(This is part of the How to Create a Blog Series.)
There are quick and slow (not that slow either) ways to install a WordPress on you blog.
The quick and easy way is using the Fantastico tool provided in cPanel. Just a few clicks, your WordPress will be up and running in less than 2 minutes.
The only problem is that using this method everything is setup with default settings. From the security point of view, this is something undesirable.
For this tutorial, I going to go through a more secure and manual way of installing a WordPress.
But, for some reason, if you’re still interested in installing a WordPress using Fantastico, here is the tutorial. You can check out how fast it’s to complete a single installation.
Installing WordPress Manually
In this tutorial, I will show you a more secure way of installing a WordPress.
It involves 2 main tasks:
- Creating a MySQL database.
- Uploading the WordPress files and running the installation script.
i. Creating a MYSQL database for WordPress
1. Log in to the cPanel of your web host. Usually, you can do this by browsing http://yourdomain.com/cpanel to bring up the cPanel login screen.
2. Locate and click the MySQL Database icon.
3. In the MySQL Databases page, key in your preferred database name in the New Database text box and click the Create Database button.
4. You will get to a page that says the database is added. Click the Go Back button to continue.
5. Now, you need to create a new user to access and manage the created database. In the MySQL Users section, enter a new username and password. Then, click the Create User button.
6. Again, you will get to a page that says the user is added. Click the Go Back button to continue.
7. Now, it’s time to assign the user to the database. In the Add User To Database section, select the user from the User drop-down list and then select the right database. Click the Add button to continue.
8. Now, you will get to the Manage User Privileges page. Click the ALL PRIVILEGES checkbox; and follow by clicking the Make Changes button.
Alright, you have reached the end of creating a database. Proceed to find out the steps to run the WordPress installation script.
ii. Uploading the WordPress Files and Running the installation Script.
1. Download the latest WordPress from http://wordpress.org/download/ . For Windows and Mac users, you can go for the .zip version.
2. Unzip the downloaded WordPress .zip file. A wordpress folder will be created.
3. Connect your web host using a FTP client. I’ve been using the free Filezilla ftp client.
4. Upload all the files and folders in wordpress folder into the root directory.
Note: If you want to install WordPress in a subdirectory such as /blog/, then create a /blog/ folder in your root directory and upload all files into this folder.
5. Once you’re done with the uploading, enter the http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin/install.php URL to start the installation scripts. (replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain name)
6. Click the Create a Configuration File button to continue.
7. The Welcome to WordPress page appears. Click the Let’s go! Button to continue.
8. On this page, enter the following information. Then click the Submit button.
- The database name you have created.
- The username you have created.
- The password for the username.
- Leave the localhost value here.
- For the table prefix, the default value is wp_ . It is not recommended to use the default value for security reason. The recommended format is to add a unique alphanumeric string, then follow by an underscore to create a unique table prefix, such as wp_c6l.
9. If you’ve entered the database information correctly, you’ll see the page below. Click the Run the install button now.
10. Here, you need to supply the following information and click the Install WordPress button.
Don’t worry, what you’ve entered here can be changed later after the installation.
- Enter your site title.
- Enter your preferred username for logging in to WordPress.
- Enter your preferred password (2 times) for logging in to WordPress.
- Enter the email address that you would like to receive the administrative information notification. You will receive an email upon successfully installed this WordPress.
- Uncheck the checkbox of Allow my site to appear in search engines like Google and Technorati. I prefer not to allow Google to crawl and index my blog during designing stage.
11. Finally, the Success page appears, and you’re done with the installation.
12. Browse your site and you’ll see the default WordPress theme.
Alright once you have successful install WordPress, the next task is choosing a theme for it. Let’s find out how to find the right theme for your blog in the next tutorial.
(This is part of the How to Create a Blog Series.)