A self-hosted WordPress blog has a number of advantages over freely hosted blogs. With a self-hosted WordPress blog, you have complete control over your code, so you can implement any theme, modify it entirely, or create your own.
You can add any plugin you want, and then hack the code. The application's code is completely open, allowing you total access to modify, tweak, or explore what you want.
WordPress has a large community of enthusiastic bloggers who help each other in forums, create and share themes and plugins, and help move the software forward with new features and better design.
With such freedom, what you can do with a WordPress blog can be a bit overwhelming. The WordPress Codex (the wiki manual for WordPress) has hundreds of pages and can be daunting in scope.
The intent of this WordPress Quick Start Guide is to get you up and running with WordPress and give you a brief overview of the most important concepts and techniques. It covers the most common setup tasks you need to technically launch, configure, and manage your blog. It then lays down some concepts for more advanced theme modification.
Note: WordPress.org differs from WordPress.com in a fundamental way. WordPress.org provides WordPress software that you can download and install on the server space you rent from a web host. In contrast, WordPress.com provides free hosting for your WordPress.com blog, but restricts the themes and plugins you can implement. With WordPress.com, you have to pay extra to modify your stylesheet, and you can't display ads or manipulate any of the code. (For more information on the difference, see WordPress.com Versus WordPress.org. Everything in this guide relates to self-hosted WordPress blogs.
Become Familiar with FTP
One tool you'll need to manage your WordPress files is an FTP program, such as Filezilla. Through FTP, you'll upload themes and plugins to your blog, and if your web host doesn't support auto-installers, you'll need an FTP program to install your blog.
Filezilla is a simple program. All it requires is your server address, username, and password to connect to your web host. When you connect, the remote host's files appear in one column (the right), while your local files appear in the left column. You transfer files or folder from your local host to the remote host by dragging the files to the remote host column. After you enter your FTP details once, use drop-down arrow next to the Quick Connect button to connect immediately.
More Information:
You can add any plugin you want, and then hack the code. The application's code is completely open, allowing you total access to modify, tweak, or explore what you want.
WordPress has a large community of enthusiastic bloggers who help each other in forums, create and share themes and plugins, and help move the software forward with new features and better design.
With such freedom, what you can do with a WordPress blog can be a bit overwhelming. The WordPress Codex (the wiki manual for WordPress) has hundreds of pages and can be daunting in scope.
The intent of this WordPress Quick Start Guide is to get you up and running with WordPress and give you a brief overview of the most important concepts and techniques. It covers the most common setup tasks you need to technically launch, configure, and manage your blog. It then lays down some concepts for more advanced theme modification.
Note: WordPress.org differs from WordPress.com in a fundamental way. WordPress.org provides WordPress software that you can download and install on the server space you rent from a web host. In contrast, WordPress.com provides free hosting for your WordPress.com blog, but restricts the themes and plugins you can implement. With WordPress.com, you have to pay extra to modify your stylesheet, and you can't display ads or manipulate any of the code. (For more information on the difference, see WordPress.com Versus WordPress.org. Everything in this guide relates to self-hosted WordPress blogs.
Become Familiar with FTP
One tool you'll need to manage your WordPress files is an FTP program, such as Filezilla. Through FTP, you'll upload themes and plugins to your blog, and if your web host doesn't support auto-installers, you'll need an FTP program to install your blog.
Filezilla is a simple program. All it requires is your server address, username, and password to connect to your web host. When you connect, the remote host's files appear in one column (the right), while your local files appear in the left column. You transfer files or folder from your local host to the remote host by dragging the files to the remote host column. After you enter your FTP details once, use drop-down arrow next to the Quick Connect button to connect immediately.
More Information:
- Filezilla
- Filezilla Tutorial
- FTP Clients
Install WordPress on Your Web Host
You need a web host that has PHP and MySQL, and preferably one with cPanel to make the installation of WordPress as simple as possible. In my experience, BlueHost probably has the best support of any web host, and it has the easiest auto-installer: Simple Scripts. After you sign up with a web host, navigate to the cPanel (or the equivalent) and look for Simple Scripts, Fantastico, or some other auto-installer for WordPress. If there isn't an auto-installer, you have to install WordPress manually following the "famous 5 minute install" instructions, which are fairly simple. See the resources below for instructions on the different installation methods.
To install WordPress on a Web host:
- Sign up for a web host plan (for example, at BlueHost.com).
- Log into your cPanel by going to http://yourdomain.com/cpanel.
- Click the Simple Scripts feature (or, alternatively, the Fantastico feature).
- If no auto-installer exists, follow the steps for the 5 minute manual install.
- Install a WordPress blog.
The WordPress installation arranges files in three main folders (wp-admin, wp-content, and wp-includes). It also installs loose files in the root folder. Most of the uploading you'll do is with the wp-content folder.
Note:When you connect to your remote host, you may have to go into the public_html or www folder to see the WordPress files. Both folders open the door to your WordPress content. The folders simply mirror each other to deliver the same results when users go to either http://www.yourdomain.com or http://yourdomain.com.
The wp-Content folder has two important subfolders: plugins and themes. When you upload a plugin or theme to these folders using FTP, the plugin or theme is available for activation inside your WordPress admin panel. Also, any images you upload when writing a post in WordPress are stored in the wp-content/uploads folder.
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