I have been using one blog on WP.com to develop my content and test it before releasing it to my users. I created another WP.com account for the "real" blog I wish to deploy. At some point soon, I would like to "flip the switch" and move the entire site to the "real" one, which has domain mapping enabled from the "real" URL.
I tried exporting the blog from the development site and importing it in the "real" site, but this does not bring all the widgets and other site configurations and customizations along with it, only the posts and pages, etc.
It seems that the option to transfer a blog entirely to another user (http://en.support.wordpress.com/moving-a-blog/) is what I need. But then I lose my development version, which I can live with. Before I do this, I just wanted to confirm that everything goes over to my "real" site, and that I won't have to redo all of the customization I did.
In hindsight, should I have just made a second blog on my original account to be able to manage this sort of development/release separation? What strategies do people use for this workflow?