I have never been good at running, my big achievement being coming consistently last in any race at school.

So it may seem surprising that in order to raise funds for the Miscarriage Association I have decided to run not one but two races. The first will be a 5K in August and the second a 10K in September.

I am using a Couch to 5K (C25K) programme from Cool Running to help get me into shape.

If you’d like to help support the valuable work that the Miscarriage Association do then please sponsor me at Just Giving, every little helps.

So, it makes sense to back up your photos from time to time, the simpler the process the more likely you are to do it, and the less likely you are to have to go without those precisous memories.

The good news is that this can be done very cheaply using either Box.net, SugarSync or Dropbox.  My recommendation would be to use Dropbox as this will auto sync your uploaded photos to your computer or laptop in the background next time itconnects to the internet.

Dropbox provides 2GB of free storage in the cloud for free.  It can also has a neat iPhone app, that can be used to play audio & video files uploaded to its cloud service.

Whilst you could select individual photos to upload using the Dropbox App, its far simpler to use the CameraSync app which costs (at the time of writing £1.49) from the iTunes App store.

Simply use CameraSync to connect to your Dropbox and specify which folder to place the photos in.  The first sync may take a while if you have a lot of photos. Subsequent syncing of recent photos will be much quicker unless you are very snap happy with the camera.  Your latest photos will be wirelessly transfered to the Dropbox cloud and then on to all your computers that share the same Dropbox account.

Better yet we’d like to be able to access and write in our diary/journal from our iPhone or Android device… So let’s look at the options.

Penzu
Penzu is a well designed website and iPhone app service that makes writing a journal on the go easy and convenient. The website is feature rich but quick an simple to use with a very elegant design. Free accounts are available but to use it effectively an annual subscription is required which is available for a modest $19 per year. This is much cheaper than hosting your own website on a shared hosting provider so is good value for money. Plus you can get 20% off at the moment.

Sign up to Penzu using this link for 20% saving – Penzu for just $15.20

WordPress with DiaryPress
Better known as blogging software than as a personal secure diary or journal. However WordPress has most of the features we’d want, it’s easy to use, has apps for iPhone and Android, and can be installed for free on most shared hosting services. So if you’d already got access to shared hosting or WordPress.com then this option may appeal.

You’ll need a couple of plugins to get things secure and backed up though, after all we don’t want to share out journal with the rest of the world.
DiaryPress – password protects the entire WordPress site so that it’s not accessible to the rest of the world.
BackWPup – take regular backups to Dropbox so that you don’t loose your journal in the future.
Free Dropbox account – for storing backups.
Also take a look at my other plugin recommendations for further details of ways to make WordPress even better with minimal effort.

Dropbox
Writing your journal as a document in Dropbox, or as a series of documents is also possible. Though not as feature rich or flexible as Penzu or DiaryPress it can be used, especially if you don’t write much. Dropbox offers 2GB storage for free.

Google Docs
Writing your diary as a single Google Doc is also possible though it doesn’t offer the same functionality as DiaryPress or Penzu.

Backup – BackWPup & Dropbox
Anyone that has ever had their website hacked their hard disk fail will know the value of backups. Taking a nightly backup of your website can save you a lot of time and effort should anything happen to your live website. Backing up to Dropbox ensure that not only are your backups easily accessible via the cloud but will also be present on any computers that are linked to your Dropbox account, making access to the backups web you need them quick and easy. Dropbox offers 2GB storage for FREE!

The plugin BackWPup allow you to set automatic backups to run at a set time. You can select which parts of your website to backup and which to leave alone. You also get to choose how many historic backups to leave on your Dropbox account – BackWPup takes care of the cleanup of old backups.

BackWPup also works with SugarSync and FTP servers. Though does not currently support Box.net. Dropbox is however my recommended storage as it allows larger files to be backed up than the free SugarSync account and is easier than backing up to FTP.

Secure WordPress – Website Defender
Website security monitoring service WebsiteDefender.com provides a WordPress plugin that can be linked to their monitoring service and will alert you when changes occur as well as identify security issues that you should fix to close off any holes that leave your site vulnerable to hackers.

The plugin is useful on its own but really comes into its own when used with the WebsiteDefender monitoring service – which currently offers free single site accounts.

Dashboard Cleanup – Dashboard Commander
This useful Dashboard Commander plugin lets you clear some of the boxes and panels that appear on the WordPress Dashboard. Thereby making the admin site look less cluttered.

No Comments – Disable Comments
Disable Comments plugin does exactly what it’s name suggests. It quickly and easily removes the comments functionality from your WordPress powered site. Useful for sites where WordPress is being used more as a CMS than as a blog.

Jetpack
The Jetpack plugin provided by the WordPress team allows those with self hosted WordPress sites to link to WordPress.com and use features such as stats and proof reading of posts that are normally only available to WordPress.com users.

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