Guys Upstairs - Tech

Introduction

Setting up a blog is very simple these days. There are numerous ways to start a blog, but one of the first decisions you have to make is whether to use free hosting or set up your own. Free hosting includes sites such as blogger.com (run by google) and wordpress.com (run by the people who created WP). While the free hosting option is good for someone completely new to blogging or cannot afford to set up their own hosting, it is not very practical for anyone hoping to make money from their blog.

Setting up your own hosting involves finding a host, finding a blog software that suits your needs, and installing the blog software on the server.

The choices for finding a host is varied and depends on your needs. A person who is trying to host a personal site and a person trying to set up a online store will most likely use different hosting plans. Several hosting companies will offer discounts if you sign up for an extended plan instead of doing a month by month plan.

The main blog softwares that are currently in use are WordPress, Movable Type, and Expression Engine. A good comparison of the various softwares can be found here.

Configure Host Monster

The first thing you need to do after purchasing a hosting plan with hostmonster.com is to type in the domain you registered for into the address bar. You will be greeted with the following screen:

cPanel Access

After clicking on “cPanel Login” and logging in, you will see what may be a confusing administration screen. Scroll down until you see a section called “Databases” and click on the icon that says “MySQL Database Wizard.”

Databases

The first step will be to give the database a name, something like “wp” or something related to your site. Step 2 is to create users for the database. One user is all that is necessary, so you can name it “admin” or anything else you like. For the third step, make sure you check the “All Privileges” box at the top.

Step 1: Create A Database

Step 2: Create Database Users

Step 3: Add User to the Database

Now you can either add another database or manage the databases. Click “Add another user using the MySQL Databases Area,” which brings you to the database management page (you can also access it by clicking the “MySQL Databases” icon from the cPanel). This page allows you to do everything the wizard does, but the main thing you need to do is add the user you created earlier to the database you created by selecting the user and the database under the “Add User to Database” section.

Create New Database

User Setup

Congratulations, you have just set up your database(s).

Setting up WordPress

You will now need an ftp client (such as Filezilla) to transfer the files to the server. Download the wordpress file and unzip it to any location you can find. The file we will need to alter is wp-config.php

links to those two sites

Open it up in notepad and you will need to input all the information that follows:

Make sure the DB_NAME and DB_USER match exactly what you have, including everything before the underscore. Also, make sure you follow the link and generate the passwords. Don’t worry about them being really random - you only need it in the file to ensure that your WordPress is secure; you won’t need to memorize it or write it down.

To access the server, the login information is the same as the information you use to login to cPanel. The host will simply be the name of your site, such as “nameofsite.com” After you transfer the site via ftp to the public_html folder, go to the name of your site followed by “/wp-admin/install.php” You will be prompted to input some information, then given a password which you can change once you login.

Congrats on successfully creating a WordPress page, now go post and have fun!