After all, I had the hosting in place, web hosts offer so much nowadays that you can’t use more than a small percent of it. Not to mention he had a chance to make some real money off his own hard work.

It sounded rather simple in my mind:

1. Buy domain
2. Setup said domain on my web host
3. Install WordPress on the new site
4. Configure settings
5. Themes, plug ins, etc
6. Export WordPress XML from WordPress.com blog
7. Import into the new setup

Looking back, that was a rather nice fantasy. If only it was that easy, I’d not be posting this right now.

What happened in summary was this:

1. Bought domain
2. Setup said domain on my web host
3. Installed WordPress on the new site
4. Configured settings
5. Themes, plug ins, etc
6. Exported WordPress XML from WordPress.com blog

And then the fun nightmare started.

Let’s see what all issues cropped up as I intended to simply Import the XML file into the fresh install of WordPress on my host, keeping in mind, this is an XML generated by WordPress.com in their own special layout and destined for import into their own WordPress product, the only difference being its not hosted by them.

• Opened Import page within new WordPress Dashboard, Manage–>Import–>WordPress (there are a nice selection of Import choices)
• My host seems to have configured the php.ini file on their end to max the upload file size to 2MB, whereas WordPress had generated a 4.7MB file for me to upload. Normally this file wouldn’t be so big, but the blog had many, many images that were uploaded to WordPress.com
• That started my search on how to change the limit in PHP. I ended up contacting my host and starting a thread on WordPress.org’s support forum. After much back and forth and a lot of reading on my own, I had worked out I needed a script to fetch the web hosts php.ini file, make changes to it via that script and write it to my /home/ directory. In my case I’d need to only do this once as all I wanted was a temporary increase in the upload limit, whereas those wanting that limit to remain would need to create a cron job running the script daily, so as to keep abreast of any changes made to the web hosts php.ini file pre-adding their own changes.
• With that done, I was finally able to upload the XML file into the new WordPress installation…yay! NOT.
• This is where it got really bad, because the file was so large, after uploading the file it would import all the posts, comments, pages, etc into the new setup, and this was done in real time displaying the details on the web page, coincidentally if a php process takes more than 30seconds, my web hosts php.ini file says that it should kill the process, ding…Houtson we have a problem!
• So I go back, remake my new php.ini file to make sure the time limit is raised to a decent 300seconds and re-do the upload/import process. By now I have 5% of the posts and pages in the blog and it’s looking a right mess. That’s ok really, because after about half a dozen tries, and the import process not stopping half-way it finally reached the end. Breathe.
• What WordPress decides to do is tag every image that was ever uploaded into the WordPress.com blog (Note: The images would have to be moved over manually…more work, eh) was tagged with an ID and placed in the Manage–>Upload section (pic). It also decides to link to the now non-existent image files all on its own (pic).
• Not content having to re-upload every image from the WordPress.com blog over to the new host, editing every page and post for image links, we now had a huge amount of ‘dead’ files under the Upload section, which as I said, didn’t exist. I also think this is why the exported XML file was so big to begin with.

After much debate, we’ve decided to either ask the kind people at WordPress.com to delete all the images off the original blog and thus save us the hassle of exporting it incorrectly.

Either that or follow a very good idea by muhtar on WordPress.org’s support forum, where his suggestion is simple, yet ingenious.
Run a php/db server on your home machine, easy and free.

1. Import the XML file into a fresh WordPress install (again on the home machine acting like a server, running Windows XP if you like), this is way better than to a hosted server, because at home its all instant and no lag to a far off server.
2. Export it to a common format, i.e. SQL and import it into your self-hosted WordPress install (the new domain).

OK, so it’s not easy…but way less error-prone and hair-pulling this way. I guess many have had no issues, the moral here is, don’t assume it’s gonna be so easy to move over.

Better yet, make a good choice to begin with

Originally posted at techzonline.net

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Most people would start in one method: free web hosting. It is an alternative to paid hosting that may seem less friendly or unreliable. Free web hosting has grown immensely within the past 10 years. Some free hosting companies do it for money, while others may host for a hobby. Whatever the reason, you should know a little about free hosts.

