How to set up a Wordpress Blog - A Guide for the Clueless!

What’s the reason for this guide? Surely there is one already? Well there may be other tutorials out there on the net, but when I hadn’t a clue and I was looking, I couldn’t find them. As far as I’m aware, there are no decent, down-to-earth, basic and easy to follow written guides.

From the beginning I’d like you to be aware that it’s very difficult to try and do a guide like this that is so comprehensive. Some areas are impossible to do ’step-by-step’ but I’ve tried my best and I just hope it’s enough to get you up and running. If you find this guide helpful and it gets you started in blogging, all I ask is that you put a link on your blog to Armen’s Blog.
Step 1 - Stop And Think

Before you begin to set up a blog, there are a few things that you ought to consider and ask yourself. For instance, what is the blog for? Is it merely to share your views with the world; is it to give advice in an area you know alot about; or is it to make money in a niche market?

You’ll also have to ask yourself if you’ll have enough knowledge/material to post on a regular basis as that is what blogs are all about, regularly updated content. Also consider if there is a demand for the area you’re wanting to exploit. If the niche is small and the demand is great, then with the right setup you’ll be onto a winner. But maybe your main design is for a small group of people in which case there is nothing wrong with that either, I am just wanting you to think about these things before you start out.
This is just a brief summary of things to ask yourself, but if you’re happy that you want to go ahead, then lets go!

Step 2 - The Name Game

The very first thing you need to do after thinking about what your blog is going to be about, is to consider a name. Sometimes names make or break products, services and even websites and blogs so consider it carefully. Now it’s usually best to choose a name that will be the same as your url (web address), but that’s not a strict rule. Make your url/name catchy if possible, or at the very least make it easy to spell and remember, usually the shorter the better. Also you should think about what sort of domain name that you want. Would you like a .com .org .net .co.uk or something else? There are quite a few to choose from, but it’s usually best to stick with what everyone knows, primarily a .com. The only disadvantage with a .com is that you’re less likely to get the name that you want. Different names can be different prices and you should look around. For my own use, I have found that Godaddy.com are the cheapest for .com and ukreg.com are the cheapest for .co.uk.

To check whether a domain name has been registered already or not, I usually just head over to ukreg.com and use their domain name checker as it seems to be pretty fast in throwing up results and they give some good suggestions if what you’re looking for isn’t there. When you’ve found what you’re after or something suitable (remember, short, catchy and easy to spell) then register it with your chosen domain name register. Initially it’ll usually be for 1-2 years, but you can pay for more if you wish.

Step 3 - “And here is your host…”

The next thing that you have to do is get youself what is known as a ‘host’. Now there are hundreds of options for you to choose from, but not all of them are appropriate and some are overpriced. Usually the company that you registered your domain name with have a service, but often it’s more expensive than what you can get elsewhere. I went for the Business plan at ixwebhosting.com for many reasons. You get 3 free domain names (so you don’t even have to bother with registering your domain name with someone else, although I would advise you to check for what you want before signing up), 400GB of storage, 2,500GB of Data Transfer (Bandwidth), and the best thing of all is their FREE 24/7 LIVE support, and yes it works and the people are knowledgeable and usually very helpful. It works as a live chat like MSN Messenger where you tell them your problem and they help you out. It usually costs extra with other companies, but it’s free at ixwebhosting.com If you can beat that with a reputable company, then by all means sign up with who you find, but I have not been able to find anything better for the price. When your signing up for your host, make sure you go for the Linux platform and not Windows (yes it will work fine if you’re running Windows on your computer, it’s nothing to do with that). Whoever you choose, make sure they allow you to override the .htaccess file. If you don’t understand what I mean, ask them before you sign up, or to save time and hassle just sign up with ixwebhosting.com

