Hey Steve, sorry to hear you are running into trouble. Something that I would try is import the file into a local installation of WordPress. If that doesn’t work either, get in touch with WordPress.com support. You can find instructions for locally hosting WordPress here: https://createawebsitenow.com/install-wordpress-locally-xampp/.

I have tried with multiple export files (of the same wordpress.com site) and on 2 new WP installs, but no joy.

Any thoughts on what might be going on?

Hi Mary, that specific follow feature is only for WP.com sites. For WP.org you could use the Jetpack plugin, it will enable many WP.com features for your site including a subscription feature which lets people get updates about new posts via email.

I have heard that in order to “follow” a WP.com blog, you must have a WP.com account. Is that true?

If this is true, do you also have to have a WP.org account to follow a WP.org blog?

I’m wondering if .org or .com makes following easier or if there is no difference.

Thank you in advance for your help,

mg

It’s more general than that. However, you can set up redirects on your new site that send visitors looking for certain pages to their new locations.

After setting up site redirects on WordPress.com to the new site, do you know if individual pages will redirect to the equivalent pages on the new site? Or is it more general than that?

Thanks!

Exactly! Change the DNS nameservers to your new hosting provider. You have to do that anyway, the redirect is just to preserve SEO juice and send WordPress.com visitors to the right place.

What if I want to use the same domain name (purchased from GoDaddy) without the redirect option?
Should I just change the DNS nameservers from wordpress.com to wordpress.org?

Thanks!