In these step-by-step instructions and video tutorials, you’ll learn how to setup a WordPress blog in just a few hours -- from buying a domain name (URL), setting up a hosting server, email forwards, WordPress installation and configuration, installing important plugins, SEO, and a few additional tutorials on how to be an amazing blogger.

 

Before we start this step-by-step ‘HowTo’ guide, here’s a little clip called ‘Blogs in Plain English’ (courtesy of commoncraft.com) to help you understand why you might want to set up your own blog:

 

 

Ready to start?

 

1. Purchasing a domain name + hosting service:

Domain name is simply the URL you’ll be using (like YAHOO.com or CNN.com). When you buy a domain name you’re really buying the rights to use that name for a limited time. Hosting, on the other hand, means a physical space on someone’s hard-drive (server) where your blog’s/website’s files will be stored. To have a website or a blog you’ll need both. When visitors type your domain URL into their browser, they are being redirected to the files stored on your hosting service. You can purchase the domain name separately from the hosting but it’s not recommended since some hosting services (like 1&1) will give you 1, 2 or even 3 free domains with your hosting service (GoDaddy, for example, do no give free domain with their hosting so you’ll have to pay for both if you )

My personal choice is 1&1 (click here for their current deals). I’m sure you’ve heard of GoDaddy but I find 1&1 to be cheaper, with better customer support, and a few extra features GoDaddy charge more for (like free domains with your hosting). Here’s a detailed comparison between the two.

Before choosing a domain name, think about YOU as a BRAND.  What would you like people to know about you?  How would you like others to perceive you? To identify your self-branding goals, you can use these tools:

TOOL: Personal Branding Creative Brief

TIP: 12 Excellent Tools for Picking a Domain Name

USEFUL: 1&1′s Hosting | Customer / Tech Support: 1-866-991-2631

IMPORTANT: You want the Linux hosting and not the Windows hosting, even if you have a Windows operating system.

2. Before Installing Your Blog (Setting up FTP and MySQP and FileZilla):

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. It’s the way your computer communicates with the hosting service you just purchased. To be able to transfer the blog files, you will need to download and install an FTP software. I recommend FileZilla (click here to download). It’s free, fast, easy to install & use, and works well on both Windows and Mac OS. If you use Firefox as a browser, another good option is FireFTP (Firefox addon).

The next step will be to create an FTP account (via your 1&1 control panel):

USEFUL: If you need further assistance, call 1&1′s Tech Support: 1-866-991-2631

MySQL is a database management system which is used (in our case) to store your blog’s content (posts, pages, links, etc). Before you can setup your blog, you will need to create a MySQL databse in your 1&1 Control Panel:

USEFUL: If you need further assistance, call 1&1′s Tech Support: 1-866-991-2631

3. Downloading WordPress and configuring WP-config.php:

WordPress is currently the leading blogging software out there. You may have heard of, or used, other platforms (such are Blogger, Tumbler, Drupal, TypePad, LiveJournal, Movable Type, etc) but there’s a general consensus among bloggers that WordPress is relatively easy to install, very easy to use and offers lots of features that other platforms do not.

COMPARE BLOGGING PLATFORMS: ProBlogger.net chart and a more detailed comparison chart (via ojr.org)

Download the latest version of WordPress (2.9.2) here. Save the ZIP file on your harddrive and unzip it.

Download my Extras for WordPress 2.9.2 here. Unzip it to the same folder you used for WordPress, overriding any existing file in the WordPress folder you created in the previous step.

My extras include:

- Improved wp-config.php (see /** EXTRAs in it) that will make your blog run faster, smoother, using more of 1&1′s allocated memory.
-- Improved wp-settings.php (see /** EXTRAs in it) that will increase 1&1′s allocated memory.
-- Improved php.ini that will increase 1&1′s allocated memory (from 32mb to 40mb)
-- info.php file that will provide lots of valuable info about your hosting service.
-- Improved .htaccess files for both 1&1 and GoDaddy.
-- Sample favicon.ico for your blog.
-- List of the most useful WordPress plugins.txt

In the WordPress folder you unzipped, you should find a file called wp-config.php (your computer might not show the .php extension if it’s setup to hide file extensions). If you only see a file called wp-config-sample.php that means you did not unzip the ‘Extras‘ above to the same folder where you unzipped WordPress. Look for the ‘Extras‘ you downloaded and make sure you unzip/copy/paste them to the same folder as your WordPress files.

Open wp-config.php using a text editor (WordPad for PC or TextEdit for Mac will do. NotePad might show all lines in one chunk). In step 2, you’ve created a MySQL database and hopefully wrote down its details. Go back to your notes and copy/paste these 4 fields from the database you’ve created into wp-config.php:

Save wp-congif.php.

