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Basic Blog Set-up with WordPress

Sarah Arrow

You’ e de ided to ju p o the loggi g a d ago , a d ho a la e you?

In this chapter of book title here ou ll lear ho to set up a log usi g WordPress.

WordPress is free, open source software with a huge community of developers and users who

love it. The community help make WordPress more secure and help extend its functionality so

that your business blog can pretty much do anything you want it to.

Section one:

The language of blogging. The next two sections are going to have words and phrases you may

not have come across before. This section will explain them to you. Use it as a reference, and

feel free to skip this part if you know the terminology already.

ALT Text: Sta ds for Alter ate Te t a d refers to the ords a ro ser uses to des ri e a image when the image itself is not available. You can see the ALT text by hovering your mouse

pointer over an image.

Anchor Text: The clickable text in a live link. Anchor text is typically underlined and a different

color than the body text. Anchor text should contain KEYWORDS to make it more effective.

Blog – A e site that o sists of posts a d usuall is for atted ith the ost re e t o te t at the top. Also typically allows comments and chronicles some sort of process, event or

journey. Also known as Weblog.

Broad Match: A term used by Google to refer to keywords which include any and all variations

of a particular term.

Browser – A i ter et ro ser is a pie e of software that displays website pages that are

available on the internet.

Content – Whether it s a log post, a page, a i age or a ideo it s o te t.

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Cpanel – Control panel for your website hosting. In the control panel you can manage your site

files, check website statistics, create email, register new domains and of course install

WordPress!

CSS – Cascading Style Sheets (css) is a type of code that tells internet browsers to repeat certain

actions on all pages of your website. WordPress themes comes with a main Stylesheet which is

usually named stylesheet.css

Domain Name – A website address that starts with www and ends in .com or another extension

such as .org, .net, .ca, etc.

Domain Registrar – Every domain name must be registered with the ICANN (International

Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers). Domain registrars are the brokers who have

permission to register your chosen domain with ICANN.

Exact Match: A term used by Google to refer to keywords which include a particular term and

only that term.

Fantastico – A function in your cpanel that allows you to install various programs onto your

web hosting account.

Footer – The footer of our e site is t pi all the otto portio that sta s the sa e throughout your entire site. It often contains a copyright notice and links to privacy policies etc

Header – The header of our e site is t pi all the top portio that sta s the same. It usually

contains a logo and a navigation menu so people can find their way around your site.

Hosting – Your domain must be connected to hosting in order to be active on the internet.

Hosti g is a little it like o thl i ter et re t .

HTML – Codi g that is read ro sers so the a displa a e site. HTML is a abbreviation of Hyper Text Mark Up Language.

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Keyword: The word or phrase an Internet user types into a search engine like Google or Yahoo!

when he or she is looking for information online.

Market Samurai: A popular paid ke ord resear h tool has a free trial that o i es Google s data with proprietary calculations to help the user discover the best keywords to target.

Page – Content on your site that is typically static.

Permalinks – A function in WordPress that allows you to set how your website URL is displayed.

(See URL def.)

PHP – Codi g that is read ro sers so the a displa d a i content on a website.

Phrase Match: A term used by Google to refer to keywords which include a particular term, but

not only that term.

Plugin – An add-o to WordPress. It s a little soft are progra ou add to i rease a ilit ith WordPress. Plugins do almost anything you can think of from spam protection, to tracking bad

links, to tracking visitors, to adding functions to the software and more.

Premium Themes – WordPress themes that you pay for. They usually come with forum support

and are developed by professional designers who generally have greater experience than the

designers of free themes.

Post – A page on your WordPress website that often is listed by date, in chronological order and

includes comments.

RSS Feed – Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds are used to deliver content on an automatic

basis, common for blogs, news sites, etc. Users will subscribe to an RSS feed via a feed reader or

even through email and are automatically notified through their chosen method when new

content is posted.

SERP: Search engine results page. The list of web pages a search engine presents to a user after

a search is performed. Ideally, you want your page to be at the top of the list for your chosen

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keywords.

