When it comes to managing your digital empire on the Web I see people falling into the same traps over and over again. I figured I would hit upon three of the biggest dangers you can find yourself in when dealing with the Web hosting world – so that you, me and the dog down the street can keep from having trouble.

Backup Your Web Site

You should always backup is advice that we all hear from time to time, but we don’t often listen to this advice. Backing up can sometimes be a time waster and you would rather be doing other things that are a little more interesting. Sure, I can see that argument. Think of backing up as insurance on your proverbial mobile home on the Web. If a tornado comes tumbling towards you – you want to be ready don’t you?

Don’t Let Your Domain Name Registration Run Out

This is another pitfall that I see a lot of people run into. Always keep up to date on when your domain name registration runs out. Usually with places like GoDaddy – they will send you at least one E-mail giving you a 60 day or 30 day warning. Other than that though, it is up to you to keep up with this stuff. If you are really worried you won’t remember sign your domain up for a longer period of time. Register for five or ten year periods so you don’t have to worry about this headache any longer.

Keep Up to Date With Web Site Scripts

Just this past week WordPress was bitten by a nasty security issue. If you don’t keep up to date with what content management systems you use or scripts you run, you might run into trouble. If the script or service you have running on your hosting account has any sort of blog or E-mail updates – make sure that you sign up for them. Sometimes the quicker you get these updates installed, the less likely you will run into any problems in the future.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to the Web Hosting Show, Episode 98!