I have a blog on wordpress.com and am tired of the limited functionality of it. Can I move all my blog posts over to a self-hosted, wordpress.org site easily?

NoName

Dear NoName,

Moving your posts from .com to .org is quite easy actually.

First, you need to purchase hosting and a domain name for your new blog. I recommend either Startlogic or JustHost as I have used both and know they are easy to work with.

Next you need to install Wordpress and then choose a theme and get it installed, as well as any plugins you’d like to have.

The final step is to use the “export” function on your .com blog. The resulting file will contain your posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, and tags – not your text widget contents.

Now just use the “import” function on your new .org blog and you should see all of your content where it belongs.

In rare instances, when trying to “import” you may get an error message. At this point, make sure you exported correctly and that your .org site is completely updated. If this does not fix the problem you’ll need to check with Wordpress support to try and figure it out.

I don’t use .com at all (never have) but I know people who have been wondering how to do this so figured I could give some basic instructions. If you require further help working with .com, you’ll have to check in at their forum.

~Christina

It has definitely risen up to the challenge. I already love WP but this process has given me some more reasons to love it and that, in turn, is raising my skill level.

Our NEW BIG PROJECT (that I plan to share with you all when we are ready) involves  memberships. This means we needed to find the best way to secure our content so only members could access it. We also needed to be able to have multiple membership levels for various sections.

I tried out all of the available membership plugins that I could find reviews on (not going to name names) and when I say all, I mean ALL.

Everyone of them had a free trial period so I would read all about it, download and install it, then test it out. Then, after all the tweaking and setting up, I would start playing around with the different features and started finding that the cost for the plugin was not the only cost. Each one was easily integrated with other programs such as autoresponders, payment gateways & affiliate tracking programs.

That’s great BUT, all of those cost more money. So in the end our starting costs would average about $200-400 but then some of those “extras” had a monthly fees. Not my idea of smart business.

Then I happened onto an old forum post that caught my interest. The poster mentioned how this membership plugin did everything I needed but it was all included in the script, no “extras” needed, unless I wanted to use them instead. And you couldn’t beat the price!

So I ventured over to Digital Access Pass and found everything I had been looking for the last few months.

Digital Access Pass (DAP) is the ultimate in membership software. It works so seamlessly with WP but, *BONUS* you can use it on plain ole’ HTML sites too!

They have a complete, no restrictions, 30 day free trial. And their customer service is absolutely the BEST I’ve encountered.

When I first tried to install it on my test site I found that my host did not support one of the things needed to run DAP, I opened a support ticket and Veena was quick to reply and offer to contact my host directly and see if it could be added.

Unfortunately, no matter how much I wanted it, my host could not add this little piece of the puzzle. Bummer!

After having the opportunity to test DAP using a friends installation, I decided moving hosts for the NEW BIG PROJECT site had to be done so I did some research and found a host that worked well with DAP & it was cheaper than my previous host.

I (& my partner) couldn’t be happier with my decision. She is less technically inclined than I and DAP is so user-friendly she will have no problem making changes on the fly.

I fully recommend you go visit their site, look around, read everything you can then hop over to the blog where Ravi(the developer) provides updates on new features, add-ons & future additions.

Good Luck with your membership site and stay tuned for information about our NEW BIG PROJECT!

~Christina

I’ve really screwed up this time. I’m moving my WP site to a new host and I changed the DNS settings before exporting my database and WP files.

I’m unable to access the dashboard now and my old host is being uncooperative (account is active till end of the month).  Do you have any ideas for me or should I just forget it & start fresh?

Mary H Ruth-Virtual Writing & Communications Solutions

Dear Mary,

We’ve discussed this privately through email already but I wanted to share this with my readers.  Unfortunately, you are having to start from scratch with your site but, look at it as a lesson learned. One you’ll NEVER have to learn again.

For anyone else contemplating a move, here are the steps to take to ensure you do it correctly and safely.

Moving from one host to another:

First and foremost, BACKUP EVERYTHING to your own computer.

• use plugin WP-DB-Backup to have your entire database backed up and either download it to your computer or have it emailed to you. Be sure to write down the name of the database, username and password
• Using your favorite FTP program, download your entire Wordpress installation files (wp-admin, wp-content & everything else)

Place everything in a folder named “old blog”

Now, only if the domain name is changing, go back to your dashboard under “settings –>general”  you’ll need to change the listed URL to the new one. Then backup and download your database and WP installation files again. Save to a folder named “new blog”.

You can change your DNS settings at this point.

Most hosts have the “quick install” option for WP. In that case, use it to get WP set up easily on your new host.

