Questions on upgrading from free to fee-paying blog

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  paulhipperson · Member · Nov 16, 2011 at 9:07 pm

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  I’m looking at upgrading my free blog to improve the URL and so I can set up email addresses associated with the blog (using the gmail plugin).

  I have some questions first as I’m new to this:

  1) If I go for .com instead of .org is it possible to transfer over at a later date if ftp access is required?
  2) I presume the full “domain name and mapping” bundle is required to use the email function and not the cheaper ‘register this domain name and add to your blog” option?
  3) Can I design my own non-blog pages to go with my blog – without using wordpress themes?
  4) If I decide that I want to host elsewhere can I move everything and keep the URL?

  Any help appreciated, thank you.

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  auxclass · Member · Nov 16, 2011 at 9:14 pm

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  1) yes

  2) You need domain registration ( $ 5–) and domain mapping ( $ 12–) anything above that is extra (private registration, no ads etc)

  3) If by this – can you make a web page you link to look similar to your WordPress.COM site – depends on your skill at html & CSS

  4) You can export the contents of your blog on WordPress.COM and import the contents into a WordPress.ORG install. You will need to fine tune your theme, put the Widgets back and maybe find some Plug-in’s depending on the features you want.

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  paulhipperson · Member · Nov 16, 2011 at 9:46 pm

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  THank you.

  2) so I don’t need the $99 ‘pro’ package? That is worth knowing!
  3) but as well as linking to home made pages could I actually host them on my wordpress URL.com/whatever?
  4) so I could technically (and with some difficulty) move to any server having imported to wordpress.org?

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  auxclass · Member · Nov 16, 2011 at 10:02 pm

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  3) The Pages and Posts by default match the blog format – so you could copy and past the content into your site – when I moved I pasted several articles into Posts (paste in as text) – and just put the text into a Post and then good to go.

  4) yes you can move to any server that supports WordPress.ORG installs (export / import) – just do some homework as not all “WordPress ready” hosts are created equal.

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  paulhipperson · Member · Nov 16, 2011 at 10:53 pm

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  Thank you again for the speedy response.

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  auxclass · Member · Nov 16, 2011 at 11:04 pm

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  You be welcome & good luck