WordPress is an excellent blogging platform but it is also an excellent choice for building any type of web site. Many hosts come with WordPress already configured on their systems and with a few changes, web sites for a wide variety of purposes can easily be built. Professional looking web sites, that show no hint of their blogging parentage, are easily configured, and with the wide variety of plugins available, can be tailored to the needs of individual companies. In addition it will be easy to add new content, pages etc to your site.
Step 1: Basic installation instructions
If your host already has WordPress configured on their systems skip steps 1-3. For more help at each step click on the appropriate link
- Download and unzip WordPress
- Upload the WordPress folder to the root folder of your host using an FTP client
- Make the WordPress folder writeable
- log in to phpMyAdmin and create a database
- Navigate to the WordPress installation file and begin the installation
- Enter the username and password of your mysql database and the name of the database you created
- If all goes well copy the admin password to a safe place and log in to your new wordPress site
1. Unzipping your WordPress Archive: Most operating systems now have an unzip program installed. In Windows just click on the zipped file and choose ‘Extract all Files’ in the sidebar menu to unzip.
2. Uploading your Files: An FTP client is required for this step. Firefox has an excellent FTP addon (FireFTP) Many other FTP clients are available. When you set up your hosting account you will have been given a login name and password for FTP uploads. You will need to log in to your FTP account with your host, which will take you to the root folder of your web site. Detailed instructions for using FireFTP follow. (other clients are very similar)
Activate fireftp and click on ‘manage accounts’
choose ‘new’ and enter
an account name : can be anything
host : this is your address e.g. example.com (you do not need http:// or ftp: in front of the host name for FireFTP - other clients may vary)
login: Your login name for your ftp account with your server
Password: You password for your ftp account with your server
Click OK and then connect and you should connect to the root of your hosting account (usually public_html)
Fireftp is divided into 2 panes. Your computer in the lefthand pane and your hosting account in the righthand pane. Both panes are further divided into 2 panes.
We need to upload all the CONTENTS of the WordPress folder, not the folder itself.
In the lefthand pane of FireFTP negotiate to the WordPress folder you unzipped earlier. Click on the folder so that all the contents are visible in the 2nd pane. Click on the topmost folder in this pane and holding down shift, press the down arrow key to select all the contents of this pane. Release the keys and press the arrow in the centre of the panes to transfer all the folders and files to your hosting account root folder. The transfer will take some time so be patient!
3. Before you can start the installation, The WordPress folder must be writeable.
In the right hand pane click on / to make public_html visible in the 2nd pane. Right click and choose properties. When the window appears tick all 3 boxes next to write (owner, group and public) to make the folder writeable.
4. Setting up your database: Log in to phpMyAdmin (this step varies depending on your host - see the help files provided for your host if you’re unsure how to do this)
Enter a database name in the box in the left pane and press ‘create’
Good! Now you’re ready to install WordPress
5. Installing WordPress: In your web browser go to http://yoursite.com
The WordPress installation dialogue should appear.
6. Enter your database name, user name and password of your database account. You can leave the database prefix at default
Follow the prompts and remember to save the admin password in a safe place!
7. Go to http://youraddress.com to see you site.
How To: Build a Professional Looking Website using WordPress - Part 2
I have a friend who will find this article very useful.
very nice post thank you guys for sharing with us!
Wordpress is a greation option for people wanting to build a nice site fairly easily.
This is a great step-by-step guide, Janet. I’ve added it to FURL. Looks like with all the plugins, Wordpress is really growing far beyond a blogging platform.
I agree wordpress is great if you just want to throw up a web site and have it look nice and have the ability to modify mostly everything on it easily. WP is great for blogging no doubt
Hi Janet, this is a pretty good explanation of how to install wordpress. One thing that may also help…coreftp and filezilla offer free versions of FTP programs and they work very well for http://FTP. Another thing to consider, when someone sets up a hosting account, if the cpanel has fantastico delux, the can do a wordpress intall automatically, and then just have to play with themes and plug ins!
mike
Hi mike
Thanks for the comment.Fantastico is great but I have one problem with it. It doesn’t let you specify a name for the database so all the databases are named xxx_wrdp1, xxx_wrdp2 etc. OK if you only have a few databases but if you have a lot it’s a pain remembering which one goes with which site.