Step 4 - A Vital Change

Once you have your host and domain name, you’ll need to change the ‘nameservers’ of your domain to the nameservers given by your host. I can’t give a specifc guide on how to do this because it will be different depending on your host provider and domain name provider. If you bought your domain with Godaddy.com, sign in and under ‘Domains’ go to ‘my domain names’, you should now be in ‘Domain Control Center’. Click on the applicable domain name where it will then give you details on the domain. In the menu above there should be an option ‘Nameservers’. Click on it and then change nameservers 1 and 2. If you’re with ixwebhosting.com change Nameserver 1 to ‘NS7.IXWEBHOSTING.COM’ and Nameserver 2 to ‘NS8.IXWEBHOSTING.COM’ and then click ‘OK’ and that’s it done. You’ll then have to go into your hosting account and add your domain name. Now if you went with ixwebhosting.com you’ll not need to do this as you get at least one domain name for free. However you may still need to sign in to manage your account and go to ‘domains’ and then ‘add new domain’ and put in your domain name.

Step 5 - Getting Files To Your Host

Now that you have your domain name and web hosting account, the next thing you’ll need is what’s known as an FTP program. I suggest that you use Filezilla as it’s completely free and easy to use.
Once it’s downloaded, click through the various buttons to install it on your computer.

Open up Filezilla. Now this is the program that you’ll use to transfer various files and folders into the web hosting account that you have set up.

To the left-middle there should be two smaller panels/areas (A and B) and on the right there should be a larger panel (C). The two on the left represent what’s on your computer and the one on the right represents what’s on your web hosting account. To connect to your hosting account your need to correctly fill in three of the boxes at the top of Filezilla. The Address, User and Password. The Address is your domain name, the User and Password are what were given to you or what you chose when setting up your hosting account. If you’re not sure what to put in and you’ve signed up with ixwebhosting, then just go their homepage and begin a live chat and the person you’re speaking to will be able to help you out. Once you’ve typed these things in correctly, you should get a ‘Connected with…’ message in the wide, narrow panel at the top of Filezilla.

Step 6 - The Blog Backbone

You’ll also need to download the latest secure version of Wordpress. Download the zip file. Once it’s downloaded, unzip it (right-click on it and go to ‘extract’).

Step 7 - Timeout

Now you’ll need to do a few things with your web host account. In this area it is very difficult for me to guide because every host is different and many use different panels, so the following is how it works with ixwebhosting.com. If you have difficulties with yours you will have to contact your host for help.
Sign in to your account online and go to the main managing area of your account where you can set up databases, etc. If you’ve signed up with ixwebhosting.com, then sign in to your account. Under ‘hosting products’ click on ‘manage’.
Now look for ‘MySQL Server’ which will probably be under ‘Databases’ and click in. Set up a database and remember/write down the full name you give it. You’ll then have to set up a ‘user’ that can access the database giving a username and password. You may also have to set a ‘user role’ which you’ll want to set at full access (in ixwebhosting you’ll set it as ‘dba’).

Step 8 - Altering For Access

Open up the wordpress folder that you just unzipped. In there you should find a file named ‘wp-config-sample.php’, rename it to ‘wp-config.php’

Once you’ve done that, open that file up (wp-config.php). Now you should see notepad open up with information in it. It should be relatively self-explanitory. Replace ‘wordpress’ with your database name that you just setup (include the inverted commas), ‘username’ and ‘password’ with the full username of the ‘user’ and the associated password that you just setup that has access to your database. Now you may not need to change ‘localhost’, but if you’ve set up with ixwebhosting you need to change it too ‘mysql19.ixwebhosting.com’. If you’re not sure then contact your host provider. Once you’ve edited these fields, click on ‘File’ and then ’save’ and then you can safely close the window.

In the wordpress folder (where the ‘wp-config.php’ file is), right click, go to ‘new’ and then to ‘text document’. Name this file ‘htaccess’ (without the inverted commas).

Step 9 - Upload To Your Host

Now you’re ready to upload you Wordpress files to your host database. To do this, open up Filezilla and connect to your host (if you haven’t already). Your domain name should now appear somewhere in panel ‘C’, double-click on it.

