From the Inexperienced, Real Advice or Just Plain Philosophy? How YOU Can Make It Happen In Business

In the real world, you’ll be surprise by who really cares when you’re asking for advice, especially when you put it in terms of business. Let’s take that to some of the latest comments I’ve been receiving offline because I wanted to know:

How can I make it in business?

Business blocks

Husband: The way I see business is it’s divided up into servicers, producers and connectors (those who connect servicers to producers). You got to know who you are and where you fit in the pyramid. When you know that, then you can make it happen. Otherwise, you have to go back to school, get a degree and work on it from thereon. Sometimes, the best way is to connect yourself with like-minded people and you’ll find that mostly on educational grounds. It’s an investment which your future can take … if you make it happen.

Dad: Well, you know who you are and how you work so you think of the best way to do it. Invest the time to learn about your market and take action on it accordingly. You don’t want to give up. You have to keep trying no matter what to reach your goal. If it works that’s because YOU made it happen. Nobody ever made a million dollars from quitting and you shouldn’t too. Be persistent. Sometimes luck falls in too so don’t give up!

Friend: If you’re going into business, that’s going to depend on your ability to communicate effectively. Knowing you, you’re quite shy so I think it’s going to take awhile but who knows. It’s the web here, you might just make it. I’m just saying you got to speak up and put on your best shoes. I don’t see that a lot from you but I hope that’s something you think about when you’re online. So speak up!

Nobody here is from a business background. I just asked for the sake of knowing and while business was the topic, what I got back was amazing. Each person had their own unique answer. But I think the main point here is when you genuinely care, the answers will too and it shows with passion. In return, business became something universal and not a foreign concept which no one understood.

If you noticed, the results ranged from philosophical in nature, supportive and humorous to an alarming reality check which puts into perspective who I am. Now to furthermore extend it, I have even been hit in terms of what experience I have. But the worst thing that can happen is if you take it personal.

What if you do take it personal?

As a blogger, one of the rules of engagement is finding your target audience. You won’t know who they are when you’re just starting out. So there’s going to be a lot of uncertainty which means a lot of mistakes. Time then becomes something valuable for your readers. If you have something to say, they don’t want to wait. Just say it and quick!

I haven’t had any encounters with non-understanding folks but I know in general, readers don’t have time for your brainstorming ideas, they want to know what you got NOW! They don’t want to wait around.

In the online world, this is measured through bounce rate. Visitors who clicked through but then clicked X means you’re not really converting your visitors into regular readers. You’re sending them off. This is a no-no.

Those who have already been around the circuit will question if what you write has any credibility. Moreover they’ll wonder whether you’re here for the long haul or not. So to put it into another perspective, I’ll use the example of civil wars. You’re going to fight for who you are and let’s be real, prejudices are still deeply ingrained in our minds.

It’s our human nature to judge whoever thinks they can make it.

Don’t worry I’ll ask the gods and call in a few philosophers to pack in some faith for you.

To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our
own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy
is provided by the enemy himself.
- Sun Tzu on Tactical Disposition from the Art of War

I got love for my brother but we can never go nowhere
unless we share with each other
We gotta start makin’ changes
- Tupac on Changes Single

Depending on who you’re talking to, they’re going to be great word of mouth for you or on the other spectrum, they’re going to be bad word of mouth for you.

Now, let’s take that into generating steps towards action.

Give them a solution.

The point here is to see if the solution given at hand is accepted. Most of the time, the variety of responses you get will let you see who you’re talking to. This is your target audience because after all, they’re passionate enough to say something about it. They’re going to want to debate with you about it too.

Turn FAIL into AIL

It’s not about you when it comes to business. While I know that’s something you don’t want to hear, it’s more about making your business work. In fact, let’s just put a big fat FAIL across your forehead and get creative until you drop the F and it turn into AIL.

Help yourself and help others because there’s purpose in connecting.

It’s OK to Reject Good Solutions

Not all good solutions will work. Based upon my conversation with my husband, he thinks it’s a good idea for me to go back to school but I thought about branching off into finding the solution directly was a better path. I know I don’t have the resources the professionals have but I’m determined and passionate about finding out what works NOW.

That’s enough to fuel my journey. Plus I’m determined in succeeding.

Carry Through

In the long run, time is on your side. While I rejected the school solution. I did so because I felt it’ll only delay my answer going towards a different direction despite the benefits I’ll gain. However success is a only a word. It might turn into excess if you take too long. Once you’ve made up your mind, take action on progressing yourself TODAY. Carry through with process.