NOTE: It is extremely important to keep the single quotation marks around the fields you’re copying. If you get a database error message later on, when you activate WordPress, it’s probably because you didn’t put the right info here or deleted one of the quotation marks.

4. Uploading WordPress to your 1&1 hosting space with FileZilla:

In step 2, you’ve downloaded and installed an FTP client called FileZilla. Run FileZilla and transfer the WordPress files to your hosting server.

NOTE: the video below (courtesy of slackermarketing.com) will show you how to transfer your files. In the video, they recommend creating a /blog folder on your hosting server side. If your intension, is for your domain to host your blog alone (no other website), you can also transfer the files directly to the root (main) folder:

5. Activating WordPress for the first time:

- Visit:  http://YourDomnainName.com/wp-admin/install.php (or .org, net, etc, whichever one you bought).

- This should setup the tables needed for your blog. If there is an error, double check your wp-config.php file, and try again.

- Copy the temporary password given to you and use it for your first login. Your username is admin and you can change your password to something more memorable once you login (left menu, under: Users / Your Profile).

Here’s a little clip that explains how to Log In to your admin dashboard:

TIP: adding /wp-admin at the end of your url is exactly the same as adding /wp-login (both will take you to your blog’s dashboard).

About your blog’s Dashboard (courtesy of learntospeakgeek.com):

6. Updating .htaccess:

.htaccess is a server management file which can provide a higher level of security, increase memory access, and a few other important settings you can add to your blog (or to any other website). For your convenience, I have written a very powerful .htaccess file and added it to the Extras you’ve downloaded before. In your unzipped WordPress folder, you should see two versions of it, one for 1&1 hosting and the other for GoDaddy (they use a slightly different code to enforce PHP5). Assuming your host is via 1&1:

- From within FileZill (the FTP client), look for a file named htaccess-1and1.txt on your server side (the right side, not the left side which is your local hard-drive).

- right-click it and rename it to:  .htaccess (basically adding a dot before the h and deleting the dash and everything after it, including the .txt extension).

If you’re interested in learning what exactly this .htaccess file do, open it with a text editor and read the side notes.

TIP: Updating this .htaccess file will allow you to install and activate over 40 plugins in one click vs. having to install and activate them one by one.

7. Configuring WordPress:

At this point, WordPress is installed on your domain. If you visit http://YourDomainName.com you should see your blog. It should looks something like this:

Now you’ll need to configure the basic settings for your blog. To do so, visit your admin page (also called Dashboard): http://YourDomainName.com/wp-admin

[viddler id=90de1906&w=525&h=444]

The following SETTINGS (left menu) are shown in the video above:

Settings / WRITING / Update Services (copy/paste this instead of whatever is in the box):

http://rpc.pingomatic.com
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2

http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php

Settings / DISCUSSION / Comment Moderation
Click here and copy this list into the Comment Moderation box.

Settings / PERMALINKS / Common Settings - Check ‘Custom Structure’ and  copy/paste this:
/%category%/%postname%

To add the ‘www‘ prefix to your URL, go to:
Settings / GENERAL / For both WordPress address (URL) and Blog address (URL) add ‘www‘ / Save.

8. Installing Plugins:

Plugins add functionality, security, usability, and many other features to WordPress. Before we install any plugins, there are two unnecessary plugins that were auto-installed by WP, and that we don’t really need (the more plugins installed the slower your blog will be to your visitors). On your blog’s Dashboard (left menu):

Plugins / INSTALLED / Check both Akismet and Hello Dolly
Under Bulk Action, choose Delete / click Apply

Now lets add some useful plugins:

Plugins / ADD NEW / In the search box, type: plugin central / hit search
Install “Plugin Central” (ignore any “plug not been tested” message if you get one) / click Install Now / click Activate Plugin

Click the Plugin tab on the left-menu once again, and then the Plugin Central under it.
Copy the list of plugins (links) below and post it into the Easy Plugin Installation box / below the box, click Install Plugins:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/admin-management-xtended/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ajaxd-wordpress/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/automatic-timezone/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/bad-behavior/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/defensio-anti-spam/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-analyticator/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sitemap-generator/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tantan-reports/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/better-plugin-compatibility-control/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/broken-link-checker/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/my-category-order/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/my-link-order/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/my-page-order/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sexybookmarks/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/subscribe-to-comments/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tinymce-advanced/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-db-backup/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-optimize/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/robots-meta/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/photo-dropper/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/reveal-ids-for-wp-admin-25/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/seo-image/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/simple-tags/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/smart-youtube/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wptouch/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-ajax-edit-comments/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/exclude-pages/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/page-links-to/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/redirection/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/search-unleashed/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sem-external-links/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-cumulus/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-polls/
http://www.maxblogpress.com/downloads/maxblogpress-ping-optimizer.zip
http://www.maxblogpress.com/downloads/psychic-search.zip
http://www.maxblogpress.com/downloads/maxblogpress-favicon.zip

http://www.maxblogpress.com/downloads/seo-post-link.zip

9. Activating Plugins:

On the left menu, under Plugins / click Installed
For Inactive Plugins / click ACTIVATE under each plugin to activate them one by one.

