Complex WordPress/Hosting Question

I'm in process of migrating the client's sub-standard website from Network Solutions to Hostgator. I've created a New Account on Hostgator, have completely filled-out the transfer form and within 24 to 72 hours Hostgator will transfer the website free of charge.

Once that is verified working, I will then fill out a Domain Transfer form, and Hostgator will arrange for the domain name transfer also. We are breaking free of Network Solutions. This is what is happening in the "background".

What I'm doing right now is building a new site without interupting the "flow" of the old site's transfer, traffic, etc... so what I've done is create an add-on domain under my personal Hostgator Acccount (http:/mysite.com/clientsite.org) and have installed Word Press to the subdomain, and here's where the problems happen.

What I wanted to do was to build a site off-system, get it working and looking just the way I wanted, and then come in all at once, wipe the old site off the server and replace it with the new one. Only, when I navigate to the "under construction" site, it doesn't look right, won't let me login, navigate etc...

Is this a good plan? Is there a better one? Is there a way to make this work? Thanks in advance.

b.friendly,

This doesn't sound like a bad strategy. In fact (if you are developing in a live environment) it is a good way to make sure everything looks right in the environment it will stay in as opposed to developing offline where problems sometimes can't be seen until you are finished.

As far as your issues, are you sure you installed Wordpress in the right directory compared with the one you are trying to visit when you log in? Did you name the directory "clientsite.org". You may just want to install it in a folder with a single name and no periods if so.

Perhaps you can find an answer here,

http://codex.wordpress.org/Giving_WordPress_Its_Own_Directory

Best,

Shawn

hi b.friendly,
that sounds like a good method, although I prefer doing it on an local vmachine with the correct final domain name (using hosts configuration for that - this way I'm sure I wont have to worry with any reference to the development domain)

There are lots of things that could go wrong.. db settings, db user permissions, folder permissions, static references to css or js files... check on the db if you can find any reference to the live site... the best way to help you would be to take a look at the problem

cheers