Setting up a WordPress Blog

June 16th, 2007

How to Set-Up a WordPress Blog
by Stephanie M. Cockerl

My name is Stephanie Cockerl of nextSteph and I help businesses build and develop their blogs. I got started into blogging simply because I wanted a way to keep track of my professional accomplishments. My resume was getting way too long and other solutions did not fit. I was introduced to WordPress by a former co-worker and good friend.  The more comfortable I became blogging, the more I wanted to do.

Laura has asked me to write about setting up a blog using WordPress.

WordPress has two options for setting up a blog.

  1. “Free hosting” at www.wordpress.org. This solution is recommended for individuals who are new to blogging or are blogging for mainly personal reasons;
  2. New or existing web hosting. Custom installation of WordPress in a web hosting account. This is recommended for businesses.

For the purposes of this blog, I am going to focus on installing WordPress on a new or existing web hosting account.

What one needs to do before installing WordPress is to make sure the web hosting has the capability to do so. WordPress is an open source program, meaning that there is no software fee.

There are three ingredients needed to install WordPress.

  1. The web host is able to host PHP (http://www.php.net) files. PHP  is an open source programming language that enables dynamic programming.
  2. The second ingredient for WordPress that is needed is a MySQL database. The database is important because it is not only stores all the data for the blog, but when the program is installed, the database will also contain the operational files needed to operate WordPress.
  3. Lastly, The web hosting should be a Apache (Linux).

Web hosting companies are increasingly providing “push-button” installation of WordPress. This means that typically in anywhere from 15 minutes to 30 minutes, WordPress can be installed.  If the web hosting company does not have instant installation available, one can download the software at WordPress.org and can have a web hosting professional or webmaster manually upload them.

Once you have installed Wordpress, one has to log in to blog posts. One of the advantages of WordPress is the ability to create categories to fit the tone of the post.

As one gets more comfortable with the program, one can make their WordPress blog truly their own with developing customized templates, installing custom plug-ins and more.

Posted in Blogging.

 

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One Response to “Setting up a WordPress Blog”

  1. » Guest Post on BizResearch about WordPress » Blog Archive From the desk of next STEPH Says:
    June 17th, 2007 at 12:01 am

    […] For those of you debating which software to use for blogging, take a look at the guest post I did for Laura Thieme of BizResearch on her Search Engine Marketing Blog about WordPress entitled “Setting up a WordPress Blog“. […]