Domains » Register a New Domain

Contents

• Before Upgrading - Important Notes
• Public Versus Private
• Instructions For Registering a New Domain For Your Blog
• Enabling Privacy Later

Related

• Add Email
  • Add Email through GoDaddy email hosting
  • Add Email through Google Apps
  • Add Email through Network Solutions email hosting
  • Add Email through other providers
  • Add Email through Outlook.com
  • Add Email through Yahoo! Small Business
  • Add Email through Zoho Mail
• All About Domains
• Cancel Domain
• Change name servers
• Custom DNS
• DNS Zone Records
• Domain Expiration
• Domain Management
• Domains Settings
• Map a Subdomain
• Map an Existing Domain
• Move your domain to another host
• Transfer a domain to another registrar

On WordPress.com, you can register a custom domain (for example, yourgroovydomain.com) and use it instead of your blog’s current address (such as yourgroovysite.wordpress.com). Your old address will still work, but we will automatically redirect traffic from your old address to your new one.

Domain Registration is a paid upgrade that costs $18.00 per domain ($25.00 for .me domains), per blog, per year. You can register as many domains as you want on the same blog, but you have to pay for each registration separately.

If you already have a domain registered, you can map your existing domain to your blog – it doesn’t have to be registered with us. You can also map your blog to a subdomain, if you already have a website up and you want your blog in a subdomain of that site.

Before Upgrading – Important Notes

WordPress.com supports registering domains with the extensions .com, .org, .net, or .me. You can still map domains with other extensions to your blog – you just have to register them with another registrar and then map them to your blog. The same goes if you already have a domain registered. Registering a domain through WordPress.com is much easier, but it’s not required.

Also, please note that WordPress.com automatically removes the “www” from all URLs.

Same Rules Apply – The Domain Mapping Upgrade does not enable the permission to use advertising, any kind of prohibited code, or upload additional themes or plugins. With the upgrade, your blog will still be hosted here at WordPress.com, which means that you will not have FTP access to your files and you will still be required to abide by our Terms of Service.

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Public Versus Private

When you register a domain name, you have two options: A public or a private registration.

If you choose to register a domain publicly, your name, email, and address automatically become available to anyone, anywhere, including spammers, marketers, and other people who you might not want to share your information with.

With private registration, you can set up a new domain name without making any of your contact information public, and still enjoy all the benefits of regular domain name registration. It’s like being listed in the phone book: You can either have your number and address published, or you can pay to be unlisted.

Private Registration is a paid upgrade that costs $8.00 per year per domain registration.

Here’s a short video explaining the difference:

Purchasing a Private Domain

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Choosing a Domain Name

Before you proceed, please make sure that the domain is available for registration. You can enter the domain at a registrar website such as GoDaddy.com to see if any results are returned.

Note that only .com, .org, .net, and .me domains can be registered through WordPress.com. If you wish to use another type of domain, you can register it at another registrar and then map the domain to your blog.

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Instructions For Registering a New Domain For Your Blog

1. Go to Store → Domains
   
2. Select Add a Domain and enter the domain you wish to register (make sure to include the extension, such as .com).
   
3. If the domain is available, you will be prompted for your registration information. Complete the required fields, then if you want the private registration upgrade, check the box that says Make my personal information private for this registration. If you want to stick with the standard public domain registration, leave this box blank. Then click Register Domain.
   
4. Select your payment method, enter your payment information, then click Purchase and Register Domain.
   
5. To activate your new domain go to Store → Domains, select the button next to the one you wish to activate and click Update Primary Domain. Your blog will be accessible from both of these domains; the Primary Domain is what actually appears as your domain within the address bar of web browsers. If you do not see your blog at the new domain immediately, please allow some time for the DNS changes to propagate.
   

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Enabling Privacy Later

If you already have a domain on WordPress.com and want to make your registration information private:

1. Go to Store → My Upgrades
   
2. Click the link that says Add Private Registration next to the domain that you want to hide your personal registration information for.
   
3. Select your payment method, enter your payment information, then click Purchase.
   
4. Your registration information is now hidden from the public.

Note: If your domain name expires within the next 6 months you will also need to renew the domain registration and mapping in order to make your registration information private. Once you renew the domain with private registration added the privacy will start immediately and the domain will be renewed for another year from its current expiration date.