Now that you’ve gotten the answers, make it happen.

How do YOU make it happen in business?

Blogging Through E-mail, The Posterous Way

Some spam landed inside my comment box but I was curious because it said anti-snore. Plus it had an extension leading to Posterous, another blogging platform some of you may be familiar with. The spam site overall wasn’t too pleasing, junk information which anyone can Google, backed by a product on the front page and chock load of keywords below. I decided there’s got to be something else more pleasing.

Posterous LogoClicked through to Posterous and was amazed with the first impression. The landing page was quite clean in design. Without going below the fold I glanced over to the right sidebar as I’m asked Who’s it for? Impressive. Scrolled down and noticed that the footer remained static. Convincingly with their non-invasive design, asking another blogger to switch over might be a temptation.

Posterous Front Page

What Posterous Can Do

All the well-known FREE platforms like Blogger, Typepad, SquareSpace, Tumblr, WordPress and even Flickr was on the list of switchover made easy. There’s plenty more so just click on any one of the platforms available and you’ll see the comparison. Reasons why Posterous might be better for you is convincing here.

However, I’m more concern with design and while WordPress has some of the best templates around, I don’t have a clue about CSS. Honestly, that might propel me NOT to switch. As a blogger, I found that design is like clothes, I need to change it frequently, even if it’s in the little regards. Not knowing CSS is already limiting my accessibility.

Will Posterous allow me to tweak my theme without touching too much of code?

I had to find out. So what I did was read through the FAQ and get this! You blog through e-mail! If I missed that the first time around I apologize, I was looking more for overall features. When that was resolved, the a-ha moment came through.

Posterous Switch Page
Who Posterous is Good For

Scrolling through the FAQ, the overall feel of blogging on Posterous was obvious. This would be a great platform for those on the go who’s constantly with their phone. Catering to this kind of crowd is smart because who knows, at just about any minute on the train, the bus or flight across somewhere, a new blog post with a picture is written and published.

I find the e-mail part is still not catching on to me. If I had a nice smart phone which I was on all day this would be a godsend. But I’m more into writing long articles. So this is almost indirect in nature. I’m so use to logging into my dashboard and checking the stats, this forces me to check my e-mail.

What if I’m distracted by other e-mails?

Posterous calms me down and continuously provides reasons why they think publishing through e-mail is better. You can also post through a document which converts into a page for you or through a link and if it’s a video, they’ll also embed it for you.

We focus on THE best email experience, and do a lot more to support large photo galleries and other file downloads. Other sites force you to upload through cumbersome web forms. With posterous, you can attach any files you want. Plus, you don’t have to remember a gibberish secret email address. Just post@posterous.com and that’s it.

Posterous AutopostAs I got deeper into other features Posterous showcases, here is what I found.

  • autopost – broadcast to social media sites to update your followers on Twitter, Facebook and so on.
  • bookmarklet – let’s you find things you like on other sites and post it onto yours like videos, photos, etc.
  • markdown – for fancying up your posts, this rich-text language can be used to make your posts look good.
  • custom domains help – down the line if you want to transition your blog to your own domain, Posterous will help you with the technical process.
  • analytics and feed – like other blogs, analytics through Google and RSS through Feedburner is possible.
  • widgetized – paired with WidgetBox , display your posts as a widget or even share with other Posterous members.

Still curious? What about AD-FREE. For those who aren’t into the blogosphere yet, here’s a great spot to stretch some muscles. While Blogger and WordPress may lead the pack, with a little patience and some time, getting your blog up can be a snap. Better yet, already have one with one of other platforms listed? Transfer over. Now just publish through e-mail.

What Posterous Might Not Be Good For

Somewhere down the road, your blog might be something you want to monetize. Who knows, it might also be something you’re attached to but having no control over it is something most FREE services do. They only give you the space and tools for you to whip up your storm. In the long haul, if you’re going against the terms of service, don’t be surprise to see your blog go bye-bye overnight.

Such as the case with most blogs who think that FREE services are worth trying. Just know you’re treading on risky grounds. All the hard work can be wasted. Those who are into marketing, SEO or making money online should not consider FREE services. It’s better to get a self-hosted account if profits and long-term marketing is your thing. You can start as early as testing out the first month. But I suggest 3 months or more will give you effective results.

This is if a few things are important to you:

  • site ranking
  • monetization
  • control

Otherwise, if you’re not into SEO or the ranking of your site isn’t important and while you haven’t yet ventured into having your own domain, Posterous might be a fun place to blog on. After all, there’s no system to learn the ropes of. All you need to know is how to send an e-mail and your post is published.

