Wordpress is a blogging application that provides basic content management to those who manage their own website blogs. It is free and available for download at Wordpress.org and is the most commonly used program for bloggers. A blog is essentially a “weblog” whereby a company or individual can communicate to current and potential customers through a series of posts, similar to diary or journal entries.
Here are the steps required to install and create a basic, simple web page using WordPress software.
1.) Find out what the name of your MySQL database is called from your web host, which can usually be found on your control panel of your domain site. Copy down all the information provided about your database, letter by letter. You will need the username, password, and name of the database in order for Wordpress to plug into it.
2.) Download and unzip all the files included. In the “wordpress” folder you will find a file called “wp-config-sample.php”. Open this file using a text editor such as Wordpad or Notepad and change the values for the name of the database, your MySQL username, and password. Then, resave this file as “wp-config.php”, including the quotation marks to keep the file a .php.
3.) Next, download all the files from the wordpress folder on your computer into your web hosting accounting. Either download it into the main web directory of your account or create a subdirectory, basically a sub folder, in your account. Use the main directory if the blog is your entire website and the subdirectory if the blog is just a portion of your site.
4.) Once you have completed the file transfer, you will need to open an internet browser window and go to the following URL: www.yourdomainnamehere.com/wp-admin/install.php. This will lead you to a Wordpress browser interface which will allow you to finalize the installation process.
5.) Next, fill in your blog name and your email address. This will set up your blog and provide you will your blog username and password. This is how you will log in to manage or post content.
6.) Log into your blog by going to URL: www.yourdomainnamehere.com/wp-admin/login.php and log in using your assigned user name and password. You will now be able to post entries and play with your site.