<p> </p>
<p>If you are moving your blog to another host, I’ve got three words for you. Backup, backup, backup.</p>
<p>In the past few months, I’ve noticed a rise in folks complaining about losing blog posts, when moving their blog from one place to another.</p>
<p>Having successfully run a couple of blogs in the past, I am all too-aware of the things one ought to do when moving a blog or starting a new one. Importing your current blog site's posts into a new blog can be daunting, if not planned in advance.</p>
<p><strong>Here are some tips:</strong></p>
<p><strong>Backup solutions:</strong><br />Be sure you always have a tool available with which to backup your blog posts.</p>
<p>If your blog is hosted by someone other than you, or you cannot access your control panel, ask your host or webmaster to set up a cron job to backup your blog’s database regularly. A cron job is a command that tells the server to do something, usually a scheduled task, similar to how your anti-virus program on your computer updates itself every night.</p>
<p>Any webmaster/web admin worth their salt should know what this means when you ask them about it, and it’s really easy for them to do (shouldn’t take them more than a few minutes to set up, one time–that’s it).</p>
<p>They can even have it so that the backups are sent to you via email, so that you may save the backup files. That way, if something should ever happen and you need to move your site to a new host, you can take it with you, or it can be uploaded to your server in a folder somewhere.</p>
<p>Be sure that if you post frequently to your blog (i.e., once a day) that you have them set it up so that the weekly backup overwrites the last one, or perhaps have 2 backups in case something happens to your host server.</p>
<p><strong>Backup and Import tools available:</strong></p>
<p>Some popular blogging platforms have built-in tools available for you to accomplish the task of exporting/backing up your blog posts, and importing them. I've chosen to outline how Blogger.com and WordPress help you do this.<strong> </strong>More information can be found by searching "blog import/export" at Yahoo! or Google.</p>
<p><strong>For Blogger:<br /></strong>Here is a page at Blogger's Help Section that illustrates how to backup your Blogger blog posts and prepare them for import into a new blog...<br /><a href="http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?hl=en&amp;answer=97416">http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=97416</a></p>
<p><br /><strong>For WordPress:</strong><br />With the more recent WordPress versions, a recently-added feature was the ability to import/export posts, categories, commands, etc. on the fly. This is a great tool to use if you are uncomfortable with, or cannot access MySQL or phpMyAdmin (or any other database tool).</p>
<p><strong>Here is how the import/export function works in WordPress, for when you move your blog from one place to another:</strong></p>
<p>1) Log into your <em><strong>current</strong></em> WordPress site</p>
<p>2) Click on WordPress Admin > Manage > Export.</p>
<p>3) WordPress will create an XML file that you will then use to import. Save the file in an easy-to-find location, such as your desktop or favorite folder. If you are going to import from more than one blog, feel free to re-name it Blog1.xml (replacing “Blog1″ with your blog name or a short nickname that’s easy to remember).</p>
<p>4) Once you have your new host set up and a working copy of WordPress installed at your <strong><em>new</em></strong> blog site, log into the Dashboard, and click on WordPress Admin > Manage > Import.</p>
<p>5) The import page will ask you to locate the file you saved in Step 3. Upload the Blog1.xml file as instructed, and wait for confirmation.</p>
<p>That’s it! All your posts, comments, custom fields, pages, and categories should now be imported to the blog at your new site/host.</p>
<div><strong>NOTES:</strong> <br />You can even import all your attachments, which makes this even easier to migrate from one host to another.</div>
<p>You will need to move your plugins, theme files, etc. separately. The best way to do this, is to log into your hosting website control panel (or use FTP) and download everything in your wp-content/uploads, wp-content/themes and wp-content/plugins directories, to your computer. Then add them back into your new site via FTP, or control panel upload.</p>
2009-04-25T06:43:53Z
-8.7069
233
4337
true
12
6068
moving-your-blog-what-to-do-first
0
2009-04-25T18:58:42Z
2009-04-25T18:59:11Z
Some tips on what things to do when preparing to move your blog from one host to another, or a different blogging format/provider (Blogger,com, WordPress, etc.)
Moving your blog? What to do first
1
2009-04-25T18:59:11Z