To switch/transfer your weblog from WordPress.com to a stand-alone WordPress set up on your web hosting account can be performed with simply a few clicks. To go to your site, the first login to your WordPress blog at wordpress.com and go to the Tools menu. Click the Start Export button below the Export section.

Then select All content and click on the Download Export File and you will be triggered to download a .xml file, which includes all the data from your WordPress.com blog.

Now you need to import the information from the .xml file to your stand-alone WordPress installation. If you have one installed, log in with your admin username and password. If you want to install a fresh WordPress application, check out our WordPress installation tutorial for extra information on how to do this. Once you log in, choose the Tools menu from the left column and select Import. On the next page, click on the Install Now button below the WordPress area at the bottom.

The required plugin for the import will be automatically installed, after which the Install Now button will exchange to Run Importer. Click that button and on the web page that opens click on Browse. Then a pop-up will show up and you should navigate and choose the .xml file that you have downloaded from your wordpress.com blog earlier. Then click on the Upload file and import button.

If the content material which you want to migrate is quite large the corresponding web server’s timeout value can be reached before the data is completely copied. In this case, you need to reupload the .xml file. The system keeps a record for the migrated content material and will proceed with the remaining data. Repeat the procedure until you receive a confirmation that the process is successfully completed.

Since you will be inserting new posts and pages WordPress needs to know who will be their author. On the next web page, you can either choose an existing user as posts author, or you can create a new one for the imported data. Note that you should check the Download and Import file attachments checkbox if you want your photos and other attachment to be transferred too. Finally, click on on the Submit button.

All Done! Now your data is transferred from your WordPress.com account to your stand-alone self-hosted WordPress application.

Note that this will transfer only your content – posts, pages, media. All the plugins and themes you’ve used at WordPress.com are proprietary and not part of the transfer. You will have to choose a new theme and install all the necessary plugins you need additionally on your self-hosted stand-alone WordPress site.