Now you just need to get your old database files into your new database. You can do this through phpmyadmin if you have access. Please check with your hosting company to get instructions on how to upload the database files. There are too many ways to do this (depending on host) that it would take me forever to cover them all.

Generally you will need to set up a new database and name it the same as your old database. Also set user and password the same. Then upload the old database file into the new database.

Only if you changed domain name: You have to open your old database file (unzip it and open in notepad) and replace all instances of your old domain name to the new one. You can use the “find-replace” option in notepad to make sure you got them all.

When you do that and go to yourdomain.com/wp-login.php you will be told your database needs to be updated, which is fine. Run the process (very quick) and all your old posts should be available now.

Now you’ll need to sign into your new host by FTP and upload your WP installation files, overwriting the one that were installed with the “quick install”.

**If you get a “database”  error at your URL after uploading, you have to open up your wp-config.php file in notepad and make sure database name, username & password all match what is set in your new hosting account.

You’ll have to go through each setting on the dashboard to make sure all are set the way you want them. Also you’ll need to set your theme.

Guess what? You just did that all by yourself! Not as bad as you thought, huh?

~Christina

I love being able to help you all and hope you’ll keep submitting questions for me to answer.

Sometimes business gets in the way but, I always try to answer quickly and I appreciate everyone who takes the time to send along their questions.

If you ever send me a question and I don’t respond, please send it again. I won’t take it as nagging, I promise .

I won’t be updating again till after the new year but I will be available for your questions, they just won’t be answered here till after 1/1/10.

So send them along and I can start the year off with tons of answers for everyone.

Thanks again & Happy Holidays!

~Christina

I’d like to add a tip sheet in pdf or Word format to my WP website and blog. Is there a plugin for doing this? If not, how may this be done?

Thanks,

Janine -Your Virtual Wizard

Janine,

I’m going to assume you want to have this document available for your readers to download.

You just need to upload the pdf or doc to your media library and then link to it in a post, page or widget. In a post or page you would need the write the test you want clickable and then use the insert media buttons at the top of the WYSIWYG editor to connect the two.

For a widget you’ll need to use the following code

for a text link— <a href=”url to your doc”>Text</a>

for an image link— <a href=”url to your doc”><img src=”url to image in media library”></a>

~Christina

I don’t normally buy books on Wordpress only because I’m stubborn and like to figure things out for myself. I also don’t ask for help usually.

Yes, I am the eternal rebellious teenager, I admit it.

I was intrigued when I heard about the new ebook Digging into Wordpress by Chris Coyier and Jeff Starr. Both of who I’ve learned quite a few tricks from.

If you’ve been to this blog before you know that I go out of my way to try and answer your questions in as much detail as possible and with limited “tech-talk”. I had never seen anyone else who did it this way and knew how long it usually took me to find an answer to my questions.

Well, let me tell you, These guys do an awesome job of providing step-by-step, detailed instructions on the ins and outs of Wordpress. Starting with setting up Wordpress on your own domain all the way to maintaining the finished product.

You can read about all the features here but in a nutshell: You’ll be able to install, customize, secure and maintain your own Wordpress site by the end of this book.

And, you’ll understand every word along the way.

At just $27 for the ebook, you are getting way more than that in value. Bonus, you get LIFETIME updates. Which means when a new version of Wordpress is released the book will be updated to reflect the changes and you can download it free.

**I was not given anything for this review. All links to the book in this post  are affiliate links so I will get a  few bucks if you click through and purchase. If you prefer to not use those links you can get to the book by visiting http://digwp.com and looking for the link there.**

~Christina

Is there a way to connect a Wordpress blog to a Wordpress website? I’d like to create a blog tab on the website which when clicked on will open up a WP blog which has a separate domain.

Thank you.

Janine -Your Virtual Wizard

Dear Janine,

There are actually two ways to add external links to your Wordpress sites navigation.

The easy way is to install the plugin PageLinksTo. I have not personally used this plugin but I have seen good reviews on it.

Please use with caution and backup everything first.

My preferred way is manually. It involves jumping into the code of your theme but it’s painless, I promise.

First you’ll need to go into Appearance->Editor and then click on header.php (this is the usual place for the code but you may have a separate file named nav.php, in that case you’ll be opening it instead)

You are looking for something like this: <?php wp_list_pages( ); ?>

Let me point out that some themes choose to list categories in the navigation instead of pages- if that is what your theme does you’ll be looking for <?php wp_list_categories( ); ?>

Now to add your external link you’ll add the following directly under that code:

<li><a href=”http://yourdomain.com“>External link name</a></li>

If you have more than one external link to add you’d just add another line like the one above. remember, the links you add will show at the end of your navigation bar.

