How to back up your WordPress.com blog

Yesterday, I gave the heads up that WordPress.com seems to be targeting book reviewers who conduct blog tours that link to 3rd party websites. According to two bloggers who commented on that post, they went to put a new post on their WordPress.com blog only to find it suspended. Gone.

Can you imagine as a blogger logging into your WordPress.com blog only to find it gone, suspended or hacked? Think of all the hard work and all those hours you put into creating your blog, now nothing more than a memory. Yes, it’s true that WordPress.com backs up their free site, but that doesn’t help you if they are the ones who suspend your blog.  If you have a WordPress.com blog, it would be a great idea to get into the habit of backing up your own blog.

So how do you do that?

Step 1

From your dashboard go to tools and click on export.
Click on: Export, Create an XML file containing your posts and comments for you to save or import into another WordPress blog.  Free.

Step 2
It will take you to a page that says, Choose what to export– choose All Content.
Click on Download to Export at the bottom of page.

Step 3
Click ok if you get a prompt. This will take you to where you want to save the WordPress file. Create a new folder in your documents, or use an existing document to save your WordPress blog.  I also save to Dropbox because I can access my files from any device with Dropbox installed. Of course, feel free to use whatever program you’re comfortable with.  What I like about this is that i don’t have to email my files to myself anymore.  I like that.

Last thing, the document you saved will not look like your blog.  It is strictly code, but the code is what you’ll need if you ever want to import (move) your blog to another site or recreate your WordPress.com site if it is ever compromised.

And that’s it.  Easy-peasy. Now you know how to do it, go back up your WordPress.com blog. You can never be too careful.