How to Transfer Your WordPress Blog to another Host?

When Wordpress bloggers are frustrated with their existing hosting company, they do not have an option to change hosting company because they do not know how to migrate the wordpress blog. 

They could be frustrated for a couple of reasons. One of which is where the hosting keep going down and that will be a real pain to any blogger, especially if you are a professional blogger which depend on it to make a living.

They have no option as they do not know how to migrate their Wordpress blog to another hosting account.

This seemingly impossible task is actually not that complicated.  In this special report, i tried to lay out the eleven steps for any Wordpress blogger to migrate their hosting platform in the simplest way possible.

1. FTP all Wordpress files to your local hard disk

First and foremost, you use an ftp client software to backup your wordspress directories and files

2. Export your Wordpress database using phpmyadmin

Export the mysql database that you have created for your Wordpress blog and backup this one as well.    You can do it using phpmyadmin from you c-panel.

3. setup the domain as an “addon domain” on your new hosting account (if it’s not the account’s main domain, in which case it’s all ready to go)

This is a bit difficult to explain. For example, let’s say your new hosting account is www.abc.com and that your are buying into a hosting account that can support multiple domains.  Then you create the domain that you want to migrate with the ‘addon domain’ feature at your new hosting C-panel.

Other than that, if your new hosting account is a brand new one, then you put your blog domain as the hosting domain when you open the account.

4.  Update your laptop hostname file to allow you to access the new host

As your the domain that you registered in the previous step is not know in the domain name space on the internet, you need to trick your desktop to look for your new host when you type in your blog domain.

This is just a temporary measure so that you can access your new host from your laptop.

5. Create the database on the new server.

Now you can create a new database and a new user account.  Associate them together with the right permission.

6. Copy the files to the new server (FTP again)

In this juncture, you can restore all your file to your new server from your laptop with a ftp client.

7. Restore the database on the new server (you can use phpmyadmin for this, or perhaps upload the database file to the server and ask the host to restore it for you)

From step 2, you have a copy of the database backup from your Wordpress blog.  Import the data to your new host database that you have created in step 5 from c-panel.

8. Update the config file of wordpress (wp-config.php)

Now you need to make changes to the wp-config.php in your wordpress to confrom with the new database name and user name.  The new file paths must also be reflected correclty.

9. Test if everything works fine

Now you can use your desktop to test your newly migrated Wordpress blog.  If it is working, congratulations!  At this point, the rest of the internet community will still be able to access your blog.   

However, they are access your blog from your old hosting server.  Therefore, it is very important that you do not make any changes to your old blog at this stage.

 10. The Final Migration step

Here is your final migration step.  You need to undo the hosts file changes that you’ve done at step 4 and Change your Wordpress blog domain to point to your new hosting Name servers with the domain manager of your domain service provider.

11. Wait for a few days, maybe more, for Domain Name propagation happens.  It could be faster but i am accommodating the laziest ISPs here.

Even when the domain name propagation changes have not taken place, the rest of the internet users can still access your blog at your old server.  Once the propagation is done with, they will access your blog from your new hosting server instead.

Alright, you have just completed a seemingly impossible task and now you are happy.  The lesson learned here is that before you setup your Wordpress blog, do your research and choose a good and reliable hosting company which provide excellent service and support.  Here is my recommendation to three reliable and great hosting companies that you can trust to host your Wordpress blog on.  Check it out at http://reliablehosting.hosting303.com