How to Backup Wordpress without expert knowledge

Using WordPress to manage your online sites and associated small businesses is a common and suggested route with many start up online entrepreneurs. The extreme ease of installation and management allows many to ignore learning the technical aspect of web development and rely on a plugin, paint by numbers approach to development.

Between the famous "one click install", massive portfolio of predefined themes and a text editor interface. Most of the traditional skills and acronyms such as HTML,CSS,PHP, Javascript and SEO that a web site owner was once forced to familiarize oneself with can be pushed aside in lieu of content development and design or advertising concerns instead.

When everything is going as it should this is the great benefit of the wordpress platform, when problems arise that ease of installation and basic lack of skills can be the death knell to your site or can be a costly endeavor as you scramble to find a reliable and available web developer to solve your problem for you.  

Understanding your basic structure and the integral elements of your wordpress installation is both easy and wise. If you rely on your site to create income you can spare some time to get the very basics of how your site works in hand.

Understanding what does what, even if you cant necessarily code and debug every problem does wonders when you have a proper backup system in place. If you create regular WordPress File and Database backups its almost impossible to completely destroy your site as almost everything can simply be rewritten with the last working version of your sites files or database.

• FTP  ( File Transfer Protocol) - Program Used To Edit and Change Permissions of Wordpress and Server Files on your Host
• .htaccess - contains commands that talk to your Apache Webserver , permalink structure changes, caching plugins, redirection and access rules can be written manually or via plugins to this file. Lots of issues you may cause as you speed up your site or integrate advanced functionality may be done here and can result in complete lockout or malfunction of your site. Luckily its easily fixed!
• Wp-Includes, Wp-Content, Wp-Admin - Core Folders in every Wordpress Install
• Wp-config - Crucial core file worth noting
• MySQL Database / WP Database - The most crucial element of your install. Wordpress sites are created dynamically, each page come sinto existence when a browser calls the database, No database, No site.
• phpMyAdmin - Interface tool for database management present in most Hosts cPanel
• Wordpress Codex - Anything you would ever need to know about WordPress is in here, but the language may be dry and unfamiliar at first.
• WordPress Desk Reference - I find I still learn best from a real tangible book. I concentrate differently. If you are similar one new WordPress Desk reference is a worthwhile buy and ultimate time saver when looking over online tutorials. I find that Smashing Magazine WordPress Reference Book is amazing but is by no means a "For Dummies" or Beginners Manual. You can learn the basics online. Get a desk reference that handles heavy issues.

Even though I put up the lexicon of terms that could be confusing, backing Up WordPress without expert knowledge is still an apt description and an easy task.

If you can drag and drop files from one folder to another, such as loading a usb flash disk or mp3 player, then you can backup your wordpress install.

But you will need a FTP program:

Once you Filezilla installed, you have to connect to your server. your host will have provided this information with your signup. Often a ftp account exists with your base cpanel login details.

The login has 4 fields.

Address: ftp.yourdomain.tld

LogIn: adminlogin

Password: Password

Port: Often Not Necessary

Once you hit connect and you are into your server, you will see a file system like any other you have seen before.

Your Wordpress install will be located wherever you placed it, if its in the main domain, you will find the install in the public_html file , if you created a custom subdomain or file such as "blog" it will be within that folder.

Ideally, If you are staying simple and need the most basic of backups you can drag and drop the entire folder into your own Local Storage. Wp Installs are quite small compared to your standard mp3 library or video collection. 

Anytime, you plan on making site edits, just drag a copy over real quick so you can easily replace if anything odd happens.

Files You Absolutely want backed up 

• .htaccess
• wp-config (contains database information tying your files to the db)
• Wp-content (Contains all your uploads and possibly customized theme files)

As an aside and for your own later research knowledge. .Htaccess files can be recreated automatically by wordpress if you place an empty htaccess file within and then save permalinks. It will lose any custom functions but is an easy fix if you do something wrong.

If you get a plugin conflict that leads to your site not loading. Just head into your ftp and rename the plugin file. I often just place a number in front of it. Your site will often come back into existence and you can carefully go through your recent uploads and additions in order to solve the problem.

If that fails, then you can just drop your whole backup folder of "plugins" and overwrite the conflicting folder!

Backup Your WordPress Database with phpAdmin

Read below it sounds harder than it is, its a two click fix, just stay confident and follow the pictures.

1. Backing Up using phpMyAdmin

2. Restoring a database using phpMyAdmin

Wp-DB Manager - Manually Save and or restore Database via Wordpress Dashboard. Can be set to schedule and can email backups to be stored in your webmail. Also has optimize, restore and refresh functions.

Wp Db Backup - Pretty much the same, I have often used them interchangeably never realizing that I searched for the wrong plugin. 

Automatic Wordpress Back Up - Is my current favorite backup plugin, it can be set to send scheduled back ups to Amazon s3. Restore is a one click installation. Backs up entire site, not just files or database. A set and forget backup. A copy can be saved in your server also, so access to dashboard isnt necessary for restore. Free PlugIn

BackUpBuddy - A comprehensive backup plugin. Premium cost,yet with same options as Automatic WordPress

Learn To Use WordPress Web Site:

Xobba.Com - Offers the best Amazon and Adsense Sharing Platform on the Internet . You can actually get awarded a free hosting account via their "earn as you learn" protocol.

Top Premium Themes:

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Recommended Hosting Services for WordPress:

Hostgator WordPress Hosting

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Advanced WordPress Knowledge:

CatsWhoCode

DigWP

WordPress Codex

Selecting Your Domain for your Wordpress Site