I started a blog on blogger but there wasn’t the sense of creativity I needed as everything was more or less done for me. I decided to buy my own domain name and get a hosting package so I could have more of a challenge and have more options to tweak my blog. I tried Drupal, Joomla 1.5, PhP Website and Word Press. Being new to all this stuff, I had quite a hard time figuring out how to work each program. I finally settled on WordPress as it was much easier to learn for a beginner like me and it has a vast resource of themes, widgets and plug-ins.

This is a quick review of my WordPress 2.5 installation.

1. Most hosting packages provide you with CPanel which gives you simple tools to create and control MySql databases. Log into your hosting account (I did mine through fastdomain) and create a MySql database. Create a username and password, writing down the database name, username and password for one of the next critical steps.
2. Download the latest version of WordPress 2.5 from WordPress.Org.
3. Extract the file using your favorite zip program.
4. Now here is a critical step. You will have to search the unzipped folder for a file called wp-config-sample.php. Use an editor software of choice (WordPad, Notepad, etc) and open the file. Remember the database name, username and password you wrote down in step 1? Now is the time you’ll need them.
5. Scroll down to define(’DB_NAME’, ‘dbname‘); // The name of the database
define(’DB_USER’, ‘dbusername‘); // Your MySQL username
define(’DB_PASSWORD’, ‘dbpassword‘); // …and password
define(’DB_HOST’, ‘localhost’); // 99% chance you won’t need to change this value Replace each variable in bold type with those you wrote down in step 1 exactly as you see it in your CPanel. It is important to write down the exact name. Mine came out as examplec_wordpress25 and username as examplec_brian even though I only input my database name as ‘wordpress25′ and username ‘brian’. The database name is therefore ‘examplec_wordpress25′ and username ‘examplec_brian’.
6. Save the file as wp-config.php.
7. Using your Ftp software of choice (I use filezilla) upload the WordPress 2.5 folder to your desired folder on your host server. If you would like it to appear in your root and come up when you type http://example.com then upload it to your root folder. If you do not want it to in your root you may upload it to a different folder like example.com\wordpress in which case you will have to type ‘http://example.com/wordpress’ for the homepage.
8. You will then need to go to the WordPress administration page by using your browser to go to http://example.com/wp-admin/install.php (if you put wordpress in your root) or example.com/yourfoldername/wp-admin/install.php if you placed it in another folder.
9. You then click on First Step, and it will bring you to a page asking you what you want your blog title to be as well as your current e-mail address. Once you click submit, you will be given a temporary password. Write this down so you can log into your WordPress blog. Go to settings—general to change the major settings.
10. You can start writing your posts and pages, uploading themes, widgets and plugins. There are countless amounts of each to keep you fully occupied and allow you to do whatever you want with your blog. Happy blogging!

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