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help! template/theme/domain/hosting incompatibilities??

  1. vanessabrownphotographer
    Member

    having a dilemma. I have been trying for a months to try and get a website/blog up and running but seem to keep going in circles. expensive circles where i seem to keep having to pay for things that dont seem to be what i need
    i am confused out of my brain!
    I run a wordpress blog which i havnt upgraded to a domain or any of that yet as i cant work out what is needed or how to do it. evrything i try to do (like the domain upgrade and theme upgrade) i seem to need to do something else first, but cant use the support contact unless i have already upgraded.
    i was told by a website designer that i can just install a template/theme for wordpress website rather than go to the cost of getting a website expensively designed and setup for me while i am just starting out so i downloaded and paid for a wordpress template only to now read everywhere that i cant use it...even if i do the upgrade (if i understand correctly?) however the website person has said they can try (for hundreds of $) but i am concerned i will be spending more money for it to still not work. i have a domain that is a .com.au one which is self hosted (as i understood that that was what was needed for a template/theme to be installed).

    I have tried to do the upgrade that lets me change domain but wordpress seems to tell me i cant have a .com.au one. i mentioned this to the person who is setting it up but she says i can, even though i cant get it to work so i seem to keep going back and forwards.

    my wordpress is currently vanessabrownphotographer.wordpress.com

    i am getting desperate to get this up and running if you can offer me any advice on how to do it/if possible to do it/ and point me in the right direction.
    am i better of cancelling my hosting and domain registration and doing it all through wordpress...although i beleive i read that i cant then do a template if i do it all through you right?

    please help.

    vanessa

    The blog I need help with is vanessabrownphotographer.wordpress.com.

  2. auxclass
    Member

    You can use a (com.au) Domain name - you need to register it not at WordPress.COM then have a zone record added for the domain name. Once that is done you can map the domain name to your blog here. (Mapping is $ 12/ US a year)

    You are limited to the 180++ Themes you can see from your Dashboard of your WordPress.COM blog - that is a security and performance issue - the themes are highly modified to add functions here - you have a lot of Widgets that a stock theme does not have.

    Not all of your questions but should help you a bit

  3. raincoaster
    Member

    First of all: fire your web designer. If they don't know the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org they shouldn't be taking your money. And this one clearly does not. Fire them.

    Now, let's keep this simple: you cannot use a theme you bought from elsewhere on a WordPress.COM blog, which is what you have. There is no upgrade here that will let you use it, either.

    What you can do:

    1) pick one of the prefab themes here (there are over a hundred) for free, or if you really want, buy one of the premium ones here, and just start blogging without farting around with the template. Really, the themes here are good.

    OR

    2) get a refund for everything you've bought from WordPress.com and get independent hosting for a WordPress site. There are thousands and thousands of hosts. Any hosting company that hosts WP blogs that is not WordPress.COM is hosting WordPress.ORG blogs, and you can use your purchased theme (the one you already have) on any WordPress.ORG blog.

    As for the domain, you can't have the Australian address without staff intervention on a WordPress.com blog, and staff aren't taking on new requests now unless people already have paid upgrades, so you're screwed. You're screwed UNLESS I flag this thread for staff attention and the one staffer who checks the forums intervenes on your behalf. I'll flag it now and we'll see.

    My advice? Forget the idea of a custom or external theme and get blogging. The number one mistake I see is people farting around on design and spending money when they'd grow their blog so much faster if they just started blogging. Then read this and go through the steps one by one http://en.support.wordpress.com/domain-mapping/ to get your custom domain working and you WILL need staff help to authorize an Australian domain.

    If you don't want to do that, just look into getting hosting for a WordPress blog somewhere else. The designer you're working with is apparently familiar with WP.ORG and will be able to tweak whatever you put up. But be warned: with .org blogs, you are on your own for all technical and security upgrades.

  4. vanessabrownphotographer
    Member

    Thankyou so much, this helps me understand heaps better.
    So are the wordpress.COM blogs able to incorprate websites aswell or is it just the blog? My understanding (whether right or wrong i'm not sure) is that i need the downloaded themes with my own hosting because these are the only ones that can be able to have a website with a photoslide as the first page. Which means i need a wordpress.org yeah? Is there a way to convert my wordpress.com blog (with about 50 posts already as i've been doing it for 6 months) into a wordpress.org site? Or do i have to start again if i go that way?

  5. raincoaster
    Member

    Well, that depends what you mean by "website." A blog is a type of website, and in addition to blog posts, you can add static pages.

    There are several premium themes that have slideshows in the header or featured on the front page. There are even a couple of free ones. You can also put a Slideshow in any post; I've got lots in my posts: http://raincoaster.com/2012/03/31/what-im-missing-in-yellowknife-this-week/

    Some themes have slideshows built in, and you can go to the themes page on your dashboard and do a search just for those. Or you can add it to any most like I did there, just by following these instructions: http://en.support.wordpress.com/shortcodes/

  6. raincoaster
    Member

    And if you decide to get hosting and move, you can just go to Dashboard->Tools->Export to export your whole blog, comments and all, and then at your new blog go Dashboard->Tools=>Import.

  7. vanessabrownphotographer
    Member

    ah ha! nah not a slideshow inside the blog, but as a separate page with a half screen kinda slideshow. like most modern photographers websites. i downloaded one from photocrati

    ok so i have done the export and import and created a new wordpress.org site.
    still cant seem to find the option for adding the theme/template though. do i need to purchase a theme upgrade still on wordpress.org?

  8. vanessabrownphotographer
    Member

    I JUST INSTALLED MY THEME!!! YAY! (even though my page is all messed and i cant seem to change my domain as it is incorrect. :-? trying busily to work it out. hoping i can get this sorted tonight!

  9. raincoaster
    Member

    All the guidance for WordPress.org sites will be found over on their forums. Since ours are different, we don't do support for theirs. I'm sure you'll get it done!

  10. vanessabrownphotographer
    Member

    Yeai did get it all fixed thanks to the help further up and the wonderul web! I'm on my mobile and cant see where to make sure this thread is marked completed/closed

  11. vanessabrownphotographer
    Member

    Found it!

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