Backup!

Here's a good lesson to learn if you are an internet marketing newbie.

Always BACKUP!

Here's a lesson I learnt. As you can see I have an opt-in box that is linked to 1ShoppingCart.com. But right now, if you key in your name and email and hit 'submit' you end up in their website instead of my personal thank-you page (and inadvertently advertise for them, how smart of them).

Well, it wasn't suppose to be that way but only because my membership expired.

My gripe is that they did not warn me that my account was expiring so I forgot to renew it and I lost all the mailing list that I collected before it expired. Well, initially I thought of continuing my membership with 1shoppingcart but this incident made me decide to install my own autoresponder php software in my host instead. At least I have better control of my mailing list and not have to pay monthly fee for their services.

That said, it's also wise to periodically export your mailing list and files to your own computer or other backup devices. Why?

Here's another lesson I learnt from my friend. If you have gone to www.EarnReadingEmails.com, you would have noticed that website experienced a server crash and all data were lost!!

I used to take for granted that the hosting company would be responsible for backups etc but here's the reality.

Unless you sign up for a dedicated server package (which normally cost a hefty sum a month!) your hosting package (maybe about USD8-9/mth)is actually a shared server package and the hosting company will not necessarily do backup for you.

And you can't blame them. Why? Because backups will slow down access to the website because of background processes and most importantly, it's not cost-effective to do it. (you only paid a meagre sum a month remember?)

And best of all, my friend highlighted to me that if you look closely at the terms, it's clearly stated that the hosting companies are NOT responsible for loss of data! So he learnt a good experience (he lost 3,500 members!) whereas I had a good OPE (other people's experience) learning moment!

So, if you are going to do some serious work with your website, don't take for granted the hosting company will do everything for you (unless you pay them) Instead, remember to BACKUP!

-The Hunz-