Now in the left side of Filezilla (in Panel ‘A’) click through the necessary folders to find where you saved your Wordpress folder (e.g. For me I go to ‘My Computer/My Documents/Software/Wordpress-2.x.x’). When you click on Wordpress-2.x.x, in the little window below (panel ‘B’) you should see the Wordpress folder. Double click on it to view all the Wordpress files and folders. Select/highlight them all, then drag and drop them all into the right-hand panel (panel ‘C’) which should be under the chosen domain name. It will now take some time for your computer to upload all the Wordpress files into your host database. Once it’s finished, double check to make sure all the files and folders were uploaded correctly.

Step 10 - Rename, Delete, and Grant Access

Once it’s finished, the first thing you must do is rename the ‘htaccess’ file to ‘.htaccess’. To do this, right-click on the ‘htaccess’ file in Filezilla and go to ‘rename’. Put in ‘.htaccess’ (don’t forget the fullstop at the start, and remember to delete the ‘.txt’ at the end if it’s there). Once you’ve done that, right-click on ‘.htaccess’ but this time go to ‘File Attributes’. Change the ‘Numeric Value’ to ‘666′ (hopefully there’s nothing too satanic about it), OR tick all the boxes beside the word ‘Write’ (this makes it ‘writable, it allows the file to be edited automatically by Wordpress). Once you’ve done that, check for an ‘index.html’ file and if it’s there delete it (DON’T delete ‘index.php’, that’s different).

The next thing to do is to right-click on the ‘wp-content’ folder and go to ‘File Attributes’ and again tick all the boxes beside the word ‘Write’.

After you’ve done that, double click on ‘wp-content’ to go into it, then double click on the ‘themes’ folder and then double click on the ‘default’ folder. Select all the files in there, right-click on them and go to ‘File Attributes’ and again tick all the boxes beside the word ‘Write’. (Do this for any theme that you may upload in the future, it is necessary if you are going to edit areas of the theme).

Step 11 - Are We There Yet?

Next, open up your internet browser (IE, Firefox, etc) and type in your domain name (www.yourdomain.com). Hopefully a white page should come which says at the top, “It doesn’t look like you’ve installed WP yet. Try running install.php.” Click on the blue ‘install.php’. Enter in the name for your website/blog and your email address. On the next page, highlight and copy the given password (or write it down) and click on ‘log in’. On the next page put in your username as ‘admin’ and the password that was given to you. You should now be in Wordpress.
(If when you enter in your domain name you get an error, it is most likely because the details you entered into the ‘wp-config.php’ file are incorrect, so go back and make the changes that may be necessary and upload the updated file into your database again).

Step 12 - Basic But Important Changes

The first thing to do is to go to ‘Users’ and change the password to something you’ll remember, but no one else should know.

Another thing that I advise you to do is to change the way Wordpress will set the addresses (urls) of your pages and posts. To do this go to ‘Options’ and then ‘Permalinks’. Change it from the default to ‘Date and name based’ and then click on ‘Update Permalink Structure’. Because you’ve made the ‘.htaccess’ file writeable, it should say ‘Permalink structure updated’.

And Finally…

Now that’s pretty much it. The rest should be fairly straight-forward, but have a look around and see where everything is so that you know where to find it. You might get a little lost now and then at the start, but you’ll soon get on to it. You can edit/delete the default post “Hello World” and the links that are there by default, or add new posts, pages and categories. You may be wondering about the difference between a page and a post. Well examples of a page are an ‘About me’ or a ‘Contact’ page. Posts are what you use to write your daily information that makes up the main content on your blog.

To have a ‘Contact’ page, you may want a ‘form’ so you don’t have to display your email address. To do this you’ll need what’s known as a ‘Wordpress Plugin’. I advise that you use Ryan Duff’s contact plugin. Follow the installation instructions that are on the page. Generally there will always be instructions for each plugin, but for the most part the process is the same; download, unzip, upload to the plugins folder and then activate it in Wordpress.

There’s not really much else I can say. By this stage you should have the basic setup to the most powerful blogging software on your own paid host. To learn more, usually Google is your friend, but if you’d like help, or think I’ve missed something in this guide, then don’t hesitate to contact me.

For a small fee, I may even consider fully setting up a blog for you. If you’d be interested in that, email me to discuss it further.

Welcome to the blogosphere!

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