Buying a domain name

  • Unknown's avatar
    luiscongdon · Member ·

    I just read a great post by Timethief, and she along with many others highly advise purchasing your own domain name.

    In reading that article I was left with some questions (the article is great, it’s just I am very new at this).

    1-when you buy a domain name and mapping from wordpress do you have to set up a whole new webpage (or does wordpress just allow you to use them as a host, thus allowing you to continue to log into worpress.com but now when you log in you are logged into your site (not the wordpress.com site)?

    not sure if that question made sense. I figure if you pay wordpress, then they will host you too. Thus making it so you can continue to log into the same place. Or am I wrong?

    2- In the post timethief says that you should find a host and that you do that by asking other bloggers. So, what host should I use?

    I really enjoy the simplicity of worpress.com, but I hear that once you switch to your domain it can be a hassle to transfer everything. I would like to avoid that.

    I also understand that if you get your own domain, then you need a host, and assume that means I will have to begin using wordpress.org (the downloaded wordpress 2.7)

    Any insight would be great.

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • Unknown's avatar
    raincoaster · Member ·

    1) no, you don’t have to do anything else. Buying the domain and upgrade only changes the URL of your blog; the old URL still works, by the way.
    2) ask at WordPress.ORG. By definition, everyone here has chosen WordPress.COM and won’t have useful advice on external hosts since, if they’d found one they liked better, they’d not be on this forum at all.
    3) You will have to use software from WordPress.org, but for god’s sake use something newer than WP 2.7. They’ve just released WP 3.0. Old versions are not secure.

    If you move off WP.com, you are completely responsible for keeping your version of WP updated and secure. If you’re not ready for that, drop the idea.

  • Unknown's avatar
    raincoaster · Member ·

    I don’t know what you mean by “once you switch to your domain it can be a hassle to transfer everything.”but if you are referring to purchasing the domain mapping upgrade, nothing could be easier. There’s nothing to update after you do it. If you move a blog, however, you’re in for a whole new can of worms and the best advice is on TT’s blog. Try the search there.

  • Unknown's avatar
    luiscongdon · Member ·

    Thanks.

    TT said she uses wordpress.org That is why I asked the question in regards to having using .org

    I don’t really want to move my blog.

    I do hear that if you use .org (move your blog) than you can use FTP (am about google what that is). I also understand that by moving your blog you can customize your site more (use dreamweaver–a program I don’t know, but people say I should learn if I am serious).

    I just want to use my blog as a blogsite and website (for business purposes) so I understand having your own domain name is important. I didn’t realize that my blog on here had advertising. It would be nice to have that full control of what is on my site.

    Thanks RAINCOASTER. Great feedback.

  • Unknown's avatar
    auxclass · Member ·

    You can buy an upgrade to keep adds off your site if you want. Can’t remember the cost but it is real low. Adds seem to only be on sites that have a lot of traffic.

    I would rate the WordPress placed adds as a non issue.

    I like many here have both – much easier to blog here – just sign-up and go.

  • Unknown's avatar
    raincoaster · Member ·

    If you just want to have no ads, buy the No Ads upgrade. If you want a unique domain name, buy the domain mapping upgrade. Both of those together are cheaper than hosting a site off WP.com.

    If you don’t know what FTP is, why on Earth do you care if .org has it or not? And Dreamweaver is quite hopelessly outdated. Save yourself a great deal of time: Dreamweaver was The Big Thing ten years ago. Now, WordPress is.

  • Unknown's avatar
    allenmual · Member ·

    I just brought domain mapping to my blog $14.97 . But when visit the URL it is showing URL not found.

  • Unknown's avatar
    thesacredpath · Member ·

    Dreamweaver can be used for customizing a wordpress.ORG theme, but it is like using a hammer to adjust the date on your watch especially considering that all the theme files are PHP, not HTML. Dreamweaver can work with PHP, but there are few people out there with the necessary skills to work with it, and if you don’t have considerable skill with, and knowledge of, PHP, you can set yourself up for disaster very quickly by unknowingly introducing security holes.

    My suggestion: Learn CSS. Virtually everything you need to customize a blog here or self-hosted, can be done with CSS.

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