Image credit: redjar

Earlier this week we talked about using online backup services for offsite safekeeping of our files and photos.

But many of us have stuff that lives online and not on our home computer, like blogs and websites, and all our goodies at Del.icio.us and Flickr, et. al.

I feel sure we can depend on social media sites and online services like Jott and Remember The Milk to protect what we’ve put out there. And that’s not fangirl talk.

The bottom line is that their bottom line is 100% dependent on their ability to 1) provide the service, and 2) preserve our data. And not necessarily in the order.

So with our links, photos, reminders, and schedules in trustworthy hands, we only need to worry about backups for our websites and blogs. And really, we don’t need to worry (much) about those. Here’s why—

The Good News

The Internet remembers (almost) everything.

When we heard that Sharon over at Get Paid To Write Online lost a piece of her terrific blog to a webhost error and a not-quite-current backup file, Dan and I put our heads together to figure out how she could get restore the missing pieces.

We suggested online resources like the Google Cache and her own feed (more on those below), and Sharon was able to recover most of what was lost from Google’s semi-permanent memory.

The Bad News

The Internet remembers (almost) everything.

Don’t publish anything online—anything!—that you don’t want preserved…maybe forever.

Webmasters have a little wiggle room. If the website traffic is low, it could take a day or two (or ten) for the search engines to note that something has been added or edited. Also, odds are that no one will see (or print or save or share) the boo-boo before it can be fixed. If the website has a lot of traffic? Wellll…maybe not so much.

Bloggers have no room to wiggle. Once a blogger clicks Publish, their content is broadcast to distribution points all over the Internet. The entire web-connected planet can access it immediately through RSS feeds, a copy will arrive in every email subscribers’ Inbox within the day, and the search engines may discover it within the hour.

Just like when we were 12: there are do-overs, but no take-backs.

Lost your website?

With those in mind, here are a few places to check for archived copies of your web pages:

Your website host

While many website hosts keep backups of customer content, there’s no guarantee their backup will be current, accessible, or usable. Most webhost Terms Of Service that I’ve seen say customers are responsible for maintaining their own backups. Avoid unwelcome surprises! Check your webhost’s backup policy before you need it.

Some full-featured website hosts offer routine backups in their hosting packages—both free and for a fee—but watch out for hidden costs. In addition to a flat fee, there may be additional charges based on how much is stored, as well a fee to recover your lost data.

Tip: InMotion Hosting* is an award-winning host with affordable packages that include automatic backup and free recovery, with a reasonable charge for repeated recoveries within a four month period.

The Google Cache

Google’s Cache is updated as web pages are indexed, so it can be good for recovering recent copies. Depending on how often Google’s bots visit the website, Google’s Cache will have a copy that’s just a few minutes old to ancient history.

To see what’s cached for your website, type into the Google search box site:yoursitename.com and click Search. For example, here’s everything for BigBrightBulb.

Every search result will have Cached listed among the links beneath it.

Click on Cached to display Google’s copy of the page. There will be a header with how old their copy is and links to a text-only version.

Google’s Cache is a wonderful, powerful thing…another reason to both admire and fear them.

The Wayback Machine

This feature of the Internet Archive maintains snapshots of the Web forever. It takes about 6 months for copies to be listed and there may be gaps in the timeline, so don’t expect anything current here and don’t depend on it solely, but know that whatever you find there, is there to stay.

The Wayback Machine is best for recovering older versions of content, because unlike Google’s cache, this is a permanent record. For example, here’s Yahoo’s homepage for December 22, 2004.

Lost your blog?

The features that can shame us when we post errors can save us if our posts and comments pisaddear. From the moment we publish, copies of our work can be found in/with our:

Feeds

Depending on its settings, the last 5 to 95 published posts and comments are stored in the blog’s widely published feed. We can access formatted content through a feed reader like Google Reader or FeedDemon.

We can also recover the feed’s XML from our feed manager. At Feedburner, this is at Optimize > XML Source (see below).

Inbox

Bloggers who receive new comment notifications have a stash of detailed reader commentary in their Inbox. This can be a great resource for recovering lost comments if your blog doesn’t use a comment feed.

And if your blog offers email subscriptions (like this one does), it’s a good idea to subscribe to your own feed. For everyday use, it’s good to know what arrives in your subscribers Inbox, as well as when it gets there. For the long haul, you have an easy-to-access archive of every post.

Avid Readers

Loyal as they can be, we don’t want to depend on our readers for our data recovery plan, but they may help in a pinch. For example, I occasionally print or PDF posts for reference, so there’s a small and varied collection of articles on my hard drive.

There’s no telling which readers are saving your stuff, what they’re saving, or in what state it’s in, but it’s still one more way your stuff can be preserved forever…whether you like it or not.

Extreme Backups

And if you (like me) trust your service providers and the Web, but feel more comfortable with a backup for their backup, you can always maintain a copy of your blog or website on your own computer. This is the best way I know of to be assured of an easily accessible, up-to-the-minute copy.

I execute and download a backup of this blog’s database file each time I post, so there’s always a current copy at hand. Of course, because my hard drive is continually backed up by Carbonite*, a copy is maintained at their remote sites as well.

Which means my backup’s backup has a backup. Heh.

Et tu? What’s your recovery plan if your website, blog, or computer pisaddears? After the screaming stops, I mean. And after the crying.

* Yup, these are affiliate links because they’re products I paid for, use, enjoy, and recommend.