Great blog, thanks for sharing
WordPress is very good for building a good website fast. Nice read. Thanks.
Janet has a good point about fantasicos. I recently had my shared hosting go down, and had to transfer all of my sites, and part of the challenge was the databases. The thing that saved me was that the data bases were in the file folders for each site.
But when you do log into your cpanel, fantasicos just names the databases on order of site creation.
awesome article, I have been having problems with a wordpress blog
Great information, I’ve been thinking about converting one of my websites to wordpress but have been a little scared off by the coding and database involved.
Hi there, I am looking for a new Wordpress e-commerce plugin but am a bit confused about Wiget Modules - first of all, can you add as many as you wish and does it come included in the wordpress software or is additional software required. I am also interested in Commentluv and wondered if any one out there had used with any success? Any suggestions would be great!
Thanks
Simon
Great information, I’ve been thinking about converting one of my websites to wordpress but have been a little scared off by the coding and database involved.
Wordpress is fine with me, it is only the URL naming convention that is bothering me but still it can be solved.
I don’t really support wordpress or other free blogging platform. Even for my blog, i design and create them because it is easier for me to edit or enhance the features.
Thanks mate one of the best tutorials available on the internet. Thanks again.
Very useful post, thanks for the info. Where’s part 2?
Im trying to decide what template to use for my new site and wordpress is looking good. Im using Joomla at the moment but not taking to it very well. Thank you for the guide. Off to part 2 I go…
Great article.
@dreambok, there are plenty of sites that offer free wordpress themes. Just google “free wordpress themes” and you will find plenty of sites with thousands of templates. Good luck.
Thanks for this information
Great article.thanks
This is a great article. Thanks
Thank for share.
wordpress is the best cms that i worked on it till now i got a really good experince with it also its seo friendly cuz i got a crawl rate in 10 mins in my wordpress blog thanks for the post ill check the part 2 now and i bookmarked the site to come back later
Hi,
Thanks for the best post on ” Wordpress “.
Really good experince with it .
Thanks again.
I am using WP for my sites too. The automatic installation of the script from the cpanel makes installation a breeze. Finding the right theme is probably the most time consuming part. Too many choices
Thanks for the great information.
Nicolette Spur
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Great information, I’ve been thinking about converting one of my websites to wordpress but have been a little scared off by the coding and database involved. Keep it up!
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I accept your article, I like wordpress very much, and I have one site which is developed by WP, bcaz it is very easy and user friendly.Zero knowledge person also update pages/posts.
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Nice article!
Nice site, I am still struggling with putting up WP. I will try again
Great tips. Wordpress is such a flexible blogging format that it’s great the beginners have some help in learning to master it. Keep up the good work.
Yeah, thank you)
nice tips you’ve shared! thanks a lot
Nice tutorial.
Btw. does (FireFTP) support SFTP?
Good article, thanks
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Wordpress is so good that all I use to create websites is this software. Most of the websites I create for my clients is with the WP software and plugins.
I have started to use wordpress as regular website. I added in a lot of weight loss articles to help people lose weight the healthy way.
I have been using wordpress for over a year now and I love it. I have used it for all kind of sites. This is a nice post has very good info. I will put your blog on my reading list.
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Hey great post! I love Wordpress and use it as a CMS for my site. I use it for blogging as well but the main reason I used it was the versatility of the platform.
WordPress is the best , thanks for posting
We use wordpress for publishing our blog website-designers-india.com. Wordpress is very high-end CMS I love it.
It works!
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Thanks for sharing the info.. It seems now i can improve my web rankings
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I like wordpress very much, and I have one site which is developed by WP, bcaz it is very easy and user friendly.thanks for very well information& it’s site is very cool.
i’ll try wordpress on my next blog. But thanks for the info
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great post, a little hard to read with some of the weird characters that didn’t transfer well, but other then that I enjoyed the brief quotes form the interview.
This is something what you can really rely on…! Since long time I look here at regular intervals and read the interesting and well written contributions. Its really appreciating.
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I am really glad that i came across your site. I really don’t know anything about Wordpress, thanks to you I am learning a lot.
I will try it and see if it works. Thanks for the info.
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