We can quickly and easily upgrade your existing WordPress installation; prices start at only $40 and include full backup of your database and files. Contact us today to get started!

Q: What do I need to do to upgrade and backup my WordPress blog?

A: Okay, so it’s generally pretty simple. For small upgrades (ie, 2.x.1 to 2.x.2), I typically don’t backup, but that’s probably not the best practice, so I don’t suggest it :D

Two things to backup:

1) your WordPress files > this is easy. You can download the entire blog folder from your site via FTP to obtain a backup of all of the WordPress files. If something were to happen, you might not NEED all of these files (there are a lot that would be included with a fresh install of WordPress), but it’s not a bad idea to have a backup every so often.

2) your database. This houses all of your posts and a lot of other information related to your blog. This is a bit trickier, but there are plugins that will automate the process. I’d recommend the Wordpress Database Backup plugin, which is simple to install and use.

Click on Plugins > Add New and then search for wordpress database backup
You want to install the one called WP-DB-Backup by Austin Matzko

Once it’s installed, activate the plugin. Then click on Tools > Backup on the left hand side of the admin panel.

You’ll have some options, including an option to EXCLUDE spam comments (I would click that box to reduce the size of the backup; you can also exclude post revisions, which you may want to do as sometimes those can get bulky, too and are really most useful if you need to undo something in an auto-saved post). On the right hand side are also optional pieces of the database to backup. I would go ahead and click all of them, so that you have it. Mostly, that’s going to be information generated from some of your plugins, and while it may not be core to what you’re doing, I think it’s good to have it! (To select all of these optional tables, click the first checkbox, and then, while holding the shift key, click the last checkbox, and it should select all of them).

Once you’ve done that, you can download a backup to your computer. This is what I recommend. I HIGHLY advise that you do NOT save the backup to your server because the files aren’t necessarily secure, and I think it’s not the best practice. Emailing is okay, but my guess is that you’re working toward a database that may be too large to email in most instances.

Click Backup Now! to get your backup file. It will take a few minutes while it’s backing up.

Once you’ve got your backup files, you can click on the little nag box at the top of the WordPress admin panel to automatically upgrade. It will automatically put your site into maintenance & install the newest version of WordPress and then reactivate anything, telling you when it’s complete.

Image by Mr.Thomas via Flickr

So far, many of our blog and web design clients have been photographers, and one of the things that often comes up when working with photographers is space. Space to show fabulous pictures, videos, and inspiration, as well as space to store those images. Most webhosts have some limit on the amount of space you can use – they limit your total disk space, but they may also limit your bandwidth, which is how much data is transmitted to and from your site either uploading images or by clients viewing the site and downloading images onto their screen. For many, bandwidth isn’t an issue. For photographers who are using big, beautiful images, or album designers who are sharing album templates, or any number of creative professionals, it can become an issue.

Before you throw in the towel and buy more space or bandwidth, let us offer a few ways you might be able to stretch your current digs to better utilize your bandwidth:

1. If you have picture-heavy posts on a blog, consider reducing the number of posts on a page, particular your front page. This will reduce the server load every time someone visits your blog, and as an added bonus, will likely allow your site to load faster for visitors who may be on slower connections. I often suggest that people use 4-7 posts if they’re posting media-rich content. This is enough to generate some interest and typically provides some diversity in what visitors see on an initial visit. If you have returning visitors, this is probably enough for them to get caught up on the latest news. And if anyone wants to see more, they can load the next page of older posts to keep on catching up.
2. Caching. This is a process where browsers actually store images, other media, and content, to allow faster loading when you revisit a page. In WordPress in particular, everytime someone visits your page, there is a request made to the backend database, the database has to respond and then information is displayed. There are a number of plugins that essentially store that information from the database and only refresh it when you create or edit a post. This means that the plugin is essentially creating a webpage from the dynamic information to be able to display the pages faster. Sounds good!*
3. Store images offsite. If you’re limited in the amount of space you have, you might consider storing your images with Flickr or other image-hosting services. There are a number of free options, but even the professional upgrade on Flickr is only $25 for a year. That’s pretty good, too. The downside is that you’re putting your images in someone else’s control and occasionally there are issues with fetching those images for display on your page. More often than not, though, the benefits outweigh those problems.

* It should be noted that caching can, and does, sometimes cause problems when updating pages and trying to see new information displayed. With blogs in particular, sometimes the cache gets “stuck” and needs to be cleared in order to actually show the newest content (ie, if you change contact information, some caching plugins might not see that as an update to the database and therefore may not update the information they’re passing onto visitors). It’s a good idea to to clear and rebuild the cache on occasion to ensure that you’re delivering the most up-to-date information to your visitors.