How To Set Up a WordPress Blog

September 8th, 2009

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Step By Step Instructions with Video Tutorials

Set Up a WordPress Blog Tutorial

Many people have free blogs on sites like Blogger or Wordpress.com. These free services have simple, effective functionality, but they don’t have the flexibility and functionality that you may need. You can’t have your own domain name on these services On top of that, you don’t own your data.

If you want to have a blog that you own, has your own domain name, and allows you to make any custumizations, you need to host your own blog. This tutorial and the others in the series will show you how to install, configure, customize, and publish your own blog using free software and inexpensive web hosting.

Getting Started

Before you get started with software and servers, you need to get organized. Let’s look at a few things that you need before you can write your first brilliant article. You need to know what you are going to be doing. Start by asking a few very basic questions:

What is your blog about? This is the very first thing that you should be thinking about.

What ideas and concepts are you going to write about?

What categories will you use to group your articles?

What interesting features do you want to have on your blog?

Once you’ve hammered all of that out, this should start to generate a few ideas for names.

Getting your Domain Name and Hosting

Getting a Domain Name: After you have your concept and topics down, start to brainstorm good domain names. Yes, the first few good ones that you come up with are already taken. You should make every effort to get a domain name that is ends in .COM (.NET is worse, but acceptable) Try to make the name short, with keywords that relate to your topic. By all means, DO NOT get a domain name with a HYPHEN in it!

You can buy your domain name from lots of places. GoDaddy.com is very easy. It will be less than $10 for the year.

If you want to think long term, you may want to spend a few extra dollars to grab the .NET and .TV versions of your name too. This will allow you to extend your offerings down the road.

Materials:

Web Hosting: You will need to pay a web host to store your site’s pages and files on a server. There are thousands of web hosting companies available from $5/month on up. Find one that has the following options:

PHP hosting – (this is the server software that processes the commands that make your blog work.)
MySQL database hosting – This is the free, open source database that runs just about every blog on the internet
FTP services – This is the service that will allow you to move files from your local computer to the web server.
Scalability – If your website takes off, you will need to move to a bigger server. Make sure that your host has several packages so that you can gradually move up the ladder as needed.
You can also buy cheap, reliable web hosting from GoDaddy.com.

Desktop Software:

FTP Software: Your web host will have an FTP service that will allow you load your files to their server. You need an FTP Client (software on your computer) to connect to the server and move the files. There are several FTP clients available. Some are free and others are not. Every one has a camp of supporters and detractors, so I’ll just recommend the one I use. I like Filezilla, because it is Free, Open Source and works on Windows, Mac, and Linux. (Get Filezilla here.) If you don’t like it, just Google for one that meets your specific needs.

Once you buy your domain and web hosting, you will need to set up your FTP software. Just about every web hosting provider has a Help or FAQs section that will show you how to set up your FTP client. Follow their instructions so that you will be ready to start working.

Zip Software: Most of the files that you need to set up a Wordpress blog are contained in Zip archives. You need an application to open and extract files in Zip archives. Mac and Linux have them built in. If you are on Windows, download 7-Zip. It’s free and works very well.

Installing Wordpress

Go to the Documents tab and print the “Famous 5 Minute Installation Guide”. These simple instructions are a lifesaver. I will be using the summarized version below as the basis for this tutorial.

Download and unzip the WordPress package from the home page at WordPress.org.
Create a database for WordPress on your web server. Then, create a MySQL user who has admin privileges
Rename the “wp-config-sample.php “ file to “wp-config.php”
Open wp-config.php in your favorite text editor and fill in your database details
Place the WordPress files in the desired location on your web server
Run the WordPress installation script by accessing wp-admin/install.php in your favorite web browser.

Step 1 Download and Unzip the WordPress Software

You have to get the software files that run your blog from the WordPress site. Download the latest Wordpress Zip File from the WordPress.org site.

Create a folder on your hard drive where you will place all of your Wordpress files. (i .e. My Documents/Blog)

Unzip the Wordpress files into your "Blog" folder

Right click on the Wordpress .zip file

Select Open With (your Zip software of choice)

Extract the contents of the Zip archive into your "Blog" folder

Close your Zip application.

The video below shows all of the steps in the process.

Step 2 Create the MySQL Database on your Web Server

WordPress uses a database to store your blog’s content. You need to create a database on your web server and create a user that can access the database.

Go to the Databases page. (Each web host’s control panel works differently. See their Help or FAQs section for specific instructions.)

Click Create New Database

Give your database a name. Make it short with no spaces.

Set the User and Password that can access the database. Do not make it the same as your User ID or Password.

Write the Database Name, User Name, and Password down on a piece of paper and log out of the Control Panel.

The video below shows all of the steps in the process.

Create a MySQL Database for a WordPress Blog – Funny video clips are a click away

Step 3 Modify the wp-config.php File on your Computer

WordPress uses a “config” file to store some key configuration information that will allow the application to access the MySQL database that you just created. This file is located in the root of the WordPress directory.

Go into the Wordpress folder in your Blog folder and look for the following file:

“php-cofig-sample.php”

This file contains the settings that tell Wordpress how to connect to the database. You will need to modify a few of these settings now.

Start by changing the name of the file to "wp-config.php”. (Just delete the word “sample” from the file name.)

Next, you need to modify a few lines of code in the file.

Open the wp-config.php in your favorite text editor.

Scroll down to the line line that contains the following text:

define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘putyourdbnamehere’);

Change “putyourdbnamehere” to the name of the database that you just created. (That’s why I said to write it down.)

Change “usernamehere” to the name of the Database User that you just created.

Change “yourpasswordhere” to the name of the Database User Password that you just created.

* Leave “localhost” alone. Note: Some hosting providers will require you to add the address of the database server here. See your hosting provider’s help section for this information.

Save and close the wp-config.php file.

The video below shows all of the steps in the process.

Step 4 Upload the Wordpress files to your Server

You will need to use FTP software to load the WordPress files from your computer to your web server. There are numerous FTP applications available use whichever one you prefer. I use Filezilla because it’s free and works the same on my Mac, PC, and Linux machines.

Launch your FTP software and connect to your web server. (You can find instructions and settings on your web hosting provider’s site.)

There will be two file panes visible. Left is your Local Computer and Right

is your Server.

Local Pane: Browse down to the folder where your WordPress files are located: (My Documents/Blog/Wordpress)

Server Pane: Browse to the "root" folder where your files belong. This may be the highest folder in the FTP pane or there may be a sub-folder that has your domain name.

There will be an "Index" file in that directory that is named either "index.htm" or "index.html". This is the page that your domain name will default to.

Delete this file. (Yes, this is a little scary, just man up and do it!)

Local Pane: click in the grouping of files inside the "WordPress" folder and select them all. (Edit> Select All)

Drag the selected files and folders across to the Server Pane and drop them. This will start copying all of the Wordpress files from your computer to the server. It will probably take a few minutes.

Close your FTP application when the files are finished copying.

The video below shows all of the steps in the process.

Step 5 Run the WordPress Installation Script

Now that all of the WordPress files are on your server you are ready to run the installation script that builds the application on your server.

Open your browser and type the following into the Address bar: "http://www.YOUR-DOMAIN-NAME.com/wp-admin/install.php" (Substitute your actual domain name for YOUR-DOMAIN-NAME.)

Enter the name of your blog and your email address in the fields provided and click the continue button.

The Install WordPress button will appear.

Click the Install WordPress button.

Your blog is now created and you will be given your ID and Password. We’ll cover the next steps in the next article – Configure the Settings on a WordPress Blog.

The video below shows all of the steps in the process.