Must I Pay For Domain Hosting Before Moving From WordPress.COM To WordPress.ORG

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  nonsobonaventure · Member · Jan 28, 2015 at 9:11 pm

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  Hi
  Am new to wordpress (have been using blogger).
  So I just created a wordpress blog on wordpress.COM, bought a custom domain name and paid for site mapping. Was trying to upload my own theme but learned that it isn’t possible with wordpress.COM unless I move to wordpress.ORG. I downloaded wordpress and was told that for me to install it I’ll have to do it via a web hosting company and that’s where am confused! Do I have to pay for web hosting AGAIN after buying and mapping my custom domain? If yes, must it be bluehost? Can’t I use Godaddy which is way cheaper?
  Thank you

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

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  timethief · Member · Jan 28, 2015 at 10:37 pm

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  You own your domain and can repoint the servers to your new site. The choice of web host is yours to make. Here’s a summary of the steps you need to take to move your content and your domain mapping.

  WordPress.com and WordPress.org are completely separate.
  http://support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/

  1. Hire a web host http://wordpress.org/hosting/ and purchase a domain.

  2. Set up a WordPress.org install and equip it with a theme and plugins.
  http://wordpress.org/themes/
  http://wordpress.org/plugins/

  3. To move your content you need to create an XML export file of your content. It will not include the theme and widgets as they cannot be exported. Export your content out of your WordPress.com blog http://en.support.wordpress.com/export/ and import it into the install.

  4. WordPress.com is the top level domain here and all blogs hosted by WordPress.com are on .wordpress.com sub-domains.

  (a) Purchase a site redirect upgrade from wordpress.com
  http://en.support.wordpress.com/site-redirect/

  (b) Or if you have domain mapping then see here http://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/move-domain/#change-name-servers-to-point-the-domain-outside-of-wordpress-com and here http://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/move-domain/

  5. Transfer subscribers. See http://en.support.wordpress.com/moving-a-blog/moving-your-subscribers/

  6. Set your wordpress.com blog visibility to private. To change blog visibility to private go to > Settings > Reading scroll to Blog Visibility and choose option 3 . See the guide here http://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/privacy-settings/

  Alternatively you can purchase a Guided Transfer and Staff will do the move and set up for you http://en.support.wordpress.com/guided-transfer/

  WordPress.com and WordPress.org have different log-ins and run different versions of themes with same names. If you don’t have a username account at WordPress.ORG click http://wordpress.org/support/ and register one on the top right hand corner of the page that opens, so you can post to the support forums there and receive advice from WordPress.ORG bloggers.