What to do (and what NOT to do) when your blog breaks

My blog totally crapped out early this week.  First it was a virus.  Then there was something crazy going on and it wouldn’t let me post anything. So of course I completely freaked out.  I thought a lot about just shutting the whole thing down.  I mean it’s been weeks since I’ve actually posted anything.  But then I thought about all the recipes I have on here and about how long it has taken me to create them all and how much work I have put into it.  So I decided to get it fixed up instead of shutting it down. 

First I had contacted someone who had helped me with my blog previously but they were charging $260 just to take a look at it.  Sorry, can’t afford that!  The next person wanted to charge me $300 to look at it.  Wow.  (And the thing that the first two people were saying was wrong with my blog wasn’t even what was wrong with it!  Glad I didn’t pay them the money and decided to keep looking!!!!)  The next person I found did wordpress troubleshooting for $50.  And if he couldn’t fix it he wouldn’t charge me.  SOLD!  Turns out something wonky happened when I had upgraded wordpress to the latest version.  He found a lot of weird files in places that they shouldn’t have been in. (Thanks for that by the way wordpress.  Lame.)  So he cleaned it all up for me and reinstalled wordpress on the bloggy and I was back in business.

P.S.  I’ve heard people are having TONS of issues with this new wordpress upgrade!  So think about it very carefully if you decide to upgrade.  And be prepared in case there are any issues!

So here’s what you do (and what not to do) when your blog breaks!

If you have a virus on your blog:

• Unless you know what your doing and how to look for the virus and how to fix it, just leave it alone and find someone to fix it for you!
• First run your antivirus to make sure it’s not your computer that is causing the problems.
• Then go to We Watch Your Website.  Get a years subscription (it’s only $39.95- you will not be able to find a site that will do it for free. Trust me.).  Not only will they get rid of the virus for you they will continue to watch your site for threats.  They check it every 4 hours and if they find something they take care of it immediately.  The subscription is for an entire year. 
• Even if you don’t have a virus on your blog it’s a good idea to get this kind of a service for your blog.  Do it for your readers.  Do you want to unknowingly give them a virus?
• That’s it.  They’ll do all the work for you.  Your job is done!

If your blog is broken:  (The virus thing was easy to get fixed.  This is where I realllllly freaked out)

• First of all do NOT freak out!  Don’t cry.  Do not take down your site or start deleting anything.  Do NOT try to fix anything if you don’t know what you’re doing! You will likely make it worse!
• Find someone who you can keep in your corner in the future in case anything goes wrong with your blog.  I’m not so good with all the code and all that business so I need someone to help me.  It took me a few days to find someone. but I ended up finding Blog Crafted and he’s now my go-to blog guy!  He charges $50 for wordpress troubleshooting and if he can’t fix the problem he doesn’t charge you!  He had my blog fixed within an hour.  Seriously.
• Sit back and let them fix it and know that you won’t spend the next few days freaking out trying to figure out what’s wrong with your blog.  TOTALLY worth the money.  And your sanity!

Well now that I’m back in business I’ve got a few recipes and a half marathon recap that I should be able to get posted this week.  Hooray!!!