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Why It’s Important to Back Up Your Blog

A few years back when I was very first getting into this blogging groove, I had a few friends who lost their blogs. For some reason Google crashed and their entire blog disappeared into the internet and they were never able to retrieve their years of history and posts. It was tragic. Luckily, I learned from their examples and started backing up my blog to ensure I would have it if anything like that were to happen. It’s also helpful if you ever move it elsewhere.

Below, you’ll find the steps for backing up and re-importing your blog. Better safe than sorry, right?

How to Back Up Your Blogger Blog

Step 1. Log into Blogger and head straight to your Settings.

Step 2: From Settings, head into the Other tab from the left hand menu.

Step 3: Click Export from the links at the top of the screen.

Step 4: Click Download Blog from the pop-up window.

Step 5: Your web browser may then prompt you to pick a location to save it to, or it will simply download it to your Download’s folder. I would recommend you pick a safe place on your hard drive to save/move it to.

How to Import your Backed Up Blogger Blog

If the time ever comes that you need to import your blog back in-which I hope you never have to do, but hey-at least you’ll be prepared right? Follow these steps:

Step 1. Log into Blogger and head straight to your Settings. (Screenshot above)

Step 2: From Settings, head into the Other tab from the left hand menu. (Screenshot above)

Step 3: Click Import from the links at the top.

How to Import Your Backed Up Blogger Blog Step 3

Step 4: Click on Choose File from the pop-up.

How to Import Your Backed Up Blogger Blog Step 4

Step 5: Select the backup file from where you saved it on your hard drive.

How to Import Your Backed Up Blogger Blog Step 5

Step 6: Enter the Captcha for security purposes and click Import Blog.

How to Back Up Your Blogger Template

Backing up your Template is also a great idea, especially if you put a lot of work into your design and set up. I personally do a little bit of my design via the Template Designer, but then I do quite a bit in the HTML code too-if I suddenly lost that it would be a HUGE pain to redo manually-being able to just reload it is fantastic.

Step 1. Log into Blogger and head straight to your Template.

How to Back Up Your Blogger Template Step 1

Step 2: Click the Backup/Restore button in the upper right hand corner.

How to Back Up Your Blogger Template Step 2

Step 3: Select Download Full Template from the pop-up window.

Step 4: Your web browser may then prompt you to pick a location to save it to, or it will simply download it to your Download’s folder. I would recommend you pick a safe place on your hard drive to save/move it to.

How to Import Your Backed Up Blogger Template

If you need to import your Template back in and restore your blog design and settings, follow these steps:

Step 1. Log into Blogger and head straight to your Template. (Photo above)

Step 2: Click the Backup/Restore button in the upper right hand corner. (Photo above)

Step 3: Click Choose File from the pop-up window.

How to Import Your Backed Up Blogger Template Step 3

Step 4: Find and select the backed up template from it’s location on your hard drive.

How to Import Your Backed Up Blogger Template Step 4

Step 5: Click Upload on the pop-up window to import it back in and restore settings.

How to Import Your Backed Up Blogger Template Step 5

How to Back Up on Other Blogging Platforms

Most other blogging platforms have some very different options. For example, on WordPress you typically need either a plug in or a hosted server for your backup. Here are some links to help you get started:

Back Up Your Backup UP

No matter which platform you use or where you save the backup on your hard drive, it’s important to always have a backup of your backup. What does that mean? Well you should be including your blog’s backup file in the backup you run on your computer.

If you don’t already have a backup in place on your computer, I’d highly recommend getting one as soon as possible. Not only do backups of your computer protect you in cases such as theft, damage, or loss, but we live in a day and age where your machine can be hacked or you can download a virus without even knowing it. All it takes is one misstep-and it doesn’t even take that-and you could have lost all of the baby pictures, blog posts, and important documents you have on your computer. Having a backup in place protects you so you can easily download the files to a new or restored computer.

I personally use MozyHome, but there are so many different options out there that fit you and your budget. If you’d like to just try Mozy for free, you can get two gigs of space at no cost through MozyHome Free. You can even get an additional 256MB on top of your 2GB if you use my Referral Code when signing up. That code is: VEMFPE

In the effort of full disclosure, I also work for Mozy (going on 4.5 years this time-which is the second time I’ve worked here) and today this post coincides with me being featured on the Mozy Blog! Check it out and learn a little bit about me and what I do there! This post was not sponsored or anything, I just wanted to include this extra tidbit in the post for anyone interested.

The Better Your Blog Series is a series of posts written by myself, Angie of My So-Called Chaos, from my own personal experience as a long-time blogger, small-business owner, and as someone who’s worked with technology and customer service for many many years. They are written with the intent of sharing the knowledge I’ve acquired through years of practice and education (both self-taught and school-taught) with others in the blogging community.

In this collection of posts you’ll not only find tips for maintaining your blog, but also for anything that goes along with being a blogger and/or small business owner-like design tips and tutorials, social media, tools, and more.

The posts in this series are constantly being updated to make sure they stay current, and the series is constantly being added to. Please contact me if there’s something you’d like to learn.

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