SEO: Search engine optimisation. The process by which bloggers attempt to educate the search

engines exactly what each page on their site is about, so that it is included in the SERPs.

Sidebar – Another section of your website that typically stays static. The sidebar will sometimes

include a website navigation so people can find other pages. It will also contain RSS feed links,

newsletter signups, advertising, etc.

Simple Scripts – A function in your cpanel that allows you to install various programs on your

web hosting account.

URL – Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is the location of a page on the internet. Every page on

the internet has a unique URL. Every site can have an unlimited number of URLs, one per page.

Widget – A function in WordPress that allows you to drag and drop content in different forms

into various sections of your site. Often in the sidebar but some custom themes allow widgets

to be setup in many places on the site.

WordPress – Software program for blogging, also used for websites, directories and other

things

Section Two: Getting Ready…

WordPress a tuall refers to three separate entities…

WordPress – A content

management system (CMS)

that allows you to copy-paste

and/or easily format text to

make it appear in the right

places on your website. Saves

you from having to learn

HTML web coding and CSS

data management. Used for

sites or blogs.

WordPress.com – A web-

hosting company created by

the developers of the

WordPress content

management system. They

treat this like a community

and encourage you to host

your blog as a sub-domain on

WordPress.com for free.

WordPress.org – Separate

from the hosting end of

things, WordPress.org

provides support resources

for WordPress users.

Here is where you will find

free plugins, blog themes and

more.

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The only one of these three completely different WordPresses where you can actually host a

blog for free is WordPress.com. But should you host your blog there?

Web Hosting – It s ot a good idea to reate a free log at WordPress. o if ou re pla i g to monetize your blog content in any way (displaying ads, sending people to your sales page,

including affiliate links and the like) – or even use it for business. For one thing, this is against

WordPress. o s rules.

If you disregard these rules, you are quite likely to wake up one morning and find out your blog

has disappeared off the face of the planet, without a word of explanation. And all your hard

work has gone up in smoke for some violation that will probably never be explained to you. Yes,

life is hard, and even blogging there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Your best solution? Host your WordPress blog on your own domain. (Yes, you can absolutely

use the WordPress CMS if ou do t host our log o WordPress. o .

Choosing a Domain Name – Be sure, however, to choose a strong Domain name (either your

own name, a catchy business name you want to brand, or an easy-to-pronounce-and-

remember keyword and/or location based name; for e a ple: ool at lu . o . Yes, . o ould e shorter, at hier a d easier to ra d a d re e er – but that will only

work if you want people who already know that acronym to find you.)

Registering Your Domain Name – Here s a other o o area of o fusio , for people who

are new to running their own blog or site: Domain registration.

Your domain is your home on the net. For example, say your name is Jane Bloggs: You might

pa a e hosti g o pa to host www.JaneBloggs.com for ou.

Your domain URL (address sits o our e host s assi e ser er o puter. That s its home.

But here s here people get a little o fused: The perso ho registers our do ai a either be your web hosting company (e.g. BlueHost) or a separate registration company.

You do t ha e to use BlueHost, of ourse: You a pi k a d hoose any web hosting company.

– whichever one you use, just make sure that the company is WordPress-friendly. At the end

of this section, I share how to use another popular site called Hostgator to use for your blogging

activity. If you chose to go with another host, the combined knowledge will help you work

through and start your own WordPress blog with the new host.

Whichever hosting company you choose, make sure it has cPanel (a control panel), and

supports PHP, MySQL5 (or the latest version of MySQL) and WordPress – and, finally, that it

supports either Fantastico DeLuxe or Simple Scripts.

If ou a t fi d the i for atio ou eed o the sig -up page, look for a Features ta :

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Bottom line: There are many types of web hosting companies – and not all are ideal for

blogging!

Unlimited Domains – If you are planning to host more than one website or blog for your

usi ess, do hoose a e host that offers u li ited do ai s: It s etter for i ter et searchability to have each URL (domain address; e.g. www.whateveryouwant.com in its own

separate do ai , rather tha as a add-o do ai or su -do ai .

