How to Move a Wordpress Hosted Blog to It’s Own Domain

WordPress is a free blog hosting service. If you want to have your blog hosted on its own domain, you will need to first purchase a domain and then pay for the upgrade to map your domain. WordPress offers it as a package for $15 or $10 for each.

• It costs $10/year for the domain name.
• It costs $10/year for domain mapping
• If you buy both at the same time the total cost is $15/year

Step 1. Buy your domain name if you don’t already have one. To do this, log into your blog and get into your dashboard. Click on “Options.” Then click on Domains and enter the domain you’d like to have. If it is available, you can purchase it and map it to your WordPress blog.

Step 2. If you own a domain through another registrar, you will need to change your DNS settings to redirect it to WordPress. Visit your registrar and change your settings to the following:

• ns1.wordpress.com
• ns2.wordpress.com
• ns3.wordpress.com

If your registrar needs the IP addresses:
72.232.101.25
208.69.182.198
72.233.2.19

Step 3. Wait. It can take up to three days for the mapping to go into effect. You can check the status by visiting http://dnsstuff.com. In the top right you’ll see the DNS Lookup box. Enter your domain name. If it says wordpress.com nameservers then you’re ready for the next step. If it doesn’t, check back later.

Step 4. Once your nameservers have been changed, get into your blog’s dashboard. Click on “Options” and then get into “Domains” Place your domain name in the box and click, ‘add domain to blog’ Now you will see an option that says “Put Blog Here.” Go ahead and click that and you are done!

Hosting your WordPress blog on your own domain is a great way to add value to your site and give it a professional custom appearance. It takes a little bit of time and patience, however once your blog is up and running all you have to do is blog.