Posterous Easy E-mailCheck out Posterous’ blog to read more about new features they’re including. Take a look around other Posterous blogs and get a feel for what they are. Remember, if you can e-mail, you can blog.

This article is not a paid post by Posterous, it is only the author’s stumbling onto the site, follow by reading through which led to this review. If you find Posterous worthwhile, share it with someone you think will benefit from this blogging platform.

Blogging For’s Official 7 Link Challenge Response #7links, What’s Yours?

In response to Karen over at A Meaningful Existence and in partake of the 7 Link Challenge by Darren Rowse over at Problogger.net, today’s post is going to be a fun one. But don’t worry, it’s carrying the flair of what I’ve been talking about the last week or so.

Strangely, before I’ve even read Write A Link Post, it’s already been said in integrating relative conversations into a new blog post. Call me late, but that really justify my position with blogging in heading towards a progressive path. Sweet!

Now, let’s cut to the chase.

What is the 7 Link Challenge?

Problogger Logo

The main aim of doing this challenge is to create a list post that highlights some of the posts in your archives to new readers (a sneeze page), that links out to another blog and that hopefully is a little fun (and not too much work) to do.

Simply put, it’s a short exercise to get you to list out your favorite posts so that you can bring it to the attention of your readers about who you are as a blogger all the while including the practice of linking in and out to other blogs.

Pretty simple huh? Absolutely! When you’re done reading through, I’d love to read your 7 links if any. Just share them below. Without further ado, here’s my response:

1. Your first post: How Blog Profits Blueprint Got Me – this post while it is autobiographical in nature, also reviews Yaro Starak’s Blog Profits Blueprint which started out the blazing path for this blog. Read it to know a little bit more about me and also why I went into blogging. You’ll also see how the main aim of this blog has changed slightly towards aesthetics and process.

2. A post you enjoyed writing the most: Over 50 E-Stuff Online FREE! – this is a two part series which I felt it was something I needed to share with my fellow readers. It’s a resourceful list which became the e-library but in writing it, putting all the reports I’ve gathered over the pass few months and giving it back to the blogosphere really was worth it.

3. A post which had a great discussion: A Post of Gratitude to All My Friends and Bloggers – the first month in, on the same date as my husband’s birthday, I decided to showcase a list of other bloggers who I’m thankful for allowing me to connect with. Labeling their position in regards to where I was at the moment in the blogosphere, I explained how they have influenced me.

4. A post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written: Now I’m going to break the rules with this one and say that SiteSketch101 always have stellar articles. I admire Nicholas Cardot, the blogger behind the site. Not only is he an articulate writer but one who knows what passion is through content, design and influence.

5. Your most helpful post: This Blog’s 1st Week, Actions Taken – transparency is everything when you’re blogging online, my first attempt to display that was in this post. It led on to become the timeline which continues to document this blog so that readers can see what I’m doing, where I’m at and how long I’ve been blogging. See for yourself, how far back this blog has been documented.

6. A post with a title that you are proud of: How to Find Backdoor Sites That Are Great For Building High Ranking Backlinks to YOUR Site – not only did I had fun writing this post up but I felt like a genius for this title alone. It continued to fuel the excitement with wordplay as writing posts becomes more a matter of having readers click through.

7. A post that you wish more people had read: 100th Post and Giveaway! So How Do You Overcome Blogger’s Shyness? – this post is still fairly new but it’s in celebration of this blog’s 100th post and the best part is I’m giving away something. So if you haven’t read it yet, find out how you can get a gift from me just for tweeting and commenting!

What the 7 Link Challenge is Good For

When Karen posted her 7 Link Challenge, I followed through on all the links. Not only did I get to know Karen better as a blogger but I’m more aware of her contribution to the blogosphere. I was able to grasp the material Karen had on her site and not only did it allow me to take a closer look at what Karen writes about but also how remarkable her writing is.

Her blog over at A Meaningful Existence includes a page called Just For Today Challenge. If you subscribe you’ll receive the PDF version which is something I prefer. However, if you want to glance through at what’s inside, the challenges are all there for you to peruse.

Thanks Karen for passing along this challenge!

Your Turn!

Now, I’m calling you out. Join me with your response to the 7 link challenge. I’ll try my best to follow through when you provide your response. I also hope you’ll do the same for others who will link in. 7 links is a small price to pay for getting to know your fellow blogger better. Remember, this challenge is meant to highlight your best posts so roll up your sleeves and let ‘er rip!

