Well due to a busy weekend and a little less time on my hands, there will not be a show this week. Put your pitch forks and torches down for a second though - because I got something that is almost as good.

I figured since it is Memorial Day, this would be a good time for me to list some of my favorite episodes of the Web Hosting Show we’ve done in the past.

Become a Better Hosting Client - Podcast 85

Marketing Talk with Lunarpages - Episode 106

Two Year Podcast Anniversary - Episode 97

Ecommerce Web Hosting Guide - Episode 93

Web Hosting for Blogs - Podcast 70

Check ‘em out and download them again. If you missed them the first time around - this would be a good week to play catch up so you can see why I liked them so much.

Looking for a list of hosts sorted by user reviews and other factors that you get to pick? Try Web Hosting Unleashed’s Best Host Section or their search and compare tool.

Now that we have gotten WordPress ready to go, you can now start working about plugins you need and themes you can use. One really nice resource for WordPress themes can be found at themes.wordpress.net. There are dozen there to choose from.

Just make sure if you do decide to use one of those, you pay attention to the author’s notes. Some require that you keep certain links on your Web page back to them - and others have “sponsor links”. I would suggest to stay away from the “sponsor links” ones because that is just a little slimy in my opinion.

Now for plugins - there are a lot of good ones for WordPress. A good resource for WordPress plugins would be wp-plugins.net. You can also find a good plugin directory on WordPress.org as well under /extend/plugins/.

Here are a few good plugins I use to get you started right:

• Google Sitemap Generator
• Comment Timeout
• Ultimate Tag Warrior

Now for most themes and plugins getting them installed it a pretty easy process. You will need to startup your FTP client and get yourself into the “wp-content” folder. From there you will see a folder for themes and a folder for plugins.

The rest of this pretty much explains itself.

Put themes in the themes folder and plugins in the plugins folder.

Plugins are often just one .php file so getting them in there should not be a problem. When uploading a theme, make sure you grab the entire folder for the theme and upload it. Themes have multiple files inside them so if you don’t grab them all - often they won’t work. Each theme and plugin should have a “Read Me” file with it to give you more specific instructions if needed.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 108!

If you need hosting for your WordPress blog just try our WordPress Hosting Guide! Recommended hosts for WordPress and other great info!

Alright we got WordPress up and running but you are not ready to blog just yet. I have a few tips and tricks to hope you get the most out of your WordPress experience. Here are some of the first things that I do after installing WordPress for the very first time.

Edit the Default User - Login to WordPress and then click on the “User” Tab. After that you should be brought to a page that has the default “Admin” user. You need to go into here and customize it for you. Set your own password, your name, your link, your nickname and more. This way when you post something it won’t show up as “admin” it will show up with your own name.

Make SEO Friendly URLs - From inside of WordPress click on “Options” and then “Permalinks”. By default WordPress has a pretty crappy way of setting up your links. You want to use something that is a little more search engine friendly. Click on the radio box for “Date and name based” and then hit the “Update Permalink Structure” button. You might have to set your .htacess inside of your WordPress install. You must chmod the .htaccess file to 666 to allow WordPress to write its rules to it automatically. If not, then you can download or create the .htaccess file by hand and do it yourself.

Check the Other Options - After getting into the “Options” tab inside of WordPress you might check each tab under that section to make sure things are configured the way you want them to be. You might have to use WordPress for a while before you start noticing little things you’d like to change here or there. Click each sub-tab under your options to get familiar with where to find what also. This way you won’t be left hunting for a half hour to figure out how to change one little configuration.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 108!

How do you install WordPress? We are getting to the meat and potatoes of all of this. Now that you have WordPress downloaded to your desktop and a Web host ready to host it on we can start worrying about how we are going to get it installed on to the server. Before we get started make sure you can or have these ready:

• You Have Access to MySQL via Your Control Panel
• You Have a FTP Client Handy for the Uploading and Downloading
• You Have a Paper and Pen Ready to Write Down Your MySQL Database and User Information (and password!)

