Mrs. Mecomber's Scrapbook

Well, there’s nothing like killing two birds with one stone, is there? There’s a terrific contest going on (I love video contests) called the XLM Contest.

XML is the abbreviation for “Extensible Markup Language.” XML is a special Internet language used by various software for markup language. Blogs and websites frequently use XML. I decided to make a video tutorial showing you how you can export your WordPress blog content into an XML file that you can save onto your computer hard drive, for safe-keeping as a backup. We all know how important it is to make backups of your data, including blogs. I don’t know about you, but going into my cPanel to make MySQL database backups is a pain; I don’t always do it. But twice weekly or so I do make XML backups of my WordPress blogs. WordPress allows you to easily save and store your blog content– the XML download does not save photos or uploads or anything, just your posts, comments, and text stuff like it.

Since I wanted to enter the contest, and since I wanted to create a tutorial for WordPress users, I thought I’d combine the two! The contest is open to anyone. It’s sponsored by IDUG and is also called the IDUG contest. Click the link to see the terms and conditions. All you have to do is make a video that has anything to do with XML. Maybe you write XML, maybe you can make a video tutorial like I have, or anything! There are actually five contests, each with its own set of prizes. A “Quick Quiz” is required for you to enter the contest (have no fear, it’s not that hard!). Submission deadline is January 19th, waste no time! So if you like contests and like to tinker with XML, you might want to check out the contest. Either way, you can check out my tutorial and see how to easily save your WordPress data as an XML file. Remember to keep on backin’ up!