to select a host with an automatic, one-click WordPress installation tool. Many of the bigger hosting companies have this option. The trade-off for the convenience of having WordPress installed for you may be a lack of control. The host may limit the number of themes or plugins you have access to, or otherwise limit your ability to manage your site. Check into this before signing a contract.
In this section, we will show you how to set up WordPress on your host site; you won’t have to wonder how much control you have, and it won’t cost you a dime. If the very idea of setting up a database scares you, you may want to skip ahead to the section titled “Choose a Design Theme.” But we mean it when we say the technical stuff can be done in about an hour. Give it a shot!
Before you set up your site on the host’s computer, you will need to download some software to your own computer:
1 You need a program to upload your files to your host. FileZilla is a bit of free software that can handle that. Download it at filezilla-project.org.
2 You need the latest version of WordPress. Download it at wordpress.org/download. This will be a Zip archive, which you will need to extract into a separate folder on your computer.
WordPress stores much of the content of your site in a MySQL database. Before installing WordPress on your host site, you need to create a database that WordPress can access. Go to your web hosting site to manage this.
The following instructions are for the popular cPanel web administration application. Your hosting company may use a different application, but the process should be pretty similar:
1 Click MySQL Databases from the main screen. Under Create New Database, type in a name for your database. Technically, you can name it anything. While it’s common to name this database “wordpress,” you run a security risk in doing so. It’s best to use a name that you won’t forget on those rare occasions when you have to change a database configuration setting, but hard for evildoers to guess.
2 Click Create to add your database. Write this name down, as you will need it during the WordPress installation.
3 Under Create New MySQL User, use the drop-down menu to select your newly created database.
4 Add a name under MySQL User and type in the password twice. Make sure you use a very strong password, one that’s easy for you to remember but hard for others to discover. All the Privileges should be checked.
5 Click Add. Write down the name and password of the new user, as in Step 2.
Your database is now set up. You can now upload your WordPress files.
FileZilla is a simple FTP client application that connects to your web host and uploads your WordPress files with just a few setup steps. When you signed up with your host, most likely you received information about uploading files to the host’s FTP server. Given its cross-platform character and its lack of cost, you might even find that your host has step-by-step instructions for setting up FTP with FileZilla.
After downloading and installing FileZilla, follow these steps to set up the file transfer between your computer and your web host:
1 Launch FileZilla.
2 Go to File > Site Manager (or click the first icon on the left in the toolbar). A dialogue box appears.
3 Click New Site to enter your information.
4 Insert the connection information you received from your host. This includes the following:Host: This is usually the same as your domain name, with ftp in front, for example, ftp.myWPblog.com.Server Type: This should always be FTP.Logon Type: For your website, this should usually be set to Normal. You use anonymous FTP when you visit a software download site, where the keepers don’t really care who you are. The Normal setting requires a password to get to.User: Your host should give you a username to access your files. Type this here.Password: This is the place where you supply your password. It is usually identical to your site password.Your host might have you fill in the Account line, and you can add information in the Comments section.
5 Click the Transfer Settings tab. Then select the Passive button. In passive mode, the client sets up all the data flow. This is more secure, especially if your firewall stops any data trying to pass through it from outside the network.
6 Click the Advanced tab. Your host might want you to set a Default Remote Directory. This is the directory at the host server that appears when you log in. If you don’t set this option, you will likely enter a directory with your username at login time. You could set up a WordPress directory as the default, too. Similarly, you might want to set your local WordPress directory as the default local directory.
7 Click Connect at the bottom of the screen. If your settings are entered correctly, you should now be connected to your host server, and you can upload files by dragging them on the screen from the source folder to the destination folder. (When you’re ready to disconnect from the server, press Ctrl+D in Windows, Command+D on a Mac.)
8 Point the Local Site section of FileZilla to the location of the WordPress files on your own computer. Connect to your host (Remote Site) on the right side and navigate to the directory where you want to store WordPress. If you’re ready to transfer all the WordPress files, press Ctrl+A (Windows) or Command+A (Mac) to select them; then drag them over to the right side to begin the transfer.
Now you’re ready to install WordPress!
THE FAMOUS 5-MINUTE WORDPRESS INSTALLATION
Let’s do the famous five-minute WordPress installation!
1 Go to http://<yourdomainname>. If you did everything correctly in the last set of steps, you should see a mostly empty screen with a Create a Configuration File button. Click it.
2 Some more introductory language appears, with a Let’s Go! button. Click that button.
3 Enter the information we advised you to write down in the previous section:Database nameDatabase username (which should be the same as the database)The database user’s passwordThe database host (you shouldn’t have to change this from localhost)Table prefix (you can leave this as the default wp_)
4 Click the Submit button. If all has gone well, you’ll see the “All right Sparky!” screen. If all has not gone well, you will get an error message. Most often it will complain about an “Error establishing a database connection.” If this happens, make sure that you entered the right information about your database. Remember these details about your database:The database name should be spelled exactly the same in the WordPress Installation Wizard as it is in phpMyAdmin. Spelling counts everywhere else, too!The database username should be the same as the database name.The database password is case-sensitive.The database host information is localhost.
Get all of these items right, and you’ll be all right, Sparky! Note
