Before We Begin: This brief instructional page is primarily text. Do you prefer learning with pictures? Have a look at the expanded version of this WordPress tutorial complete with screenshots with big red arrows telling you where to click and where to type. It can't get much easier. The expanded tutorial also includes a discussion group and online assistance if you need additional help. A full course on using WordPress is also in the works.
There are two ways to install WordPress on a web hosting service that uses cPanel and some form of auto-installer, such as Fantastico...
- The Hard Way: Download your favorite application from it's website, extract it from it's archive using software like WinZip or WinRar, use an FTP program like CuteFTP or Filezilla to upload it to your web server, use cPanel to create a new database for your application, and possibly create and populate the tables with phpMyAdmin and SQL code.
- Log into your cPanel and use an auto-installer to have your software and your databases uploaded and configured with just a few mouse clicks.
Let's note at this point that I'm a big fan of using method number 1.
- There is no substitute for learning the workings of your website and knowing how to configure your software yourself. Yes, there is more learning to do. But in the long run, it will save you from disaster.
- Furthermore, auto-installers almost always use older versions of the software than what is currently available. While I wouldn't recommend being a part of a beta test or using a release candidate version of the software for publically-available live website, you will want to keep tabs on the latest bug fixes for the production release of your favorite software, especially those updates that fix security issues that have been addressed. You don't want someone hacking into your website, do you?
That said, here's a quick step-by-step on getting WordPress up and running using an auto-installer. For this example, we will be using a free web hosting account that provides cPanel and an auto-installer. If you want to follow along precisely, I'd recommend signing up for an account (hey, it's free). When we're done you'll have a working WordPress website, and even if you have "real" web hosting someplace else, it's always good to have a home-away-from-home for experimenting with new features... and if you've been following our course in web marketing, you already know that having more than one website is a good thing.
So, if you haven't already, sign up for your free web hosting here...
Ready? Let's begin.
- Log into your cPanel account. Your web hosting provider should have sent you an email containing your log-in information. If you've just signed up a few minutes ago and you haven't received that email yet, give it some time. Bookmark this page and do a bit of web surfing someplace else until your account confirmation email arrives.
- Once you're logged into cPanel, scroll down to the bottom of the page. Find the section labelled Software / Services.
- In that section, find an icon labelled Site Software. Click on it.
- In the Blogs section, find the link for WordPress. Click on it.
- Note the version of WordPress that you're about to install, for future reference. Review the license terms.
- Scroll down until you can see all the form fields that you'll need to fill out.
- Admin User - Enter a username name for the administrative account. Hint: Don't use your real name. Make the administrative account something hard to guess, but something that you will easily remember... something like Admin or Manager followed by your zip code or the last four digits of your phone number. Then, create another account using your name or nickname or pen name, and use that account to do your actual writing.
- Admin Pass - Enter a password. Again, it is most important to use something that's hard to guess. You can use the password generator to come up with a random password for you. You won't need to remember it when logging in, as Firefox will remember the password for you. However, you will want to make a record of that password someplace else. I like to keep a separate file on my computer to store all my passwords, and an index card file. Have a "Plan B" and a "Plan C" when it comes to your passwords. It will save you some major headaches.
- Email - Enter your email address. This is where all notifications to the site administrator will go. Also, any notifications sent out to users signing up will see this as the "From" address in their email. Before finishing this form, you might want to open a new browser window and create an account to use specifically for this purpose... for instance, if your domain is example.com, create an email address like blog-admin@example.com
- Installation URL - Enter the URL where you want to install the software. If you leave this blank, the software will be installed in your Document Root, and become your website's home page. If you'll be running other things on your site and your WordPress installation is only part of the complete picture, then you might want to enter the name of your blog here. Note that this name is important so give it some thought... when the search engine spiders come to crawl your blog and index it, any word you put here will be considered a hot spot for the key words. Try to keep it down to a single word. Multiple words CANNOT be separated by a dash (minus sign) because that will confuse the installer. Spaces are also a no-no. Underscore characters are permitted, however search engines, as of this writing, are not able to distinguish words separated this way. So in other words, keep it short, and use the underscore (shift-minus) between words if you absolutely HAVE to use more than one.
- Table Prefix - If you're creating a separate database for your WordPress installation (recommended) then you don't really need to use a prefix. However, if you've gone crazy installing a lot of different software, you do only have five databases to work with in your free account. If two different applications absolutely MUST share the same database - two different copies of WordPress for example, one for you, and one for your little brother perhaps - then you'll want to give each one a different prefix, which will be attached to the beginning of all the names of the tables in the database.
- MySQL DB - The default here is to create a new database, and you shouldn't change it unless you have to - see 6.5 above.
- All finished with steps 6.1 through 6.6? Good! Now click the Install button.
- That's it! Unless there was an unanticipated error, you should now be at a confirmation screen. Right at the beginning of the message is a link to your new blog. Click on it to see what your new blog looks like.
- "But wait a minute," you say, "What now?" What you're seeing here is the front page as it will look to people visiting your site. Have a brief look to admire the stark visual beauty before you go messing with the theme {grin} and then...
- Look at your web browser's address bar. See where your URL is displayed? Click on the URL, then click again on the right side so that the blicking cursor is at the end of the URL. Now type wp-admin and press the Enter key. This will show you a log-in screen, unless you're already logged in, which you should not be as of now.
- Type in the user name and password you selected for yourself in steps 6.1 and 6.2.
- If you are on your own private computer and you're absolutely sure that no one else will be using your account, you can click on the Remember me checkbox so that you won't have to sign in all the time. Note that while this is convenient, it presents a bit of a security risk. Not having to log in as a user of a website is one thing. Having an administrator account that is vulnerable to hacking is a different animal entirely. My advice? Keep this unchecked.
- Click the Login button. If you're using a web browser that's smart enough to remember passwords, you'll probably get a pop-up box asking if you want the password to be stored. This is a bit safer than the checkbox in number 12 above, as it doesn't rely on browser cookes. Thus, it's a nice balance between convenience and security if you absolutely do not want to type that password every time.
Do you prefer learning with pictures? Have a look at the expanded version of this WordPress tutorial complete with screenshots with big red arrows telling you where to click and where to type. It can't get much easier. The expanded tutorial also includes a discussion group and online assistance if you need additional help. A full course on using WordPress is also in the works. Meanwhile...
Learning More About WordPresss
WordPress is a pretty sophisticated application with lots of great features and lots of possibilities. The designers have made it as easy to use as possible, but there will come a time when you will want to go "under the hood" and see what your new blog can really do. When you've reached that stage, here is some recommended reading...
