What is wordpress?

Wordpress

Wordpress is a content management system (CMS). It is a type of software you install on your domain name that easily allows you to publish content ~ be it text, audio, video, images to the web. If  you have ever filled in an ad on a free ad blog you’ve already used wordpress and just didn’t know it.

Why can’t I just use wordpress.com?

While wordpress.com and wordpress.org (the one we’re going to install today) look exactly the same there are a few key differences.

1. wordpress.com is hosted for you. While it’s nice to not have to pay for hosting, there are certain rules to be followed when using wordpress.com and one of them is that you can’t make any money from your site, and another is you can’t use the site to help boost  another site in the search engine rankings. (We run both of those kind of blogs which will lead to your account being deleted at wordpress and all your content/hard work/time GONE at their discretion, in a minute)

2. You don’t have the ability to add plugins to your site at wordpress.com which is part of what makes wp so fun when you host it yourself.

3. You can’t customize the site as easily or as much as you can with your own hosting.

4. Did I mention you don’t own your content and it can be deleted one morning when you wake up? (yes, it was pretty traumatic)

So ~ whether you choose to build a blog on a wordpress site you host yourself or you decide to go ahead and do it on a free platform I definitely recommend you do not use wordpress.com ~ go for blogger or tumblr, or even Bravenet.

Where am I going to put  wordpress?

We are going to go into your hosting account and you are going to put wordpress on the domain you want it to show up on. We are going to put it on the “root domain” which just means when you go to www.mountainbikeforsale.net it will be right there. The other option is to put it in a directory so you would go to www.mountainbikeforsales.net/blog and it would show up when you went there instead. For our purposes of this niche blog we want it on the root domain ~ but I wanted you to understand the terminology.

If you used your niche blog domain for your hosting that’s fine. If you added on your domain that’s fine too. Either one will work, and you’ll see just how easy this is going to be.

Ok. let’s get started.

1. Login to your hosting account and go to your cpanel.

2. Scroll around until you find the fantastico button. It will be the happy smiley face.  Your layout may look different than mine but the fantastico button will still look the same.

Fantastico

3. Click the fantastico button. You will find on the left hand side there are many programs you can install with fantastico. You want to find the link for wordpress and then click it.

You will see a bunch of information on the next page ~ well you probably won’t see as much information as I see lol, since I have a BUNCH of current installations. You want to look for the “new installation” link and click it.

The next page is where you choose where you want to put wordpress. It asks install on domain? Yes ~ that’s where you want to install it since we are installing on the root domain.  There’s a drop down menu (if you have more than one domain name in your hosting account), click the drop down menu and choose the domain you want to install wordpress on.

The next step is to create your username and password. These are the things you are going to use to get into your blog to post etc. Make sure you make note of this information in whatever fashion  you’ve chosen to keep track of your site usernames and passwords  (for me it’s writing it in my rolodex).
Next you’re going to choose an admin name ~ this is the name that will show up when you post to your blog. Use whatever name you want to show up when you make new posts ~ it can be your own name  but if you are going to use a pen name this is where you would put that.

You are also going to enter an email address. This is the address wordpress will use to send you information from your blog ~ when you have a comment etc. So you can use your main address or you can create a new address that you plan to use for everything related to this blog ~ either way works. No one sees this, it’s just so you can get information from your blog.

You also want to put in the name of your site. The default is the url (on my hosting), but I like to change it to the name I want my site to actually have. This is what will show up in your header ~ as well as in the blue stripe at the top of the browser you’re using. This can be changed later ~ so don’t stress, just put something in.

You can also add a brief description in the next spot ~ but you can also leave it blank and do it later from inside the blog ~ either way will work.

All of these images and steps are all on the same page, one right under the next.

After you’ve filled in those pieces you’re going to hit “install wordpress”.

The next page will tell you the directory has been created. It will ask you again that you want to put it on the spot you told it and there’s nothing for you to do other than click “finish installation”.

The next page says you have installed wordpress. It reminds you of the username and password you have chosen and tells you how to access the blog which is always www.yoururl.com/wp-admin. So for my mountain bike site it’s going to be www.mountainbikeforsale.net/wp-admin ~ then I’ll use the username and password to sign in.

That’s it. You’ve done it. You installed wordpress!! Congratulations. Go ahead and go to your site and log in. Take a look around. We’ll be going on a tour of wordpress for the next post. You can’t break anything ~ most everything can be undone, so go ahead, look around, get familiar with things and I’ll see you on Wed.

If you have questions about installing wordpress, please ask them below. If something has gone wrong ~ and sometimes it happens ask here, but your best bet may be to call your hosting company directly. They can see what’s going on with your site and can easily and quickly help you fix the problem. Me I could guess which of 10 things it could be, but since I can’t see what’s going on it would be faster and less frustrating to call them direct.

Credits: Jackie

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