intelliace

Today I’m going to give you a brief basic overview of how to install WordPress. I recommend you use WordPress because it is very easy to use - to post, you simply type into a little text box, almost as if you were using webmail. If you need or want to add anything even remotely fancy to your blog, then you can easily do it with plug-ins and widgets. (And they are easy to install too, as I’ll cover later.)

So, how to start? Easy! Just go to the WordPress website. This is the place where you can download the software you’ll need to run the blog. It is free software, maintained by people sort of like me and you, expect they like to program software. God bless them!

Anyway, if you don’t want to bother reading everything on there (it can be information overload, for sure), then click here to go straight to the download page. (or here to download the software directly).

What now? Well, unzip the program to a place on your computer where you’ll know where it is. Desktop, or some folder in your My Documents file. Now, you don’t run this software from your computer, it is software that you’ll install on your website’s webserver. Simple enough so far? Well, sadly it gets just a wee bit more complicated now. (If you prefer the official guide to installation, feel free to go ahead and click here to read it. My feelings won’t be hurt … at least not very badly.)

The next step is to get the software onto your webserver. The most direct method to do this is to upload the software using FTP. FTP - to get fancy on you, stands for File Transfer Protocol. Don’t let that scare you, because all it is is a way to transfer files between computers. And you’ll be putting them in a place that not everyone has access to. It requires a password. But, as you have a website, the password is generally the “admin” login and password. If you’ve just signed up for webhosting, usually all the FTP information is in the welcome email.

Start with the FTP program. This program (I recommend iFTP) is a little program that you will install and run from your computer. When you run this program it asks you what FTP site you want to connect to. Tell it your FTP login and password. And once you do, it connects and you are seeing the backend of your website.

Now you have a decision to make. One one side of the FTP program screen you’ll see the files that are one your webserver, and on the other you’ll see the files that are on your personal computer. Decide where you want your blog installed. If you want to keep a regular website and have a blog on the side, then you’ll set it up in a subfolder from your main webpage. If you want your enter website to be a blog, then you’ll just transfer the WordPress files to your main public html section. Otherwise, you’d probably want a “blog” subfolder.

• If you want your domain to be the blog (for instance Yahoo.com) then put the files from WordPress directly in the public HTML folder you’ll see on your webserver. If you want a Yahoo.com/blog version - which lets you keep your regular website AND run a blog, then create a folder called “blog” in your public HTML folder and upload or transfer the WordPress files there. You could use any name you’d like, “weblog”, “journal”, or even “news”.

Now that all the files are there, create a MySQL database and a main user. This step you’ll need to talk to your webhost about more than likely. They can point you to specifics for your situation or maybe even do it for you. These “details” about your MySQL database you’ll edit into one of the WordPress programs called wp-config.php. This file, you’ll then upload to the appropriate place on your webserver (and by appropriate place, just log into the FTP program, connect to your webserver and find the place you put the WordPress files. Once you see this file in the webserver side, just upload and overwrite this one. Easy enough….!

Now run the install… Just type this URL in your browser window. http://mydomain.com/wp-admin/install.php. (If you’d used “blog” or something else, then add that after your domain name and before the /wp-admin/ part.)

Ok, I know that sounds complicated, but really it isn’t. The neatest thing about all of this is, that no matter how complicated it may sound, it isn’t hard - and even though you don’t have to admit it to your friends, you can get this all done for you! Wow!

Fantastico!

If you log into your webhost for your account, and you are at the control panel, (specifically cPanel) you may find a section called: Fantastico. If you do, then chances are good that you can click on this link and click on the install wordpress option. And presto — its installed for you. If you don’t see that, don’t despair. You can go to WordPress’s “Install 4 Free” option. Click here. This is a group that will install your blog for you for free! Read the little terms and conditions here and fill out the form and your on your way! Basically a real live person will go and install your blog for you and make sure it works. How sweet is that?

Do you really have an excuse for not having a blog yet? Hey, if you don’t mind, if this helps you or if you set-up a blog, I’d love to hear about it. Drop me a comment.