If you are a writer, you are also the owner of your own business. You need to manage that business well. Part of good business management is to protect your important information.

There are many backup strategies you should use to keep your information safe. Google has many tools to help you accomplish this.

Google Documents is a great way to store files on the Internet. You can access them from any computer with an Internet connection. You can also share the files with others. This is great for editing and critiquing.

Gmail’s default of 7GB of space lets you save lots of documents as well as emails. Because of Google’s great search capability, I had most of my business in my Google accounts. And I was about to max out that 7GB storage.

When my account got hacked, I lost all access to those files and emails. After I convinced Google that I was indeed me, I was able to access my files once more.

All of the Google Docs file was there. However, my drafts, contacts, and inbox had been deleted.

I suspect the hacker wanted plenty of room to store any responses to his request for money in my name. Since he was forwarding all new messages, he received my emails even after access to my account was closed. However, if my account filled up, the emails would bounce back to the sender and would not be forwarded.

The account was my primary PayPal address (a REALLY bad idea). I had made that change a couple of weeks before. (Always direct your PayPal, Clickbank, and other vendor service email to a PAID email account.) My record of payments sent and received were lost. Of course, my PayPal account still contained that information.

My account also contained other business critical information. I rushed around madly trying to reconstruct all the important information I had lost.

Then I remembered a service I started using a couple of months ago, Backupify. It can backup your social network and Gmail messages. I had set it to backup my Gmail box.

When I looked in the archives, all my emails were there. I didn’t want to download all the messages. However, I was able to search through the archives to find the important messages I needed.

I also noticed that they’ve added Gmail contacts to the available backup list. Too bad I didn’t know about that before. It would be handy to be able to restore the contact list.

I posted on Twitter that Backupify had saved my emails. Someone from the company sent me a message to say that if I wanted a zip file of my emails, to ask them. I saw that zip files were on the planning list, but didn’t know they were available yet.

Someone else said they were able to retrieve all their direct messages from Twitter by using Backupify. This company is providing a needed service by backing up social networking files.

Backupify stores your data on the Amazon S3 data cloud. They offer 2GB of storage free and have a couple of paid plans.

Add Backupify to your list of backup providers.

What information would you miss if you lost your social network accounts? Leave me a comment and tell me what important information you can’t afford to lose.

Write on,

Lynn

It seems that every time I open an email or a webpage, a video starts playing. At least almost every page has a video on it if it doesn’t start playing automatically. You’re probably thinking that you have to add video to everything else you are suppose to be doing to build your online presence.

Maybe you do and maybe you don’t. We have become screen watchers. We watch the television, the computer screen, and now our smart phone screen. Attention spans are shorter.

Some people can’t be bothered to write an email anymore. They make a video and send you the link. I would much rather scan words than sit through a video.

However, as writers, we have great appreciation of the written word. Reading tends to be our favorite learning style. I’ve surveyed my audience and this is overwhelmingly true.

Some of the complaints about videos are:

• The need to find the headphones if your computer doesn’t have decent speakers. (Most netbooks don’t.)
• Videos that start automatically
• Videos that don’t tell you how long the video lasts
• Videos without controls to pause or stop the playback

A  lot of training is provided by videos now. It’s nice to be able to see someone actually do the steps. However, if you are trying to follow along with the video and do the process yourself, it can be very difficult. Especially if the task involves using your computer. It’s much easier to have written material to follow.

Many authors are creating book videos. You may have been told that creating a book trailer is a must. That may be true. However, you want to make sure you are reaching YOUR audience.

The people who love video may not be readers at all. It doesn’t make sense to spend time and money to reach people who will probably never buy or read your book. Of course when the movie based on your book comes out, they may flock to it.

Of course, if your publisher tells you to create a book video, then it will benefit your career to produce one. I don’t think publishers are going that far yet.

Most of the videos are meant to promote you as well as your books. You can achieve the same results with short audios as well as video. A simple audio or video can let your audience see or hear you.

Soon I will give you some resources to help you make quick videos that will serve your promotion needs.

I am also preparing some WRITTEN training to help you deal with the technology you need to build your online presence.

How do you prefer your training? How do you feel about videos?

If you’ve done book trailers, how have they affected your sales

?

Leave a comment and let me know.

Write on,

Lynn

When your business is writing, your written words are your most valuable asset. What would happen to your manuscript if your computer failed to boot up tomorrow? Would your current manuscript be gone? Can you access your work from another computer? The more your use your computer, the greater the chances are one of these days it will fail. Using online  backup software can help keep your precious words safe.

Do you ever wish you could access your files from another computer? Would you like to be able to use your files while you are away from home? Online backup can let you access your files from any computer with an Internet connection.

Online backup software copies the files from your computer and stores them on the company’s servers.

Those servers are backed up regularly with industry tested software and procedures.

If your business relies on your computer, you know how important it is to make sure your data is safe. You can replace your computer, but there’s no way to replace your files.

There are several companies will upload your backups and let you access them from other computers.

Make sure the company you select offers these features.

• File encryption
  • Your files are secure as they travel across cyberspace and when stored on the companies servers.
  • Only you have the encryption key.
• Download your files to any computer
  • Make sure you are able to download your files from anywhere.
• Continuous backup for some files
  • The software will backup any file as soon as it is edited. Usually this feature is available for smaller files.
• Ability to backup open files
  • Your files can be backed up even when you are using them.
• Ability to schedule your backups for a time you aren’t working
  • You want to determine when and how much resources the backup program uses. You don’t want to fight it for computer time when you want to work.

Most companies offer a free backup of 2GB of data. You can sign up for a free account and try their system. You can even try several companies and back up your important files for free.

However, when you  find a service you like, make it easy on yourself and use one company consistently.

I use IDrive to backup my HP laptop. It’s the computer that’s been back to the mothership twice last year. I really appreciated having access to the files, even though the computer was gone.

It doesn’t matter what you use as long as you use something. You’ve worked hard to create your words. Make sure they are safe.

Tell me how you are keeping your writing safe. Leave a comment!

Write on,

Lynn