Installing WordPress for Beginners

Today I though I’d walk you through a typical wordpress install, as well as a little about how wordpress works. Though some web experience and tech-savvy is helpful, I believe that virtually anyone who has any knowledge of how the web works should be able to figure out a wordpress installation.

Note: There is a ‘five minute install’ procedure at wordpress.org. I do it a little bit differently, because I think my way is a little faster, but feel free to try it either way.

1 – You can download wordpress for free from worpress.org. This packet includes all the software you’ll need to run wordpress
for your site.

2 – Like most content management systems, wordpress runs off of a database that’s stored on your hosting server. This
database stores your blog posts, the pages on your site, your users, meta information (bits of information that describe and add context) for all the previous, comments, blog categories, and links for your blogroll. Setting up your wordpress database is easy, because the software basically does it for you.

In the back-end of your hosting service (I use godaddy currently), go to the ‘databases’ section and create a database. You’ll be asked to make up a name for the database as well as a username and password.

3 – Next you want to upload the wordpress packet you downloaded to your hosting server. I do this with the ‘file manager’ tool in godaddy, and most server back-ends will have such a tool.

4 – Unzip the wordpress packet. Inside there is a file called wp-config-sample.php. First you just rename the file so it says wp-config.php (I really don’t know why they do it that way). Then you open the file in the editor (all the hosting services I’ve used have a basic code editor built-in, if yours doesn’t, then you can open it in notepad on your PC). You’ll see a place where you can enter your database password, user-name, password, and hosting location (in godaddy they provide you with this after you create the database. If you’re not given any info regarding a host location, leave it at ‘localhost’ and try step 5). Make sure you save the file when you’re done.

5 – Here’s where it gets fun. Open a new browser window and type in http://your domain.com/wp-admin/install.php . It will ask you to name your new site, then it will finish creating the database and after that you’re are done!

The wordpress people say that the process should take 5 minutes. I would say that it’s moderately easy to do. Don’t be afraid, just embrace the power of wordpress.