Fifty ways to lose your blog

"And when they went back to the blog, IT HAD VANISHED WITHOUT A TRACE!" ¶ 

Not to scare you, but it's easier to lose your blog than you think. ¶ 

Secure your blog by understanding what can go wrong:

•  (1) you delete your blog
•  (2) a co-blogger deletes it
•  (3) you are hacked
•  (4)  Google deletes it

This post explores how the first three of those things can (a) happen and (b) be prevented.

A second post explains why Google sometimes deletes blogs, and what to do about it.

If you delete it

You can delete the blog (1) from settings, (2) by deleting your account (sometimes), and (3) by deleting Blogger from your account.

Remedy: Take control

Rather than delete a blog, take it offline. Rather than delete an account, make it private. And just don't delete the blogger profile, ever. (It's not reversible!)

If someone else deletes it

In fact, anyone who is a blog administrator can delete the blog. It can also be someone with access to an account you have forgotten about.

But wait, anyone with access to any administrative account can do those things. That can be someone you or another admin has shared access with.

It can be anyone they have shared access with.

It can be a so-called hacker, who figures out your password (pro tip: do not use "password" as your password), or who tricks it out of you, or out of someone else with access to an account with admin privileges.

Remedy: Secure your blog

Review who the administrators are in Settings > Permissions > Blog admins and authors.  Demote or delete any you do not recognize.

(Only admins, not authors, have delete powers.)

If you've ever shared your sign-in credentials with someone, consider changing your password. Ask any co-administrators to do the same.

Set up-to-date recovery and contact options in your Google Account settings.

The recovery contact should be a current email address that is not the Gmail address on the account (if there is one), and a phone number where you can receive texts.

This will protect you if you are ever hacked, or if Google deletes the blog by mistake.

This is an account setting, not a Blogger setting.

Also in account settings: add a trusted recovery contact. This recovery option, new this fall, allows you to invite a trusted friend or family member to be notified if there are issues with

More on this in "Quick account insurance."

If Google deletes it

That's in part 2, coming soon.

Finally, have a backup

May these things never happen to you. May you never delete something permanently and then regret it. 

May you never be hacked, may your co-administrators never be hacked, and may nothing you link to ever be compromised.

If anything like this does happen, I hope you are able to recover from it. You probably will if your Google contact information is up to date.

But if it does happen, and if you can't recover, you will be glad that you kept regular backups of your blog. 

It takes, literally, a minute, and you can set it to autobackup every two months for a year.

May you never need it for this purpose. But better have have and not need, than to need and not have.

Links

• better alternatives to deleting: (1) your blog (2) your account (3) all of Blogger
• quick account insurance
• Google account settings
• did Google delete your blog?
• backup strategy

Photo: Thinkstock/Freeimages.com