Self Hosted Wordpress Installation

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Getting Started Word Press Self Hosted Blogs

Business and Blogging

Business and Blogging are a winning combination, With some imagination I believe almost every business can see a return on investment from the financial and human resources required to maintain a blogging program. To offer long term value to your business it is imperative you develop a self hosted Blog as apposed to a hosted blog where you are offered a Blogging platform as a member. Although a Membership Blog such as Blogger or Word Press.com are the easiest way to get blogging one of the primary Search Optimization benefits of Blogging are the organic back links which are obtained through the development of high relevancy blog posts. Ideally all backlinks should lead to your registered domain name to ensure long term value from the acquired backlinks not to the Domain of your Blogging Platform provider.

Self Hosted Blog Options

The steps required to get your own Blog started will depend on whether or not you currently have a web site. Even if you currently have a web site, if it is need of updating or upgrading, developing your new web site based on a Word Press Blog can be an affordable solution depending of course of your web site requirements.

The Process

The steps required to set up your Word Press Blog installed as a new Blog / Web Site. I have used Hostgator for web hosting provider for years, the help is fantastic and installation of Word Press is completed in 4 or 5 clicks. If your run into difficulties the live help is always available for technical issues. If your web hosting provider does not offer Cpanel ask for a cost estimate to install Word Press.

Setting up Word Press with Cpanel

1. Log into your web hosting account and access your Cpanel Home Page
2. Scroll down to Fantastico and click
3. Locate and click the Word Press link on the left hand column
4. Follow the installation prompts and in three clicks your new Word Press Blog is installed.
5. Be sure to send yourself the installation email.

Access Your Word Press Blog Admin

The installation email which you requested in the installation process will include a link to your Word Press administration area and Home Page. Click the Admin link and log into your admin area and begin to familiarize yourself with the Word Press interface, now it is time to set up your Word Press Blog.

Installing Your Word Press Theme

The abundance of Themes is one of the primary reasons I have become a Word Press fan. Although many of the free are sufficient I do prefer some of the commercial themes available for a couple of reasons including customer support and often the navigation systems are better.

Theme Installation

There are a couple of different ways of doing this dependent on what type of theme you are using If using a Free Word Press Theme

1. On Word Press Dashboard Page => Click Appearance > your Default Theme is activated
2. On left navigation => Add New Themes

• 1. Enter keyword into Search area and Search
  2. Select theme => Click Install => Click Activate
  3. At top of screen => Click View Site to review your theme

If using a purchased Theme On completion of your Theme purchase you would of downloaded a theme to your computer which now must be installed on your Word Press installation.

1. On Word Press Dashboard Page => Click Appearance > your Default Theme is activated
2. On left navigation => Add New Themes

• 1. Click => Upload
  2. Click => Browse to locate Theme File on your computer
  3. Click => Install Now
  4. At top of screen => Click View Site to review your theme

[flashvideo file=http://www.seowizardry.ca//The_Wizards_Blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/WordPress-Theme-Installation.mp4 /]

Adding Your Content

The first content you will want to add will be standard pages such as About and Contact. There will also be other business related pages I'm sure you will want to add.

To Add Pages

From your Word Press Admin Dashboard

1. Scroll and Click => Pages
2. Click => Add New
3. Enter Page Title and enter content using provided text editor
4. Add images and Video as required using buttons provided
5. On right side of Screen
   1. Set Parent of Page if required
   2. Select Page Template required
   3. Set order of pages in navigation
6. Select either => Save Draft or => Publish

Your first page has been completed. To Add Posts The steps used to publish your first Blog Post are similar to Page Publishing with a couple of differences towards the end of the process.

1. Scroll and Click => Posts
2. Click => Add New
3. Enter Post Title and enter content using provided text editor
4. Add images and Video as required using buttons provided
5. On right side of Screen
   1. Select Post tags which represent keywords
   2. Add new Categories as required (Categories assist with Site Navigation)

1. Select either => Save Draft or => Publish

The Last Word By now you should have become familiar with the Wordpress interface and have installed a new theme and added some content. Next I will include some guidelines on some of the basic Wordpress setting and some of the top plug-ins to make your site highly functional.