Two things: Backups & Marketing Calendars.
#1 – Backups
Overview: Ensure you And/Or the company you are using for all your website/hosting needs have current backups that work.
Problem: Most companies have this on an automated schedule and have not verified you have a recent copy (that works) since you’ve signed up…
Cure: You want them to select a ‘recent’ backup and see if it actually works when it is used for the restoration of your site in the event of a hack attack.
This can be done in a development environment with out having to go live…
Note: **Just because you have an extra car sitting in the driveway, doesn’t mean it will start up and drive reliably a year from now… unless you start
it occasionally throughout the year, and drive it around the block.
Backup – note: Ensure your back ups are not stored on the same computer that created it. Store your back ups on an external drive of some sort – and (if possible) to a cloud service like Amazon s3. It’s pennies a month for peace of mind.
# 2 Marketing Calendar
Suggestion: Outline a marketing promo calendar – it’s easy and will give you a resource to expand upon all the current events and tie your promos into the up coming holidays.
It takes 10 minutes – and now you have all those “ideas” on paper or a note.
If you use a service such as Evernote (free version), it will travel with you at all times and sync to all your computers.
Tying it together Idea: Place backup verification reminders in your promo calendar. This can also serve to remind you to create and check the integrity of your backups occasionally BEFORE you actually need one…