Domain mapping with wordpress.com
Wordpress.com offers another fee-based service, which allows you to activate a domain that you’ve purchased in advance. WordPress domain mapping is carried out as follows:
1. In the menu, select ‘Domains’ → ‘Add domain’ and then ‘Upgrade’. You can then enter your registered web address.
2. The next step is to inform your current domain provider that you wish to link your domain with wordpress.com. To do this, you need to contact your domain registrar and state that your name server should be linked to the following address:
- NS1.WORDPRESS.COM
- NS2.WORDPRESS.COM
- NS3.WORDPRESS.COM
If you are unsure about what to do, you can also contact your provider’s customer support service for further help. Alternatively, you can use the three addresses mentioned above to replace the name servers attached to your registrar account.
3. You can now specify your internet address as your primary domain under the ‘Domains’ section. It can take a few hours before your new domain is available.
Using wordpress.com services may be the easiest and quickest method of changing your internet address or domain provider, but it is also the most expensive route. Operating a self-hosted WordPress website is generally a lot more economical in comparison.
If you’re not wholly confident using content management systems, there’s an alternative: some providers offer supported WordPress hosting. In this case, the provider takes care of security and maintenance. As a user, you have far less control over the CMS’s management, but all the advantages of a self-hosted WordPress website (i.e. more plugins and themes).