Need help switching my free blog to an existing domain

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  bhookedcrochet · Member · Aug 10, 2011 at 2:20 pm

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  I apologize in advance if this topic has already been covered…

  I have a newer .wordpress.com blog that has done decently well since it’s facebook debut so my husband decided to buy a .net domain for it. He purchased the domain from HostMonster (if that matters) and I installed the WordPress software through HostMonster for this domain. I set the theme to Twenty ten (same as the free one) and noticed that some of the widgets aren’t there. For example the subscribe widget. To get around this issue, can I just import my free wordpress site settings, posts, pages and such to my paid domain? I’m sure this can be done, but I’m not sure how?

  Thank you!
  -ShopCents

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

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  tandava108 · Member · Aug 10, 2011 at 2:39 pm

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  Since you are switching to a self-hosted blog you will have to use the wordpress.org support forums.

  An alternative would be to keep your hosting on wordpress.com but use domain mapping so that users see it through your .net domain.

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  bhookedcrochet · Member · Aug 10, 2011 at 2:41 pm

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  Great Idea! I never even thought about mapping it. Thanks!

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  timethief · Member · Aug 10, 2011 at 4:08 pm

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  @britt2802
  To be clear if you do not purchase domain mapping every link will be broken and will produce a 404 page not found when visitors click a URL for the original root blog at WordPress.com. All visitors from search engines clicking original links will experience a 404 page not found. If you do purchase domain mapping then all visitors will be seamlessly redirected from the root blog URLs to the domain URLs.

  The in house widgets at WordPress.com are not included in the WordPress.ORG install. All contents in text widgets must be copied and pasted from the WordPress.com site into text widgets on the WordPress.org site. Also note that your links must be separately exported and imported. http://en.support.wordpress.com/blogroll/import-export-links/
  One the move is complete you must return to your WordPress.com root blog and set the visibility to “private” so you prevent creation of duplicate content in the SERPs (search engine page results). http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=66359

  If you need a step by step tutorial then see here > http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2010/11/06/setting-up-a-self-hosted-wordpress-org-install/

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  bhookedcrochet · Member · Aug 10, 2011 at 4:20 pm

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  Thank you Timetheif! I did find out that you must purchase the domain mapping after reading the previous post and I don’t feel like that will be beneficial for me. Well, it will but I don’t want to have to pay for another service. The links you posted are great and I will definitely take a look at them. Thank you for taking the time to answer this question for me. However, it seems as though I really enjoy the features of the free hosting better than the service for the .org site. It leaves me thinking that I will just use another service. :(

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  tandava108 · Member · Aug 10, 2011 at 4:24 pm

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  @timethief
  Just to be clear if the poster does go with the self hosted domain option then to maintain links they need site redirect to avoid the 404s. You also need to change the wordpress.org permalonk structure to date and name based so that the same URLs are maintained on the new blog.