When did you last back-up your blog? (plus directions if you don't know how)

I had a major panic a couple of weeks before The Great Blogger Crash. Everything on my blog went screwy - little bits of computer code appeared, my followers all disappeared, I couldn't open my dashboard - everything you can imagine to give me a headache and a spot of "Oh my God, what if...?" Things were back to normal the next day, thank goodness, and I'd backed-up my blog a few days before so I wouldn't have lost everything, but the whole incident made me squirm. I thought it might be timely to remind you to back-up your blog regularly, and show you how to do it if you don't know already.

As to the reminder part

Um, yes, do it! :D

And the directions...Here's how to save a copy of your blog template, in four easy steps (honest!)

Step One - Click on "Design" at the top right of your blog (or you can go through the Blogger Dashboard instead if you prefer)

Step Two - Click on "Edit HTML"

Step Three - Click on "Download Full Template"

Step Four - Save the file (I usually add the date to the save-name, so I can easily work out which is the lastest download)

And as for saving your entire blog content...Check out Clarissa Draper's post here.

And that's it, eezey-peezy. I've set my calendar to remind me to back-up my blog every two weeks, but you can do it more or less if you prefer, of course. Make sure you save your blog often though - we put so much work into them, and I've heard some horror stories about people who've lost the whole thing. For good!

How about you: Did these directions help you? Do you back-up your blog often (if so, how often)?

Other stuff:

I was interviewed by Deana Barnhart on platform-building last week. Check my two-part interview out here and here.

You'll have seen I've been doing a bit of tinkering with my sidebar and my banner - hope you like :D Also, I finally got my act into gear and joined Networked Blogs - I'm looking forward to catching up with heaps of you there!

Thanks so much to everyone who's given me an award lately! I've popped your names and awards up on my Awards Page *grins*

Oh, and I've changed my blogging schedule to Mondays-only for the next little while, as I dive into my revisions in preparation for querying.

Hope everything's well with you all, and Happy Monday!