WordPress.com

1. wmdeez
   Member
   Sep 22, 2007, 6:05 PM

   I have read every question referring to this topic but i still can't seem to find the specific answer to what I'm looking for... this is my situation:

   I've been on wordpress.com since June. I purchased the CSS yesterday only to realize I can't do anything/upload anything unless I have an FTP so I need my own hosting. I went to doteasy and I purchased a domain name and a hosting plan.

   Now my question is this: am I supposed to do that domain mapping and forward my .wordpress.com to my domain name and live with it(as in people will type my domain but land still land on .wordpress.com), or am I supposed to go to wordpress.org, upload wordpress to my FTP, export my whole blog from .com into my new domain^

   I'm quite confused to the dimensions of this problem. One of my main concerns is keeping my .wordpress.com so that it still links to the new place in order not to lose my readership/Technorati status. I want to do this right but I feel as if buying that CSS was useless (although cheap). Any help is really appreciated, thank you.

2. raincoaster
   Member
   Sep 22, 2007, 9:11 PM

   You don't need FTP. I'm not sure why you think you'd need your own webspace to use CSS on your blog. You use the CSS upgrade on your own blog right here at WordPress.com. I think maybe you were reading instructions for CSS that relate to WordPress.org and got confused. You don't need a hosting plan. None of that. See if you can cancel it.

   Domain name is a different thing. If you own a domain name, you can have your WP.com blog use it, but yes, you'll totally lose your Technorati ranking. The only way around that is to keep pinging from the old address (which will still work just fine) as well as the new domain name (which will start the rankings over again at the bottom).

3. wmdeez
   Member
   Sep 23, 2007, 1:12 AM

   Oh no, I know that I don't need an FTP to edit my CSS, I'm just saying that if I'd want to use a theme WordPress doesn't directly offer, I'd have to upload one of my own to the FTP, for things like that, and plugins. Furthermore, I do want my own domain name, but I want to keep the blog I've kept up until now. So my question is how do I go about getting rid of the .wordpress.com and forwarding it to my new domain name without really losing the actual blog, the number of hits i've gotten but by keeping the same blog, on my own domain name. If I do the domain mapping, will people see .wordpress.com when they log onto the domain, or will it just simply say my domain name.

   In regards to your second paragraph... what i'm really trying to know how to go about it, because there isn't just one way. I could just simply do the domain mapping thing and live with it, or I can export my blog contents to my new domain name where i have uploaded the interface from wordpress.org. As you can see I am quite confused on what steps to take here. If I do export, will my comments and visitors follow me or not at all

   Thanks for any feedback

4. raincoaster
   Member
   Sep 23, 2007, 2:03 AM

   No. You can't use those external themes at all on a WP.com blog unless you rewrite the CSS for WordPress. What you can do is go there, copy their CSS code, and rewrite it. You don't need to upload it anywhere or anything like that, you can just save the files to your computer and work on them there. That's what the CSS gurus around here do.

   You can use them right away on an externally-hosted blog, but I can't give you any instructions for that; you'd have to ask about it at WordPress.org.

   If you change the domain name, whether or not you move from WordPress.com, that new domain name has no Google juice or Technorati ranking and you'll have to start from zero with it. If you stay at WP.com, your old blog ranking etc still works, and it works with your new domain name. If you leave, you don't have that; you drop off the face of the Earth for awhile until Google re-lists you, which can take six weeks or so.

   The easiest thing to do and the best for hits, etc, is just to buy the domain name upgrade through WP.com and keep your blog here. But it's best to do that when the Support office is open, which is M-F, 9-5 PDT.

   You can export your comments. You can't control your visitors, and you will definitely lose some, no question. But you can build up from your new start if that's what you want to do.

5. growthumbs
   Member
   Sep 23, 2007, 3:03 AM

   I stayed with WP.com and bought the $10 domain mapping.

   Doing this would keep all your links the same. I am doing this now and in a year or two when I have enough links to my .com name then I might move to a self hosted blog, with WP.org.

6. raincoaster
   Member
   Sep 23, 2007, 3:10 AM

   That's the wisest way. Technorati completely renews its links every six months, meaning the older ones are always dying and the newer ones are getting counted, so since most people will link to the new URL once it goes in, within six months it should be just fine to move to another website as long as you use the same domain name. Don't kill off your WP.com blog, just leave it with the whatever.wordpress.com URL and a big notice that you've moved to the new domain.

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