I have not written about blogging must haves in a while so I felt it was fitting to do so now. I have a WordPress.org blog so my blog is self-hosted.  I changed over to WordPress.org about two years ago and I really enjoy it because I have more control over what I want on my blog and how I want it to look.

Protect Your Computer

I think the number one must have is to make sure that your computers have antivirus software, especially if you have a PC.  Having a computer without antivirus protection is like walking out the house and leaving the front door open.  Your computer is susceptible to all kinds of hacking, spyware, worms and all if it is not protected. Please for your peace of mind make sure your computer is safe. Anti-virus software is a simple wayto keep your computer. An MSNBC article discussed how we must keep software on our computers up to date and that all software should be checked often.

Back up your blog

If you have a self-hosted blog make sure you back it up.  Why you ask? Because you want to make sure you have the most up to date information from your blog is saved. Just like hopefully you back up files that are on your computer your blog is the same way.  I back up my blog at least once a week, I do it manually because I remember reading somewhere that you should never trust automatic back-ups.  Manually backing up for me has worked  pretty well over the years.  I am not downing automatic downloads, whether you have an automatic download or you manually download that’s great just make sure you back-up for added security. If it’s hard to remember to update or back up date add dates to your calendar or set a reminder on your phone.

Check plug-ins 

Plug-ins should always be checked because you never know that one may not be working. For example, I had a anti-spam plug-in that I had for a long time that was very successful but for whatever reason I wasn’t getting any comments.  Didn’t think anything of it until one of my lovely readers sent me an email that they could not comment because there was an error.  I had no idea, so please check those plug-ins.

Take the time to make sure your blog is protected.