Help me understand Domain Mapping before I purchase upgrade. Thanks!

  • Unknown's avatar
    nocalmike · Member ·

    I have been running my blog for a few months now. I plan on launching a podcast that I will host on the blog in a month or so. To correspond with the space upgrade I will be purchasing, I also want to purchase the domain upgrade so I can drop the “wordpress” from the URL.

    Now, I started thinking about it and I really want to go with http://www,evilepisodes.com for the URL. As you can see this means I would also be dropping “podcast” from the original name I first registered with wordpress when I made the blog.

    Is this something the domain mapping upgrade/feature handles? If I understand correctly. What I am paying wordpress to do is change my blog’s URL to http://www.evilepisodes.com but that will still lead everyone to the same place they have been already going. Correct?

    I looked for myself, a few steps into the process, up to the part where it asks me to type in the domain I would like. I want to make sure that what I am doing is creating http://www.evilepisodes.com as URL that will lead people to where they were already going.

    Also, does the mapping feature mean as well that anyone who has the blog bookmarked with the “wordpress” still in the URL, will be auto-redirected to the new URL of http://www.evilepisodes.com ?

    Thanks. Sorry if I sound like a newb here, this will be my first time ever going from a free-based blog to paying for one. I just want to make sure I understand correctly what I am paying to do.

    :)

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

  • Unknown's avatar
    thesacredpath · Member ·

    What will happen when you buy the domain name and map it to your blog here, is that any and all traffic going to the old URLs will be seamlessly and automatically redirected to the new URL or each and every URL on your site. This is done through what is called a 301 redirect which is a “permanent” redirect. That means that when the search engines see this, they will begin to change the old URLs in their indexes over to the new URLs. Any links to your site from external sources (other blogs, etc.) will all redirect as well. Also if you have email subscriptions, those will automatically continue uninterrupted to all your subscribers.

    WordPress does not include the “www” subdomain in regular or custom domain names, so your URL will be http://evilepisodes.com/

    Once you do the mapping, it can take 24-72 hours for the change to propagate through all the nameservers on the internet although it typically happens in 24 or less. During that time, some may see your new URL and some may see your old one, but no one will get a blank page or anything like that.

    Images and your audio files will retain the old URL with the “wordpress” in it. This is because those files are stored relative to your original URL. There isn’t anyway to change that. Those URLs have to be absolute URLs to the specific location of the file.

  • Unknown's avatar
    darrahford · Member ·

    thesacredpath, does WordPress offer yet the WhoIs protection protecting people’s personal information?

  • Unknown's avatar
    nocalmike · Member ·

    Thanks a ton thesacredpath for that answer. It was very thorough and informative. Answers like that are what make me feel comfortable about moving forward with my projects using wordpress.

    Thanks again! And feel free to check out my blog and vote in the poll if you wish!

  • Unknown's avatar
    timethief · Member ·

    @darrahford
    You can buy a masked domain through wordpress.com. Protect your Privacy with Private Domain Registrations http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2010/07/30/private-domain-registrations/

  • Unknown's avatar
    darrahford · Member ·

    Thank you timethief. I wasn’t sure if WordPress had that yet. Everyone should buy the protection if you have stalkers or just in general because the internet has a lot of crazy people. I’ve been on forums where the crazies come out and post someone’s real name & address, a picture of their home, and their entire life’s history.

  • Unknown's avatar
    timethief · Member ·

    You’re welcome. I do know what you mean. The celebrity and entertainment blogging niche is a “mean” one for sure.

  • Unknown's avatar
    miraslow · Member ·

    That was a great answer thesacredpath i also plan to purchase a domain name for my blog so i guess i’ll just go forward now and do it ,thanks .

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