Backup WordPress automatically with Backupify

You backup your computer, but do you backup your online activities? The typical Internet user nowadays uses a variety of services such as Flickr or Twitter, runs a WordPress blog and relies on Gmail for e-mail. While some do go through complex backup procedures and archiving, this can be tedious for most people.

Enter Backupify, a service that lets you automatically backup many online services: Twitter, WordPress, Gmail, Facebook, Zoho, Delicious, Flickr, Basecamp, Photobucket, and more. Let’s see how the service works by signing up for a free 1 GB account.

Once you finish the registration process and activate your account, you’re ready to start backup up your online activities.

For the purpose of this article, we’ll be backing up a WordPress installation. In order to do so, you have to install a WordPress plugin first. Some may cringe at the idea of adding yet another plug-in to their carefully selected list as this increases the possibility of compromise, but since it’s about actually backing up, I suggest you give it a go.

Once you have uploaded the wp-backupify.php plugin to your WordPress plugin directory (usually located at wp-content/plugins), navigate to the Plugins Management page and activate it.

Once the plugin is active, you have to work the settings. This you do by going to http://www.example.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=Backupify and click on “Initialize plugin”. Once done, this WordPress account will appear in your Backupify account.

While in the Backupify administration section of your WordPress site, you can also initialize a backup of your data and download it locally.

If you navigate to the Backupify website, login into your account and check the Archives section, soon you’ll notice your backups appearing. Archives will be available upon completion of the first backup and although Backupify notes that backups typically take up to 48 hours to appear, I saw mine available in about 20 minutes.

Naturally, you’re able to decide on settings related to your backup activities:

Backupify is a solid solution that can give you peace of mind. It’s simple to work with and the 1 GB free account offers much to a wide userbase.