Installing WordPress

If you are somewhat technically challenged and have tried to install WordPress yourself you may find that the “Famous 5 minute install” takes much longer. Depending on what hosting account you choose you may experience database issues, if you can even figure out what a database is. You may need to add some code to your. htaccess file, or create one if you don’t have one.

Actually it isn’t that hard, and uploading or installing WordPress doesn’t take very long once you understand how. What can take time is the research involved in finding all the right plugins, configuring and optimizing your blog and then learning how to use it for optimal performance and traffic generation.

There are some hosting accounts that have automatic WordPress, and other script installation, usually called Fantastico. This is a very simple process for setting up a new WordPress blog. Others are not that easy and all the WordPress files will need to be uploaded to your hosting account.

No matter how you get WordPress up and running, learning how to properly configure it, and using it can take weeks or even months. You can bypass the installation and configuring learning process by letting me do it for you. Find out more here: http://www.wordpressmax.com/install-wordpress

When choosing a hosting account to run WordPress check for these minimum requirements.

• Linux/Apache web server
• MySql 4.0 or higher for a database
• PHP 4.2 or higher is installed on the web server

I highly recommend Bluehost.com for hosting, the cost is very competitive, usually with a free domain name and the control panel is very easy to navigate. Find out more at Bluehost.com.

Even if you install WordPress with the automated script installation you will still need to upload all the plugins needed and additional themes. With that in mind we will only cover the manual installation of WordPress and the plugins.

First you will need an FTP client to upload the necessary files from you computer to your hosting account. If you don’t have an FTP client I suggest SmartFTP http://www.smartftp.com/ or FileZilla http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/. Both are free to download and use for non-commercial use.

Determine where you are going to install your new blog. If it is to be your main website then it will go into the root folder of your website. If it is going to be part of your website then create a new folder (sub-directory)* in your hosting account called blog or anything for that matter. The name of the folder doesn’t matter; in fact you can use a short keyword that will be relevant to your blogs subject.

* The terms folder and sub-directory are synonymous.

Main site - www.yourwebsite.com

Part of site - www.yourwebsite.com/blog

Do not install your blog into the root of an existing website!

Download the latest zipped version of WordPress and save it on your computer. http://wordpress.org/download/

Unzip the contents and open the WordPress folder, these are the files that need uploaded to your website.

I have prepared a special package of plugins that are used throughout this guide. It also contains about twenty additional themes. Download the plugin and theme package from my website here:

http://www.wordpressmax.com/special.zip

Unzip the special plugin/theme package and open it, open the plugins folder and copy the entire contents of the special plugins folder, into the main WordPress package, shown below.

After copying the contents of the special plugins folder, browse to, and open the main WordPress folder.

Open the wordpress folder.

Open the wp-content folder.

Open the plugins folder.

Paste the contents of the special plugins package into the main WordPress plugins folder.

You will most likely get a Confirm File Replace warning click Yes to All.

Repeat the same steps above for the special themes folder if you want to have more than two blog themes to choose from. The Default theme that comes with all versions of WordPress does not show the sidebar on single posts and pages. I have provided a slightly modified version of the default theme that does show the sidebar on single posts and pages. If you want that option replace the default theme with the one provided in the special folder.

Create an empty MySql database on your web server.

Check the documentation on your hosting account for instructions on this step.

Take note of the database name, username and password, either write it down or copy and paste it into a text file using Notepad, you will need it in the next step.

Rename the wp-config-sample.php file.

Browse to the wordpress-2.xx folder on your computer, right click on wp-config-sample.php and rename it wp-config.php.

Edit the wp-config.php file with a text editor, usually Notepad.

Place the MySql database information between the ‘apostrophes’ into the areas shown below and save the changes.

<?php

// ** MySQL settings ** //

define(’DB_NAME’, ‘putyourdbnamehere’); // The name of the database

define(’DB_USER’, ‘usernamehere’); // Your MySQL username

define(’DB_PASSWORD’, ‘yourpasswordhere’); // …and password

define(’DB_HOST’, ‘localhost’); // 99% chance you won’t need to change this value

define(’DB_CHARSET’, ‘utf8′);

We are now ready to upload WordPress to your website. So much for the famous 5-minute install huh?

If you want me to install WordPress for you find out how here: http://www.wordpressmax.com/install-wordpress

Uploading WordPress to your hosting account.

Open your FTP client; I will be using SmartFTP throughout this guide. Check your FTP client’s and hosting account’s documentation for specific instructions.

Click on File, New Remote Browser, place your website’s domain name only without the http://www in the Host box, fill in the Username and Password then click OK as shown below.

