After reading Chris Brogan’s post “When Google Owns You – A New Chapter.” First, my heart went out to him as I’ve managed to destroy about four cell phones while on the road with no plan B. I could relate to the sense of isolation and perceived helplessness.
I had just finished my plan B, which is to regularly back up all my important web-sites. I’m talking really backed up here as in six ways to Sunday. As long as I can find a server to host it, even my provider going out of business won’t interrupt the sustainability of my sites because I have a plan B to get them back up and running quickly. I own and control the domains, content and for the most part delivery methods for JimRaffel.com and other important sites in my business and personal life.
Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and even Google can change and “enforce” their terms of service at will. Sure, @raffel on Twitter could disappear tomorrow for what the operators decide is a violation of the terms of service. *Poof* there goes one conduit of communication for me to reach more than a thousand people each day. Good luck silencing JimRaffel.com that way.
Do you have a plan B and a plan C for your life on-line? Your backup plans should not depend upon a single specific provider like those listed above. Instead your plan should focus on your presence being back on the web as quickly as possible should something terrible happen to your current plan.
I understand many of my readers are not techno-geeks like me (and some are even more geeky – I get that too). A simple plan B for a blogger might mean having a backup site built on Tumblr if you use WordPress. Know how to use the alternative platform and have the framework in place to move your home base at a moments notice, should your current provider go nuts and mess with the Terms of Service. (Yes, it really does happen *cough* FaceBook *cough* Twitter).
What’s your plan B?
Good suggestions Jim. Always important to have a plan B.
I'd also remind you to add an automatic backup that goes to a safe email address (maybe a Gmail address, maybe another address) but somewhere safe that you can get to in case your host holds you hostage.
And lastly, I'd recommend you use Carbonite or something else to back up your files, in case your hard drive takes a dump.
Phil-Great advice in my case the site backups literally do go to five places (some automated some not). I've heard good things about Carbonite. I use JungleDisk and backup my MacBook Pro to Amazon S3 through that tool. As always thanks for stopping by and adding to the conversation!
One of my external backup hard drives (and even a DVD backup) died recently. It had all of my tax information from 2003-2007. The best part? I have been going through an audit so I had to go through all of my receipts and paperwork and essentially re-do my taxes. No fun!
Relying on technology will be our society's downfall. I miss the paper filing days and still keep a hefty portion of my important things in paper form. Next up, fireproof safes and filing cabinets 🙂