How to get started?

• 

  jhcampbell123 · Member · Mar 8, 2021 at 2:33 pm

  • Copy link
  • Add topic to favorites

  I already have a live website that I coded directly in HMTL many moons ago.
  While it all ‘works’, I want to switch this to a WordPress site to get slicker looks.

  But being a complete WordPress newbie, I am hesitant to just have WordPress take over my existing site, as I have no idea how long it will take me to rebuild in WordPress. Is there a way to build off-line (ideally locally on my own PC) and only moving everything online when I know it works?

• 

  austinsangs · Member · Mar 8, 2021 at 2:48 pm

  • Copy link

  Well hello, @jhcampbell123,

  Hats off to you for trying your hand in WordPress.com sites. You can start by creating a free WordPress site that will be separate from your existing HTML site.
  Use the link below and, pick the first option with the .wordpress.com extension.
  https://wordpress.com/new/domains

  You can build your site in Private mode and later set it to Public when you’re satisfied with it. More on that here:
  https://wordpress.com/support/settings/privacy-settings/

  ________

  WordPress.com offers a plethora of educational tools to help you on your journey. I have linked them below:
  https://wordpress.com/support/tutorials/

  If you need help learning more about your test site check the learning guides I have linked below:

  https://wordpress.com/learn/get-started/

  https://en.support.wordpress.com/using-wordpress-to-create-a-website/

  Video Tutorials: https://wordpress.com/support/video-tutorials/

  https://wordpress.com/support/create-a-blog/

• 

  jhcampbell123 · Member · Mar 8, 2021 at 4:40 pm

  • Copy link

  Thank you @austinsangs,

  But given that I haven’t done any actual design, I’d recommend you keep your hat on top of your head for now :)

  I understood from the support materials that I can just start from scratch at http://www.AnyNewSite.com.
  However, that’s not ideal if you have an existing page that customers and associates have bookmarked.
  Having always written straight HMTL and then FTP-ed to my site, I am rather nervous about the way WordPress seems to hide the techie bits and asks for a site address upfront…

  Let’s say I rebuild my site with WordPress at “www.AnyNewSite.com”…
  Can I then change the location to my existing page once I am happy that everything looks great?

  Many thanks in advance for your patience.

• 

  aleone89 · Staff · Mar 9, 2021 at 10:40 am

  • Copy link

  Hello there,

  Many thanks of reaching back out.

  Having always written straight HMTL and then FTP-ed to my site, I am rather nervous about the way WordPress seems to hide the techie bits and asks for a site address upfront…

  With regards to setting up a site address upfront, when you create a WordPress.com website, it’s possible to build a site under a temporary .WordPress.com domain.

  The business plan does allow the possibility to look at the site and database via FTP.

  https://wordpress.com/support/ftp-access/

  Let’s say I rebuild my site with WordPress at “www.AnyNewSite.com”…
  Can I then change the location to my existing page once I am happy that everything looks great?

  Yes this is possible.

  It can be moved from WordPress.com > to self-hosted WordPress: https://en.support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/

  This is how you would export the content: https://en.support.wordpress.com/export/

  I hope this helps.