As you can tell, if you have been to any of my web sites, I really enjoy WordPress a lot as a way to self-publish my content Online.  WordPress is often known for it’s simple installation process too.

However, many people might still be confused on how to get started with WordPress, so I thought it would be a good idea to go through the steps with you, to make you feel more at home with the process.

How to Install WordPress on Your Hosting Account

The first step would be to download and unzip the WordPress package to your computer.  I often like to put it on my desktop, as I use that as a workspace for all my various projects.

Setup the MySQL Details

Next, you will login to your web hosting control panel and create a MySQL database user, a MySQL database, and then assign that MySQL user to the MySQL database in question.  Various web hosts and various control panels will have different ways to get this done.  My advice would be to check with your web host, if you are unsure how to do so.

Now, open up that WordPress folder you saved earlier, and rename the file wp-config-sample.php to just wp-config.php.  Open the wp-config.php file, and fill in your database details (the database name, user name and the password assigned to the user).

Important: Never use a word processor like Microsoft Word for editing WordPress files! You need to user a simple text editor, such as Notepad.

Upload WordPress to the Hosting Server

After you have saved the wp-config.php file with all the settings it needs to use to connect, it is time to upload the WordPress files to their new home.

• If you want WordPress to show up under your main domain, be sure to upload all of the files into your public_html folder.
• If you want WordPress to show up under a folder (such as /blog/), be sure to upload all the files into a folder located in /public_html/blog/. I’m simply using “blog” as an example.  You could name the folder whatever you want to name it.

Last, but not least, run the WordPress install script by going to yourdomain.com/wp-admin/install.php, or if you installed it into it’s own folder, go to yourdomain.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php. Remember that “yourdomain.com” and “blog” are just examples here, be sure to change them to fit your own web site preferences.

Now simply follow the on-screen instructions and you are all set!  I hope this tutorial comes in handy the next time you install WordPress on your own web hosting space.

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