Thanks to modern technology, it’s easier than ever to be creative. That creativity means more photos taken with digital cameras and mobile phones, more videos taken on pocket camcorders and even more writing done via netbooks and tablet devices. All that creativity also means more data stored on our computers, smartphones and other devices.

All that content is incredibly important to you. Whether it’s photos and video from a family vacation, that song you recorded after your first date or even that great novel you’ve been writing over the last decade, make sure to protect it by backing up your data on a regular basis. And now is a great time to decide on a data backup plan that best fits your needs.

The first rule to remember about data backup is that it’s not a one-time deal. If you’re creating new content, you need to be backing up that content as well. Be prepared to get into a backup rhythm that makes sense for you, whether it is once a day for someone who takes new photos every day, to once a week or month for someone who only occasionally takes some video of the family. You can tailor your data backup plan to your own needs, but make sure it’s a consistent plan.

Next, consider how you want to back up your data. While burning your data to a CD or DVD may seem like a good first choice, you could quickly find that the number of photos, videos, music and documents you create are simply too much for those silver discs. An alternative is an external hard drive. It’s a great tool to store lots of files cheaply and simply. If you’re always on the go, you can find small and portable USB hard drives that fit well inside the typical laptop bag. For desktops, there are USB drives designed to hold much more information in a stationary location. You can even find external drives that provide a network option in addition to USB in order to backup multiple computers via your home or work network.

A third method is to use an online storage service. Features may vary between services, but most offer a way to run backup software on your computers that will automatically backup the folders that are important to you on a regular schedule to a secure off-site server. That’s great news if anything ever happens to your computer physically, such as theft, fire, flood or random meteorite impact (hey, it could happen).

Most services will make it easy to access that data anywhere you go, which is great for frequent travelers. Another common feature is the ability to share links to your data to others, which means you can send a link to the latest family video to friends, instead of sending it as a mailbox-clogging attachment.

If the content you’re looking to backup lives on your smartphone, check out mIQ from Best Buy Mobile. It’s a neat app to automatically backup your phone’s photos, text messages, contacts, calendars and other info online. And, if you have a data plan, it’s FREE! It’s available for operating systems like Blackberry, Windows Mobile and Symbian. An Android app is currently being beta tested, but mIQ isn’t available for the iPhone yet.

Regardless of how you backup your data, the important thing is that you’re creating a consistent rhythm of backing that data up. Creativity is hard work, so protect that hard work today. And by the way, we can help.