Free hosts are free-sometimes. Many free hosts force ads, linkbacks, popups, or other content on user sites. Some people are ok with this, but most people lose a proffessional image when using these. So some hosts came up with another possiblity- posting for hosting. This is where a user is active in the host forum community to be granted free hosting. Reasons behind this may include the profit from ads or the need for an active website.

The greatest free hosts are those that don’t require anything. These are known usually as small community hosts because what they offer is absolutely free, and it is a small host. It is recommended you use one of these for more proffessional websites.

If you use a free host, you should be thankful. Servers cost a lot of money to maintain. It is good to have a community where the owner talks to the users. Community is a great part of free hosts.

If you want to find the best host for you, it is recommended you go to FreeWebspace forums, because it is one of the most highly accessed areas for free hosting requests and offers.

So if you are interested in a free host, get out there and start looking, and get yourself on the web today.

Related Posts:

• Migrating from wordpress.com to wordpress.org or self-hosting
• Hosting your own blog versus wordpress.com

Use WordPress.com as your blog host

This is thehe first time bloggers choice, to just open a WordPress.com account and start blogging, but although it may be easy to start with, later on if you decide to move, it can be quite a problem for you.

LINK: http://www.wordpress.com/

Some of the advantages:

1. Access to pre-installed themes, plugins, statistics counters that are both checked & working
2. Always updated to keep up with any changes in the wordpress software
3. Free for all users
4. Full time support for the servers & wordpress account
5. No coding language skills required, even the most non-tech savvy person can start a blog on wordpress.com
6. Quick to setup, within a matter of minutes

Disadvantages:

1. Cannot edit CSS, until the recent addition of PAID editing
2. Lack of plugin addition to the site
3. Limited to what wordpress.com offers you in terms of free services
4. The limited choice of themes/layouts
5. When moving to a hosted account from wordpress.com, you will take a huge hit in terms of Google ranking & SEO due to the change of domain names.
6. You are totally dependant on wordpress.com to keep your account active and hosted, which isn’t such a bad thing, but again, out of your control
7. You must use a user.wordpress.com subdomain for your blog address. Domain Mapping may change this, but will be a paid service

Install WordPress on your hosting account

This is the more complicated & costly but ultimately more controllable choice. Advanced users or those who know what they are getting into with a plan and/or a project in mind would be at home here. It’s also recommended over the WordPress.com method as hosting and domain registration are today in the reach of most people with the abundance of offers for the same.

LINK: http://www.wordpress.org/

Here are some of the advantages:

1. By being involved in your blog, with the back-end code of php, there is greater opportunity for learning
2. Expand beyond just having a blog when you own & operate your own domain, you can add gallerys, forums and other avenues to your site
3. Hosting your own blog can be more personalized in terms of choosing a domain name, that can even further enchance your SEO oppurtunities
4. Infinite possibilities with the blog in terms of themes, layout, code, plugins, etc
5. The chances for SEO & ultimately ad-revenue generation is alot easier when you have 100% control of your blog
6. The entire revenue generated is yours to keep
7. There are no limits when you have your WordPress blog hosted
8. Total control over how your site looks, by way of being able to edit the CSS & PHP files
9. You can move hosts if you wish to expand and get more resources
10. Your choice of plugins to install & utilize

There are ofcourse disadvantages:

1. By having your own domain, you have to pay, for both hosting & domain registration
2. By hosting your own account you are faced with the eventuality of having alot of traffic to your site, and being required to move to a higher cost package of hosting. This alternatively can be a good thing as it means the blog can be a very good candidate for ad-hosting via programs like Google Adsense
3. Everything about the account, from security to modifying the website, is your responsibility
4. If you intend to make money off the blog, you have to take into account the costs of maintaining the website
5. Users need some understanding of php and databases in order to get started and progress with their own blog
6. You don’t get a highly skilled & dedicated team of people at the back of your blog, ensuring that it’s updated for you and includes fully functional working & valid back-end code
7. You need to find quality web hosts so you don’t suffer downtime and eventually put off readers from visiting your blog
8. You will occasionally have to deal with unwanted limits, and bad support which can hurt your blog and stunt your blogs growth

There’s a third choice, by way of more flexible & similar WordPress.com hosting sites, one of them being daria.be.

*For the purpose of this article I have taken for granted the user is working with WordPress as the chosen CMS*

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