“The secret of getting ahead is getting started (on your website).” - Mark Twain, adapted by Bluehost.

Started to set your online shop up on Shopify or Squarespace but changed your mind before building it? Here are a few tips and things to be aware of:

• If you have a URL with .myshopify.com in it – those URLs cannot be removed or changed as far as we know at this time.

• If you purchased a custom domain with Shopify or Squarespace within the last 60 days, neither of these platforms allow you to transfer your domain to a different domain management company during this timeframe. You might either need to ride it out until the 60-day period has passed, or choose to go with an entirely new domain name instead (more on buying a new domain name at wallet-friendly prices here).

• Transferring your domain from Shopify to another provider (Bluehost is what we use for our Wordpress sites) is a 2-step process: (i) Unlock your domain at Shopify and get a transfer authorization code. (ii) Initiate the transfer to Bluehost.

• Transferring your domain from Squarespace to Bluehost is a similar 2-step process: (i) Unlock your domain at Squarespace and get a transfer authorization code. (ii) Initiate the transfer to Bluehost.

• We recommend unchecking everything under ‘Package Extras’, since we have some free plugins that we usually use to get very similar benefits.

• IMPORTANT: Last but not least, don’t forget to point your domain to your new Bluehost account! Follow the instructions below on how to do this for many popular domain providers/ registrars- but if yours isn’t listed, or if you need assistance, please reach out directly to your current domain provider/ registrar to have them help you with this.

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