Welcome to Day 8 of the Internet Marketing Makeover (#31DIMM for short)!
I’m writing this at my home in Northern California, where we’ve just been buffeted by a nasty winter storm. Our power has been out for just about 24 hours, and I can only hope it’s back on by the time this post goes live tomorrow morning!
My office in town, also without power (and Rory, 7)
We’re not in bad shape though – we have a small generator that will run a room or two in the house; that’s how I’m online right now. We have a woodstove to heat the house so we’re toasty warm despite the temperature being well below freezing outside. My truck has 4 wheel drive and we were easily able to plow out of the 2-3 feet of snow in our driveway to head into town (no power there either!).
With the lack of distraction from TV, the internet, phones or other electronic do-dads, it’s been pretty quiet. And I got to thinking about how much this storm and power outage dovetails with today’s Internet Marketing Makeover post – it’s all about being prepared.
DAY 08 OBJECTIVE
Prepare your sites for disaster!
DAY 08 ASSIGNMENT
Anything can happen. Murphy’s law says that if you’re well prepared, nothing will happen. If you’re not prepared, every calamity imaginable will strike!
Today we’ll safeguard our sites for whatever fiasco the interwebs throws at us.
BACKUP YOUR SITES
Your web host should be performing some sort of regular backups of your sites.
Find out if they are! Also find out how long they archive those backups for.
Hostgator’s shared hosting performs an automatic backup every Sunday night, and they archive those backups for at least a week. The host this blog is on, PowerVPS, backs up my servers every night (I’m not sure how long they archive them for, and I should find out!).
These kinds of backups are a must, but they’re not necesarily enough.
Like most things, if you’re running Wordpress than automatic backups are pretty simple.
Use the WP DB Backup plugin to automatically backup your core Wordpress database information (like your posts!) and email them to you each night. (Have these emails sent to an address that is NOT on the same server as your site – perhaps a Gmail account).
If you have a VPS you may have permissions to configure daily backups for your whole server (if your host isn’t doing this automatically for you) – talk to your web host about this and implement it as an additional safeguard.
MAINTAIN SECURITY
Most shared hosting and VPS’s are pre-configured with the most common and effective security options. If you have any doubts or concerns, your should get in touch with your hosting provider.
Some VPS’s and dedicated servers are given to you pretty much out-of-the-box. If you find out from your host that this is the case with your server, and that additional security measures should be configured by you, it may be in your best interest to hire a security expert at Odesk to “harden” your server.
With Wordpress, there are some modifications in the way of plugins that you can use to ensure your Wordpress installation is even more secure than it comes by default.
Firstly, you’ll want to have the most current version of Wordpress, with each new version there are numerous security and bugfixes and maintaining the most recent version will protect you in that way. (We discussed this at length during Day 4 of your Internet Marketing Makeover).
Plugins like Akismit and BadBehavior can help protect your blog from comment spam – use these.
Also you’ll want to install Secure Wordpress and WP Security Scan. Secure Wordpress removes some vulnerabilities from your installation automatically, while WP Security Scan checks your site for security holes and makes suggestions for how to fix them. Both are invaluable.
Other scripts you may be running on your server (like vBulletin) could have additional updates or plugins to enhance out-of-the-box security. Ensure you’re running the latest versions of any additional scripts your running on your server as well as any well revered security enhancements that may be available for them.
MAINTAIN USABILITY
Not quite an “utter interwebs disaster,” but a whole buncha traffic all at once can bring your site to it’s knees if it’s too much for your server to handle. You’ll see these problems sometimes when sites hit the #1 position on places like Digg or during product launches. There’s simply too much traffic hitting the site all at once, and it fails.
Even if you don’t anticipate this kind of server crashing traffic, the measures below will help your site perform faster and decrease page load times, which your visitors notice and love. Google has even commented on and implemented metrics to measure your sites’ speed – take notice! This may become even more important in the future for your search engine ranking. Better be faster now than be ranked lower later!
No matter what your site is running (PHP, plain old HTML, or a script like Wordpress), ensure that any videos you display for your users are NOT served from your own site. Instead, use a third party video hosting service, like YouTube, or a third party storage service, like Amazon S3, to store and stream your videos. You’ll cut down on the bandwith your users consume, prevent server overload, and 99% of the time a video from one of these services will load faster than one loaded from your own server.
If your site is very heavy on images (like a photo gallery) you can use a service like Flickr to host and display your images.
Images used for your site design (like headers) can be stored at Amazon S3 and loaded much faster.
Wordpress users can also install WP Super Cache. WP Super Cache “generates static html files from your dynamic WordPress blog. After a html file is generated your webserver will serve that file instead of processing the comparatively heavier and more expensive WordPress PHP scripts.” The end result is that your site will load faster and not suffer from server meltdown should a large number of visitors hit it all at once.
