How Do I Migrate To Self-Hosted WordPress?

You may have a WordPress.com blog and have soon discovered that you can have your very own independent version of WordPress hosted on your own domain name. In this article I am going to show you how you can quickly pack up your bags and move your own WordPress.com blog to a brand new self-hosted WordPress blog that will run on your very own domain name.

It is possible that you may have been searching for solutions in how to do this for awhile.  I can tell you that your search is completely over. This is a very simple process and I will walk you through how to migrate from WordPress.com over to your own self-hosted WordPress blog step by step.

First thing you need to do is log into your WordPress.com account and access your dashboard. From there, click manage and then click export. After you click export, then select all authors and download the export file to your computer. Remember where you saved this file because you will need it again in a few minutes.

Now, in order to get your own self-hosted WordPress blog, you need to have a domain name such as my domain name of www.garryconn.com. Secondly, you need a cheap web hosting company who can provide you with web hosting. There are hundreds of different web hosting companies available. However, choosing one can honestly be quite overwhelming. To help lessen this confusion, I recommend that you use a company called HostGator.com.

I do business with this company and have quite a few web site and blogs up and running using their service. The great thing about HostGator.com is the fact that they can provide you with both the registration of your domain name as well as the web site hosting that you need. Secondly, HostGator.com specializes in self-hosted WordPress web hosting.

Really though, the greatest feature of HostGator.com web hosting is the fact that you can install self-hosted WordPress all by yourself without having the need of a programmer or an installer do it for you. HostGator.com provides you with an automatic installation service. All you need to do is push a button and instantly self-hosted WordPress is installed. HostGator.com does not charge any additional money for this automatic self-hosted WordPress install feature. This service comes with all their hosting packages.

HostGator.com has a few different pricing plans. It is ok if you want to review them; however, I would recommend that you choose what they call, “The Baby Plan.” This hosting plan is perfect for WordPress bloggers. It is very cheap, priced only at $9.95 / month (basically .33c per day) and it is designed specifically for people who don’t know much about programming or installing software on a web server.

Now with all that said, when you sign up for HostGator.com web hosting, be sure to use the coupon code: wordpress.

If you do, your first month bill will be discounted down to only ONE PENNY. You can basically get your first month totally free and at no risk to you. After you sign up, you will want to access your control panel. Don’t worry, immediately after you sign up for HostGator.com, they will send you an email with a direct link to your control panel.

When you log into your control panel for the first time, instantly an online user guide / tutorial will load. Don’t be anxious. Indeed, invest about 5 to 10 minutes following the guide and tutorial. This tutorial will ask you very simply questions which will be used towards automatically configuring your web server. After you are done with the guide, you will want to then click on the Fantastico link found on the lower part of your contorl panel.

When you click on the Fantastico link, you will then see the install link  for self-hosted WordPress. Once again, simply answer these very easy to understand questions. After you answer just a few questions, WordPress will immediately be installed.

Remember earlier when I told you to take a back up of your existing blog. Now is the time to import all your posts to your new self-hosted WordPress blog. In your new blog, simply log into your daashboard and click on manage and then import. From there locate your back up file and then proceed to migrate your own blog content and comments into your new one simply by logging into your new dashboard, clicking manage, and then clicking import. From there a pop up window will open up and you’ll need to navigate to the file that you downloaded. The import should go without failure and then from there you will be completely free from WordPress.com.

Of course, if you run into trouble, or perhaps maybe you’re even too lazy to do all this, no problem, just give your back up file to HostGator and they will install your new blog for you free of charge. That is another reason why I enjoy using HostGator.com, they provide free site transfer services. So, if you want to move your WordPress.com blog to a self-hosted WordPress blog, you don’t even have to lift a finger. If you feel that the migration is too difficult, just ask them to do it and they’ll take care of everything for you.

All in all, that is the best way to migrate from your blog to self-hosted WordPress. HostGator.com will also provide free migration services from Blogger.com blogs as well.

To sign up or learn more about HostGator.com, simply visit their web site. Don’t forget, I recommend that you sign up for “The Baby Plan.” The cost for this is only $9.95 / month and you can get the first month for only ONE PENNY when you use the coupon code: wordpress. HostGator.com also provides you with a 45 day money back guarantee. If you should have any questions or comments, feel free to use the form below.

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