Below is the main screen of the SmartFTP client showing the root folder of the website.

Create the subdirectory for your new blog.

Clicking the + sign next to the root folder will expand any existing files or folders within it. If you are installing the blog into a sub-directory you need to create a folder for it. To create a new folder in the root, right click on the root folder, choose New Folder.

Name the new sub-directory.

Give the new folder the name of your choosing, again most people use blog but you can call it anything you wish, be sure to use a hyphen-to-connect two or more words.

Find the WordPress files to upload.

An FTP client will open with two blocks, one side will be your website and the other is for browsing your local computer. The side of the screen these are shown depends upon your particular FTP client. In this case the website is on the left. Under the Folders section on the website side, click the folder where you want the blog installed. This will open the contents of that folder in the section next to it. The install folder, in this case new-blog, should be highlighted and the section next to it should be empty.

Drag the files from your computer into the hosting account blog folder (your website).

On the right side of the SmartFTP client are the local computers files. Browse to the wordpress-2.x folder, and then click the wordpress folder directly under it. Now the contents of the wordpress folder will appear in the far right section. In the far right section click the top folder, scroll down to the bottom, press the shift key and click the bottom file. You should have highlighted all the files and folders within the wordpress folder. Simply drag all the files and folders into the empty new blog folder.

Go take a break.

Depending on your Internet connection it will take a few minutes to upload all the files, so be patient.

Changing file permissions

After all the files have been uploaded the wp-content folder should have its permissions (CHMOD) changed to Execute. Browse to the wp-content folder, right click it and choose Properties.

Change all the files and folders properties in the wp-content folder to 666 777.

In the Permissions box put 666 or 777, and click to place a check in box next to Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files. 666 is more secure but 777 may be needed for some plugins. Click OK. This will also take a few minutes.

Installing new themes and plugins

If you already have wordpress installed using this method or Fantastico and want to upload new themes or plugins the steps to do so are very similar to those outlined above.

All plugins are usually installed into the wp-content/plugins folder. Be sure to check the instructions for any new plugins, at times it is simply a file, others may require an entire folder uploaded. The plugins I have provided are all in the plugins folder you downloaded. Follow these instructions to upload them to your blog.

On the website side of your FTP client, browse to your blog, wp-content, and finally the plugins folder. On the local computer side browse to and open the plugins folder. Highlight all the plugins you want uploaded and drag and drop them into the plugins folder on the website. Be sure to change the file permissions once uploaded.

Uploading additional WordPress themes.

Additional themes are uploaded the same way described above. On the website side browse to the wp-content/themes folder. On the local computer browse to the theme you want uploaded and drag it into the themes folder on your blogs website. If you want to be able to customize the theme’s code from within the WordPress dashboard change the file permissions to 666 or 777.

Run the WordPress installer.

Huh? You mean its not installed yet? No not yet you just uploaded all the files now it’s time to actually install WordPress!

There are two ways to do this; you can login to your hosting account, open the file manager, and browse to your blog folder, then the wp-admin folder. Find and click on the install.php file.

Scroll down and click install.php to run the installer.

If you can’t view or click the file from your hosting account then type its URL into your web browser like in this example:

http://www.yourwebsite.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php

Replace the blog portion of the URL with the name of the folder you uploaded the files to.

If you installed WordPress in the root to run as your main website remove the blog portion from the above URL example.

The Welcome To WordPress screen should now appear in your browser.

Name your new blog

Fill in your new blogs title, you can always change the title from within the dashboard at any time.

Fill in the email address. You will get an automated email with your login details to the address you supply here. You will also receive notices of activity on your blog to this email address; the email address can also be changed from within the dashboard.

Make sure there is a check mark in the checkbox next to “I would like my blog to appear in search engines like Google and Technorati.” unless, for some reason you don’t want your blog to show up in the search engines?

Note your Username and Password

This next screen will provide your username, which is always admin, and password. This information will also be sent to the email address you provided in the previous step. Copy the password and click the wp-login.php link. You can change the password from within the dashboard at any time.

Login to your new blog

Type in the Username, again it is always admin when doing a manual install, and paste or type in your password.

Say hello to your new WordPress blog!

If all this seems to technical or time consuming for you then you can take advantage of my blog install service. I will install and configure your blog with the plugins discussed in this guide. It will be configured based on this guide*. Simply fill in your information on the link below and we can work out the details personally. Filling out the information on the page will not require a payment. I will only send you a PayPal request after we have communicated personally.

Find out more here: http://www.wordpressmax.com/install-wordpress

* The specific plugins and configuration may change depending upon the latest version of WordPress and their compatibility with each other.

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