OK I find that I get a ton of questions asked over and over again. So this post will begin our FAQ series, and hopefully will make the whole design process run a little smoother for all of us. :)
So to answer our first question: “Can I use your designs on a WordPress.com hosted blog.”
The answer is no. WordPress.com only offers certain customization features which are actually very limited and our designs are not compatible. If you do host your blog at WordPress.com then I highly recommend moving your blog to a WordPress blog hosted on YOUR domain and hosting, only because there is a lot more flexibility on what you can do to the design of your blog AND it you can also add things like Google ads to your blog as well.
So our vote here at Girly Blog Designz is if you are going to use WordPress then you might as well go all the way, and get your very own hosted WordPress blog. The WordPress platform is actually free to install on your own hosting and installation is pretty simple if you know what you are doing. Not to mention WordPress gives you some very detailed instructions on how to install the WordPress blogging platform on your hosting.
One thing I do recommend though is purchasing hosting that is WordPress friendly, because not all hosting is created equal (trust me!)
So if you are wanting to transfer your WordPress.com hosted blog to your very own WordPress hosted blog on YOUR personal domain and hosting you can follow these steps to switch:
1. Purchase a domain name. I personally recommend www.bravenet.com because they offer free privacy registration with the purchase of your domain name. The cost of a domain name at Bravenet is only $8.95/year.
2. Purchase WordPress friendly hosting. We do offer hosting to our clients who maintain a family/Christian friendly blog. We also recommend Mom Webs hosting also. Mom Webs hosting offers some larger packages than we can offer at this time, so if you are interested check them out at: Mom Webs . Whoever you decide to host with make sure they offer the Cpanel hosting platform, this will make your install step go much smoother.
3. Install WordPress onto your server (basically your hosting). Now if you purchase a hosting package that includes Cpanel WITH Fantastico, you will find that installing WordPress is SO SO easy. All you have to do is log into your cpanel, go to the little image that says Fantastico, click on “WordPress”, click new installation, and then fill in the blanks.
4. Go to your old WordPress.com hosted blog and go to manage, then export. This will export all your current posts and pages to a file and save it on your computer. Then you will want to go and log into your new personally hosted WordPress blog and go to manage—>import, and then upload the file you just downloaded to the dashboard. This is how you can transfer all your old posts to your new blog!
So you see it is very easy to switch your WordPress.com hosted blog to your own domain name, and it really doesn’t cost a whole lot of money or time. :)
Please stay tuned for more FAQ posts here at Girly Blog Designz, we should have at least one a day until all of the FAQ’s are answered. If you have a question that is not addressed here then please feel free to contact us!
Hey, I sent you a couple of emails about the show this weekend….please contact me! I really am looking forward to talking about Girly Blog Designz!
Hi Heather. So…what does the customize CSS (that you can purchase for additional funds) mean when you look at the wordpress.com hosted blog? Please advise….Thanks!
The custom CSS let’s you customize the CSS file, which we could use to make changes to the CSS and even add the images for the header etc. But with that it is still very limited in adding things like custom sidebar titles etc. , and even in re arranging the sidebar elements and things like that.
So we can do SOME customization, but still very limited on what we can do. Does that make sense?
It does – thank you! Hope you have an awesome day… :)
Great! I am so glad it made sense! I am having a great day, thank you! :)