Thankfully for 95 percent of the population the easy “five minute installation” of WordPress should do the trick. I have edited this down a little ‘bit so if you want to check out the original please visit WordPress.org.

1. Download and unzip the WordPress package, if you haven’t already.
2. Create a database for WordPress on your web server, as well as a MySQL user who has all privileges for accessing and modifying it.
3. Rename the wp-config-sample.php file to wp-config.php.
4. Open wp-config.php in your favorite text editor and fill in your database details.
5. Place the WordPress files in the desired location on your web server. If you want it to show up under your main domain name, drop all the content inside of the wordpress folder into your public_html folder.
6. Run the WordPress installation script by accessing (your domain)wp-admin/install.php in your favorite web browser. If you installed WordPress in the root directory, you should visit: http://example.com/wp-admin/install.php

There you have it, now WordPress should be installed correctly. If you run into any problems, the first place to check for errors is in your wp-config.php file. Make sure you got the database name and the user name in the right spot. I often get these confused.

Also you might need to also put a prefix before the name - such as “username_databasename” in the file as well. When you setup the MySQL database it should tell you the exact names. Just copy them from there as they are shown to your WordPress install and you should be alright.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 108!

Now this is where the real fun starts to happen. There are a million and one different content management systems or CMS scripts you can pick from. If you need a good resource on where to find the one that will work best for you I would highly suggest checking out OpenSourceCMS.com.

Here are some other good content management system resources to check out:

• The CMS Matrix
• CMS Web Links
• CMS Watch

Now for the sake of keeping things simple - for today’s show we are going to go with my favorite WordPress. Now should you download WordPress from its Web site and install or install via your control panel’s easy “one-click” install? I would say do it the hard way. Navigate your favorite browser towards WordPress.org, hit the download link and pick up the .zip download file.

Here are a few other suggestions for blogging scripts you could use:

• Drupal
• Joomla
• Mambo

You want a blogging script that will be easy enough for you to manage and that has plenty of other users. The reason you want to use one of the more popular choices out there is because when you run into trouble, figuring out a problem is often easier to do in a group. There are a lot of WordPress resources out there so that would be why it would be my suggestion for the best script you could use.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 108!

When it comes to picking a good Web host for setting up a blog, there are a few things you must keep in mind.

You want to first make sure that they are going to deliver you enough disk space and bandwidth to keep your head above water for a while. If you expect to write five or more posts a day - you could fill up that space pretty quick. Also make sure that you have an upgrade you can make when you need it.

It might be to the next largest plan - or it might be to a VPS or dedicated account. If you are a nobody just starting your first blog, you could probably just go with the least expensive plan and move on from there. Find some of blogs out there and see who they use for hosting.

Uptime is always important too - because you never want your readers to be left looking at a “this site is not available right now” message too long.

Even though we haven’t picked our blogging engine yet - you must keep in mind you need a Web host that will support the features you need. So you might pick a few good candidates first, and then go on to finding the content management system you need.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 108!

When it comes to setting up a blog or any other content management system some people find themselves a little lost.

From CHMODing the right files to uploading things to the right spot, it can be a headache in the making. Well on this special edition of the Web Hosting Show I’ve decided to step you through the process of getting a blog setup on your own hosting space using WordPress.

The Web Hosting Show is now on the air.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 108!
Running Time: 17 minutes | File Size: 7.75 MB

Here are just a few topics that we discussed on this week’s episode of the Web Hosting Show.

• How to Find the Right Web Host for Blogging
• Tips on How to Pick the Right CMS for You
• The Fun of Installing WordPress by Hand
• A Few Post Installation WordPress Configurations
• WordPress Themes and Plugins - Get Them Going

Blog hosting is a big part of what made the Web hosting industry grow by leaps and bounds in the past ten years or so. Everybody and their grandmother wanted a place to tell their stories, post their options and share their thoughts. Now just about everybody has one.

The only problem is that some of the best tools out there are intimidating. I’m here to hopefully take some of the intimidation away and get you started with your own blog about whatever your passion is.

Link of the Week: Customizing and Using WordPress 101