This is an essay that I wrote for a how-to contest that is now over. Sadly, I didn't win, but I would still enjoy to hear your feedback on my writing. This essay is reposted from my blog at http://joe.spaghettio.com. All rights belong to me (sorry, had to say that).
There are many reasons why you might want to install Wordpress in the first place. One of the reasons why is the fact that Wordpress is one of the greatest blogging platforms ever to be created is that it so simple to install and use. It is even simple enough for Chris to use! All you have to do to create a post is to go to the “Write” menu, click “Post” and write away! Another reason why you might want to install Wordpress is to run your own podcast. There is a great Wordpress plugin that was created by MightySeek (http://www.mightyseek.com/podpress) called Podpress. Podpress is a great little plugin that manages pretty much all of the aspects of podcasting except the creation of the content. It makes sure that your RSS feed is right for iTunes, it gives you stats on the downloads of your podcast, and it even supports “Premium Content” items (Only people who have special access in your Wordpress users can access it). Talking about all of that stuff is me getting ahead of my self so now, on to installing Wordpress!
The first step is to get the Wordpress files. To do this, you need to go to the Wordpress website at http://www.wordpress.org. When you get there, there will be a big red button in the sidebar that says download Wordpress 2.x.x, Click that, and it will download a .zip file that is about one megabyte in size. Since this file is in the .zip format, you will need a piece of software to uncompress it or “un-zip” it. There are two pieces of software that I know of that I like for the Windows operating system. My least favorite of the two is called WinZip. My favorite is called WinRAR. You really should Google WinRAR and download it because it is a great piece of software. Also, even though there is a $40.00 charge for a license key after forty days, you can continue to use it (at least in the version that I have because I never updated it). Once you download one of these programs, open the .zip archive in it and unzip it to your desktop.
The next step to get Wordpress installed is to connect to your web server. If you don’t have a web server (The hosting company that you have your website on will provide you with one. Some good hosting companies are Webair, GoDaddy, and Dreamhost.) To connect to your web server to upload the files to your web server, you need an FTP program. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. My favorite FTP program is FileZilla (FileZilla is the program that I will explain. If you already have a favorite FTP client, use that one to connect to your web server.) which you can get at http://filezilla-project.org/download.php. Make sure that if you download FileZilla, that you download it with a web browser like Firefox because the download comes in a .download file. Once you have it downloaded, go on and install it. Once it is installed and you open it up, at the top, you should see a toolbar with a button at the end that says “Quick Connect.” In that toolbar, there should be four boxes labeled “Host:”, “Username:”, “Password:”, and “Port:.” What you should fill in for the “Host:” box is your web site’s address without the http://www. You should fill in your FTP username and password for the “Username:” and the “Password:” fields. If you do not know what your FTP username and password are, please contact your web hosting company for them. In the “Port:” field, you should put the number 21. Port 21 is the standard FTP port. Once you are done with that, click “Quick Connect” and you should be connected to your web server.
Once you are connected to your web server, the next step is to upload all of the Wordpress files. In FileZilla, the left two panes are your local system and the right two panes are the web server. In your local system, navigate to where the Wordpress folder is. Click into the Wordpress files until you come upon three folders that have the names of “wp-admin”, “wp-content”, and “wp-includes”. When you come to those three folders, stop. On the remote pane in FileZilla, navigate to where you want Wordpress to live on your site. Once you have done this, highlight all of the Wordpress files in the local panes and drag them into the remote folder on the remote pane. The files and folders will then begin to upload. Go grab a snack while this is going on depending on how fast your internet connection is. Once it is done, you can close FileZilla. Wordpress is now officially on your site. Now, all you need to do is install it.
One of the things that you need to install Wordpress is something called a MySQL database. The MySQL database will hold all of the information that Wordpress needs to function including your posts and your comments. This MySQL database is very important to your Wordpress install as you have probably figured out. If you do not back this up, and you loose it, you loose everything. Every web host has a different way of setting up MySQL databases. Look for a button in your control panel labeled something like “Setup MySQL.” If you can not find it, contact your web host for assistance.
Now that you have a MySQL database setup, it is now officially time to install Wordpress. To do this, first, navigate to the place on your site where all the Wordpress files are stored. If you just drug the entire folder into the root of your site, it will probably be at http://www.yoursitehere.yourtldhere/wordpress/. Once you get there you should be presented with a screen that says lets get started. Click that button and go through the prompts. When you get to the screen that asks you about your database details, enter them in exactly the same as you did when you set up the MySQL database. If you don’t, it will not work and you will have to start over. The database host should remain “localhost” unless your web host told you otherwise. Also, make sure that you enter a valid email address on the screen that asks you for your email address. When you finally get to the screen that says your username is “admin” and your password is “insert the password that was given to you at the end of the install here”, make sure that you copy that password because if your forget it you will have to start over. Click the login button type in admin for the username and paste in your password! You now officially have Wordpress uploaded, installed, and running on your server! Congratulations! The first thing that you need to do now is go into the users tab in the Wordpress admin panel and change the admin password before you log out.
Enjoy your blogging!
As you can probably see Wordpress is one of the easiest blogging platforms to setup. Now that you have it setup, you can add plugins to it. Plugins are little PHP files that make Wordpress do a whole host of things. Some plugins, like PodPress let you use Wordpress to manage your podcast. Others let you turn Wordpress into an e-commerce website. You can find these and a whole host of other Wordpress plugins at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/. You can also install themes to make Wordpress look different then the default theme. You can download Chris Pirillo's Wicketpixie Wordpress Theme from http://chris.pirillo.com/wicketpixie
Joe Spaghettio 