Let’s go ahead and set up your first WordPress blog. Although this post gives a good outline of what to do, it’s maybe a good idea to head over to Vince Craine and also get a copy of the WordPress Unleashed video course. I think it’s about $7 and there might even be a way to get it for free. If you watch the individual video sections in conjunction with this document as you go along, it will save you hours and hours of unnecessary wheel-spinning.
While you are getting ready, you might as well download FileZilla or Coffee Cup Free FTP and install it. These are free FTP (File Transfer Protocol) ‘clients’ that you will use to upload files to your web server.
Oh, and one more thing. I honestly hope you are not dealing with those user names and passwords manually. This is going to become a veritable nightmare, so download Roboform or something similar. Roboform will store up to 10 login combinations in its free version. Please remember to distinguish between (a) the login details (user name, password) for your hosting account, and (b) the login details for your WordPress Installation. They are totally different things!
(1) Domain Name
That’s the ‘www.joebloggs.com’ thing. By the way, you don’t need the ‘www’ part. I am going to assume that you do not already have a domain name. Get one straight away, as you will need to enter your domain name when you set up your hosting account.
There are different views on this subject, but I think it is wise to separate your domain name registrar from your hosting company. Most of my domain names are registered with GoDaddy, but there are many many others.
So go to, say, GoDaddy, check the availability of your favorite domain name, and purchase it. You will be inundated with add-on offers; you can happily skip them all. Do this first, as it may take time for your new domain name to propagate through the system. In theory it could take up to 48 hours, although it sometimes takes no more than a minute or two.
(2) Hosting Account
I cannot tell you which hosting service to use, but if you want to perform your ‘due diligence’, go to WordPress.org and check the WordPress minimum requirements. Also check that your prospective hosting company offers a cPanel management interface.
I chose HostGator, they are technically top-notch, have a good reputation, and a 24/7 help desk. Go to HostGator.com and click on ‘view web hosting plans’. There are currently (2009) three types of account ranging from $4.95 to $12.95. This is a personal decision; I chose the more expensive one as it has some desirable attributes that the other others don’t have. But if you are on a budget, the cheapest one will also do. If HostGator asks you for a coupon code, enter ‘WordPress’. That will give you a few dollars discount on the first month. When you sign up, click the radio button that says you already have a domain name.
(3) Nameservers
HostGator will email you the details of your new hosting account. These include the domain names of two nameservers, e.g. ns1593.hostgator.com and ns1594.hostgator.com. Go back to GoDaddy.com, or whoever administers your domain name. Log into your account, find your domain name, and edit the nameservers to the two shown in your HostGator email. The procedure will differ from registrar to registrar, so you will need to ‘feel’ your way through this. With some registrars you need to unlock your domain name to make changes, and lock it again afterwards (just click on the appropriate buttons).
The confirmation email from your hosting company will tell you how to access your account in the interim period before your nameserver details have propagated through the system.
(4) WordPress installation
Go back to your HostGator welcome message and find the link to your cPanel. You might have to use the temporary link if your domain hasn’t propagated yet. Log in to your control panel with the user name and password in your confirmation email.
If you chose the hosting option with the IP address, check the email for your address e.g. 175.121.32.122 and log in via http://175.121.32.122/cpanel/ or http://175.121.32.122:2082, substituting your real IP address for the one shown here. The ‘http://’ is actually redundant, you don’t have to type it. 175.121.32.122:2082 will work. By the way, once your domain name has propagated you can simply type joebloggs.com/cpanel.
Once you are logged in, scroll down and look for the Fantastico de Luxe button (a smiling face). It’s towards the bottom, under Software/Services. Within Fantastico, under the navigation on the left, choose ‘WordPress’ and then click on ‘New Installation’ to install WordPress.
I personally prefer not to put WordPress in the ‘root’, e.g. joebloggs.com (although there is no technical reason for not doing so). Instead, I created a subdirectory ‘blog’ so it installs into joebloggs.com/blog. Also do not ‘agonize’ about the name of your blog. Put in anything since you can edit it later.
