Installing Wordpress

By Mike Muise

So, you are new to blogging and/or you are looking to upgrade from your existing blogging platform. Without a doubt your next move should be to run your blog on Wordpress. You have essentially 4 options.

One, you can sign up for a free account at Wordpress.com.

Two, you can sign up for a managed blog account where a hosting company takes care of installing and managing all aspects of the blog for you, including templates and plug-ins.

Three, you can install Wordpress yourself on your own server or through a hosting package you may have with any provider.

Four, you can find a hosting provider who provides a software suite known as 'Fantastico'. Fantastico allows you to, with just a couple of clicks, install a number of scripts including Worpress.

For 95% of you I would suggest looking at either option number 2 or number 4. They provide you with both ease and near-endless customization. With that said however, you may find yourself for whatever reason, in a situation where you do need to manually install Wordpress. For those occasions, here is the "5-minute install" guide:

1. Download and unzip the WordPress package, if you haven't already.


2. Create a database for WordPress on your web server, as well as a MySQL user who has all privileges for accessing and modifying it.


3. Rename the wp-config-sample.php file to wp-config.php.


4. Open wp-config.php in your favorite text editor and fill in your database details.


5. Place the WordPress files in the desired location on your web server:
   
   
   
   • If you want to integrate WordPress into the root of your domain (e.g. http://example.com/), move or upload all contents of the unzipped WordPress directory (but excluding the directory itself) into the root directory of your web server.
   
   
   • If you want to have your WordPress installation in its own subdirectory on your web site (e.g. http://example.com/blog/), rename the directory wordpress to the name you'd like the subdirectory to have and move or upload it to your web server. For example if you want the WordPress installation in a subdirectory called "blog", you should rename the directory called "wordpress" to "blog" and upload it to the root directory of your web server.Hint: If your FTP transfer is too slow read how to avoid FTPing at : Step 1: Download and Extract.


6. Run the WordPress installation script by accessing wp-admin/install.php in your favorite web browser.
   
   
   • If you installed WordPress in the root directory, you should visit: http://example.com/wp-admin/install.php
   
   
   • If you installed WordPress in its own subdirectory called blog, for example, you should visit: http://example.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php

That's it! WordPress should now be installed.

Mike Muise

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