Tag Archives: wordpress

Domain Mapping with WordPress.com

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Almost a year ago, I thought I’d try out WordPress.com as an alternative to Blogger. One of the irritations with Blogger was the inordinate amount of time to publish a post or republish your entire blog. That, coupled with the fact that the Blogger servers were a bit on and off. Apparently still the case.

Soon after signing up with WordPress.com I registered a domain name, for the first time, after about 10 years of using the Internet. Subsequently I couldn’t connect it to this website. D’oh! That is until the great guys at WordPress enabled domain mapping to free WordPress.com accounts.

For a piddling 20¢ a week (US$10 annually) my domain was finally mapped to my blog today.

To be honest, there were a few issues with the WordPress.com nameservers that required support but I’m happy now. For a free/low-cost service, WordPress support is friendly and speedy – thanks to Mark and Barry at WordPress.com.

Anyway, here are some tips on the process.

Tips for Those Considering Domain Mapping

  1. If you don’t already own a domain name, go for the WordPress.com combo offer of a domain name with a side order of domain mapping for US$15/year. I thought the cost of my domain from Namecheap (highly recommended) was low at US$7.99/year. My annual cost will be around US$18.
  2. Thoroughly read the FAQ on Domain Mapping. If you own a domain, you must change the nameservers to WordPress.com before you do anything else, like pay for the upgrade credits.
  3. Be patient. I wasn’t. The DNS propagation takes time; anywhere from 24-72 hours after you change the nameserver settings.
  4. There is no notification from WordPress.com that the DNS side of things is ready and that you can then pay. As the FAQ suggests, perform a DNS Lookup on your domain name. If there are no red or yellow boxes* against the Parent and NS categories, then you’re good to go!
  5. If you need it, there’s more help here and here via the Forums.
  6. Still wondering if it’s worthwhile and if there’s any downside? Read this.

* There will be some red boxes against the email categories (MX and Mail) as domain mapping at WordPress.com does not enable email via your domain name.

Let me hear about your experiences. Scribble a comment.