Yeah you gotta backup your sites and you have to do it properly. You need to do more than just saving it on your computer. I’ll tell you how I do it.

Making the backup

1. I download all the files and databases to your computer.
2. I zip everything and put a password on it. I use WinRAR to do this.
3. Name the .zip file to something like “wr_oct-5.zip”. (Make sure you have the date on it!)
4. I make sure that the .zip file isn’t corrupted by unzipping it and checking if everything is there.

Storing the backup

The biggest mistake I ever made was keeping all the backups on my laptop only and forgetting that someone could steal my laptop or my hard drive could crash. Please don’t do that or else you’ll get fucked! Trust me!

I started putting my backups on three different places. This way I’m safe if something goes wrong.

My server: Yes, my server itself. I make a folder where I just keep all the backups. Make sure you keep this folder at the root of your server where it can’t be accessed by the public.

On a CD: The old school way! I have a bunch of blank disks lying around, so why not burn the backups on it? Plus its not that expensive to buy blank CDs. Or if you want, you can just put them on a pen drive.

Online storage: I put one more copy on Windows Live SkyDrive. Don’t just trust any site with your precious little backups! Meaning don’t use shit like RapidShare and Megaupload.

How often do I backup?

The best way would be to backup everyday. But, that’s not possible. I’m just way too lazy to do that. I try to do it weekly. And sometimes randomly when I feel like doing it.

Some shared hosts back your stuff up daily, so consider yourself lucky if you’re on a shared hosting.

How about YOU?

Tell us how you do it! I wanna know how often you do it, where you store it and if you have any suggestions for us.

Okay lets start with some basics. What is an offshore host? Well its a host whose servers are in a foreign country where the laws can’t reach you. You would obviously choose an offshore host if you were planning on doing something (lame and) evil. Copyright infrigement? Ring a bell?

Well here’s the part most people never thought of. What if the host scams you? What if the host just kicks you out? What if the host steals your files and databases? What if? And you know what sucks more? You can’t do anything about it! Remember, there are no laws for those stuff in that country?

Don’t forget the server specs and price. Here’s two things that could happen:

1. Hosted on a good server, but you get ripped off.
2. Hosted on a shitty, oversold server for cheap.

And what if the support people don’t speak English or can’t speak properly? Google Translate? Have fun!

Offshore hosting is just a little hype made up by noobs who make warez forums. I personally would suggest that you stay away from it. BTW, here’s a shared hosting checklist and 5 great shared hosting plans. Just trying to make it easier for you to find the perfect host!

I was reading this post about faking getting hacked. Why do it? Well for publicity and some traffic obviously. Everyone’s going to be talking about it and some even linking to you. Not a bad idea. A pretty damn good one actually.

But, then I thought about the long-term effects. People are gonna figure out later on and some of them will hate on you. And what about your readers/visitors/users? Is it okay to lie to them? But, how could we take advantage of this? I wouldn’t obviously do it on the sites I care about. But, how about doing it on the sites which we made for money (I don’t have any, BTW)? That wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

Wait, don’t just fake that you’ve been hacked. Try doing some of these shit. But, like Daniel (the blogger at DailyBlogTips) mentioned it will only work if you’re at least semi-popular.

• Site under investigation by the FBI
• You are dying a horrible death (ex: cancer)
• You’re selling the site for some good dough ($$$$)
• Your site was part of a research (ex: I don’t have one. My head hurts. You think!)
• Your site getting sponsored by Google or Microsoft.
• You’re actually an A-list blogger (like Darren Rose?) who is just blogging with a different tone

People will give you ideas, and some of them are going to be good. But, don’t forget its the web. If you can get the info then someone else can too (unless someone gave you the idea on Messenger). What I’m trying to say is that take people’s ideas and get inspired. Don’t just do what they said. Come up with your own idea, so you don’t do what a bunch of other people are doing.

Submitting your own stuff to social bookmarking/news sites yourself is like a big no-no to almost everyone (well except for noobs and spammers). They think its selfish and people will hate (aka bury, vote down, etc) on them. Well that maybe true, but I don’t necessarily agree with that and here’s why.

Lets say you write a really good post about advanced SEO. You don’t submit it to sites like Digg, Reddit, SU, etc. You just sit back and relax. Now a total noob comes along and submits it. Uh oh! You’re fucked!

Its not always about the traffic. Sometimes you really wanna share something with the world, but too bad, the noob ruined it for you. Wondering why I’m saying that “the noob” ruined it? First of all, the guy is noob! He doesn’t know how to use the site properly, doesn’t do a good job with the title, doesn’t add a good description and he doesn’t care about promoting it (aka sharing with friends). He just submits it and fucks off.

So, do you get my point? BTW, I was talking about quality content (you knew that, right?). I didn’t mean that its okay for you to submit every single one of your blog posts (for example). I mean the things that make you say to yourself “man this is some good shit”. I’m talking about your masterpieces.

One more tip! Rather than submitting everything yourself, why don’t you ask a friend to do it? That way people won’t hate on you. But, again keep it to small number of quality content because sometimes you just need to let it go and give people the chance to decide if its worth promoting.

Yep, that’s right! You better watch out on Digg. Well actually you don’t have to watch out since its only for the people who use scripts to digg stuff. Unless you are one of them!

Okay so here’s the deal. Digg officials have been hunting people who use scripts. And do you know what they’re doing after they find an “evil” digger? They ban him/her. Now that sucks donkey ass. You worked hard to get all those submissions popular, got good loyal friends, got the spotlight on yourself, and other bla blah. But, too bad it all just goes away.

Now are you wondering how they’ll find out who’s using scripts or not? Well I’m pretty sure that the officials get alerted when a particular digger is digging, shouting and deleting shouts at a rate that humans possibly couldn’t do. For example, digging all the stories on the front page within less than a second.

Oh and if you can’t login to your account, and you’re sure the password is correct then you’re probably banned. And I don’t think they’ll ever unban you. But, I do know a digger who managed to get himself unbanned. Hold on! He was a power digger. So, don’t get your hopes up. They couldn’t care less about unbanning a digger that isn’t any good to Digg.

So, you better stop using your little toys (or at least keep a low profile by doing things at a more… humanly rate). And post a comment if you got banned, know anyone who got banned and the reason behind getting banned. Plus if you support this or if you’re pissed off about this.