You might also want to tag it with #7links in the title so other readers can enjoy what you have in Twitter. I look forward to reading some 7 link challenge responses and hope you enjoyed this article as much as I had in creating it.

What’s Your 7 links? Share your link or post below.

Site Down? Here’s What I Learned About My Web Host

I’ve noticed recently that BlueHost, my web hosting provider tends to have frequent downtime. Yesterday was one of those days which really put it into perspective because my site stopped letting me in while I was working on a post. So I apologize if you haven’t been able to get through. You’re not the only one. Thus, I was unable to post yesterday. :(

To my dismay, I thought this was going to be a 10 minute problem which is normal as it has been for the pass few weeks. It went on towards an hour, then towards 2, 3, 4. I was not too happy with what’s going on.

Why did I wait so long?

I assumed there was going to be some server upgrades going on or even my domain name registrar working on something as well. I checked NameCheap which I bought the domain from and then BlueHost. They both had no news about downtime on their site.

Using Uptime Robot to notify me when my site is up or down, I started to track the downtime this month. To my amazement, the frequency of the result is not too pleasing. This is something you shouldn’t ignore. TIP for future web hosting hunters – check your web hosting provider’s downtime history.

Note below the downtime BlueHost has given Blogging For dot INFO this month alone:

downtimes chartIf you see the latest status for yesterday, yes that got me worried. Much that I loaded up the live chat and asked for customer support. Here is the content of what went on during my conversation with the technician.

Chat Content:

Ryan P: [10:05:04 PM] Welcome to our real-time support chat.
How can I help you today?

Thu: [10:05:55 PM] Hi, I was just asking earlier about my site.
It's down, probably for the last two hours.
[10:06:19 PM] domain http://www.bloggingfor.info

Ryan P: [10:06:40 PM] Let me take a look

Thu: [10:08:14 PM] Thanks

Ryan P: [10:11:19 PM] Looks like there is an ongoing server problem
with one of the pieces of hardware and they are currently trying to
replace a piece of hardware to bring the server back, sorry for the
inconvenience, they say it should take about 30 minutes to finish

Thu: [10:13:14 PM] Was this announced? I wasn't aware of this and while
I am working on site maintenance, this has stopped me from what I was doing.

Ryan P: [10:14:09 PM] This wasn't announced because of it happened
suddenly, you can usually check our serverstatus page but they just
narrowed it down to what the problem was and having posted it on the
server status page

Thu: [10:14:59 PM] Is this an ongoing thing for the moment while I know
Bluehost just redesigned itself, are there other features being implemented
which I should be aware of. I would like to not run into this again.

Ryan P: [10:16:39 PM] There were recent upgrades to the kernels of the
servers which happens once every 5 years or so, that had caused some
functions on some servers to work differently so they've been working
on those as well, but thats about it.

Thu: [10:18:48 PM] Will this improve the downtimes of sites in general?
I have noticed my site in particular has experienced frequent downtimes
this month alone. However, not as great as today.

Ryan P: [10:19:35 PM] This will indeed improve all the servers running capabilities

Thu: [10:22:07 PM] Thank you. One last question, how often does bluehost
go down to check their servers? This would be beneficial in knowing when
my site might be down as well?

Ryan P: [10:24:06 PM] Usually there is maintenance every two weeks where
the server if needed will be restarted and will go down for about 15 minutes.
This is usually done around 2:00am M/S/T

Thu: [10:25:39 PM] Great that's all I have to ask for now. There's nothing
we can do if it's a technical problem. I'll sit tight and wait on it. I hope
I'm not the only one affected. Are there others as well?

Ryan P: [10:26:14 PM] Yeah, there were others, so it is a big deal to us and
we are working hard on getting it back

Thu: [10:28:03 PM] Thank you for your time. That's all I needed to know. Thanks.

Ryan P: [10:28:13 PM] Thank you so much for contacting support, and please
let us know as you have additional questions in the future. If interested,
a great deal of valuable information can be found in our knowledge base at:
http://helpdesk.bluehost.com/ and in our video tutorials at:
http://www.bluehosttutorials.com/tutorials. Be sure to have yourself a great day!

While the problem remained unsolved, there’s nothing much to do on hardware issues. I continued to wait a couple more hours. The process was beginning to take too long. So I hopped on over to the help section within BlueHost and checked on the server status notification of my domain as advised by Ryan.

