How to Back-up Your Blog and Why You Should

The recent closure of Drop.io, the possible shut-down of Delicious, and the recent troubles Miguel Guhlin experienced with Blogger/ Google Sites have me thinking about the importance of data portability. The fact of the matter is, if we rely on a free web-based service we should be aware of the possibility that it could shut-down or move to a fee model at some point. To that end, we should be in the habit of periodically creating offline back-ups of our data. This is especially true if you're using a hosted blog as an online portfolio of your's or your students' work. Below you will find directions for creating offline back-ups of Blogger blogs, Edublogs blogs, and WordPress.com blogs. (Click on the images below to see them full size and read the details contained within them).

Backing-up Blogger blogs.
Step 1: Sign into your Blogger dashboard and select the "settings" tab.

Step 2: Select "export blog."

Step 3: Select "download blog." Save the file to your desktop or other location on your computer.

In the new Blogger interface the process is the same, but the "export" link is harder to find.

Backing-up Edublogs blogs.
Step 1: Sign into your dashboard and select "tools" menu.

Step 2: Open tools menu and choose export.

Step 3: Download export file. Save file to your local drive.

Backing-up WordPress.com blogs.
The process for backing-up a WordPress.com blog is the same as it is for backing-up an Edublogs blog. The only difference will appear in the third step where you'll be presented with more options for filtering the types of content you want to export.

What to do with blog back-up files.
If you ever decide to change blog platforms you should be able to import the xml files created by Blogger, Edublogs, and WordPress.com into a new blog. You can also use the xml files to create a PDF of your blog using Blog Booker. Turning your students' blog(s) into a PDF book at the end of a semester or year could be good way for them and or their parents to see how much they've written in your class.