When I set out to put up this site as a self-hosted blog, I found that basic instructions on how to do so are almost always incomplete. There are gaps in the instructions from several sources that one has to fill in oneself. I thought I’d share the links that helped me, in case they are useful to others. The procedures are actually very easy; I just found it difficult to find them all in one place. Part of the problem is that there are multiple ways to do the same thing. I’ll mainly focus on one procedure.
What I’m talking about is installing WordPress under your own domain name, to use as a Web site, blog, or both. You’ve registered for your domain and signed up with a hosting service to host your site. Your hosting provider will give you basic instructions by e-mail on administering your account when you sign up. Often, hosting providers will use the program Cpanel as a kind of dashboard for uploading files and any other administration duties to run your Web site, so I’ll refer to it.
Don’t forget that WordPress has good, extensive documentation in its Codex.
Note: Be sure to change the nameservers for your domain at the place where you registered it. You do this in your account settings there (if you didn’t register your domain with your hosting provider itself). Your hosting provider will give you the nameserver names to enter.
Your hosting provider’s instructions will tell you how to enter Cpanel for your account. A program in Cpanel called Fantastico, if your provider offers it, can install WordPress for you in a matter of seconds. You just have a few fields to fill out and you’re done.
Basics for Fantastico (not explained in the form):
- You can’t change the username you enter after things are set up.
- The username and password you set up in Fantastico is what you’ll use to enter your adminstration panels for WordPress. (Your hosting provider will give you the URL for entering your WordPress administration, which you’ll use after everything is set up; this is separate from Cpanel.)
- The Administrator Nickname is the name that will show up in some blog themes as the author of the post; you can change this later.
- The site name and description will show up as the title and subtitle on your blog; these can be changed later.
- The e-mail address you enter is the one to which you’ll be sent notifications from your blog about someone posting a comment, etc.; it can be changed later, of course, and just use one you have active right now.
Helpful links:
Themes
OK, that’s done. It really is easy. Now it’s time to play with how your site looks.
WordPress comes with just two options for themes, which are the designs, the templates, for your blog. You can download additional themes from WordPress and other sources. You’ll download them to your own computer, probably as a zip file (a compressed file), and then upload them into your WordPress folders in your host provider account, which you can do in Cpanel with Cpanel’s File Manager (as one way of doing it). You can then “unzip” them while in File Manager.
Helpful links:
- How to Install WordPress Themes Using Cpanel
- Using Themes (WordPress Codex)
- WordPress Themes Directory (You can download themes from here)
Plugins
Plugins can be installed in WordPress for extra functions, such as a statistics counter. Often an instruction will read “upload the plugin into your /wp-content/plugin/ directory.” You download the plugin as a zip file, so do they mean upload the zip file, the folder within the zip file after you’ve “extracted” it, or the file itself?
They (usually) mean the file itself, which can be within a folder that’s within another folder. Extracting the zip file on your own computer means you can read the read_me file that usually accompanies it, which might have additional instructions. (I’m sure you can also upload the zip file and extract it in your Cpanel File Manager, especially if there is more than one file involved, but then your not reading the read_me … but let’s just move on.)
Luckily, the latest version of WordPress has a page from which you can choose a plugin from the Wordpress directory and install it; or upload the zip file from your home computer and install it, without having to go through Cpanel (or other uploading means).
Helpful Links:
- Installing Plugins With the “Add New” Page in WordPress (WordPress Codex)
- Managing Plugins (WordPress.org Codex)
Here are WordPress forum discussions I found about two different ways to upload plugins manually:
I hope this is of some help. It will mostly help me, when I have to do it all over again for some reason.
Just don’t get me started on “www” or “no www.”
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