How to Move From WordPress.com to WordPress.org Installation (stand alone)
To transfer your blog from WordPress.com to a stand-alone WordPress installation on your hosting account can be done with just a few clicks. To move your site, first login to your WordPress blog at wordpress.com and go to Tools -> Export. Click the Export All button in the Export Content section.
Allow some time for the process to complete after which the page will be updated and a link to download your data will appear. Click the Download button and download the archive.
Extract the downloaded archive on your computer. It will contain a .xml file, which has 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, login with your admin username and password. If you want to install a fresh WordPress application, check out our WordPress installation tutorial for more information on how to do this. Once you login, select the Tools menu from the left column and choose Import. On the next page, click the Install Now button under the WordPress section at the bottom.
The plugin required for the import will be automatically installed, after which the Install Now button will change to Run Importer. Click that button and on the page that opens click Browse. Then a pop-up will show up and you must navigate and select the .xml file that you have downloaded from your wordpress.com blog earlier. Then click the Upload file and import button.
If the content which you want to migrate is quite large the corresponding web server’s timeout value can be reached before the data is fully copied. In this case, you need to reupload the .xml file. The system keeps a record of the migrated content 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 page, you can either select an existing user as the post 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 attachments to be transferred too. Finally, click on the Submit button.
That’s it! Your data is now transferred from your WordPress.com account to your stand-alone 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 on your self-hosted WordPress site.