As Yoda said to Luke (in Star Wars), “Try not. Do… or do not. There is no try.”

So I’m twitterdoing… (http://twitter.com/MillionMommyND).

Don't miss anything: Subscribe to receive free email or RSS notifications every time I publish a new blog post. (No spam, no risk, and it is easy to unsubscribe should you ever change your mind.) Follow me on Twitter (@MillionMommyND) where I share interesting articles, opinions, quotes, tips and other bite-sized tidbits relevant to success, happiness and financial freedom almost daily.

Related posts:

1. What You’ve Been Missing If You Aren’t Following Me On Twitter

The unthinkable happened. My entire Google account was disabled. This means my blog, my email account, my calendar… the whole shebang… are gone.

I have followed all of the available instructions, filled out all of the forms… and all I get back from Google is this automated message: “Thank you for your report. The account in question is disabled, and we can’t provide you with access to it.” I have no idea why. I haven’t violated any of the terms of agreements, so I’m guessing that someone hacked into my account.

I was aware there was a tiny, remote risk of losing my blog because I used a blogspot domain, so thankfully I do have backups of everything I’ve written. But unfortunately, I had no idea that in the process, I could also lose everything else Google-related, too. Therefore, I didn’t have backups of my emails, contact list, documents or calendar.

I trusted Google, therefore I kept critical and important information in Google’s online applications. I made the mistake of thinking that offsite, online storage was safer than on my own PC. I was in the middle of email conversations with many people who, in many cases, I don’t know how to reach now. Over 6,000 archived emails, gone. Contact lists, gone. With my calendar wiped out, I don’t have the foggiest idea what appointments are scheduled ahead.

In retrospect, I realize how silly it was to count on Google to keep my data safe, so purdy-please-with-a-cherry-on-top, resist the urge to flog me about it!

Apparently my previous blogspot site will stay up for a few more days. The bad news is that I can’t sign in to post anything new. This means that I can’t even tell my blogspot readers what has happened and where they can find me next.

The good news is that if you’re reading this now, you managed to find me here! Welcome to my new home! And since I’m using my own url and domain hosting now, I’m here to stay.

If you tried to email me recently using my disabled gmail.com account, I haven’t been able to receive it. Please contact me again using my new email account at Jen (at) millionairemommynextdoor (dot) com (replace “at” and “dot” first — I’m trying to deter the pesky spam bots).

If you are a feed subscriber: I think (hope!) I’ve managed to reroute the feed so you shouldn’t need to re-subscribe.

If you are a blogger and a super-dooper-groovy-nice person, please update your blogroll with my new url address. In losing my blogspot hosted url, my blog lost 9,890 incoming links. This means that my new blog starts all over again at zero — with no “Google juice” — so Internet searchers won’t be able to find me. If you’ve linked to my old blog in the past, please update the link(s). If you really like me, consider telling your readers in a post that I’ve moved to http://millionairemommynextdoor.com/. Thanks for your awesomeness!!!

Things I wish I knew before this happened:

How to back up your Google Apps data

How to make a Backup Google Account

Whether you use online or offline applications, backup redundantly. For instance, I just set up each of my email accounts to forward every email received to additional backup email accounts opened specifically for this purpose. Each email account will forward a copy to a newly acquired gmail, yahoo AND self-hosted email account.

Don't miss anything: Subscribe to receive free email or RSS notifications every time I publish a new blog post. (No spam, no risk, and it is easy to unsubscribe should you ever change your mind.) Follow me on Twitter (@MillionMommyND) where I share interesting articles, opinions, quotes, tips and other bite-sized tidbits relevant to success, happiness and financial freedom almost daily.

Related posts:

1. Why blogging should be on YOUR to-do list, especially during tough economic times