Install Your Blog(Wordpress)

posted by darkknight in December 22nd, 2007 | 917 views

All of my websites use the Wordpress engine, and I suggest everyone else to use it. How do you set it up? Just follow the steps below.

Download the latest version of the Wordpress engine from the Wordpress website. Save it on your local hard disk(i.e. your Desktop). It comes in a zip file so unzip it after downloading.

Download and install an FTP(File Transfer Protocol) client, which you will be using for uploading your wordpress engine to your web host(as provided by Ploghost). You can try Filezilla, CoreFTP, or CuteFTP. I’m not sure about the licenses, but personally, I use SmartFTP and I recommend you use it.

Run the FTP client and use the FTP account information sent to you by Ploghost to use your FTP. You need the following information:
- FTP server (usually ftp.yourdomainname.com)
- FTP username
- FTP password

Go to the wordpress folder which you have downloaded on Step 1. Hit Ctrl+A on your keyboard to select all the file, and then hit Ctrl+C to put them on the clipboard. The FTP client acts much in the same way as Windows Explorer. Go to your FTP client and look for the folder public_html. Open it and hit CTRL+V. This will paste(or upload) the contents of the wordpress folder on your desktop to your web server. note: There are several ways to upload the wordpress files to your webhost, like using the Upload command on your FTP client. Use whatever suits your style.

After uploading wordpress, you now have to setup your SQL database on your web server. Basically, your wordpress needs the database to store user infos, articles, comments, settings for your blog, and your wordpress database will be unusable without it. Login to your Cpanel by going to your web browser(Internet Explorer or Firefox) and going to this address. http://www.yourdomainname.com/cpanel . Use the username and password as provided by Ploghost. I am not sure about this, but usually your Cpanel account information is the same as your FTP username and password.

Find the link for MySQL® Databases. This can usually be found on the lower right corner of the Cpanel webpage. Click on it. For the next steps, you would want to create a new database and a user account which will have ALL privilege access to the database.

Create a database with the username of your choice. (for example ”bmdb” which stands for bluemumble database). After creation this will usually be preced with your Cpanel username and an underscore, so that for a Cpanel account name of bluem, your database name becomes bluem_bmdb.

Create a user and specify the password. The convention is to use wpuser for the username, and just type any password that comes to your mind. As with the database name, your complete username would look like bluem_wpuser after creation. Your password however is what you specified upon creation.

Now you must give your user access to the database in the specified box. Choose the user and database you have just created. Check on ALL PRIVILEGES, and add the user using the proper click button. That’s it for the database.

Go back to the wordpress files on your desktop and rename the file wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php. Open it using Notepad(just drag the file inside notepad). Basically, this file connects your wordpress to the database. Input your database information which you created in steps 7 and 8(database name, user, password) into the wp-config.php file.

Go to your web browser again and try to access your website using your URL (http://www.yourdomainname.com). It should now ask for your Blog name and your e-mail address. Create your blog.

After creating your blog, it will give you a password(a notification message will also be sent to the e-mail you provided). Take note of the password and click on log-in. The default username is admin. Input your username and password into the log-in page.

If you have been using wordpress already, the wordpress Dashboard should be a familiar sight. For the others who are not familiar with wordpress at all, just explore all the tabs and links, modify as you deem necessary, and view your website to see the changes.