So your final code will look like:

<?php wp_list_pages(‘title_li=’); ?> (or <?php wp_list_categories( ); ?>)

<li><a href=”http://yourdomain.com“>External link name 1</a></li>

<li><a href=”http://yourdomain.com“>External link name 2</a></li>

Be sure to save all changes and refresh your Wordpress site to see your handiwork.

~Christina

I’ve change my blog to a website with help from your instructions in one of your previous posts. I’ve disabled RSS but would like to remove the RSS icon in the address bar. How can I do this?

Kirsty

Dear Kirsty,

I’m so glad my instructions were helpful in turning your Worpress blog into a website.

Removing the RSS icon from the address bar is quite simple, really.
You’ll need to go into your header.php file and remove all of the following (you may not have all listed):

<link rel=”alternate” type=”application/rss+xml” title=”RSS 2.0″ href=”<?php bloginfo(‘rss2_url’); ?>”/>
<link rel=”alternate” type=”text/xml” title=”RSS .92″ href=”<?php bloginfo(‘rss_url’); ?>”/>
<link rel=”alternate” type=”application/atom+xml” title=”Atom 0.3″ href=”<?php bloginfo(‘atom_url’); ?>”/>

Be sure to “save changes” and that’s it. RSS icon is gone!

~Christina

You’ll see a new addition to the site.

I love answering questions and helping you take care of your own WP site but, sometimes you just need that one-on-one extra helping hand. Click the calendar icon over there and schedule some time with me by phone, IM or email.

In that time slot you can ask me anything WP related.

Payment is through Paypal.com.

Try it out for yourself, I’d love to chat with you!

~Christina

Do you have any resources you can suggest which will help me to make as many changes so that the theme looks more like a website and less like a blog. I don’t write CSS.

Do you know what changes I should make in my WP dashboard which will aid in creating a website rather than a blog?

Thank you for your help!

Janine -Your Virtual Wizard

****This is only a general outline of my personal experience with the themes I am familiar with. Read your theme documentation or hire a professional, if none of the following applies to your theme or if you do not understand code.

Dear Janine,

I’m so glad you asked.  I run into people all the time who don’t understand how a “blog” can look less like a blog and more like a professional website. My daily job is explaining it to them and showing examples.

This site, Dear Christina, is a blog. It’s a blog template, it has all the features of a blog and it allows commenting.

My company site is a Professional website. It’s a blog template with all of the “bloggy” things removed &  no comments allowed.

To change a blog template into a more professional looking Business site you need to start with your Dashboard.

-You won’t be using “posts”, only “pages” (be sure to add a new page before you continue)

Change the following under “Settings”:

1. under “reading” click dot next to “static page” and choose what page you want as your home page. Save blog setting for when you are ready to incorporate a blog.
2. Under “permalinks” click “custom” and enter “/%pagename%/” in the box (this shows your URL as www.yourdomain.com/contact instead of www.yourdomain.com/pg=4)

- Install the following plug-ins to make it easier to maintain your site (links are to explanations, grab plugin by searching in “add new plugins”):

1. All in One SEO Pack
2. Contact Form 7
3. WP Google Analytics
4. Google XML Sitemaps

I also like to have these:

1. Exclude Pages from Navigation
2. pageMash
3. WP Post Columns

Now, once those are all installed, it’s time to dive into your code files.

Don’t be scared, repeat after me:

“We always take precautions before touching code!”

and again

“WE ALWAYS TAKE PRECAUTIONS BEFORE TOUCHING CODE!”

Thank you, now save your original template/theme files somewhere on your computer so you have them to refer back to, or if there is need to reinstall clean.

First, we want to remove the meta data on each page/post. That’s the little area where author, date, comments, etc is shown under heading or at the bottom of the content. Only blogs need that info.

Each theme is different as to where you will find the exact code but check each php file to find all instances of these:

Once you find them you can (if you are brave) delete them.

I recommend the other method of “commenting out” the offending code.

To do that, you would add an asterisk (*) and backslash (/) at the beginning and end of the piece of code like this:

*/ <?php the_category() ?> */

simple.

That way if you ever want any of it to show, you can just remove the */ and the code is active again.

If you don’t want the page name to show above your content (as it does with blog posts) you’ll be removing this code from your php files as well: */   <?php the_title(); ?> */

If you are uncomfortable messing with your code please ask someone who knows what they are doing to help you. Without looking at each individual theme and it’s coding it’s hard to say 100% that all of my suggestions will work.

~Christina