Now is also the time to check your sites for broken links. Check your main navigation bars, sidebars, footer links, etc. to ensure all your links are still active and directing to the proper place.
Wordpress Broken Link Checker will do this for you automatically, scanning your Wordpress posts, pages, blogroll and images and notifying you of any broken links.
Today’s measure will increase the overall security of your server and sites, and should there be a failure somewhere along the line, you’ll have backups to fall back on.
Join us tomorrow for another #31DIMM post. 2010 is going to be headache and worry free from January 1!
ABOUT THE 31 DAY INTERNET MARKETING MAKEOVER
You will also want to keep up-to-date with 31 Day IM Makeover happenings through the following channels:
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The official Twitter hashtag for the 31 Day Internet Marketing Makeover is #31DIMM (yes, I know it reads “31 Dim” but that’s kinda funny, right?). You can find other participants by searching Twitter for the hashtag.
Join using the form above and look in your inbox tomorrow for the next step in your Internet Marketing Makeover!
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I SO badly need help with backing up Wordpress sites to be able to as quickly and easily recover from a site hack or other web disasters.
And, I’ve been working on this for some time now with mixed results – I’m so close but not there yet, please help! – here’s what I’ve got.
DESIRED OUTCOME: the ability to quickly, manually, backup my database file and key Wordpress files and be able to restore the site manually as streamlined as possible.
HERE’S WHAT I’VE GOT:
TO BACKUP:
1. FTP download the wp-content file to desktop (or wherever desired).
2. In Bluehost (my hosting company) from the cPanel use phpmyadmin and export the desired wordpress database (.sql) file to desktop.
TO RESTORE:
1. Reinstall Wordpress.
2. FTP upload the wp-content file (restores the theme, plugins, etc.)
3. In Bluehost, import the .sql file
So, I took a domain with a wordpress install with a few test posts – nothing important – and tested the procedure.
It’s step 3 in the RESTORE that’s killing me: I couldn’t get the .sql file to import….
Bluehost helped to where I could get it to import – they modified the file so I could upload, but I’m not confident I can modify .sql files properly (I’m not that geeky).
Even after the successful .sql file import, the content of the Wordpress site was NOT restored!
I recontacted Bluehost, but their answer is a little too geeky for me to understand…
Can anyone give me a step-by-step procedure to achieve proper backup and restore without going all geeky on me?
It seems like it’s just getting the database file (.sql) to properly get to where it needs to be that I need – and this is critical since that file would contain all the content of posts and pages, correct?
Thanks!
David
@David – My host does that kind of thing for me (restoring backups) should I need it.
When I did that a short while ago. The backup did not connect my sql to a user and password. So I had to look at the wp-config.php file in file manager and see what the name and password should be.
Then I created that user and pass word in my sql setup. This may be what is happening to you.
Michelle:
This is a great series! Thanks for offering it to us.
BTW, I’m sorry to hear of your power outage. By sheer coincidence, 10 minutes before reading your post, I received a call from my mother who tells me that her power has been out since Sunday night. She lives in Rescue, CA (outside of Placerville) which, by the looks of your photo, isn’t too far from where you live.
Hope your power comes back on soon. You’re right: preparation is the key!
Thanks again,
Scott
@Scott – Rescue about 25 minutes below us – we’re in Georgetown. Our power came back about 11pm last night – hoping your mom’s comes back ASAP!
Thank you for these helpful tips and tools. I’ve implemented all as per your well laid out instructions. Look forward to tomorrows lesson
PS: Pleased to hear your power is back on!
@Michelle – you’re right, so does my hosting service, but they tell me they’ll take days to restore the site. That makes me nervous, if I had a money-making site, I wouldn’t want it down for days… I should get a hostgator account like you have in addition to my bluehost account…
Anyway, I spent all day on this, and I tested and retested and re-retested until I was able to expediently – and confidently – restore a destroyed Wordpress site.
For those who may care to benefit from my full days’ work, here’s the step-by-step procedure I came up with.
Best,
David
PS: yes, I’m the “raising penguins” guy… ;-D
———–
BACK UP PROCEDURE:
1. Install wp-dbmanager plugin and configure; you will have to move and rename a file htaccess.txt to .htaccess, a nag screen in Wordpress will tell you exactly what to do.
2. Create a backup of the .sql database using this plugin (it’s all pretty self-explanatory in the plugin – after install look below “settings” for a new DATABASE option to click on – it’s the second option, “BACKUP DB” > scroll to the bottom and click on the BACKUP button).
3. Now go to the next option under that one you just used, it’s labeled “MANAGE BACKUP DB”, and download the backup you just created by selecting the radio button, and then clicking DOWNLOAD; save it somewhere you’ll remember and find easily.
