How to Setup Your Own Blog Using WordPress
WordPress is a free blogging software which you can install in your website so that you may write your blogs and manage them. It is easy to install and use. The following tutorial guides you on setting up your blog using wordpress.
There are certain requirements that you need before using wordpress as your blogging software.
First, I order for wordpress to run, the web host you are using must support the execution for PHP scripts which is an interpreted programming language. WordPress is written in PHP scripts. Almost all commercial web hosts support PHP.
Second, at least 1 MySQL database must be allowed by your host. WordPress stores data like your blog entries in specific files called the database where you can retrieve it easily and fast.
Though it is not really a requirement, it is best that you own your own domain. By using a domain name supplied by a web host, in the long run, you are at the mercy of your web host. They have the power to close your blog anytime they want forcing you to start all over again from scratch. WordPress give you more options on configuring your sites structure ad links if it runs on Apache, which recommended yet optional depending on you.
To install wordpress, first inquire the name of your MySQL database, the username you need to connect to the MySQL database and the password from your web host. After doing so, download the latest wordpress software in the zip version. Then unzip all the files in the archive where you downloaded it. Afterwards, open the “wordpress” folder and look for the file with the name “wp-config-sample.php”, if there is none, look for the file named “wp-config-sample”.
Start up a text editor and open the file “wp-config-sample.php”. I the file, you will see lines like:
define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘putyourdbnamehere’); // The name of the database
define(‘DB_USER’, ‘usernamehere’); // Your MySQL username
define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘yourpasswordhere’); // …and password
Replace ‘putyourdbnamehere’ with your database’s name making sure it is enclosed between the single quotes. Replace the ‘usernamehere’ with your MySQL username as well as the ‘yourpasswordhere’ with you MySQL password.
Save the file under a new name “wp-config-php” including the quotes so that the text editor will not add ‘.txt’ to the file name.
Now for the tedious and long part; uploading the files to your web host account. You need an FTP program which transfers files from your computer to your web host. First connect to your web host and transfer all the files found on your wordpress directory directly into the main web directory of your web host account.
After uploading the files, open your browser and go to your website so that you may complete the installation process of your blog using wordpress’ browser interface. If an error occurs stating that wordpress could not connect to your database, it probably means you entered a wrong data on the database name, user name or password. If so, then you have to correct the error and upload the corrected file again to your website.
Once you connection has been established, fill in the name of your blog and email address and click ‘continue to the second step’. WordPress will then set up your blog and display a page that will give you your blog username and password. Remember this username and password because you will need to use this every time you want to manage your blog or entry posts.
Viola, you have now successfully installed WordPress. Now start posting your blogs in your website.
