Setting up new website while maintaining existing one

  • Unknown's avatar
    itewisconsin · Member ·

    I’m new to wordpress and am in the process of moving my organization’s website from StarChapter to an all new website. I am trying to determine a couple of things before I get started:

    1. Can I set up the new website while maintaining the existing one?
    2. Can I transfer the domain a few days before my subscription ends at our current webhost?
    3. Do I pay the full word press monthly subscription fee while I am setting up the website and it is not yet live? The old website subscription ends on 5/15/26.

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • staff-webwizard · Staff ·

    Welcome to WordPress.com! Let me answer your questions:

    Building while your current site is live: Yes, you can build your new WordPress.com site at itewisconsin-flzwm.wordpress.com without affecting your StarChapter site at all. Visitors won’t see any changes until you point your domain over.
    Transferring the domain a few days before the end of the subscription: You can do this, but keep in mind domain transfers take 5 to 7 days, so I’d start at least 7 to 10 days before that date. A faster option is to connect your domain first (works within hours), then do the full registration transfer afterward.
    Paying during setup: I’d recommend purchasing your plan when you start building, since the Free plan has limited design tools, storage, and no access to plugins or third-party themes. Having your full plan from the start will make the building process much smoother. Pricing is at https://wordpress.com/pricing/
    We have monthly, yearly, 2-year, and 3-year plans. Longer billing cycles have significant discounts built-in.

    To help further, I have two questions:

    • What is the URL of your current StarChapter website?
    • Are you building a brand-new site from scratch, or do you want to bring over existing content (pages, posts, images) from your current site?

    Looking forward to helping you get set up!

  • Unknown's avatar
    itewisconsin · Member ·

    Thank you for the information. The current URL is http://www.itewisconsin.org. We will be reusing some general content, but the majority of the website will be built from scratch.

  • staff-shaun · Staff ·

    Thanks so much for sharing the site. I was not able to work out whether it is a WordPress site or not? Can you tell me?

    We can certainly import a WordPress site directly. However, it looks like it might be build on a different system. If so then….

    You are very welcome to build something new yourself and we can help you transfer in the domain when you are ready, or you could also use the AI site builder to start getting things set up (https://wordpress.com/ai-website-builder/). Another option is our design service, which is a fairly low-budget way to get a basic new site set up. With that service, you provide the content, and the team builds the site based on it (https://wordpress.com/website-design-service/).

    Of those, which sounds like it makes most sense?

    And do let me know if the current site is a WordPress site.

  • Unknown's avatar
    itewisconsin · Member ·

    Not a WordPress site.

  • robertghetau · Staff ·

    Hi there @itewisconsin!

    Thank you for letting us know!
    It appears the website is built using HTML. The site’s content can be moved over manually if you’d like to copy your posts, pages, and images. Then you can choose from a wide range of theme options to style the site to your liking.

    Alternatively, if you need help with a fresh website design, please consider the previous suggestion – Express Website Design Service.

    Should you need any more details or have more questions, we’re available and happy to assist!

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