There were no alerts for the system in general but there was a choice which I could input the specific domain to check the status of. Here’s what I got inputting in this blog URL:

Alert Site DownBluehost Downtime – What’s really behind it?

I decided to investigate further if BlueHost is really what it’s all cracked up to be. While downtime is something which I failed to consider being lured into the marketing game of web hosting bests frenzy, thanks WordPress for suggesting this, it’s now costing me some time and also even visitors.

I did some research and here’s what I found which pertains to downtimes with my host.

BlueHost Sucks logoI’m not the only one experiencing the problem after all. There were tons more but I got the picture after reading through these sites. It’s enough to let me know that it’s a common theme and not something I thought I was crazy with.

The Hosting Game In General

One of things which makes shared hosting notorious is their downtime. Yes, downtime is something which you should expect. It’s not perfect but it’s cheap. You get what you pay for. Period.

Below are more resources which puts into perspective the hosting game in general along with tips for survival and tools for monitoring. Don’t be surprise to see that the market surrounding your host is actually a matter of trumping the other over services. If you do decide to go with a web host, try them out for 3 months to start. It’s enough to understand the effects long-term.

Take a look below and educate yourself more on the hosting game overall.

Lesson Learnt

With the internet still on but my site down, the uncertainty of where to start off next fueled by the worries of what-ifs, I wrote this article to ease the next reader that downtime is something which is commonplace. It is better to put those worries into educating yourself and even giving your readers a lesson worth considering. That will make your time and theirs more valuable.

The thing is while I was not on site, being away from it created more hunger which brought many more ideas towards cranking out more interesting articles. Call it a hiatus, I now advise you to take some time away from your blog if you’re attached to it daily as I have been for the last few months. As they say time away creates desire. Don’t ask me who said that.

Going back, it’s all about the power of pausing. Slow down, write your article, refine it and then log on to post it. All that energy into creation is really worth the downtime.

Has your site been down? How have you coped with it?

How to Restore Your WordPress Site in Less Than 1 Hour

I ran into a horrible dilemma yesterday and it would have cost this whole blog it’s life but luckily using a few tools, I had a backup of the database which helped me restored everything. Strangely, everyone always preaches backing up but don’t really explain how you can put it back up online.

So today’s article will explain what I did to restore this blog back to it’s original state with a couple of exceptions. You’re going to at least lose one article, some comments or the last tweaks from several hours ago. No biggie but yet, it still hurts. Hopefully, from this lesson alone, you’re backing up your site daily if not, twice as it begins to accumulate.

Without further ado, let’s carry on.

If you’ve accidentally uninstalled WordPress

Before you reinstall, make sure you go into your web hosting dashboard and back up everything you got under your site’s folder. You can do this with a FTP (file transfer protocol) program which your host suggests or use the browser version which they provided. This will allow you to click and drag over the content to your hard drive’s preferred path.

Why? If you’re going to reinstall, the new configurations won’t overwrite the old files. Your old files kept the configurations of your old blog. So you want to back up these files which has all the uploaded media you’ve been putting up for the past couple of months or more.

Depending on how old your site is, the wait can be about 5 minutes to half an hour. It took me about 10 minutes but once that is done you can then re-install WordPress onto your domain name using your web host 1-click install.

install the same version of wordpress you had before, not update it

If updating your WordPress version is something you want to do now, you may do so but I suggest not because if your site has been using an older version, configured for it, then you might be running into some errors, namely with plugins and theme integration. That’s going to mean more down time and a whole lot of technical tweaking.

Now you’ve got WordPress installed

You’ll notice that all your original posts are gone, even your site’s design is set to a template. Tear. Tear. I feel you. If you go on over to your plugins installation you’ll noticed that they’re still all there, just not activated. OK good.

Here are two of the most important plugins you’ll need to restore the site back with all your original articles and pages. Make sure you get the latest version which will be stable enough with your WordPress version!

Thanks to WP-DBmanager, I already had a backup of the database of the site on my web host server. However, here’s the sad part, it was backed up from the previous day. So the current post, if you have had one will be lost. Don’t worry I’ll show you how to back those up too if you so happen to get worried. But first, let’s carry on with restoring your database files.

Activate the plugin if you haven’t already done so. Head on down towards:

DatabaseManage Backup DB

Manage Database inside WP-DBmanager

You’re going to then get the latest databases you have on your server, now if you haven’t already installed a database backup plugin yet, now’s the time to do so! Don’t prolong backing up until it hits you, because when you get to this part, you’re going to be hit dead on. Let’s not make it happen.

