To Protect and Secure

Meet Deb Lee in our latest VaultPress Story. Deb is a Certified Professional Organizer and the founder of D. Allison Lee LLC. She blogs at Organize to Revitalize! on do-it-yourself organizing tips and shortcuts.

— Paul, one of the VaultPress Safekeepers

I share lots of organizing tips and lifehacks on my blog, Organize to Revitalize! You’ll also get a whiff of my personality, too. 🙂 I can be a little silly sometimes (read: funny – hopefully!), but all in all, I really try to share info that’s helpful to others. I know how difficult it can be to get things in gear, so whenever I come across a shortcut or a simple way to do something, I post it. Sometimes, I share things I’ve learned from the mishaps in my personal life or things that come up when I’m helping clients get more organized (no one is ever named, I promise!).

When I first started blogging, I was using Blogger. It’s really simple and easy to use, but after a while, I wanted a platform that was a bit more robust. I also wanted killer themes and to have a domain name without “Blogspot” in it. WordPress offered me that and more, so I jumped ship and haven’t looked back since.

The thing I most value about my WordPress blog: plugins! I love that my blog can be ramped up a notch with a simple plugin. The right plugin can make you look like a supah stah. 😉

I got interested in VaultPress for two reasons: hackers and stability. I had the lovely experience of being, shall we say, visited, by hackers and I can’t say I enjoyed it much. I also wanted a way to keep my site stable and on track. I remember reading that I could get a Golden Ticket, so I made my request, and then a year later, it arrived! Well, it was actually 6 months later, but it felt like a year. It was well worth the wait. 🙂

I recommend that everyone on WordPress get the standard plugins, like Akismet and All-in-One SEO pack. But, if you really want to be a serious blogger, WP Editorial Calendar is amazing. It will really help you keep up with your posting schedule and plan future posts. I also like Thank Me Later (a great way to say “Thanks for leaving a comment. Come back anytime!”) and TinyMCE Advanced (visual editor on steroids).

Check out Organize to Revitalize! here. If you’re a VaultPress customer and you’d like to be featured in one of our future VaultPress stories, please drop us a line. Thanks Deb!

Our latest VaultPress story features Adam Singer. Adam runs a busy and popular media and marketing blog at The Future Buzz and has been a self-hosted WordPress blogger since 2005.

— Paul, one of the VaultPress Safekeepers

While I keep a few blogs on various subjects I’m interested in, all WordPress-powered, my main site is The Future Buzz where I share commentary, analysis and tips on everything related to digital marketing and PR. Most of what I share is from my personal perspectives on the industry, but as the site has grown in popularity over the years I have opened up contributions from the community as well.

The Future Buzz was born out of my passion for the web and the communications industry. I was leading digital strategy at a PR firm before that was a “typical” job, and I saw a gap in education for marketing professionals. As a net-native who was also in communications I thought I could help.

When I started blogging in 2005, I knew that I wanted to be self-hosted so I could have my own domain, full access to analytics and be able to hold someone accountable for up-time and reliability. I am also a huge DIYer and like to figure things out myself, so self-hosting made a lot more sense than going with a hosted platform.

I did my homework and saw all the glowing endorsements on the web for WordPress, so later that day I bought a hosting plan and had WordPress installed soon after. Anyone can figure out how to set up WordPress — the steps were so clear I got it right on my first install. It has been my favorite CMS ever since: powerful, simple, customizable and scalable.

My WordPress site is my platform to share ideas with the world. Even as real-time services continue to proliferate, the benefits to a self-hosted, uniquely designed blog you own are undeniable. Most of my peers who blog feel the same: that a WordPress-powered blog is the single best place to share your story with the world and build a community.

Currently, I have backups automated to happen weekly (and my web host also takes a weekly restore point). But I never felt that was good enough. I invest the same energy in blogging as I do my art (I also produce music) and in my professional work as a consultant. In other words: my blog content is of the highest priority to protect and keep safe.

When I first heard about VaultPress and that it was a backup and security solution provided by the makers of WordPress.com, I was pretty much already ready to buy. They have a vested interest in keeping our data and sites safe plus the WordPress.com team has a genuine passion for what they do.

Checking out the site and feature set, the hooks into WordPress for real-time backups and the dashboard sold me. The price point is very reasonable when you consider what’s being protected. Knowing you can rest easy if the worst happens and won’t lose a thing is priceless.

Check out The Future Buzz here. If you’re a VaultPress customer and you’d like to be featured in one of our future VaultPress stories, please drop us a line. Thanks Adam!