Daniel Felice

How to Start a Blog: Part 3

// October 6th, 2008 // How To

So you have decided on a niche and you have a domain name and hosting plan. Now you need a blog! I am going to go through step by step how to download, install and configure WordPress. The format of this guide will be a little different to the others – more of a step by step rather than an explanation.

Download WordPress

1. Go to http://wordpress.org/download/
2. Click on “Download Wordpress” on the right hand corner
3. Save the zip file to a safe and memorable location on your PC
4. Extract the zip file to your PC

Create a Database and User

You will need to create a MySQL database and user in order for WordPress to function. The setup of the database will vary depending on your hosting provider. I am going to show you how to setup your database using cPanel, however you might want to check with your hosting provider before you start this step.

The below steps are taken directly from the WordPress website.

1. Log in to your cPanel.
2. Click MySQL Databases.
3. If a user relating to WordPress does not already exist under the Users section, create one:
   1. Chose a username for WordPress (‘wordpress‘ is good) and enter it in the UserName field.
   2. Choose a difficult-to-guess password (ideally containing a combination of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols), and enter it in the Password field.
   3. Write down the username and password you chose.
   4. Click Add User.
4. If a database relating to WordPress does not already exist under the Databases section, create one:
   1. Choose a name for your WordPress database (‘wordpress‘ or ‘blog‘ are good), enter it in the Db field, and click Add Db.
5. Under Databases, select your WordPress username from the User dropdown, then select your WordPress database from the Db dropdown. Make sure All is checked under Privileges, then click Add User to Db.
6. When you return to the main MySQL Account Maintenance screen, cPanel will list information about the database you just created. You should see the username you just added to the database (with ALL PRIVILEGES), as well as a few sample Connection Strings for you to use in Perl or PHP scripts to connect to the database. The PHP code will have the following format:

$dbh = mysql_connect(“hostname“, “username“, “<PASSWORD HERE>”) or die (“message“); mysql_select_db(“databasename“);

Write down the values of hostname, username, databasename, and the password you chose. (Note that hostname will usually be localhost.)

Edit wp-config.php

1. Browse to the location where you extracted the WordPress zip
2. Rename the file wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php
3. Open the new wp-config.php in notepad or another text editor
4. Edit the following fields
   DB_NAME
   The name of the database you created for WordPress
   DB_USER
   The username you created for WordPress
   DB_PASSWORD
   The password you chose for the WordPress username
   DB_HOST
   The hostname you determined (usually localhost, but not always)
   DB_CHARSET
   The database character set, normally should not be changed.
   DB_COLLATE

The database collation should normally be left blank

5. Save the file

Upload Wordpress

In order to upload WordPress to your server, you will need the FTP details you received when you signed created your hosting account and an FTP client (such as CuteFTP or WS_FTP.

Configure the FTP client with your FTP address, username and password and connect. Once you log into your FTP account, browse to the root directory. If you are unsure you should confirm with your hosting provider as the location varies between hosting providers.

Once you have selected the folder you wish to upload WordPress to, browse to the WordPress folder on your local PC and send the files to the server. This should take about 10 minutes or so.

Install WordPress

1. Open your Internet browser
2. Browse to http://example.com/wp-admin/install.php
3. Follow the on-screen prompts

The on-screen prompts will ask you for the title of your blog and e-mail address. You will also be asked if you would like your blog to be visible to search engines such as Google. I suggest you leave the box un-checked so your new blog can be indexed in the search engines. You will be able to change all of these options in the administrator panel within WordPress.

Once you complete the installation of WordPress you will be ready to log in and start posting! I will explain in my next guide some tips and tricks to WordPress.

Many 70-640 and 70-236 professionals insist that IT professionals should blog so that new students of 220-602 and 350-030 can utilize from there.