4. Using FTP client of choice, download your wp-content folder somewhere you’ll remember and find easily.
RESTORE PROCEDURE IN CASE OF HACKING ETC.
1. At your hosting cPanel, do an uninstall of the Wordpress install for that domain (in Bluehost, it’s in the Simple Scripts area > My Installs
2. In FTP client delete all files in the domain’s root directory folder, and as for a totally clean start, also delete the actual domain root directory folder; this may have to be done in your hosting service’s FTP client under the public_html.
3. Make a fresh domain root directory folder for the site in public_html.
4. Install Wordpress via hosting service cPanel.
5. Then in “my installs” under Simple Scripts, click on “Advanced” to see the file path (that “file path” terminology may not be spot on, but for example, it will tell you the Wordpress install “number” – such as “something_wrd6″ or “something_wp04″.
6. At cPanel, choose “phpmyadmin” > choose the “something_wp#” (what you found in step 5) – it will appear on the left – BE SURE TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT ONE!
7. Near the top click on the IMPORT tab/link > use browse button to locate the .sql file you created and backed up using the Wordpress DB backup plugin > then click the GO button at the bottom right.
RESULT:
This restores your Wordpress website to it’s previous condition, with all settings, posts, categories, comments etc. in place. Now you can go to your backup file wp-content and FTP upload desired themes, plugins, etc.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
After you import your .sql file, you will NOT login to your site http://www.yoursite.com/wp-admin with the new password provided in your fresh Simple Scripts install – you will login with the password you always used, or at least the one you used when you created the backup of your .sql file.
ALSO IMPORTANT:
The order in which you restore is pretty critical; e.g., you CAN’T install new Wordpress version, log into your Wordpress dashboard, and then import your .sql file.
Love the view. It looks peaceful. Too humid over here in mid Texas.
I am on your list following your 31day makeover, and THANK YOU for posting these articles.
Another good thing to do is changing the current “WP Prefix Table” to prevent sql injection attempts.
After viewing an exhausting tutorial through google, I was finally able to get it done correctly through my scary host gator PHPadmin. I know squat about wordpress, so I feel pretty good now.
Oh, and Login Lockdown to prevent brute force attempts by lame people with nothing to do.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/login-lockdown/
I hope you don’t mind me posting all this Michelle, it’s fresh in my head right now…
With the trouble I have been having lately with wordpress plugins and now to hear about how prepared you have to be in the event of a server failure I am beginning to wonder if it is all worth the while to market on the internet.
Between trying to figure how the internet works and just to find out now it is changing again to figuring how to get plugins to work on my blog and finally to create my own website I have wasted 2 years yes that is wright 2 bloody years.I guess that is the route you have to take when you are living on close to street wages.
So I guess I have some soul searching to do and make which may be some new decision on marketing.
Kenneth
Thanks Michelle, excellent advice (especially for new blogger!)
I’d say that this is more than a great advice Dinus. I had two “power seo blogs” that used to get me top rankings for almost any keyword in Google in just hours. I build hundreds of backlinks to these blogs since 2006… and the two got hacked!
And poor me without backups to reinstall them.
anyway, I started over, and my new blogs are pretty powerful now. But today, I receive backups directly in my inbox. There is a plugin to do this.
Thank you.
Franck
the Body Guard marketer
@ Mike: I spent well over full 2 very frustrating days working and working until I got to the point where I could backup and restore a Wordpress site confidently, and I detailed those steps right here on this blog – would you care to email me (or post here) the step-by-step of how to “change the current “WP Prefix Table” to prevent sql injection attempts” – I’d really appreciate it – my email is davidportney@gmail.com.
@ Kenneth Young: there’s no doubt that there’s a huge mountain (@michelle – you’re welcome!)
to climb when it comes to internet marketing, and so far, frankly, Michelle is the one I’ve found who dishes out the content that’s actually straight to the point, all meat and no fluff. Yes, there’s a LOT to know, and things change – and you’re right that you’ll have to decide if this whole internet marketing thing is for you. Although the learning curve can be steep and there’s many things to know if you do it all yourself as I do (I don’t outsource… YET!) 
but if overall you enjoy it despite the many frustrations and road blocks that you encounter, then you’re on the right track. Learning to play guitar is very frustrating too, and there’s never a “real end” to learning and developing, but if you quit, you’ll never reap the benefits; playing guitar is fun!–and internet marketing can be too. One more thing: I’ve spent waaay more time and money than you have and not achieved a livable income from it, but I’m keeping at it; you’ll have to decide for yourself if you can stick it out and keep going. Personally, I wouldn’t advise trying to make a living at IM as your sole option for income (that’s just MY opinion!-after all, you may do better than I do and make a lot of money soon). Okay, that’s enough from me!
David