Upgrade Your WordPress.com Blog With Your Own Domain Name

If you have a WordPress.com site your url will read http://www.mysitename.wordpress.com.  Now, if you want to create a url to put on a business card that is just tooooo long for someone to key into the browser. So you can upgrade your FREE WordPress.com site by just going to the UPGRADE tab.

There you will have several upgrade options if you pay for them. The one I am referring to is 14.97 if you host your domain with WordPress.com and 9.97 if you use a domain name you already have.

To illustrate this feature I just upgraded a site I have in WordPress.com called Rosies Blog Class. Now, the url is http://www.rosiesblogclass.wordpress.com. I purchased a domain from WordPress.com which is http://www.rosiesblogclass.com.

So, if I am teaching a workshop or speaking to someone about blogging I can send them to http://www.rosiesblogclass.com and it will redirect to the site.

So, if you have a site on WordPress.com that you want to send folks to when you are not online, consider this handy upgrade.

PS Remember if you are hosting with WordPress.com and not self-hosting with a WordPress.org blog platform YOU MUST MANUALLY BACKUP YOUR SITE. Do not expect WordPress.com to do it for you. I strongly suggest that you maintain a folder on your hard drive with everything you post on your site.

If anyone has other solutions let me know.

Have a Complaint About a WordPress.com Blog?

Yes, you can make a complaint  about a WordPress.com blog. Ok, look very carefully at my wording. I said WordPress.COM blog not WordPress.ORG.

A WordPress.com blog is hosted by WordPress. Whereas, the WordPress.org is self-hosted. That means you purchase the hosting space for it to live. Which means if you are on a hosted site with WordPress.com you site can COME DOWN when they find that it is against the terms and agreements. YOU HAVE NO CONTROL.

Now, it is important if you are using a WordPress.COM site that you know the kinds of things that qualify as a compliant. It is also important if you see a WordPress.com site that you may have issues with.For example, I have found some of my articles posted on splogs. Those are fake blogs, usually reusing content from other sources, used to generate link spam Many have  incorporated my articles into spam material. Most of the time the site does not make sense. It may also be high on the porn end.

WordPress.com is an excellent platform and I start almost everyone I coach with a WordPress.com site to get used to basic blogging. But never encourage them to stay there if they are promoting a business. Instead, I encourage them to transfer to self-hosted WordPress.org  so they have more search engine juice and steriod like functionalities via plugins etc.

So, you can view the policy on complaints from WordPress.com. It is an eye-opener.