If each site is in an entirely separate domain, it can also be transferred, should you ever decide

to sell it. (Note: You will have to purchase (register) each new domain name as you add these

– either from BlueHost or from your chosen Domain registration company.)

Most reliable web hosting companies offer one free domain registration with your sign up, so

there s o eed for a separate registratio .

A word of caution: Most domain registration companies will offer amazingly cheap web

hosting (or even free web hosting). I would not recommend using your domain registration

company for webhosting: Ofte our site ill e la ed ith ads ou do t k o a out or the provide poor support, obscure documentation or frequent site do pro le s – as well as

bandwidth limitations.

You reall do t a t to sig up a d dis o er our e e host does t ha e a Pa el , does t support the M SQL data asi g eeded for WordPress , and wants you to upgrade to

their $179.95 per ear pla e ause ou e e eed our 15 a d idth… i the first eek!)

By all means use Domain registration companies for easy multiple and single domain

registration and inexpensive domain transfers, however.

When you purchase your domain name and hosting, there is no need to change your name

servers to point at your hosting. This means you can jump straight into installing WordPress.

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Let’s get WordPress i stalled, a d set up your log…

Preparing to Install WordPress – There are many guides showing you how to set up WordPress

usi g the Fa tasti o DeLu e s ript, so e re goi g to do so ethi g a little differe t. We re going with BlueHost, a company that uses Simple Scripts.

Those used to Fantastico are going to want to over-complicate things when changing over to a

company that uses Simple Scripts. Do t do it! It reall is a si ple pro ess – but not if you start

tr i g to dot e er i a d ross e er t . If ou re i to i ro-controlling every step, stick with

Fa tasti o: If, o the other ha d, ou a t si ple o e- li k pro esses, Simple Scripts will

probably suit you better.

Sig up is eas , a d ou ll fi d ourself looki g at our Pa el i o ti e at all. This is what it

ill look like. If a popup does t appear, ou a a ess the i trodu tor Getti g Started izard u der Prefere es for tutorials, demos and videos. For example, if you want to see

how easy it is to set up a new email account – something that traditionally has been known to

give even seasoned bloggers nightmares – watch the BlueHost ideo i the Getti g Started wizard.

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Do NOT watch the video for installing WordPress, however: If you follow the instructions, you

may end up with the following error message:

If this happens, you have two choices:

1. Contact Tech Support and ask them to fix it for you and set up your blog. (They will:

And all you will have to do is make note of the log-in information and password, log in,

and proceed straight to Se tio Three: Custo izi g our Blog , skimming over the next

few pages.)

2. If you prefer more control, or want to know what to do the next time you want to add a

blog, simply follow the instructions below. (Yes. In spite of the error message.)

The following method has worked for me every time – even after I have asked Tech Support to

uke a ou t a d ri g it ack to brand-new, empty status.

Section Three: How to Install Simple Scripts and Quickly Set Up WordPress

1. Fi d the Site Builders ta a d sele t the WordPress i o .

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2. The Si ple S ripts page ill ope up. Fi d the Blogs se tio a d select WordPress …

3. The I stall WordPress i do ill ope . Click on the I stall button.

A new page will open up, and you will see your WordPress site being built.

As soon as the Site URL and Login URL for your blog appears, e e if it still sa s I Progress , ou a a op -paste your auto-generated password and (b) click on your

Login URL to access your new blog.

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4. E ter ad i u der User a e a d paste our Pass ord i to the Pass ord field. Cli k the lue Log I utto :

5. You should then see your new dashboard. Ig ore all the stuff u der the Wel o e essage….

Okay, earlier I promised to show you how to use Hostgator for WordPress installation too.

If you are happy with Blue Host, you can skip this section. Many of my blogging clients are

using Hostgator and they are a dream to work with.

One hosting company that does have Fantastico is HostGator (http://www.hostgator.com).

They are very inexpensive, and they have cPanel and Fantastico. Use the coupon code

ZerotoBlogger or ZerotoSocialMedia to get a discount.

