Migrating from WordPress.com

Posted October 23, 2008 * Comments(4)

I had initially set up this blog on WordPress.com to kick the tires and understand how WordPress worked etc. Once I was comfortable with it, I decided to host my blog at this domain. I would recommend this approach for all new bloggers-to-be out there.

When I searched for “migrate wordpress”, I got a lot of results that talked about downloading plugins that can backup\restore your blog etc. But if your blog is hosted on wordpress.com they are of no use.

So, you have set up your blog at xyzblogname.wordpress.com, written a few posts, tried a few different themes, test-driven a handful plugins and now you’re all set to take off the training wheels.  You have secured the www.xyzblogname.com domain name and installed WordPress and are ready to migrate your blog to its new home.

1. Log in to your WordPress.com blog: www.xyzblogname.wordpress.com\wp-admin\

2. Click on Manage and then Export.

3. Select ‘All Authors’ in the Restrict Author drop-down.

4. Click on Download Export File.

5. Save the xml file somewhere on your computer.

6. Login to the Admin console of your new blog at www.xyzblogname.com/wp-admin/

7. Click on Manage and then Import.

8. From the list of systems, click on WordPress.

9. Click on Browse to select the xml file you saved on Step 5.

10. Click on Upload File and Import and let WordPress handle the rest.

You’re all set!

4 Comments so far

  1. Lars Wilhelmsen on December 7th, 2008

    Hi,

    What about media content (e.g. images embedded in the posts) – will they be included in the .xml file?

    –larsw

  2. M on December 8th, 2008

    Hello Lars,

    I believe when I migrated this blog from wordpress.com, I only had one post with couple of images in it and I did not have to do anything extra. The images were migrated along with the post.

  3. Josef on June 1st, 2009

    What about the plugins used on wordpress.com? I am trying to migrate a client’s blog from wordpress.com to his own domain however simple plugins like the Blog Stats widget (the one you put on the website not the internal full blown stats) do not seem to be available.

  4. M on June 2nd, 2009

    I think you’ll have to download all the plugins and reinstall them on the new domain. You can find suitable alternatives at: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/search.php?q=stats

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