Saving+or+Moving+Your+Blog

If you have payed for only a few months' worth of web-hosting, you can save your blog and move it to a free Wordpress.com site, if you like (or you can just save it for further reactivation, if you like).

If you are undecided about continuing with your self-hosted or free Wordpess account, here is a link that compares these options (I do recommend that you maintain one or the other and don't disappear from the ether altogether!).

__**Exporting Your Blog's Content**__ If you decide to move your blog, the first thing you will want to do is **Export the Blog.** Wordpress has made this very easy and provides directions for exporting just posts or all of your content (your choice) here.

__**Backing Up Your Blog**__ This is a good idea regardless. I recommend that once you have the WordPress eXtended RSS (or WXR file) after you export that you save a copy to a flashdrive and as an **Attachment** in **TaskStream** under the **ENG 307 "Composing in New Media"** assignment. That way, even if you have been in the field for several years, you will be able to write to one of us in the AEN program and we can help you access this file (as long as we continue to use TaskStream, that is -- so, as with all backups, definitely save a copy elsewhere, too).

**__ Importing your Blog's Content to a Free Wordpress.com Site __** First, of course, you will need to set up an account on Wordpress.com. Here is a tutorial that they have provided for making this easy. Then you will need to import your WXR file into your new blog. See this page for directions for doing that.

__**Redirecting Readers from the Previous URL**__ For a small fee, you can redirect users from your previous URL to your new one. Here are directions for doing that. Just don't forget to change the URLs in your e-folio if you move your blog and send your new blog's web address to followers (like me!). Email works for this, as does Twitter. **Regardless of what blogging platform you choose in the end, I do hope that you keep on blogging!**