Step Three: Install WordPress

When you sign up with your hosting company, you should receive an email that gives you

instructions for logging into cPanel on your server. You can contact your hosting company for

help if ou a t fi d the logi i for atio for Pa el.

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Once you log in, locate the link for Fantastico. This is usually about 2/3rd

of the way down the

page. Fantastic will appear in different locations on different hosting companies. The link may

look something like this:

When you e lo ated it, li k the i o .

On the left side of the Fantastico screen, you will see a list of programs you can install with it.

U der Blogs , lo ate WordPress a d li k it.

O the e t page, li k Ne I stallatio .

Ne t, ou ll eed to fill out so e i for atio :

Use the drop down menu at the top of the screen to choose the domain you wish to install

WordPress on. If you want to use the domain solely for your blog, leave the field underneath

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the drop down (Install in directory) blank. Otherwise, enter the name of the directory you wish

to install it in.

Ne t, add a user a e a d pass ord. This is hat ou ll use to log i to our log ad i . I suggest NOT usi g ad i as our user a e, e ause this is hat ost people use. It ill make your blog easier to hack. Pick a name and pick one that you will remember.

Your admin nickname is the name that will appear as the author of all the posts you

make(although this can be changed if you make a mistake). If you are branding a specific name,

ou ll pro a l a t to put our a e there i stead of usi g Ad i .

Enter your email address next. This should be a valid email address. No one will see it. It will be

used if ou e er forget our pass ord, so ake sure it s a e ail address ou ll a al a s access.

Fi all , e ter our log a e a d des riptio a d li k the I stall WordPress utto at the bottom of the page.

O the e t page, ou ll get a button that confirms the name of the MySQL database that will

e reated, as ell as so e asi i for atio a out our log. Cli k the Fi ish i stallatio button, and you will be taken to a page with a link to log into your blog.

Click the link to visit the admin page and log in to verify WordPress installed correctly.

If ou did t li k the li k to get to our WordPress ad i , it ill e lo ated at the follo i g URL:

http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin

OR

http://www.yourdomain.com/dir/wp-admin

Note: there is an dash between wp and admin, like this wp-admin.

If you forget your username and password, you can request your password be mailed to you.

WordPress will send your username and password to the email address you entered when you

installed it.

O e ou e fou d out of the i stallatio as a su ess, it s ti e to ake a fe t eaks i order to set up a effe ti e log. Do t skip the e t se tio , e ause a WordPress log is t set up

ell default. If ou skip the e t se tio , ou a fi d our log does t ra k ell i sear h engines and gets very little traffic and that defeats the purpose of blogging!

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Setting up WordPress for business blogging success.

For now, we are only going to use your left-hand, vertical Dashboard controls.

We are going to go through only the tabs where you need to customize data

for maximum searchability. First, let s take are of our Setti gs se tio …

Settings>>General:

Sele t General Settings fro the drop-down list that appears. Now is when

you can change your site or blog Title, if you wish.

Sele t our Tagline – your motto, slogan or a short description of what readers can expect.

(What ou i put i our Site Title a d Tagli e is hat our readers ill see. Like this…

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All of your other default settings i Ge eral Setti gs should be as you want them, except for

Timezone. (You will want to change your UTC code.)

If ou do t know your UTC code, simply press the drop-down button and select your city from

the (alphabetical) drop-down list that will appear. Select it, and your correct UTC code will also

e sele ted ut it o t appear u til after ou e Sa ed a d refreshed .

This is important. When you schedule posts WordPress looks at the UTC to see when the post

should go out. If you are set at Pacific Time instead of Eastern Time, your blog posts will go out

at the wrong time. The same for if you are on GMT and the settings are o Easter Ti e, ou ll have a 5 hour posting delay.

If you wish, you can also change the way you want the date to appear in your posts from five

different for ats…

Whe ou re do e alteri g our ge eral setti gs, press the lue Sa e Cha ges button

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Settings>>Discussion

Close Ge eral Setti gs , go a k to our Setti gs ta a d sele t Dis ussio .

