Setting Up Your First WordPress Blog
For many people it seems the thought of using WordPress is a touch scary they consider it to be too involved or that they need some technical knowledge etc. That’s not the case it really is quite easy to do and depending on where you plan on hosting it can be done with the click of a mouse.
This is going to be aimed at self hosted WordPress blogs (that is those not on wordpress.com)
The first thing you need to do is decide on where you want to host it - free or paid hosting both offer similar ways to set up your first blog (you can read more here: Where To Host Your Blog) a key thing to remember though is that no matter where you host you need to have access to MySQL database(s)
Once you’ve decided on your host there’s a couple of different ways you can set-up your first WordPress Blog.
Fantastico
This is probably the quickest and easiest way to set up your blog and is recommended for those that are doing it for the first time. When you open your hosting control panel (cPanel, Zpanel or other name) you may have access to Fantastico this means you can quickly and easily install WordPress (and other scripts) with the click of a button.
Before doing this however you may decide you want to host your blog on a separate subdomain - this means you first need to create a new subdomain via your control panel and it’s here that you will then upload your blog.
Once you’ve clicked on Fantastico you’ll see to the left of screen you have several options of scripts you can install - click on WordPress this will then open a new pane to the right of your screen giving you a few details and the option to install.
Once you click on install it’s simply a matter of following along with the instructions - bear in mind though that if you are planning on putting your blog on a subdomain you need to first make sure the correct domain/subdomain is clicked - this is a three step process - you fill out the relevant details then log into your blog. Here’s a quick video guide that covers installing a WordPress blog via Fantastico:
Uploading A WordPress Blog Via FTP
If you’d rather download the latest version of WorPress and then upload it to your domain or if your hosting company doesn’t offer you Fantastico or similar quick script installation that’s also quite quick and easy to do.
The first thing you want to do is go to wordpress.org and download the latest version.
Once you’ve downloaded it to your desktop you’ll need to unzip it. You will then need to go to your cPanel and create a new MySQL database. Follow the instructions and make sure you take note of your new username, database name and password.
Once you’ve done that go to your unzipped version of WordPress and right click and open wp-config-sample.php in your chosen text editor (notepad etc)- it’s here that you need to paste in the information (username, password etc) once you’ve done that save and rename that file to wp-config.php.
You can now open your chosen ftp program and upload all the contents of your WordPress folder to your chosen domain or subdomain.
Once the upload has finished you need to take the final step and set up your blog - to do this go to http://yourblogsurl/wp-admin/install.php and follow the quick step - you’ll be given a password and username to login with for the first time - you can easily change this once your blog is set up in your dashboard by clicking the Users/your profile tab.
Here’s a quick video that shows those steps
You can also get further information here: Famous 5 Minute Install
If you’d like more information on setting up a blog you can also take a look at Setting up a work from home blog
If you liked this post you can buy me a coffee :-)
October 8th, 2007 at 2:18 am
Setting Up Your First WordPress Blog…
For many people it seems the thought of using WordPress is a touch scary they consider it to be too involved or that they need some technical knowledge etc. That’s not the case it really is quite easy to do and depending on where you plan on hosting …
October 14th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Good explanation of how to set up a wordpress blog.
October 20th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
This is a great blog with some great tips. Here are some no cost ways of promotion that can be effecive when implemented:
1) Print some simple ads from your computer, get them photocopied for as cheap as possible, then post them in bus shelters.
2) Use those same ads from above and go door-2-door with them, or alternatively you can get some locals to do it for you for a small price.
3) Write a really informative and tip filled article and submit it to as many article hubs as possible. This way it increases the chance of ezine publishers to pick up your article and get even more exposure.
4) Post to free classified ad sites. There are many, but the key here is consistancy. If you can consistantly post to free classified ad sites your ad will be seen.
5) Safelists is another route to go. Many people do say that safelist advertising isn’t effective, but it can be if you post consistantly to the same safelists. join 5 - 10 safelists and everyday for a month post the same ad and you will see that you will get some traffic from safelists.
There are many more free ways to promote your business or website. These are just a few.
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Patrick Bankay
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January 13th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
[...] There are other ways you can set up your first WordPress Blog - the autoblog software that comes free with the NZPCS program has one way (along with a great video guide) and you’ll find more information on uploading a Wordpress blog within this Guide To Blogging [...]