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Hi everyone,
I'm stuck on a few things. Number one: I've currently got a wordpress.com blog and I know I'm not allowed to add plugins. I also noticed that there's an upgrade to have you own domain name. Would that change the .com to .org and if it does, would I be able to install this plugin that I'm interested in? http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/dropdown-menu-widget/
The blog I need help with is inretrospect21.wordpress.com.
Dropdown menus are a part of wordpress.COM as long as you use a theme that has top navigation. They added this capability months ago.
http://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/
As to the plugins and domain question, no, the domain/domain mapping upgrade just puts your own custom domain name on your blog here. You still have the same restrictions as you did before.
You would have to buy a domain name, hire a web host such as godaddy or bluehost, etc., install and configure the wordpress.ORG software at that web host, and then you could use plugins on that self-hosted blog. Figure a total average monthly cost of $10 to $25 depending on bandwidth and storage requirements.
You will be responsible for all installations and all upgrades, all backups, all troubleshooting. If something goes wrong, you have to figure it out and fix it. If you install a plugin or a theme that kills your blog, you have to know how to go into the backend of things and manually remove it (which sometimes requires that you edit the MySQL database.
It's not nearly as hard or as scary as thesacredpath is trying to make it sound. Google is your friend, and Dreamhost is the best, they'll install and update your installation of WordPress for you.
Everyone says that until they get hacked.
If you are lucky and all goes well, then self-hosting is not that hard. When things go wrong though you had better know what you are doing, or hire someone who does.
I recently cleaned up and rebuilt a boatload of sites that had been hacked and suspended by their web hosts. The majority had never done a backup - didn't even know how. Several ended up losing all of their data because their databases had been compromised. So far this week I have recovered two blogs where plugins killed the blog.
It happens. You always have to think of it as "when" not "if."
I'm currently trying to find out how to back up my blog and I'm thus far, coming up empty handed. Can some one point me in the right direction? I would think that I could download an XML file easily enough...
You can Export your blog and save the file on your PC - I don't think that saves the pictures but it does capture all the text and has links to the pictures.
Easy: some people subscribe to their own RSS feed, but you can also just go to your Dashboard and under Tools hit Export.
Well, that worked out fine. Thanks for the tip!
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inretrospect21
postpunkmonk
