Savvy Business Owners Guide to Setting up a WordPress Blog

The Savvy Business Owners Guide to WordPress Blog Design

This is a guide to assist business owners to start, manage, and optimize a WordPress.org (self hosted) blog. WordPress is the ultimate online content management and blogging platform that is super easy to use. We will teach you the ins and outs of creating and optimizing your blog. More and more business owners are choosing to power their entire online portfolio with WordPress. In this gude, we will cover the following options:

1. How to setup a blog with it's own domain name; www.byblog.com
2. How to Setup a blog on your existing website; www.mysite.com/blog
3. The WordPress Administration Panel
4. How to Maintain your WordPress blog.
5. Showcase your new Blog here!

How To Get Your WordPress Blog Going (self hosted, with a unique domain name)

If you are starting a new blog with it's own unique domain name, here are the steps you need to take. All cooresponding links can be found below in the "Links to Get Your WordPress Blog Started section."

1.Choose hosting account (Bluehost recommended).
2 Choose and set up domain name through Bluehost.
3. Install WordPress through Bluehost one click install. OR
4. If using another host use the famous 5 Minute install.
5. Choose WordPress theme design for your site.
6. Upload theme to the content, themes folder.
7. Activate new theme in the WordPress administration panel under presentation.
8. Choose plugin's, upload to content plugin's folder.
9. Add widgets.

Links To Get Your WordPress Blog Started (self hosted, with unique domain name)

Bluehost: $6.95/month domain included! WordPress Auto-Install, 300 GB disk storage, FREE Domain Name, 2500 POP / WebMail addresses, 3000 GB/mo transfer, Host Unlimited Domains on 1 Account, 20 Subdomains, 50 mySQL databases, Free Control Panel, Free Fantastico, 24/7 Network Monitoring, 99% Uptime Guarantee, Mirrored Storage Backups, No hidden fees, Voted Best Support in 2004, 2005, and 2006!
WordPress; Blog Tool and Weblog Platform: WordPress is a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. What a mouthful. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.
Installing WordPress; Famous 5-Minute Install: Here's the quick version of the instructions, for those that are already comfortable with performing such installations.
Plugins: Plugins are tools to extend the functionality of WordPress. This link contains a list of plugins by category, and links to other plugin repositories. The core of WordPress is designed to be lean, to maximize flexibility and minimize code bloat. Plugins offer custom functions and features so that each user can tailor their site to their specific needs.
WordPress Widgets: WordPress Widgets (WPW) is like a plugin, but designed to provide a simple way to arrange the various elements of your sidebar content (known as "widgets") without having to change any code.
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Steps To Add a WordPress Blog to an Existing Website

First of all, you must ensure that the host of your existing website provides the right environment for WordPress to run properly.

Here are the current WordPress server requirements for Version 2.5 (to be released in March 08):

* PHP version 4.3 or greater
* MySQL version 4.0 or greater
* (Optional) Apache mod_rewrite module (for clean URIs known as Permalinks)

To find out if your host meets these requirments simply copy and paste the above three bullet points into a new email to your host asking if they provide this environment.

If they don't it may be difficult to get the blog up and running, and if you do, you will most likly run into problems down the road. So at this point the best option is to either transfer your site to a new host or, host your blog at the new host and link it to your site. If you choose a new host just for the blog then refer to the steps above "How To Get Your WordPress Blog Going (self hosted, with a unique domain name".

Setting up a blog onto your existing site:

Choose a name for the folder your blog will be installed into i.e., www.yoursite.com/blog. The /blog can be named whatever you wish.

STEP 1: Log into your FTP client and create a new folder in the root directory.
STEP 2: Follow the same installation procedures as above.
STEP 3: Go to the administration panel, options, general options and ensure that you configure both your WordPress address and Blog address. Follow the directions supplied by WordPress - link found below in links list.

Links To Add a WordPress Blog to an Existing Website

FileZilla - The free FTP solution: FileZilla is an open-source FTP-client and FTP-server developed for the Windows operating system by Tim Kosse (Germany) et al. It comes in both a Javascript and non-Javascript version.
Administration Panel, General Options: Directions to change your both:
* WordPress address (URL);
* Blog address (URL)

Important WordPress Links

WordPress Administration Panels: The WordPress Administration Panels are the control features of your WordPress blog.
Upgrading WordPress: A new version of WordPress is released every few months or so. Sometimes, there may be an urgent security release. It's important that you follow all the steps in order to upgrade your blog successfully.
Backing up your WordPress Blog: Follow these steps to backup your WordPress blog. Just as you would backup your computer you want to ensure that you backup your blog.
The Ultimate Blog Planner: I have created a free eBook titled, "The Ultimate Blog Planner". This will assist you in choosing the right blogging platform for your project. It outlines the different hosting options, platforms, and also provides samples to some different types of business blogs.
WordPress Themes: Here you will find some really great themes.

Ottawa Business Blogs Showcase

Post your business blog here

Lensmaster

FrancesPalaschuk wrote...

Thanks WordPress Free Install. It great to see people offering totally free services ;)

I checked out your site but could not find any information about who you are or how to contact you for general inquiries...

Posted July 08, 2008

Lensmaster

Wordpress Free Install wrote

Avoid all the hassle and get Wordpress installed with 10 must have plugins, 20 nice templates, on your own domain name. All completely free. Just fill in the form:
http://wordpressfreeinstall.com/

Posted July 08, 2008

Lensmaster

Crystal wrote

Way to go, Frances! Very timely information - I think if you added this to Active Rain you would get tons of work! But to keep them reading, I would break it into 3 or 4 parts - You are awesome!

Posted June 12, 2008