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Whe our Dis ussio page ope s, all ou eed to do there is cli k o Turn comments on or

off to toggle this setting to your preference.

BlueHost and Hostgator have excellent SEO defaults, which you may not wish to change:

Ho e er, as ou a see, it s eas to do so, if ou ish. The default is to allow people to

comment – simply uncheck it if you want no comments at all.

The only other recommended change: Put Newer co e ts at the top rather tha Older

(this is what people expect).

Slide o do to Avatars to set our prefere es. I ould re o e d Gra atars , if ou a t peoples Profile photos to appear; or else M ster Ma . Do t other ith the utes

Wavatars, etc., unless your audience is under the age of twenty.)

Save your changes!

Fill in your profile. The o l t o se tio s ou ll a t to pa atte tio to:

1. Display name publicly – the name you want your public to see.

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If ou do t a t ad i to appear, sele t our preferred a e fro the drop-down

list. (N.B.: This will not ha ge our ad i username in your log-in box!)

2. About Yourself -- Fill in short biographical details that you think would most interest

your readers. Be sure to i lude ke ords ou d like people to fi d ou ith. You can

include the html to make clickable links in the bio area as well.

Press Update Profile to sa e.

Settings>>Writing

The Writi g tab has only one modification you need to make. Slide right down to the bottom

of that section and find the Text area box with the single, solitary, lonely little pi go ati ping-back link:

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Copy-paste the follo i g list, a d add after http://rp .pi go ati . o /:

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2

http://api.feedster.com/ping

http://api.moreover.com/ping

Once upon a time it was thought that a huge ping list was essential for bloggers, and it was way

back then. With the advance of social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, there is

no need to have a huge ping list. In fact, it could get your blog labeled as spam.

Click the save changes button

Plugins

Next, go to your Plugins tab in your left-hand, vertical menu. The only already-installed plugin

that you absolutely MUST activate is Akismet, your spam filter. Akismet is free if you have a

non-commercial blog. If you site is commercial it s $5 a o th to sta spa free.

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If ou alread ha e a Akis et API ke , li k o A ti ate , the li k o E ter our Akis et API ke a d e ter it i the Te t area o pro ided. If ou do t, li k o Sig up for a Akis et API ke .

You ll be given the key – a serial number. In fact, it should already be populating the Text area

box when you Activate it:

Do t add the o ile plugi s u til ou e later usto ized our the e. O e ou e got our theme looking the way you want, then you can return and add these mobile plugins, if you wish

them activated. Mea hile, do t o erload our log ith plugi s. Sti k to the esse tials. After Akismet, these are:

All in One SEO Pack (if your theme does not have SEO built into it)

Google XML Sitemaps

Let s Get Sociable (or any other social bookmarking plugin you prefer)

WP Security Scan or WordFence

Login Lockdown

You a fi d ea h of these at WordPress.org i its Plugi s se tio – right from your

Dashboard! Si pl Go a k to Plugi s a d sele t the Add Ne ta . Then enter the name of

the plugi ou ish to fi d i to the Te tarea o , a d press Sear h plugi s .

A page will open up: Select your plugin from the choices presented.

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Sele t I stall No . A page will open up, letting you know if the Install was successful. Click

o A ti ate Plugi .

Note: That s all there is to it for so e plugi s. Others ill ha e a Setti gs li k or prese t ou with a message such as this one:

Click on the link provided and configure or input settings as instructed. This usually includes:

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Slidi g o er a ad ertisi g to li k o E a le or A ti ate utto s

Entering Titles, Descriptions, Summaries as instructed

Entering hard data requested, such as your Google Analytics ID

O e ou are satisfied ith our plugi s, it s ti e to ha ge our log s appeara e fro the default theme to a custom theme that best befits your needs.

Make sure you Save pressi g Update Optio s !

Change your blog’s look: Appearance

To change your Theme, go to the Appeara e ta in the left-hand, vertical menu and press it.