Restore your database

Below you’ll notice I already had some past databases. This is helpful if you’ve upgraded your WordPress to a newer version and got errors and want to downgrade back. Restoring from your backup database will bring back the older version. Likewise, you want to choose the latest backup. In this case, you’ll see the newer version for today below but I had to opted for the July 19, 6:19 am file, which before the problem occurred was all I had.

Wp-DBmanager timeline table

Notice that the files are in SQL, an extension for the common database language file in the structured query language system. You have the option to compress these files into a GZip file but because you don’t have to. Here it’s saved in it’s entirety on my web hosting server. If you want to compress yours you can do so. We’ll get to that in a moment.

Now, choose the data you want restored, the e-mail you want the backup file sent to and click on RESTORE. Give it a couple of moments and then continue on.

You’ve restored the backup database, now what?

Check your site to see if all your original posts and pages are back. You’ll notice that there’s a slight change in your theme. But that’s OK, the point is are the pages there? Click on a link and test it out. You’ll notice that you’ll get a 404 error.

OK, now’s the time to repair your database and optimize it as well. Doing both will sync your site with the restored pages so that search engines will look for the pointers you’ve restored. Thus, it won’t produce those 404 errors that will become frighteningly scary.

WP-DBmanager repair

All you have to do is select YES to all the options and click on REPAIR. It might take a minute so be patient. Next, on top of the Repair DB option is Optimize DB. Just like repairing, you just select all the options and click on OPTIMIZE.

You’ll notice that it’s suggested to optimize your database each month. It won’t hurt to do it weekly though. Helps your site load faster and also your content organized.

From this point, you want to activate or install WP Super Cache or your preferred caching plugin. Once you’ve done so, delete the cache. This will refresh your site and actually let you see everything restored from the database backup. Click on the links and pages you got. Are they there? Are you still getting 404 errors?

Go back and repeat the process from restoration again. See if that will help.

Some minor disappointments worth changing

You’re not going to be entirely satisfied with the backup. At least I wasn’t because I still lost a post, some comments and also the theme was out of sync. In order to save myself from those miseries for the future, I did a backup and configuration of several more areas:

  • Thesis’s configurations
    • ThesisManage OptionsDownload OptionsAll Options
    • This will export a .dat file with the current date, great for organizing
  • exported WordPress content
    • ToolsExportDownload Export File
    • This will export a .xml file with all your wordpress content also with current date
  • changed the schedule of database backups to a shorter timeframe
    • DatabaseDB Options
    • Take a look at this section CAREFULLY because this will enable you to have more or less backups. You can set the maximum backup files – default is 10. Then under Automatic Scheduling, set when you want to backup and when you want to optimize. Here’s where you can set if you want your files saved as a compressed GZip or not. Then save your changes and you’re all set.

While I was on the brink of giving up in looking for that last post, I forgot, I also had a subscription to my RSS feed. Thankfully, that saved me because it syndicated the latest content and I had it in my e-mail box. So subscribe to your own feed if you haven’t already done so. It’s good recordkeeping plus a great place to restore content if all else fails.

What happened was TweetMeme also referenced to this post in a certain link. All I did was:

  • repost the content
  • set it to the correct date
  • set the permalinks correctly

This put me back in business and while it was a bucket of sweat, it was worth shedding!

Worst Case Scenario

Downtime is something you don’t want from your blog. One of the tools which will help you monitor your downtime is UpTimeRobot. Not only that, it will also let you know when your site goes back up.

uptime robot logoI’ve been using it for the past couple of weeks and am surprise with the results it has given me. I’m learning more about my web host’s ability to serve me better and times which I should be aware of. The usability is really straight-forward. So it’s an analytic tool which you should keep handy to track your site’s downtime.

Best of all it’s FREE.

Another thing is ranking. Who knows how much visitors I’ve lost or even comments which are bringing in link juice. While those are just some possibilities. Losing your work is something you don’t want happen. So while the longer your site is offline, the rankings will fall off too.

Thus, I was lucky. Very lucky to have backups of the content and also approached the situation as promptly as I could.

Yours could be a matter of more difficulty. If so, ask your web host provider to do the technical stuff for you. Call them to back up what they can of your site from their backups. Don’t be happy yet, some might have it a week prior so you’re still going to miss out at least some posts, comments or changes.

Look on the bright side, better to have most of it than none.

I hope this article will help you ensure the future of your site as well as save you from any loss in profits, mental misery or even ongoing efforts.

Any other suggestions for backing up? What’s your backup nightmare story?