After morning devotions and making sure the kids are settled into their schoolwork, you decide to check those comments you received last night. Settling into your computer chair, you type in your URL – http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/lifeisapicnic. The computer makes a noise like a Boeing 747 taking off, and then the screen flickers from the nice blue Google logo to a blank white screen. Hmm, you think to yourself, that’s strange! You quickly type in your profile address: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/profiles/itsgone! This time the page immediately loads but displays the error This user does not currently have any blogs. Frantic, you call one of your friends who knows a friend-of-a-friend who knows a guy in tech support, and in minutes it’s confirmed – your blog is gone!

Nothing is worse than sitting down to your computer and finding your blog is hacked or totally gone. For some who have been blogging for a short time, losing a blog is just a matter of choosing a new template and starting over, but for others, years of hard work can be lost. There are several steps you can take to prevent blog theft and protect your data.

Protect Your Password

I’ve been involved with tech support for over a year and have had to encourage a number of people to change their passwords due to their high susceptibility of being hacked. I highly recommend taking the following precautions to secure your blog.

1). Never make your password the same as your blog name. That is the first thing a hacker will try to!

2). There isn’t much difference between a passphrase and a password, but a passphrase is generally longer and made of several words. HomeschoolBlogger has no limit on the number of characters used in a password, but we don’t allow spaces. Generally it is easier to remember a few words from a song or Bible verse, than 12 funky unrelated characters.

3). Don’t share your password with anyone online! If someone is helping you with your template, you don’t need to give them the password, just the HTML.

Back Up Your Blog

Keeping an active blog backup is also a good idea. The quickest and most efficient way to do this is to simply select all of your entries and paste them into a Word document. If anything happens to your blog, you will be able to repost the entries or at least have them on file.

Keeping a backup of your blog template is also a good idea. If your blog goes down, the template usually goes with it.

Remember, the blogging tech team is here to support you. If you have any problems or questions, you can always contact us using the help links in your control panel.

Eric Novak
HSB Tech
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HSBTechHelp/
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/blogboy