Now that we have installed WordPress, we’re going to cover a few of the plugins that I consider absolute necessities for your blog.

Nothing is more integral to your blog than protecting your content.  As we talked about in the What Is WordPress Anyway? post, WordPress requires both a web server and a database to run.  The web server holds your uploaded images and files, and the database holds your posts, comments, links, etc.

Backing up your web server is essentially like backing up files on your own computer.  Use the FTP program you downloaded to copy your files to your computer or hard drive.

Backing up your database can be done multiple ways, but by far the easiest way is using the plugin WP-DB Backup.  With just a few clicks of set-up, this plugin will email you daily with a complete backup of your database.

After installing the plugin, navigation to Tools → Backup in your WordPress dashboard, and scroll down to the Scheduled Backup section.  Choose “Once Daily” and select all of the database tables on the list (if there are any to check).  Input your email address, click “Schedule backup”, and you’re all set!