301 redirects from old domain to new domain not working

I need to write 301 redirects in htaccess file to permanently redirect pages away from old domain (www.creativemindsearchmarketing.com) to new domain (www.cmsearchmarketing.com)

…with the idea of maintaining SEO.

Below are the rules I’ve tried and either they do nothing to old site, (and/or I also get a 404 saying page doesn’t seem to be redirecting properly on corresponding page on new site).

…or I get the message of too many redirects.

here’s what I’ve tried so far (gathered from forum posts here and seochat):

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^p=975$
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ https://www.cmsearchmarketing.com/top-5-questions-to-ask-an-seo-firm-before-signing-up/? [R=301,L]

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

and

# Use PHP5 Single php.ini as default
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php5s .php

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

redirect 301 /top-5-questions-to-ask-an-seo-firm-before-signing-up https://www.cmsearchmarketing.com/top-5-questions-to-ask-an-seo-firm-before-signing-up/

Help is much appreciated.
_Cindy

P.S.
Other details that may be relevant:

— New site is built with Thesis, using latest WP.
— Permalinks on on both sites.

— Old site uses a theme no longer supported:
WP-Remix3, so the latest version of WP is 2.9.1

I found this file in the root “handler application, I believe:
.htaccess.addHandlerBak

which has this code and is this a conflict with 301 redirects?

# -FrontPage-

<Limit GET POST>
order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from all
</Limit>
<Limit PUT DELETE>
order deny,allow
deny from all
</Limit>
AuthUserFile /home/creatjo7/public_html/_vti_pvt/service.pwd
AuthGroupFile /home/creatjo7/public_html/_vti_pvt/service.grp
# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

# END WordPress
AuthName creativemindsearchmarketing.com
IndexIgnore .htaccess */.??* *~ *# */HEADER* */README* */_vti*