How to Set Up WordPress

A Rockin WordPress Site

You have decided that you want your own WordPress site.  Congratulations!  I hope you have already taken the time to read some of my other posts and prepare for your blog.  If not, go ahead and read them now, I will wait.

So, you have your
Domain name (World’s Largest Registrar – GoDaddy.com)

Hosting (Easy Web Hosting $6.95)

and are starting to write some content; you also signed up for Google Analytics, as I described here:  Setting up a analytics program.   Now you want to load WordPress.

Well, if you signed up with Bluehost, the set up is easy.

• Log In to Bluehost
• Scroll down to see the WordPress setup icon (in Software/Services section)
• Once you click this, you will get some instructions.  Among other things, you will need to set up a database as well.
  • Setting up a database was just as easy using the MySQL Wizard icon under Databases on the control panel.
  • Follow the instructions on setting up the database, and finishing the WordPress wizard.
  • Don’t worry, they have technical help that is actually helpful (yes, I have talked to them several times)
• Once you have it set up, you will be able to log into the WordPress Dashboard by going to your site and either clicking on the “Log In” under the Meta heading, or just type in http://www.yoursitename.com/wp-admin  the /wp-admin part is unique to WordPress and it brings you to the log in screen. 
• Now that you are logged in, you can change settings w/in WordPress Dashboard and you probably won’t have to go back and do much with Bluehost as far as your WordPress installation is concerned.

Bluehost made it very easy to set up a new WordPress site.  I happened to use them for transferring an existing site over to them, so I had to label my database the same as it was at my old host.  I also had to make other notes on the setup.  With a new setup, you won’t run into any of these issues.  You can name your database just about anything you want.

What is a database and why do I need it?

You can think of a database as a big computer shoebox that stores all of your information in a organized fashion.  You throw stuff into the shoebox, and a program sorts it and files it for you.  In order to use the database, you need a program that can sort as well as retrieve.  MySQL is that program.  So, each time you make a page or sign up a new user, or make a comment, or change the color of anything, this information gets stored in a database – a single shoebox with all your information in it.  You can extract this shoebox and move it to another hosting company if you want (I used myPHP to do this), but both servers would need the same database software.   Does that help?

One thing I like to do is keep a record of all the settings just in case I ever need to reference them again.  Then just pull out the paper or open the file when you need to know the name of the database or anything else.  This is much easier to do when you first set things up than to try and find it out when you need it.

Was this post at all helpful?  Any questions / concerns?

Ben
Blogmaster General
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