Failure to Do This Simple Task Can
Kill Your Online Business
By Manny Jao II
When you talk to a seasoned webmaster, he/she will always tell you to
backup your website files since the server you are hosted on will always
let you down when least expect it.
I remember it happened to me when my webhost went down for about 4 hours
at the same time I just launched a massive (and costly) marketing campaign.
It�s really frustrating to see it happen when I need it to be up and running.
As a webhosting reseller, I experienced one time how my server is advertised
to be backed up daily but when the server got fried by surging electric
current by accident, my hosting partner cannot recover even the backup
harddisk!
Not only did I lose my websites hosted on that server, I also lost my
customers who hated me for what had happened. It�s a nightmare you wouldn't
want to happen to you.
Today, many webmasters still disregard the value of backups especially
those who are just starting online.
They rely solely on their hosts to backup their websites but little
did they know that not many hosts are not backing up databases but only
the website files, scripts, images and settings.
The MYSQL databases are not considered to be included in their backup
service. Yet this is an important component of any website especially those
used in business. Imagine a forum getting back to square one, a mailing
list that has been wiped out or customers that cannot login because the
system cannot find their data. These are just few examples of how you can
lose your online business if you forget the backup task.
Most hosting control panel programs like CPanel, which is leading in
the world today in terms of server dominance, has a backup utility that
you can use anytime. This is a manual process where you have to login to
Cpanel, click on the backup page and the download link to the backup files.
This backup activity, although time consuming will ensure that you have
available website files to restore even when a server problem gets worse
thereby decreasing downtimes and headaches on your part. Recreating website
files and databases from scratch takes much much longer.
Believe me I know. "Been there, done that."
As a webmaster, you should at least backup your websites once a week
and for your MYSQL databases at least thrice a week. You can also relate
this backup procedure to the frequency with which you update your websites
and databases..
For example, if you are changing your webpages daily or you have dynamically
generated pages, then you should backup those changes daily. If you websites
or databases change less frequently, then you can backup less frequently.
In this case, weekly or monthly backups will do.
Backup procedures are not to be taken for granted. This should become
part of your regular activities as a webmaster to make sure your site is
safe and insured from any eventualities. You should treat backing up files
seriously.
Believe me, you will be thankful you did this when the times get rough.
If you care about your websites and all the things in it, backup regularly
and completely. It�s one webmaster task you should never miss.
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