBackSE

• It comes spyware, AdWare, and virus free.
• Once installed all it takes is a click to backup your blog’s files and directories.
• The process can all be automated and set to run at specific times (a perfect compliment to the database backup plugin).
• Restoring your files is just as easy as backing them up.
• Can even keep a live current backup of your blog on your hard drive.

That last point about keeping a live current backup of your site on your hard drive I think is really cool. That means SyncBackSE will “watch” your site’s hosting files for any changes. When you make a change, it will automatically keep the mirror files on your hard drive current with what’s on your hosting account.

That’s pretty cool in my book.

Download the free trial and let me know if you have any questions. I know the program costs $30 but tell me – is your blog worth $30? Problems happen and don’t think they’ll never happen to you, because they will.

How To Easily Backup Your WordPress Database

Your database represents all your blood, sweat, and tears when it comes to writing articles for your blog. All those long hours and hard work put into those articles reside in your database. Since it also houses all your community responses (comments), it’s also the home base of your blog’s community.

Consider that all important? I’m sure you do.

Il Filosofo has probably one of the most popular WordPress database backup plugins out there. Here’s a snapshot of the settings area.

From the Tools menu in your WordPress Dashboard, click Backup and you can see that some of the options for your database backup include emailing it to yourself, saving the file now, and/or setting up scheduled backups so your database backup will be emailed to you whenever you want.

There are of course many other WordPress database backup plugins out there, but I know this one works very well.

One thing I’d suggest you not to do is to save the database backup file to your server (see the image above). There is no reason to keep a backup copy of your database on the server where someone potentially could find it online, download it, and discover your login information.

Summary

To create a very simple way to fully backup your WordPress blog, you need to do two things: backup your hosting files/folders and backup your database.

By using 2 programs, SyncBackSE (download trial version here) and a WordPress database backup plugin, we can simplify and even automate this process for us.

Have you created a full backup of your blog lately? Do you think $30 for SyncBackSE is out of line since there are ways to backup your blog’s files for free? Or do you think that’s a small price to pay for the simplicity and reassurance it’ll get done regularly?

Related posts:

1. How To Automate Your Blog’s Entire Backup Process
2. WordPress 3.0: Security Upgrades Overview & How To Install It
3. Blog Hacking Alert and What You Need to Do Today!

It’s still in the development stage but thus far I’ve had no problems with it whatsoever.

For those of you who read a lot of RSS feeds at once, this is a great option that can reduce the amount of time skimming through your feeds and clicking on headlines that catch your eye. It’s as easy as reading your emails.

Google Reader and ReadAir Are In Sync

One nice feature about Google ReadAir is that it’s connected to your Google Reader.

So if you still like using your Google Reader and add or delete a subscription here or there, that’s fine, ReadAir and Reader stay in sync (in reality they are the same account).

Installation

To install, you first have to download and install Adobe Air. Once that’s installed, you can download and install ReadAir.

That’s about it. It’s been easy to use and in my opinion, the user interface is much nicer than Google Reader.

Related posts:

1. Create Yourself A Shortcut – How To E-Mail, Blog, and Text On The Go!