Ahhhhh! I Detroyed My Site!!

[StephenT]

For Those of you who have been following the thread, "Not As Bright As Some," you may know that I destroyed my site yesterday. I am posting here on a new thread because I don't want this to get lost in the shuffle.

What happened is that I thought I was following Traci's advice, but clearly wasn't. I reinstalled my Wordpress blog to my public-html file and when I did that, it started me out with a brand new site. I tried to copy and paste my old index.php file to the new one and now nothing at all works. If anyone has an idea how to retrieve my old files so that I don't have to re-build, I would be most appreciative. Otherwise I will delete all the wordpress files and start all over again!

[lindastacy]

Take a deep breath...... it's probably not completely destroyed. I just PM'd you.

[Rick Olsen]

StephenT -- You regularly backup your database for just these kinds of things, right? If you have a backup you haven't lost anything. Just dump the backup in your database and you should be good to go.

Before doing anything like this you should always backup your database.

[StephenT]

You would think I know that, but I didn't.

[CG12]

Stephen,

I can definitely sympathize with your situation. I know when my husband and I first started out we had a few bumps in the road too. We ran into some serious problems but our web host was able to help. I think someone already suggested that but have your checked with your web host for assistance?

As far as your posts go- do you write all of your posts directly on your website?
I know one thing that has helped me is to first write my posts in a Word document then I copy and paste them to a Notepad and then copy from the Notepad and paste onto my site.

I am no expert by any means as I am still trying to learn all of this myself. This is just a suggestion and you may already be doing this. So do you have your posts saved somewhere else?

I am sure some of the more resident experts will offer you a lot better advice.

Good luck to you. Hang in there, it can only look up from here!

Christine

[Lynn Terry]

I'm hosting our live webinar this morning, but I'll be back to help you out ;)

Who is this site hosted with?

[wade_watson]

Stephen, your website data is not in index.php. That's just a theme file that makes the page look a certain way. Your data in a WordPress blog is in your database. You can't simply move that around as a file the way you can with HTML pages. I'd suggest not moving or deleting anything else without being certain what you're doing. If WordPress has a problem, you should be able to simply do a new reinstall over it. This should not affect your data files, which are in the MySQL database, separate from the WordPress files. When installing WordPress, you always either set up a new database or point an existing one to it. Since you already have one, you can simply point that one to it and your old data files will appear in the WordPress install. I would suggest going to WordPress.com and reading some of the how-tos on WP fixes and using the database.

[StephenT]

I am really learning a lot. Like Edison and his ten thousand ways not to make a light bulb, I am learning ten thousands ways not to do a website. I am rebuilding now!

[StephenT]

I'm hosting our live webinar this morning, but I'll be back to help you out ;)

Who is this site hosted with?
It is through Hostgator, but I have had to start all over. I deleted my old files so there is not much to do but start over, which I am. I am getting faster at it!!:)

[angienewton]

Aww sorry about that Steve but maybe it's for the best. Starting fresh can be a good thing right? Gotta look at the positive.

[StephenT]

I suppose there is a good side to this. Starting all over has given me the chance to do stuff I wanted to do before. I don't quite have the theme I want on WP, but that's for another day!

[StephenT]

So, now that I am up and running again. I would like to know the best way to ad adsense to my blog in WP. I am all about asking for help before I screw things up (at least for now!).

Also, after reading some of problogger's stuff it said that there shouldn't be any monetization stuff until after the blog has some history or cred. Any thoughts on that?

[Lynn Terry]

There is a reason for that advice. What you need to rank well, and get traffic, is inbound links. If you have Adsense (or commercialization) all over your site/blog... people won't want to link to it. So the goal is to get set up, put up some great content, and get inbound links. Work on getting links & traffic, and building a readership (and list!) and then work in your monetization strategy.

[StephenT]

Thanks Lynn. Does this mean I won't be a bazillionaire this week?

[Lynn Terry]

Yeah, unfortunately :p

[StephenT]

TWork on getting links & traffic, and building a readership (and list!) and then work in your monetization strategy.
I keep hearing getting a list, but how am I going to get that list? I understand the whole opt-in thing, sort of, but if I am offering nothing, no reason for a person to give me their name and email, how do I get the list? :confused:

[Lynn Terry]

I think you just answered your own question :)

You offer something of value...

Think back to any email list you have subscribed to. Ever. And then ask yourself why. There is your answer.

[StephenT]

Usually, I do the opt-in to get something. I either get some offer, a free something or other, or a newsletter. I can't ever remember doing it for just a blog I followed.

By the way, I see I am now rated as a super active member. Does this mean I ask too many questions?? Is there an "over active member" rating?? A Duct tape over the mouth member?

[Lynn Terry]

Time will tell, eh? ;) JK! :)

Since you're interested in list building, pay closer attention to list offers. It's like when you are just about to buy a neon green lexus - and then you see them everywhere.

