Move your WordPress.com blog to your own domain and enhance control of your blog with WordPress.org. Plus your own domain looks cooler, and is better for long term SEO for your blog. It’s not that difficult to do, and if you want to continue blogging into the future – do it now. Because the move is easier when you are a newer blogger, than when you have tons of inbound links to your yourname.wordpress.com blog.
Do it now!
I suggest signing up for hosting – and registering your domain, all at DreamHost.com. Here you can get a good deal on hosting, and domain registration is only $9.95 per year. Once you register your domain, click Manage Domains, and fully host your domain. You can click to use Google Apps and Gmail on your domain. This is a good thing, and I suggest doing it. NOTE: If you already have a domain registered – you can host it at Dreamost, and point your DNS servers to the new host when your blog is ready to go.
Once you have your domain hosted with DreamHost.com you can go to Goodies and choose One Click Installs. Select Install New Software (advanced mode). This doesn’t make it too difficult, but it allows you to add plugins and themes to the WordPress site. Choose WordPress for your one click install, choose which domain to install it on, select a database to install it to, and the username of the person who will build the blog – you.
Once you receive the confirmation email, click on it and configure your blog. Title your blog and enter your email. You will then get a login and password for your blog. Write them down as you will only be given them once. Once your blog is ready go to Tools and select Import.
This is where you need the files from your WordPress.com blog. Login to your WordPress.com account and go to the Tools menu along the left sidebar. Choose Export. The export tool will compile your posts, pages, comments, categories and tags into one WXR File, or WordPress Extended RSS file. Once you are ready, click the Download Export File and save the file to your desktop.
Now go back to your new blog dashboard and choose Tools Import. It will ask you to upload your WXR file. Do this and you should be good to go. You will need to customize your theme, and some other WordPress fixes. But you can figure that part out. Or I will post on some hints for that as well.
You now have your very own domain and blog, all in one. You can now install Google Analytics in the footer code of yoru blog and track your traffic as well. There are many cool things you do now with your own blog. Good luck and congrats!
Tags: blog · blog tips · blog url · blogger · custom domain · domain · export · how to · import · instruction · New Media Drivers License · posts · typepad · wordpress2 Comments
2 responses so far ↓
Yes , Its always good to have your own domain name .Moreover for selecting the hosting company one should take care of companies offering everything at very cheap rates .Most of them are scammers
agreement here, wordpress is my best blog engine..move from wordpress.com to wordpress.org is smart way..dont forget to install “all in one seo plugin”, this is best of the best seo tool for wordpress…it is smart tool to optimize your blog