Installing WordPress in a subdirectory creates a minor problem as visitors to your blog need to type in joebloggs.com/blog. If they simply type joeblogs.com, they will end up on your root, and there’s nothing there except your cPanel program!
To fix this you need to add an ‘htaccess redirect’ on your home page. Let the people at your hosting company give you a hand. Or you can put a very simple ‘splash page’ in the root directory as I have done, see deonreynders.com.
(5) Themes
Do a search for ‘free WordPress themes’. Pick one, download, and unzip the file. It will unzip into its own folder. Leave it like that, as you want to upload the folder as one entity. I chose the Flexibility2 theme for my marketing blog. This theme is so flexible that you can look at several blogs using this theme without realizing that they are related.
If you are willing to shell out $80, please have a look at one of the (IMHO) ‘Rolls Royce’ themes viz. Thesis . I am using the Thesis theme this blog.
Next you need to upload your new theme to your hosting account. Run your FTP client. To connect to your web server you will need (a) your IP address (or domain name), (b) your cPanel username, and (c) your hosting account password.
The left side of the Client screen shows the folders/files on your computer, the right side shows the folders/files on your web server. Browse to your theme folder on the left, e.g. ‘Flexibility2’, and ‘drill down to the ‘themes’ folder on your server on the right-hand side. The file structure on your server looks like this:
Public_html
>blog
>>wp-admin
>>wp-content
>>>plugins
>>>themes
>>wp-includes
Click public_html->blog->wp-content->themes to select the themes folder, then upload the entire ‘flexibility2’ theme folder by simply dragging it across from left to right, or right-clicking on it and choosing ‘upload’.
(6) Customization
Once your domain is working, you’ll be able to log in to the WordPress dashboard. Just go to joebloggs.com/wp-admin in your browser, and enter the user name and password you chose when you installed WordPress on your hosting account. WordPress seems to default to ‘admin’ as a user name, in case you forget to make a note of it.
By the way, just as all themes go into the ‘themes’ folder, all plugins go into the ‘plugins’ folder. The sequence for any plugin is the same: find it, download it, unzip it, FTP it up into the plugins folder, enable it, and configure it. See the video for details. You may want too look at the following plugins (make sure that you have at least a spam comment plugin, otherwise spammers will write a lot of rubbish on your blog:
- AddThis Social Bookmarking Widget
- Akismet
- Chicklet Creator
- Google XML Sitemaps
- HeadSpace2
- MySpace Crossposter
- Pretty Link
- Share This
- Twit This
- Ultimate Google Analytics
- WordPress Database Backup
- WordPress Video Plugin
- WP-Spamfree
- WP Tags to Technorati
- WP Sticky
Now I have to admit it gets tricky here, so you may want to watch the videos as well. But the best idea is to ‘mess around’. Be bold, and learn by trial and error. After each change click ‘update’, then ‘visit site’ (top left) to see what it looks like, followed by your browser’s ‘back’ (<) button to continue editing.
(i) Activate Flexibility2 (under appearance -> themes).
(ii) Edit the theme as follows:
- Some of the parameters, such as colors and column widths, are changed via Appearance->Flexibility Theme Options. You can select a header picture here, and you can even upload your own picture.
- The blog title and tagline (sub-title) can be changed via Settings->General.
- For clues about editing the features area, go to the Flexibility website and watch the video on editing the features area.
(iii) Change the permalink structure. That’s they way that WordPress structures the link (URL) of each post. Click on ‘Permalinks’ (under Settings), select ‘Custom Structure’, and type in /%category%/%postname/ unless you prefer another option.
(iv) Edit/delete the default post (Hello World) and delete the test comment.
(v) Fill out the About Me page. With Flexibility2, you can edit the top entry in the sidebar to become your About Me section. Go to Appearance->Flexibility Theme Options and scroll down to ‘Top Sidebar Box Settings’.
(vi) Edit/add categories. You can also do these as you go along, no rush here.
There are several other enhancements discussed on the videos that are beyond the scope of this document, you can attend to these as time goes by.
Now start posting your blogs by clicking on Posts->Add new.
Please email me at info@deonreynders.com if you need help, or if you have suggestions for improving this post.
Enjoy building your blog!
