How to duplicate your site for testing?

Hey,

I've started posting regularly/good content on my blog, as well as started getting backlinks! My traffic has been steadily growing and I manage to make around $2-$3/day via Adsense...the CTR is 0.50%-0.75% though so I thought I would try to improve this rate rather than focus on traffic alone.

So I wanted to switch the map, to HeatMap! The one I have right now...well i've had it for a while and it's pretty clogged up. But I wanted to test it out first, since I have quite a few plugins and it would take me maybe a day or two to configure the theme to my website.

I have hostgator with unlimited domains...so i thought i would copy all the wordpress from my website to another site that i dont use/not indexed...dead. I did that, but whatever I change on the TEST website, changes on the main site...so hm, I tried it again, this time on another dead domain lol, without copying the main site's wp-config.php! Then I copied the database from my main site, and pasted it into the database of the TEST site...it looks good, but when i go to the Test site admin again, it brings me back to my original site.

So how can I duplicate the main website, while still having access to its plugins/pictures/content...but without affecting it??

Thanks in advance.

read my link down (reason for editing).

hope i helped.

just copy database on your blog/site in other root domain you want to copy, that's all

The problem is the original domain is defined in your wp db. You load up your db to your test domain, and it points it back to the live domain.

Here is what I do, but I use different hosts. Just mirror the site on another host, all files and db. Set the site up as an addon domain on the second host.

Modify your hosts file on your pc to point abc.yoursite.com to the ip of your test host. So when you visit www.yoursite.com you still go to your live site. When you visit abc.yoursite.com you will visit your testing setup.

did you resolved the problem?

If it's a wordpress site you really should look at "Theme Test Drive" (google it). This would allow you (as admin) to look at the new theme live on your site, while the rest is seeing the old theme.

I have worked with it a couple of times when I needed to customize the theme allot.