Image credit: Martin_Duggan

Yesterday, I shared directions on how to download the content that is on a Posterous Spaces blog. I shared those directions in response to the distinct possibility that Posterous Spaces could be closing down. Even if you have a self-hosted WordPress blog it is still a good idea to download your content so that you have an offline back-up of it just in case the worst happens.

Creating an offline copy of your blog’s content is not as difficult as you might think. I’ve outlined the steps for downloading the content of Blogger, WordPress, and Edublogs blogs below. On all three platforms when you download your content you’re creating an offline copy and all of your current content stays online.

(Click on the images below to see them full size and read the details contained within them).

Backing-up Blogger blogs.
Step 1: Sign into your Blogger account then select “settings” from the drop-down menu next to the blog that you want to back-up.

Step 2: Now select “other” at the bottom of the settings menu and then select “export blog.”

Step 3: Click “download blog” and save the file and you’re done.

Backing-up Edublogs blogs.
Step 1: Sign into your dashboard and select “tools” menu.

Step 2: Open tools menu and choose export.

Step 3: Download export file. Save file to your local drive.

Backing-up WordPress.com blogs.
The process for backing-up a WordPress.com blog is the same as it is for backing-up an Edublogs blog. The only difference will appear in the third step where you’ll be presented with more options for filtering the types of content you want to export.

What to do with blog back-up files.
If you ever decide to change blog platforms you should be able to import the xml files created by Blogger, Edublogs, and WordPress.com into a new blog. You can also use the xml files to create a PDF of your blog using Blog Booker. Turning your students’ blog(s) into a PDF book at the end of a semester or year could be good way for them and or their parents to see how much they’ve written in your class.

While you’re backing-up your blog’s content, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to make sure you have back-up copies of some of your other important files. If you have things saved in Google Docs, select “download” from the “file” menu when you have a file open. If you’re interested in creating back-up copies of files that you only have offline, try using Drop Box or Sugar Sync to save copies online. You can read about Drop Box here and Sugar Sync here.