Most web hosts automatically back up your data, but it’s always good to take some initiative. Depending on how busy your website is, you would be well advised to back up your site– databases, templates, and files– several times a week, maybe even once a day if your site is extremely busy.

You can use FTP and PHPMyAdmin to save copies to your local computer. You may also wish to make a set of backups on your PC, as well as your laptop. That way, you have multiple copies of your website in several different locations.

By doing this yourself, in addition to the efforts made by your host, you can get your site up quickly if you lose your data for whatever reason. This includes your blog, forums, and website. When it comes to your information, there is no such thing as being too cautious.

As Southern California recovers from a relatively minor 5.4 earthquake, it brings to mind a point: datacenters should be prepared.

Datacenters, after all, are where the servers that house your website live. Nearly all major datacenters are prepared for all sorts of events: earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, and power outages, just to name a few. As a Pickaweb customer, you can be assured that your site is safe, and our London-based datacenter is prepared for power outages, as well as Internet outages. Several carriers are used, so if one goes down, your website is protected.

So, relax. Your website will be able to stand up to a variety of disasters or difficulties. It’s all part of the service we provide you, our valued customer.

Many registrars offer various forms of private registration. This allows you to list the company’s information in the WHOIS data for your domain. Each domain is required to have current and accurate information listed in the WHOIS database. If the owner fails to do this, they risk deletion (loss) of their domain, so it’s obviously important to so.

The advantages to private registration are that you don’t have to list your home address or phone number, giving you a degree of privacy. The disadvantages are that you have to read the Terms of Service for the private registration service you wish to use, so that you can ensure that you’ll retain ownership. Furthermore, countries such as the United States make it a crime to communicate anonymously and “annoy” people. While this law is vague, and applies to criminal harassment, if your website offers material that may be controversial, or may upset people, you might wish to consider listing your domain with your data.

Your website is an investment. You invest in the cost of the domain name, and the hosting, as well as license fees for software such as vBulletin. Why not invest an extra £10.03 or so a month and get a voice mail number from services such as Evoice, and obtain a postal box for your mail? The investment is minimal, and by doing this, you don’t use private registration, and you list accurate and legitimate data for your domain. The requirement for the WHOIS database is that your phone number and mailing address accept calls and mail.

Of course, anonymous registration works fine for many webmasters as well. The choice is up to you, and the “right” choice varies, depending on the nature of your website.

There’s a lot to consider when you’re running your own website. As you can see in the posts below, part of the process is handling your domain name, and ensuring it’s configured properly at your registrar, and on your server.

But now you need to control your server, or account. Sure, you can do it on the command line if you have shell access, but that requires a lot of technical knowledge, and time. The answer, then, is easy. A control panel!

Perhaps the most popular one is Cpanel, and its companion, WHM (for reseller, semi-dedicated, or dedicated accounts). Here at Pickaweb, we offer Cpanel, and with it, you can perform a variety of functions with a click of a button…or two:

• Set up or delete e-mail accounts
• Set up and administer FTP accounts
• Perform security functions, such as securing directories and enabling spam protection
• Install numerous applications, such as blogs, forums, and photo galleries with a few simple clicks.

As you can see, using a control panel certainly takes the hassle and headache out of running a website, and leaves you more time to post on, or update your blog or website. And we here at Pickaweb stand ready to assist you in the process.