So many projects, so little time!
Here I am, trying to launch this site so I’m not that person who’s selling websites and design without any websites or designs online. ahem Like I have been for the past five years, since the last time I decided to work on my site.
Anyway, I’m humming right along. I finally — after many a year of searching for highly usable, lightweight, responsive themes — found Generate Press. The premium version, combined with Lightweight Grid columns and Content Views, is an amazingly powerful and versatile combination that doesn’t really require the addition of any more plugins (security and outside software hooks or specialty needs, aside). I’ve moved from my old-school shared server hosting with GoDaddy to SiteGround’s Managed WordPress hosting package. I’m really happy with all these changes.
Now I’m working on this site, a site for another of my businesses, my little brother’s business site, and the site that showcases my husband’s art. I’m doing them all at once. Bam bam bam – login, make some changes, eventually get around to creating version 2 of all these websites (while originals continue, undisturbed on a separate server), and then switch over the domain names to the new sites I’ve just built. But first I have to kill the old ones, then I can move the domain names over.
That may not make sense to you, but just wait for it…
I build the sites.
I backup the old sites, then kill them.
I try to change the domain names on the new sites, but something…
I’ve done something wrong.
Oh, God.
After building websites for the better part of the last decade, I made the most n00b mistake in the history of n00b mistakes:
I never backed up any of the new websites. Not once.
Now, GoDaddy is supposed to have full copies of these things on their servers, but in another twist of fate, their backups malfunctioned in the last week and the most recent snapshot they had was from the week before I rethemed the entire second site. So, I didn’t lose the content, thank goodness, but I definitely lost about 20 hours worth of work, and also the $80 fee they charged me to restore the files and databases. I can honestly say, “I deserve that.”
I got off easy this time in that I lost a couple days of work and a little money. In the past, I’ve lost important personal files, contracts, tax records, and irreplaceable photos. Now I use cloud storage religiously. Not only has working in the cloud been so much more efficient for client projects, but I also feel completely secure in knowing all my cloud-based software and storage means I can be up and running anywhere I have an internet connection and a reasonably modern machine to work on. There’s a crucial component that most of us overlook, however, and that’s…you guessed it, yourself. Human error trumps all the best intentions and helpful software.
I was the weak link in the chain this time, but my little hiccup reminded me to stay vigilant, and back-up, back-up, back-up.
If you need help moving your business to the cloud, let me know and we can explore some options together.
Until next time, sparklecats:
This is your Sparkle Cap’n, signing out.