I have a personal swipe file of every product I've purchased online, in the niches I work in. For example, I collect Elvis Bobbleheads, and I also have a website that sells them. So when setting up my bobblehead site, I went back to the pages that compelled me to buy and analyzed what it was that sold me.

disclaimer: that's an example.

[StephenT]

Perhaps you can't teach an old dog new tricks. I destroyed my other blog this time doing the same thing, moving from /blog to the root. The hosting Co. is working on it now! AAAhhhhh!!!

[jkgourmet]

I sympathize. And appreciate your OP about this - it forced me into taking care of installing the plugin to do automatic daily backups.

I hope the hosting company is one with good customer service and resolves your problems quickly and completely.

[StephenT]

I sympathize. And appreciate your OP about this - it forced me into taking care of installing the plugin to do automatic daily backups.

I hope the hosting company is one with good customer service and resolves your problems quickly and completely.

They are working at it. at least I didn't destroy it completely! Also, I wanted to revamp it anyway so, if I have to rebuild, oh well!

[nar321]

If you aren't having enough fun yet, try deleting a database or two thinking that they where all for the same site and then wondering I got "Error establishing a database" on two sites. I had been archiving my Databases in Thunderbird's Archives, so opened it up to get one and poof! they where all gone. Needless to say I now have a new place to store Databases, make a daily Backup and will probably burn them to a cd as I have no desire to relive that experience. As usual HostGator Support people where Fantastic, I can not say enough good things about them, Kudos to them
NOTE: you can store a backup for your site inside wordpress on the server(see the backup area of your cpanel) as well as schedule a daily or weekly backup. WordPress has a plug-in for backing up Databases, you can also export all content as a XML file. Test periodically to see if the backups are still there and intact.

[pmaior]

Stephen:

I feel your pain. I once wiped out my WHOLE DOMAIN!. I still don't know how, but I know I was using the file manager in cpanel. That method is dangerous if you don't know what you are doing, and even if you do. I mostly use an FTP client for most transfers, because it limits your access. File Manager will let you delete anything.

Fortunately my hosting provider did daily backups, as most do, and I was able to have my entire domain restored in a matter of minutes.

Hopefully you learned your lesson on making backups of everything.

The important thing to know is that there are two things you need to backup.
Your Wordpress folder( more specifically wp-content) and your databases.

Most hosting providers offer a tool to do a complete backup of your entire domain and then you can download it as a zip file. This is good but usually overkill if you have just one or two sites. Backing up the wp-content folder will save all site specific data. Everything else can be fixed by a re-install of Wordpress, then overwrite the wp-content folder. I think there are some config file as well in the root that contain the database connection settings, but that can be re-edited if necessary.

Then there is the Mysql database. That is totally separate from the Wordpress installation. Like Jeanette mentioned there is a Wordpress plugin that handles it. I do it manually through phpmyadmin in cpanel, the plugin is obviously easier.

Learning is fun Huh ?

Don't feel bad, I "know what I'm doing" and have screwed up plenty. Fortunately I can fix almost anything I break. And I learn from my mistakes.

Good luck, Stay positive.

Pablo

[AlexNewell]

Hey Steven - looks like you're having SO much fun!!

As you've seen in this thread we have all done stuff like this...

Once I moved a domain to another host completely forgetting there was a blog on the domain. I only remembered when I saw a big fat nothing...where the blog should be.

What to do?

All readers of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy know it is vital to follow the advice on the back (written in LARGE FRIENDLY LETTERS no less) - "DON'T PANIC!"

So I moved the domain back to where it started and BINGO - there's ma blawg!!

Phew!!!

It's all part of the learning curve buddy

BTW it's best to build a few posts up before you go link building - you don't need many links - and then you pop the Adsense code in. You are not going to be earning much until you have built the traffic up a bit anyhow.

As you noticed you get quicker at this stuff with practice.

You might find it useful to create your own checklist. If you are going down the adsense route you will probably be building a LOT of adsense blogs

:-)

All The Best

[Clay Franklin]

When I was taking my PHP SQL data base classs, they said if you mess up your database it is easier to start over. So I avoid messing around with the database.
I like the wordpress plug in that emails you a back up.
I lost one of my favorite posts and I can not find it in backups or printed copies anywhere. I need to rewrite it one of these days. It was a story about the phone is everywhere.
For my computer, I back it up off site and to a meda smart server. I am so paranoid of losing my data. Off site in case of fire, theft or earthquake.

[StephenT]

Thanks everybody for your commiseration! The first time I did this, I destroyed the database as well, big mistake! This time I just tried to move to the root directory and somehow locked myself out of the wordpress admin page. The tech support people fixed it and I am up and running again!

I did back up my files, but for some reason (my lack of knowledge) I couldn't restore. I really wasn't too concerned. I figured tech could fix it so I had a glass of Scottish barley water and waited.

I do want to revisit the back up issue, but will do that in another thread.