If you followed steps #3 (extras) and step #6 (htaccess) of this guide, you can also activate all plugins at once. To do so, check the ‘Plugin‘ box below ‘Bulk Action‘ / Change Bulk Action to Activate and hit Apply.

If you didn’t follow steps 3 & 6, you might overuse 1&1 server’s cpu by activating all plugins at once and you’ll get “ERROR 500 -- Internal Server Error” message (which basically means you are using too much of their allocated memory). If you did get “ERROR 500″ message and can no longer access your blog’s Dashboard, follow these steps:

a. Using FileZilla or any other FTP client  -- rename the “plugins” folder on the server side (right side) to a different name (doesn’t matter what). The plugin folder is under the /wp-content/plugins

b. Login to YourDomain.com/wp-admin  -- that will reset your blog with no active plugins.

c. Using FileZilla or any other FTP client, rename the plugin folder back to -- plugins

d. Login to your YourDomain.com/wp-admin again and this time, activate the plugins one by one (or go back to make sure you follow steps #3 & #6 of this guide).

10. Plugin Setup:

Some of the plugins you installed require initial setup or configuration. In this section we will go over some of these. On the left menu, under:

Appearance / AJAXed WordPress / Overall Options (top)

Scroll to the bottom and under “AJAXed WordPress News“:

- CHECK to “Disable all news announcements?“
-- CHECK to “Disable news announcments of donations?“
-- REMOVE check from “Append a small link to aWP to blog footer“

SETTINGS / All-in-one SEO Pack (Search Engine Optimization):

Here’s why SEO:

Typically, this is how google presents search results:

In our example, all-in-one-SEO settings are:

Home Title: “The Advertising class” (even though our URL is TheADClass.com, we wanted the word “Advertising” to appear on the title since we assume people are more likely to search for it). Keep it short and relevant. While the format of the home-title shouldn’t be just keywords but a real title, the words you use for your home-title should be relevant to the google keywords you want to be found by.

Home Description: “The best resource page for advertising students, professors and professionals. Art Directors, Copywrites, Account Planners, Media Planners, AdAge, AdWeek, Ads of the World, ADDY, Clio, I Have an Idea.” Notice that in the example I gave here, the description in all-in-one is longer than what Google actually shows. Google only shows 150 characters (with spaces) so you want to limit your description to 150 characters.

Home Keywords: No more than 30. Use the most important keywords you’d like to be found by. All lowercase.

Check ALL check-boxes EXCEPT the last one (“Log important events”). This will prevent Google from lowering your PageRank due to duplicate content.

SETTINGS /  Timezone

Select the nearest city to you. This will auto-adjust your WP time to daylight savings time if needed.

SETTINGS / Bad Behavior

This plug will prevent a lot of spam comments on your blog. You want to un-check “Display statistics in blog footer“.

SETTINGS / Google Analyticator

This plugin Shows cool stats about your visitors. First, you’ll need to setup an account and get a UA code from Google Analytics. If your blog URL ends with /blog/ or /wordpress/ include that in the URL during the setup:
http://www.google.com/analytics/

Here’s a short clips on how to set it up (courtesy of OnlineCashflowGuru.com). Note that only the first 3 minutes of this clip are relevant (since we’re using the Google Analyticator plugin, we don’t need to copy/paste any code other than the UA number).

Setting up Google Analyticator with your UA code:

TIP: I would actually not recommend enabling the Footer Tracking Code by default, since it’s not compatible with every WordPress theme.

SETTINGS / MBP Favicon

MBP Favicon adds a cool favicon to your blog. Favicon (short for favorites icon), also known as a website icon or bookmark icon is a 16×16, 32×32 or 64×64 pixel square icon associated with a particular website or webpage.

NOTE: while this is a great plugin, the author of this plugin will send you marketing material after registration. When registering, I’d recommend using an alternative email that you can still check (in order to activate) rather than your main email address. When transfered to another website to sign up, pick “no thanks”.

Here are sime favicons inspiration:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/01/31/inspire-yourself-50-remarkable-favicons/
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/09/11/creative-favicons-tiny-artwork/
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/06/14/creative-favicons-when-small-is-beautiful/
http://deltatangobravo.com/archives/2004/march/favourite
http://pimpmypagerank.com/favicons/
http://mppierce66.home.comcast.net/~mppierce66/web/fi/collage.htm
http://www.cssjuice.com/20-best-favicon-online-generators/

SETTINGS / MBP Ping Optimizer

MBP Ping Optimizer is Great plugin that pings search engines about your new posts in a smart way. Nothing to configure, just register and it will be activated.

