Whats the difference between a wordpress.com site & just a .com site

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  travelwithfocus0000 · Member · Aug 21, 2012 at 5:48 pm

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  OK, sorry for the stupid question, im completely new to both wordpress and blogging, so your help would be awesome. Heres my question:

  I make changes in the dashboard and hit click preview and it comes up with my blog (travelwithfocus) in the address bar as: ‘http://travelwithfocus.wordpress.com’ and it contains all the changes I have made.

  However, if I just type into the address bar ‘www.travelwithfocus.com’ it brings up the default ‘just another wordpress site’ with none of my alterations at all. I purchased the domain name through hostgator, and assume I’ve messed up the connection between wordpress and my domain…but dont know how to fix it!
  Blog url: http://travelwithfocus.wordpress.com/

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

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  timethief · Member · Aug 21, 2012 at 5:56 pm

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  You have two sites. One is a wordpress.com freee hosted blog. The other is a self hosted wordpress.org install.

  Go to the footer of this blog http://travelwithfocus.com/ and locate the “Proudly powered by WordPress” link and click it please.

  Then read this please > http://support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/

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  timethief · Member · Aug 21, 2012 at 5:58 pm

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  I purchased the domain name through hostgator, and assume I’ve messed up the connection between wordpress and my domain…but dont know how to fix it!

  You can purchase a domain mapping upgrade from wordpress.com and map from your .wordpress.com blog to your existing domain.
  http://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/
  http://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/map-existing-domain/

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  timethief · Member · Aug 21, 2012 at 6:01 pm

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  Or you can export http://en.support.wordpress.com/export/ your content out of your free hosted wordpress.com blog here http://travelwithfocus.wordpress.com/ and import it into your wordpress.org install here http://travelwithfocus.com/

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  travelwithfocus0000 · Member · Aug 22, 2012 at 4:22 pm

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  Wow, brilliant answers, thank you. I see now that I could have just stuck with the free wordpress site, rather than purchasing a domain name.

  Let me ask you another question. In your opinion, if Im not planning an earth shattering blog, and dont necessarily have an end goal of monetizing it, am I better just to stick with the free wordpress.com site rather than transfer to a personal domain name?

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  timethief · Member · Aug 22, 2012 at 4:28 pm

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  You can use the domain name you purchased from hostgator on a free hosted wordpress.com blog by purchaeing a domain mapping upgrade form wordpress.com and mapping to an existing domain.

  You can export http://en.support.wordpress.com/export/ your content out of your wordpress.org install here http://travelwithfocus.com/ and import it into your free hosted wordpress.com blog here http://travelwithfocus.wordpress.com/

  http://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/
  http://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/map-existing-domain/

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  travelwithfocus0000 · Member · Aug 22, 2012 at 8:59 pm

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  OK, I see what your saying.

  If you did map from wordpress.com to a .com domain, do you still make changes to the .com site via the dashboard?