Upgrading and getting custom domain for an existing personal (free) website
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I have a free personal website on WordPress.com that I’ve been test-developing. Now I’m almost ready to open it to public view, but first I want to upgrade to a paid personal subscription and give the website a custom domain name, still using WordPress.com to host it. Are there any step-by-step instructions for doing this? I am not a programmer so I hope this can be simple.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi there,
You can read the following support page. It explains well.
All About Domains
https://en.support.wordpress.com/all-about-domains/.If you have any questions, please come back here anytime :)
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re: purchasing WordPress.COM upgrades
WordPress.com provides free blogs and hosts them free of charge. There are no bandwidth charges. All WordPress.com blogs come with 3000 megabytes (~3 GBs) of space for storing uploaded files and images. Free features are listed here https://en.wordpress.com/features/We have 4 different plans: free, personal, premium and business. All hosting is free regardless of which plan you choose. You can view all wordpress.com plan features here https://wordpress.com/pricing/ Add a plan for each of your sites here: http://store.wordpress.com/plans/.
Details:
There are no trial upgrades, no monthly payment plans, no bulk deal upgrades, and no multiple year upgrades.
We are billed annually and we must pay for all upgrades in full at the time of purchase after selecting a plan.
Also note that purchase orders are not accepted.
Each upgrade bundle applies to a single blog only and is for a single year only when it is due to be renewed. (The only exceptions are one time upgrades for premium themes and guided transfers.)
Premium plan upgrades and Business plan upgrades include access to all premium themes found here https://theme.wordpress.com/themes/sort/premium/ as well as all free themes found here https://theme.wordpress.com/themes/sort/free/
The Business upgrade which is the only plan that includes Google analytics also includes:
• Footer Credit Options https://en.support.wordpress.com/footer-credits/
• SEO Tools https://en.support.wordpress.com/seo-tools/There is no e-commerce capability under any plan here https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/small-business-website-1?replies=2#post-2804631.
When you upgrade from Personal to Premium or from Premium to Business you pay the difference between the two plans https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/domain-mapping-almost-impossible-to-understand-how-it-works?replies=4#post-2874012
You can use the Personal Plan, yes, but you need to add the plan first. If you add the domain first, Premium is selected automatically. Go to My Site ->Plans and buy the Personal Plan, and then you can go back and claim your free domain at My Site ->Domains ->Add.
https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/custom-domain-89?replies=6#post-2882612How domain mapping works
Registering an underlying .wordpress.com URL first is required for domain mapping. That underlying URL does not have to match the domain URL when you are domain mapping. What domain mapping does is providing a seamless redirect to the very same content under the new domain URL when a person clicks the old URL .wordpress.com to the original content. It can take up to 72 hours for domain propagation to take place throughout the internet but it doesn’t usually take that long. https://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/
There are 3 ways to add a custom domain to your blog. Please note that an active WordPress.com plan is required to add a custom domain to your site. https://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/#getting-started
WordPress.com does not accept domain transfers but mapping an existing domain is possible. http://support.wordpress.com/domain-mapping/map-existing-domain/ The domain or mapping of any existing domain URL is included in the pricing for a personal upgrade, a premium and a business upgrade. The WordPress.COM upgrade for mapping a domain must be renewed annually.
WordPress.com does not provide an email service for blogs on their sub domains or on custom domains. Please see these support docs
https://en.support.wordpress.com/add-email/
https://en.support.wordpress.com/email-forwarding/Before you upgrade
Make sure you read the comparison very closely do you know exactly what the restrictions and limitations on WordPress.COM blogging are: http://en.support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/Also read Important Notes Before Upgrading http://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/#important-notes-before-upgrading
How to upgrade
You must be logged in as Admin http://en.support.wordpress.com/user-roles/#administrator under the exact same username account that registered the blog to access the blog’s dashboard, select a plan and purchase upgrades at > Dashboard> Store > My Upgrades
https://en.support.wordpress.com/my-upgrades/Your billing history will be at Dashboard > Store > Billing History
https://en.support.wordpress.com/billing-history/Your only options for payment are found here Payment Methods http://en.support.wordpress.com/payment/
canceling and refunding purchases
WordPress.com provides a 30-day refund on all upgrades except Domain Registrations, Domain Renewals, and Guided Transfers. The refund period for Domain Registrations and Renewals is 48 hours. Note: It takes from 1 – 2 weeks for the refund to be received.You have to be logged in as Admin http://en.support.wordpress.com/user-roles/#administrator under the exact same username account that registered the blog to access the blog’s dashboard, cancel any upgrades, claim a refund for any qualified upgrades, and disable auto-renew. Dashboard > Store > My Upgrades. You can also disable auto-renew there. Canceling and refunding purchases http://en.support.wordpress.com/my-upgrades/#canceling-upgrades
If you have any unanswered questions type modlook into the sidebar tags on this thread for a Staff follow-up. How do I get a Moderator/Staff reply for my question? https://en.support.wordpress.com/getting-help-in-the-forums/#how-do-i-get-a-moderatorstaff-reply-for-my-question Also subscribe to this thread so you are notified when they respond and be patient while waiting. To subscribe look in the sidebar of this thread, find the subscribe to topics link and click it.
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