How to Move Your Posts from your WordPress Blog to a new Blog on a Paid Domain

You probably know by now that I’m moving from Tiny Island to Singapore Actually.

I am thrilled to report that I took ‘the risk’ and decided to try to experiment moving over my Tiny Island posts on my own.

I recall that, the helpful girl that she is, 365days2play mentioned quite some time ago that you can export and import posts bit by bit. Somehow that information stuck in my head and I am so grateful for her tip.

It seems daunting though, and I had absolutely no confidence to do it myself.  At that juncture I was not comfortable to ‘move house’ yet.  Especially the thought of losing your posts or messing up your new blog. After all the effort you put in.  It can be heart-breaking.

My problem was that I had already starting posting on my new domain blog, Singapore Actually , so I wondered if transferring posts would erase the existing ones due to overlapping. I sound so dumb now.  It doesn’t cause a problem.

Anyway these are the steps I took.  Took some screenshots to make the process clearer.

First go to your old WordPress blog and look for Tools in the left hand column of your Dashboard.  Click on Export.

I tried Exporting all the files at one go, but it didn’t work and I got an error message.  So I decided to try month  by month which is an option.  Once you hit export, the posts will be condensed automatically into a file on your computer that ends with .xml.  That’s why they call it an xml file. Previously to this the technical jargon put me off as I had no clue what xml was. I guess think – just like a Word document that ends with .doc. Just a tech thingy.

photo by bookjunkie

 

Next go to your new blog and head to Tools again.  This time click on import.  

photo by bookjunkie

The next stage is – select the type of blog. In my case I am blogging on the domain I bought at Go Daddy but still using WordPress.Org as a platform through Go Daddy.

photo by bookjunkie

Then upload the appropriate .xml file.  And soon everything is pasted over.

photo by bookjunkie

Once everything is copied over, you’ll get this message to show you that you’re on the right track.

photo by bookjunkie

Check your posts in stages to test if they are still there, including all your comments and tags.

My blog is still a tad messy from redundant tags and such, but that will be a clean-up that’s managable and I can take my time with.  I am just glad I didn’t have to pay US$119 (about S$150) for the service to transfer all my posts. Although if you’re still not comfortable and you’re not a cheapo like me, that would be a worry free option.

photo by bookjunkie

There is an issue I have though.  Some months, I posted way too much and as a result my file size was slightly over 2MB. Even though it says you can import up to 8MB I kept getting error messages or my iMac’s colour wheel kept on spinning (freeze).  In that case you have to do it category by category – really tedious and I have 2 more months that I haven’t ported over yet.  Anyhoo, when you do it, you’ll know what I mean. Sometimes it’s all in the trial and error till you get the knack of it.  

And the other concern I had was – once I export and import my files, do they disappear from my old blog?  I don’t want them to!  Just be assured.  Everything is still there. To put it simply, you just copying and pasting.  Not cutting and pasting.

Also you can also port over not just posts, but pages and tags as well. It’s the reason why I now have multiple tags, categories and ‘about’ pages. I did it all at once, but you can chose to just export posts alone, or pages alone.

Just one more thing. You need to add a plugin at your Go Daddy blog, before you can start importing the posts. A plugin is basically just an application. Once you stop blogging on WordPress.com and go to WordPress.org there are loads of applications that are not there anymore and you need to go search for them under the Plugin section. I think this is why most people just stick with the free WordPress.com which is so much easier to use.

About bookjunkie

Blogging about life in Singapore & recently cancer too.
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3 Responses to How to Move Your Posts from your WordPress Blog to a new Blog on a Paid Domain

  1. 365days2play says:

    Haha thanks for the mention! Glad to be of help and glad that you didn’t spend $100 to pay for that service! Imagine how many cups of coffee that would have been. I’m sure all the newbies would be so pleased to know that you have such a detailed write up for them. Getting your own domain is an achievement, it’s like finally getting your own identity and having the freedom to say so! but you are right, it will definitely require more effort. WordPress.com was so much easier! Still I don’t regret doing it at all and I’m sure you won’t!

    • bookjunkie says:

      yay! now I can high myself on a coffee high 😉 thanks for your early advice that stuck with me…decided I wanted to pass it on too.

  2. whatsaysyou says:

    Good for you, bookjunkie

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