A selection of three basic themes will open up. You can find more themes at the WordPress.org

Themes section, or you can purchase a paid Premium Theme such as the highly flexible and

easy Genesis / Dynamik; but whatever you do, be very careful of indiscriminately downloading

and trying free the es from randomly-Googled sites.

Many of these free themes are laced with hidden code and dodgy links that will undermine or

even harm your site.

In appearances search through the themes and select one.

A full-screen page will open up, showing you how your blog will look (without your personal

data – this is just a Layout example).

If ou like it, sele t Sa e & A ti ate :

The next page that opens up allows you to thoroughly customize your new SmallBiz theme, as

well as watch a video explaining its features. Do t do this part u less ou ha e so e ti e to go through all the settings and features. It will likely take a little time to tweak your settings, text

a d olors u til ou e got the the a ou like the – until then, the sample text displays.

A d if ou re a ious to get started loggi g, si pl sta ith (or go back to and re-activate)

the Twenty Ten theme or Twenty Eleven for now: You can start adding posts right away – and

search for the theme of your choice later. (Note that even these basic themes allow you to

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perform actions like upload a custom Header or pi k a e o e fro the Appeara es drop-

down menu.)

Section Four: Getting to Know Your Blog

The first thi g ou ll a t to do is add a post a d ha ge a default post, if there is o e . Go

to your left-ha d, erti al e u a d sele t Posts>>All Posts .

The default Hello World post ill ope up. Repla e the Title ith our o a d the te t ith your own.

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Remember to slide down to your All in one SEO boxes and fill in your blog post Title, Description

(less than 160 characters) and Keywords – as well as any Tags you want to flag the article with.

This ill help our post s sear ha ilit greatl .

Finally – Press the lue Update utto o the top, right-hand side of the page.

A d that s the asi pro ess i setti g up a WordPress log e ept for sele ti g Add Ne e t ti e i Posts , rather tha All Posts .

Editing Your HTML URLs – Another thing you may want to do: Edit your post URLs for more

sear ha ilit . It s a er si ple pro ess – just press the Edit utto a d rite in your new

page URL, e a tl as ou d like it to appear.

Before:

After:

Re e er to press the Oka utto he ou re fi ished.

Adding Images – Photographs and graphics give your posts (and blog) massively more

searchability and eye appeal – so do get into the habit of inserting at least one, per post.

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The best idea for image sources: Take your own photographs. Failing that, only use

photographs in the public domain (with public domain licensing) or ask permission to use

photos. A website that I use frequently is PhotoPin.com after downloading the image it gives

you the HTML code to credit the image creator.

(Government websites and Wikipedia are often a great source of public domain photographs:

Do still check the licensing, however – sometimes government photos do have licensing

restrictions.)

Pressi g the Add Media utto ill ope up a popup allo i g ou to add photos fro our

blog library (once you have one), your computer or from another URL, if you have a photo

parked o a other site. Do NOT use the latter optio if ou do t o the site or if ou re ot dire tl i ited to do so: You ight e d up i ad erte tl steali g a d idth fro the site owner.)

Vie our post fro the edit utto s, or else fro the Vie Site at the top left or er of our Dashboard.

Static Page or Latest Post?

Whoops! Why does your first page not show the post?

Go to Setti gs>>Readi g a d ha ge Fro t page displa s optio fro A stati page to Your latest posts pressi g the radio utto .

If ou d rather ake our first post i to a stati page a Ho e page all isitors ill see e er ti e the isit our site keep A stati page sele ted, a d sele t the orre t post fro the drop-down menu. Using this option means you can use WordPress to build your business

website as well.

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Be sure to Sa e Cha ges , of ourse.

Your Comments Section

Your final action for the day: Cli k o Co e ts i the left-hand vertical menu and delete

the Default test o e t.

Visit our post or site, a d ake sure e er thi g looks the a ou d like it to.

There is, of course, a lot more to learn – such as pre-scheduling posts, adding more plugins,

tweaking your CSS, adding audio or video plugins, and more – but get comfortable with

blogging and make some posts first, rather than trying to jump from WordPress beginner to

expert all in one day.

Most importantly – have fun and enjoy blogging!