NOTE: while this is a great plugin, the author of this plugin will send you marketing material after registration. When registering, I’d recommend using an alternative email that you can still check (in order to activate) rather than your main email address. When transfered to another website to sign up, pick “no thanks”.

SETTINGS / Photo Dropper

Use this plugin to grab interesting photos as you blog along, to add to your posts (icon will appear above the post’s editing-box). To optimize it for best usage:

- Remove the check from “Use Classic Interface“
-- Increase “Images per page” to 25
-- Remove the check from “Show only…“
-- Check “Sort Photos by…”
-- Save

SETTINGS / Psychic Search

This is a great plugin that shows you what your readers are searching for. After registering / verifying, you want to uncheck both of the “Count Searches from…“

NOTE: while this is a great plugin, the author of this plugin will send you marketing material after registration. When registering, I’d recommend using an alternative email that you can still check (in order to activate) rather than your main email address. When transfered to another website to sign up, pick “no thanks”.

SETTINGS / Reveal IDs for WP Admin

This plugin is for advance users who might need to figure out post/page IDs. No special setup, just hit SAVE once if you’re still getting an announcement about it on the top of your dashboard.

SETTINGS / Robots Meta

This plugin improves SEO (Search Engine Optimization) by modifying the robots meta tags.

- Check ALL check-boxes for this plugin.

NOTE: If you’ve uploaded the .htaccess file as described in step #6 of this guide, you don’t need to touch anything else here.

SETTINGS / External Links

This plugin adds a nice icon next to any external link on your blog.

- Remove the check from the first option (Apply Globally) and add a check to the other three options listed there / Save.

SETTINGS / SEO Post Link

This plugin makes your post link short and SEO friendly (Search Engine Optimization). It removes common words that are unnecessary for search engine optimization off your blog’s post link.

- After registering / verifying, if there isn’t already a list of “Unnecessary Words” than click here and copy/paste this list.

NOTE: while this is a great plugin, the author of this plugin will send you marketing material after registration. When registering, I’d recommend using an alternative email that you can still check (in order to activate) rather than your main email address. When transfered to another website to sign up, pick “no thanks”.

SETTINGS / SexyBookmarks

Select your preferred social bookmarking sites, preferred settings and hit ‘Save Changes‘.

SETTINGS / Ajax Edit Comments

Under ‘Spam Protection‘ (middle of the page) / check Defensio

SETTINGS / Defensio

Defensio is one of the best anti-spam plugins. Sign up and get the Defensio API Key at:

http://www.defensio.com/signup

SETTINGS / XML-Sitemap

This is the best plugin to help Google index your blog.

- Click where it says: “The sitemap wasn’t built yet. Click here to build it the first time“.

11. Installing a theme for your blog

In the endless sea of WordPress themes, here are some of the best links to start your journey. When you find your theme, download it as a ZIP file:

http://www.instantshift.com/2009/02/22/140-brilliant-free-wordpress-themes-around/

http://www.antsmagazine.com/100-superb-wordpress-themes-for-free/

http://www.presidiacreative.com/39-amazing-wordpress-themes/

http://speckyboy.com/2009/01/23/30-free-amazing-and-versatile-wordpress-27-themes/

http://www.ahnternet.com/2009/02/03/25-awesome-high-quality-free-wordpress-27-themes/

http://mashable.com/2010/02/10/free-wordpress-blog-themes/

http://mashable.com/2009/01/19/free-wordpress-themes/

http://mashable.com/2009/01/07/wordpress-2-7-themes/

http://pennybutler.com/wordpress/themes/free/beautiful-creative-wordpress-27

http://www.ezwpthemes.com/

http://honestholly.com/10-rare-wordpress-themes-for-2009/

http://honestholly.com/thursday-themes-10-best-wordpress-themes-2009/

http://www.noupe.com/wordpress/15-high-quality-free-premium-wordpress-27-themes.html

http://www.patromax.com/15-most-popular-wordpress-27-themes/

http://mashable.com/2008/09/19/top-wordpress-themes/

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/08/25/30-free-high-quality-wordpress-themes/

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/03/25/15-more-free-first-class-wordpress-themes/

http://topwpthemes.com/

http://www.freewpblogthemes.com/

Here’s a little video tutorial on how to auto-install your theme (courtesy of meetwilliambryant.com):

You can also manually install any theme using your FTP client (FileZilla). Here’s a little video tutorial on how to install your theme manually (courtesy of mattladwig):

12. Howto Blog:

Understanding Blogs -- Blogs in Plain English (courtesy of commoncraft.com)

Understanding Pages, Posts, Categories, Tags, Slug and Permalinks:

Adding/writing a new post (courtesy of learntospeakgeek.com):

Adding/writing a new page (vs. post) (courtesy of learntospeakgeek.com):