Internet Marketing Tip From FriendsWhoCare: "Better Safe Than Sorry!"

Since about half of my online income comes from my list, losing my list would be a serious blow to my business. And that's exactly what happened to me last week.

For 5 years I used the same autoresponder system and although there was an occasional problem, those problems were always fixed quickly. So even with occasional problems and only getting basic features, I was happily building my list and my business.

Then last week the 1 thing that everyone who has a list dreads happened to me. I went to my autoresponder to send out a broadcast that the newsletter was ready and discovered ...

All My Current Subscribers Were Gone!

Now unless you've experienced something like this I can't describe how it makes you feel. There's shock, there's bewilderment and there's depression all rolled up together in that first instant you see what's happened. It's a feeling much like the 1 you get when you discover ...

My Site Has Been Hacked!
(Yes, this has happened to me too.)

So what do you do when something like this happens? Do you give up? Do you start over? Or do you fix the problem and move on?

The correct answer is ...

Fix The Problem And Move On!

And how do you fix the problem? Well, first you must decide if you want to stay with the service where the problem occurred and this decision is based on how happy you've been in the past with the service and how well they respond to the current problem. Then you restore your list or your site either using the same service or a new one.

And how do you restore your list and your site? With your backups of course. You are making backup copies of all the important things for your business aren't you? If you aren't then you should be because having backup copies of your list and your site are extremely important.

Now incase you're not familiar with the term "backup" it means saving a copy of a program or file and storing it separately from the original. In other words, having a copy of your list members and site files stored somewhere other than where they are in use, usually on your own PC.

In this particular instance I decided to change services since my previous autoresponder system is still looking for my subscribers and a new service was very responsive to my problem and allowed me to import my list since I could show them that all my subscribers actually do have to request my newsletter mailings. Yes, my subscribers were caught without warning and had to re-confirm and I've lost some. But those who actually read my mailings are back with me.

So even though I "lost" all my subscribers last Wednesday, I had many of them back in less than 2 days.

And it's the same for restoring your site if it gets hacked. Yes, it may take a day or 2 to get your pages uploaded again but better 2 days than the weeks it took you to create those pages originally.

Oh, in case you're thinking these things won't happen to you. Please, please think again because things like this happen every day to lots of people. It doesn't matter how big or small your site, list or business is. It doesn't matter what service you're using or how long they've been in business.

Losing things and getting hacked are a fact of life
for online businesses!

So be prepared for the worst and give yourself some peace of mind by making periodic backups of your important business files. As they say ...

"Better Safe Than Sorry!"

To Your Success,
Susan

P.S. I've now moved my subscriber list to 1 of the oldest, largest and most reliable autoresponder systems available. And even though I trust them to be responsive and dependable, I still plan to make periodic backups of my subscriber list because this is how I feel about you ...