What are the likely scenarios if I do not upgrade my free blog to custom domain?
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Sorry if I sound totally inept but I need to know what I am doing if I am to upgrade. The domain name is available. My decision hinges on some questions I still have and I have been searching everywhere for the answers:
1. What happens if I do not upgrade my free blog to a custom domain? Any risks?
2. Can someone buy letmenchaseyou.com, copy my content over and pretend they are me or something?
3. Can someone buy that domain name and hijack my existing wordpress blog somehow, preventing me from logging in my free blog?
4. What happens if I upgrade it and later, decide it’s not worth the money, let the domain name expire, and want to go back to using the free letmenchaseyou.wordpress.com? Will that be possible? Could I still log in and use it?
(This might be a possibility if I ever decide I want to move on and not deal with the blog as much as I wish)
5. If i upgrade to a custom domain, can I use any name I want as long as it is available? I mean, does it have to match the name of my blog?
I hope someone can help me so I can better decide if this is worth doing! I read posts about how to upgrade but never what happens if you want to cancel the domain name and go back to free wordpress blogging.
Thanks in advance!
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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1) No real risks, things just keep on like they are. Custom domains have some advantages – see the bottom
2A) Any body can buy a name that is not registered (subject to some things like you can’t buy a .mil extension for instance)
2B) Someone can copy your content now and pretend to be you. they are called scrappers among other things
3) They can buy the name, they can’t hijack your blog here or prevent you from using your blog here. (If they had an international trademark or copyright they on the domain name they could make things difficult for you, how difficult would depend on many factors – short – probably don’t need worry much about it )
4) Your content is safe, you still log into the base WordPress.COM blog. You will loose traffic and the old bookmarks to the custom domain name will not work and it will take a while to recover from that.
5) yes any name you want, it does not need to match the base blog. I like to have a base blog name that matches the mapped domain name, but that is me. Domain mapping hides the base blog name from visitors.
I have a mapped domain, click on my name to see what your visitors will see.
custom domain names have more class and are easier to remember and look way cooler on a business card (if you use business cards, I have two cards, one for my blog / web site and one that has my personal name on it and the web site)
But I have some friends that have a blog that I set up for them and it does not have a custom domain name, and they are thrilled with the name anyway. They are traveling and not having a custom domain means they never need to worry about renewing the domain name and domain mapping.
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Auxclass,
Wow, thanks for the detailed reply! Your answers will help me a lot in figuring out if I even need to upgrade.
I checked out your blog. Looks great. You have a short domain name which is easy to remember!
I haven’t started using business cards because my blog is search engine-driven and clients are all online. But I can see it would be less wordy if it didn’t have “wordpress” on it if I ever decide to use a business card.
The wordpress bit doesn’t seem to bother anyone so far…as far as I can tell.
I guess I have been reading so much about all the benefits of upgrading, written by mostly techies and such, that I wondered if there was anyone who didn’t think it was necessary and found it advantageous NOT to. Your friends obviously fall in that category and I think for now I do too.
The other concern I have is that I may change my mind about the domain name and want a better one down the road. I don’t want to hassle with dealing with that, having to get stuck with one that I no longer like.
I have had that experience with old wordpress blogs where after a while, I want a different name but then I run the risk of losing followers and stats.
Can you tell me if changing custom domains registered thru wordpress and changing free wordpress blog addresses are possible, and how are they done? Would that lose followers and stats?
Also, what is the likelihood someone is scrapping your blog? I suppose if a blog generates high traffic and revenue?
Thanks again for your help! I am really really grateful!!
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I do several public events each year, being able to give a person a web site card & write on the back of the card the info they can find on my site is very handy. My personal info is not going to strangers, bit safer.
If you think you might use a custom domain name, then sooner is better, you will loose a bit of traffic as search engines get used to the new custom domain name, but if you do domain mapping all the old links, bookmarks, followers etc. will keep on working.
yes you can change the WordPress.COM name or the custom domain name if you want, but each move has a bit of a traffic hit for a while. If the name changes are done correctly you can transfer stats and not loose followers. So please think and ask a bit before changing things.
Your first custom domain name and domain mapping is straight forward and easy.
ANY blog can be scrapped. To make it harder, set your RSS feed to show summery
Does not need to be high traffic to be scrapped.
Dashboard >> Settings >> Reading >> For each article in a feed, show – Summery – – that means that your entire blog is not in the RSS feed – makes a scrapper work harder.
People with Professional sites tend to use custom domain names, looks a bit more professional. But I have also seen many professional blogs with “WordPress” in the name.
NOAA – the U.S. mapping and weather people have their blog http://noaacoastsurvey.wordpress.com/ as does the State of Washington.
So custom domain names are not required, nor do you need to map the blog here to your existing domain name as a sub-domain
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Thanks for the advice on RSS feed. I did as you stated.
You mentioned mapping…If I upgrade the free blog to a custom domain registered on wordpress.com, I read I wouldn’t need to do any mapping. WordPress automatically redirects all followers, links, stats and such to the new domain name. I read mapping is only if I have a domain name registered elsewhere. Am I reading that correctly?
Thanks very much for explaining how the custom domain benefits you. It makes sense to just put it on a business card and hand those out without personal info. That is a great idea!
I guess I just want to be sure that the name I use will be the name I really want for the long term. Like you stated, I wouldn’t want to slow down traffic whenever I make name changes.
Btw, (hope this isn’t too off topic, so let me know if I need to post a new topic), I am resetting my password every month instead of using the two step authentication. Would that be good enough? I don’t even mind changing my password every two weeks.
That would seem easier for me to do that deal with the smartphone code, because what if I am traveling and my phone can’t receive international texts.
It just seems there are people who prefer not to do the two step due to phone app issues or such things. I wonder if you are doing that and what do you think.
You’ve been so helpful! Much appreciation for your answers.
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You mentioned mapping…If I upgrade the free blog to a custom domain registered on wordpress.com, I read I wouldn’t need to do any mapping. WordPress automatically redirects all followers, links, stats and such to the new domain name. I read mapping is only if I have a domain name registered elsewhere. Am I reading that correctly?
Domain Mapping is required to change the base WordPress.COM blog name – does not matter were the domain name is registered.
The domain mapping is the part that redirects the links, traffic etc. to the custom domain name.
The two step is more secure as some of the info is always changing and going to your cell phone, theory is that someone trying to steal your blog login will not have your cell phone with them.
Use the https (secure encrypted link)
Dashboard >> Users >> Personal Settings >> Browser Connection – Always use HTTPS when visiting administration pages
That And a long password you should be fine.
Others might chime in on the security issue, I don’t think there are that many two step authentications being done.
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I checked my personal settings for the https and it is already done!
I got a lot of info from you, thanks again. It’s a relief to know I can get answers on this forum so I’m not going in blind!
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You be welcome & good luck
Several good people & staff help in the forum, lots of experience
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