WordPress.com

1. docakilah
   Member
   Jan 20, 2012, 10:13 PM

   Hi, for the past month I have seen a link above my stats offering me to buy a domain for this block for $17 dollars a year. It's a good price but the price seems to good to be true. I own several domain names and I never paid that much for them. Here are my questions.

   If I pay for this domain through wordpress will they give me steps on how to transfer my files from wordpress.com to the new hosting site.

   Is having the domain listed at a low price means that I loose certain rights to this domain? (meaning I can't do everything I want with it)

   Speaking of hosting sites. Is that provided for me or do I have to find my own?

   Will I loose my established traffic by doing this? Right now I'm ranking pretty high with my blog in google for my genre. If I'm going to loose that then I'll just stay put.

   If these questions have been addressed before please point me in that direction. I'm very interested in some insights and suggestions.

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

2. timethief
   Member
   Jan 20, 2012, 10:22 PM

   The upgrade is not only for domain name. It's offered as part of a domain mapping upgrade.

   On WordPress.com, you can use a custom domain for your blog, such as example.com, instead of the default address you get when you sign up, like example.wordpress.com. This is called Domain Mapping, and it’s a paid upgrade:

   Registering a domain through WordPress.com and mapping that domain to your blog costs $17.00 per domain, per year. For $8.00 more, you can also make the domain registration private.

   Mapping a domain you already own costs $12.00 per domain, per year.
   http://en.support.wordpress.com/domain-mapping/

   If I pay for this domain through wordpress will they give me steps on how to transfer my files from wordpress.com to the new hosting site.

   If you’ve registered your domain through WordPress.com and now want it to point to a blog or website hosted elsewhere then you can do this by updating the nameservers. http://en.support.wordpress.com/domain-mapping/domain-management/#update-nameservers

   Is having the domain listed at a low price means that I loose certain rights to this domain? (meaning I can't do everything I want with it)
   

   Important Notes Before Upgrading > http://en.support.wordpress.com/domain-mapping/#important-notes-before-upgrading

   Speaking of hosting sites. Is that provided for me or do I have to find my own?

   You make your own arrangements > recommended web hosts for hosting WordPress http://wordpress.org/

3. celebritycrusoe
   Member
   Jan 20, 2012, 10:25 PM

   Question regarding this. If I change my domain from example.wordpress.com to example.com, do I lose subscribers to the initial domain? Thx

4. docakilah
   Member
   Jan 20, 2012, 10:25 PM

   WOW!!!!

   Well that answered everything I needed to know. So it looks like I have some reading to do and a lot to think about.

   thank you so much "timethief"

   I appreciate your answers. You hit time all.

   Much appreciated.

   take care!

5. timethief
   Member
   Jan 20, 2012, 10:26 PM

   Will I loose my established traffic by doing this? Right now I'm ranking pretty high with my blog in google for my genre. If I'm going to loose that then I'll just stay put.

   If you a purchase domain mapping upgrade then any time the .wordpress.com URLs are clicked anywhere they will be seamlessly redirected to your new domain URLs. Ib fact that is what it is for.

   Please be aware that you can purchase a domain mapping upgrade and still have WordPress.com free host your blog. I do that with both of my blogs. The only reason you may wish to move content is because you want to do what's not allowed here at WordPress.com. Important Notes Before Upgrading > http://en.support.wordpress.com/domain-mapping/#important-notes-before-upgrading

6. docakilah
   Member
   Jan 20, 2012, 10:29 PM

   EXACTLY!!!!!! This is why I want to move.

   I want to do what is not allowed allowed here on WordPress.com.

   ;)

7. timethief
   Member
   Jan 20, 2012, 10:34 PM

   @celebritycrusoe
   I assume you would notify your subscribers of the domain mapping URL change like I did by creating a post announcing the .wordpress.com subdomain URLs were no being redirected to my new domain. I also asked all those who were linked to the .wordpress.com subdomain URL to change that link to the domain URL. As I have always used Feedburner I did not lose any subscribers.

   There is no transfer of page rank or authority from the .wordpress.com subdomain to the domain. The domain starts out from "unranked" but within 4 months, all things remaining equal, the same content under the domain URL will have been been re-indexed and the blog will have the same page rank and authority as the .wordpress.com URL had.

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