Moving from iPage self hosted to wordpress.com
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Hi. I want to move my askauntycath.com iPage self-hosted blog to WordPress.com I can’t understand how to do it because I already have a WordPress.com account for askauntycath.com
In your 1st step it says to start an account. But I have one so I’m confused. Do I have to start my blog all over again. Is there a WordPress person I can speak to directly for help. The reason I want to move is because I want the Reblog function on my posts as I’ve missed opportunities this way, and self-hosted sites do not have the Reblog. Very disappointing. Please help. Thanks.The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi,
You won’t need to start over again. It sounds like you’re ready for step 2, exporting your blog. Follow the instructions there and then proceed to the steps 3 and 4, importing your configuration to WordPress.com and mapping your old domain to your new one.
Let me know if this isn’t what you were looking for.
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Hi there. You don’t need to register a new account, but you do need to first create a free WordPress.com address. Just go to the My Sites page and click the link to “Add New WordPress”. You might have to click the Switch Site link first. If you already have a free WordPress.com address you’re not using you can use that as well.
Then create an XML export file of your content on the iPage blog. The option should be under Tools in your dashboard for the iPage site. Then you import the XML file under Tools in the dashboard on the WordPress.com site: https://en.support.wordpress.com/import/
If you want to continue using your custom domain you’ll have to buy the domain mapping upgrade to connect that domain to the new WordPress.com site. Unfortunately you can’t transfer the domain to WordPress.com, so that means you’ll have to keep paying Domain.com for the domain and then pay WordPress.com for the mapping. However, once you’ve transferred your content you can cancel your hosting account with iPage. Instructions for domain mapping is here: https://en.support.wordpress.com/map-existing-domain/
I see you’re using the Duster theme. Over here it is called Twenty-Eleven. Here is the link if you want to use the same theme here: http://theme.wordpress.com/themes/twentyeleven/
Also make sure you understand the differences between self-hosted WordPress and WordPress.com:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/
https://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/#important-notes-before-upgradingLet us know if you have any more questions.
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Thank you kokkieh and sfarley85. I might give it a try on the weekend. I wish someone would just bring out a plugin with a “Reblog” button so we could all Reblog each others posts. It shouldn’t be that hard! Does mapping mean that if someone goes to my askauntycath.com blog the traffic will be redirected to the WordPress.com blog?
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Does mapping mean that if someone goes to my askauntycath.com blog the traffic will be redirected to the WordPress.com blog?
Not exactly. Mapping means the custom domain is laid over the free WordPress.com URL. In other words, your blog is at whatever.wordpress.com, but when people view the site in their browsers they’ll see askauntycath.com instead.
A redirect is if you change the address itself, but you still want traffic to the old address to be sent on the new one, like forwarding your mail when you’ve moved.
I wish someone would just bring out a plugin with a “Reblog” button so we could all Reblog each others posts.
The reblogging is specifically a WordPress.com feature. All WordPress.com features available for self-hosted blogs are contained in the Jetpack plugin. I’m not sure if that plugin contains reblogging or not, but if it doesn’t, then that’s because WordPress.com decided they don’t want to give that ability to self-hosted sites. You can see here if you don’t have the Jetpack plugin on your site: http://jetpack.me/
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Hi Kokkieh.
1. If I start a new blog like anything.wordpress.com and import all of my content from askauntycath.com so all my stuff’s on the new site, and I don’t want to use the name askauntycath.com but want everything to show as anything.wordpress.com can I do that? Meaning, I would just not use askauntycath.com but use my new blog name.
2. What is the support like on WordPress.com? I get good support from iPage and can ask them for help. Is there support like that at WordPress.com? How do I contact them if I’ve got a problem with my site?
Thanks. You’ve been really helpful to someone new to blogging. Cathy
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#1 Sure you can drop the domain if you no longer want it. You can just let it expire or cancel it with your current registrar and then you don’t buy the mapping upgrade. There is no requirement to use a custom domain here and you can have as many free domains as you want.
One important thing: if you drop the custom domain search engines will probably need to re-index your site from scratch, so for the first couple of months you’ll see a drop in traffic from search engines. If you keep the domain you’ll also see a drop, but it should normalise sooner. But that’s not really a major issue in my opinion.
#2 If you have a free site, this forum is what you have. Most of the questions are answered by volunteers like me, but if we get something we can’t handle we flag it for staff who usually respond within 24 hours. Sometimes it takes longer depending on public holidays, weekends, whether a big update to the site caused an unusual number of support requests, etc., but staff support is very good. And some of the volunteers have been here longer than most staff, so their support is also very good.
You can, of course also flag a thread for staff yourself. Instructions to do that is in this support doc: https://en.support.wordpress.com/getting-help-in-the-forums/
Direct email support and live chat support are also available, but only for users who have the Premium or Business plans, respectively.
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