Domain & website hosted elsewhere – need moving help – newbie alert!

b4ssf4ce · Member · May 17, 2015 at 6:25 pm
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As I am not an expert, I’ll try to word this in simple laymen terms…hopefully!

I currently have a website (hrbassman.com) hosted with
, with the domain itself registered with
.
I recently launched a second separate website (machineroomstudio.com) that is hosted with
, using the same domain host (
). With me so far?

What I’d like to do is the following:
1) Build a WordPress site for machineroomstudio.com
2) Connect this sites domain (machineroomstudio.com) to this new WordPress site.
3) Create a ‘splash page’ as an entry to either of these websites (accessible with either url) allowing users to click an icon for one or the other website.

So, for those who are still with me – is this possible? And if so, what would be the most logical way to go about this without causing too much of a disruption of website traffic to the site I am moving? Thanks so much in advance for any advice you might provide. If I’ve left any information out, please ask and I’ll provide what I can.

The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
simplysaru · Staff · May 18, 2015 at 9:24 am
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Hi there,
What you have in mind is possible and can be done with minimal disruption. Here is how I would go about what you want to do.

1. Create a new site (eg:– machineroomstudio.wordpress.com).
2. Customise the WordPress.com site to make it look like the site machineroomstudio.com. Or may be create a fresh look for the site.
3. Once the customisation is done, then purchase domain mapping upgrade for the new WordPress.com site and map the domain machineroomstudio.com to the WordPress.com site.

Once the mapping is complete, The site audience will be redirected to the WordPress.com site automatically. Then you can close the hosting ( only the hosting not the registration) at IX hosting.

You can search for some music related themes here.
b4ssf4ce · Member · May 18, 2015 at 7:28 pm
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simplysaru, thanks for your response. I already have the domain mapping feature as a premium member I believe. So once I map the domain, it will no longer be connected with the current site host (IM Creator?) Is there anything I would need to do on their end to be sure this goes smoothly?

Also, what about the ‘splash’ page for both of my websites which I mentioned in my #3:

3) Create a ‘splash page’ as an entry to either of these websites (accessible with either url) allowing users to click an icon for one or the other website.

Once I move the site, how would I create a common splash page which both domains would direct users to, and then allow them to click on a graphic for one or the other website?
simplysaru · Staff · May 19, 2015 at 1:21 am
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Once you map the domain, it will no longer be connected to the IM creator site. To ensure a smooth transition, make sure everything is setup properly the way you want at WordPress.com and then do the mapping. This way there is very little chance that there is any disruption at all.

Yes domain mapping is part of the premium upgrade.

3. The splash page can be created in one of the two sites you have, but you will have complications with this setup due to the use of redirects.
Eg:– Lets say you have a splash setup at hrbassman.com/splash-page and have people coming to machineroomstudio.com redirect to
hrbassman.com/splashpage. Lets say they want to go to a page on machine room studio site such as machineroomstudio.com/contact-us, but since there is a redirect at machineroomstudio to go to hrbassman.com/splashpage, this will keep sending them back to the splash page instead of the contact us page. People trying to access any of the pages on hrbassman.com will be fine, since that site isn’t having any redirects.

What I would suggest is, don’t do any redirects at all (Just map the domains only) . Then create the home page and a menu on both the sites, with a link to each other. If somebody wants to access the other site, they will be able to access the other with those links.
b4ssf4ce · Member · May 19, 2015 at 6:15 pm
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OK – really good advice; thank you. I had one final question, more specifically about my premium membership.

I currently have the one website (hrbassman) hosted with WordPress, the domain registered at IX Webhosting. So far everything I’ve needed has been included in my premium membership. If I move this new website to WordPress, leaving my domain registered where it is, will this double the cost of my membership? In other words, how much more will it cost to have this new website hosted at WordPress, in addition to my premium membership package?
simplysaru · Staff · May 20, 2015 at 4:17 am
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The price you have to pay is totally upto you. You don’t need the premium package for domain mapping. Unless you need the other features of the premium upgrade like storage, Custom fonts etc you can skip the premium upgrade.

The domain mapping upgrade is USD 13 and you can get it from here
https://wordpress.com/domains/add.

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