Installing Wordpress:

You need:

• A good FTP piece, like Filezilla. Set up the FTP software to communicate with your server.
• The latest or next to latest version of Wordpress.
• A good file editor never hurts. I LOVE Notepad++.
• Unzip software. I use JZip.

Download and unzip Wordpress into a folder on your hard drive.  I like to keep a folder for all my Wordpress versions and another for all themes and one for plugins.

Before you go to dump your files over to your server using ftp, you need to create a database on your server.  Every hosting site has a different control panel.  You need to find your database access piece and create a database name, user and password.  Take note of all these things, and the database server name.  In your Wordpress folder, edit the wp-config-sample.php file to reflect your database you created:

// ** MySQL settings – You can get this info from your web host ** //
/** The name of the database for WordPress */
define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘putyourdbnamehere’);

/** MySQL database username */
define(‘DB_USER’, ‘usernamehere’);

/** MySQL database password */
define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘yourpasswordhere’);

/** MySQL hostname */
define(‘DB_HOST’, ‘localhost’);  Note: Database Server Name

Save the wp-config-sample.php file as wp-config.php.

Use your FTP software to copy the Wordpress files to your server.  Files will be saved under public_html or the root on your server – they are all different, so check with your ISP to find out where to save your files. 

Before you do this, you may want to think about what you are using Wordpress for.  It’s not just blogging software, it is so much more!  You will be copying the wp- folders, and all the files.  If you copy the actual Wordpress folder over, your website address to use Wordpress will be http://yoursitename.com/wordpress.  If you copy the files from the Wordpress folder, your address will remain http://yoursitename.com.

Once all the files are copied to your server, you can use your browser and go to http://yoursitename.com/wp-admin.  Fill out the information, and don’t forget to copy the password provided.  You need it to login for the first time!

Themes:

The themes that come with Wordpress are kind of lame.  So, you want to go out and find some themes you will like.  Some free Wordpress Theme sites:

http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/

http://wordpressthemesbase.com/

http://topwpthemes.com/

Download the themes you like (I set up a Themes folder on my hard drive) and unzip them.  Using FTP copy the theme folders for the themes you want to test and use under wp-content\themes.  Activate themes under Themes in your Wordpress site.

Plugins:

Plugins can make your website fun and exciting!  There are an infinite number of plugins out there.  Make sure that whatever plugin you want to use is compatible with the version of Wordpress you are using.  Also, I only use plugins from the Wordpress Plugins site. 

The most common plugins I use are:

google-sitemap-generator – creates xml sitemaps.

google-analytics-for-wordpress – installs the code for Google Analytics.

add-to-any – Readers share, save, bookmark, and email your posts and pages.

stats – Good for site statistics.

Customize it!

I like to customize pieces of my sites.  These are the things I commonly seem to do:

Remove Comments and Posted by:

If you do not want the comments and the “posted by… on…” displayed delete the following from the index.php  It may also be found in the page.php and single.php files. Find and remove the following:

<?php the_time(’F jS, Y’) ?><?php edit_post_link(’, Edit’); ?> <div class=”comm”><?php comments_popup_link(’Post Comment’, ‘Comments (1)’, ‘Comments (%)’); ?></div>

Remove the Page Title from your pages:

To remove the title of your page that appears on the page above the content, edit the page.php file or a custom page template file you created. Find and remove the following:

<h2><a href=”<?php the_permalink(); ?>” title=”<?php the_title(); ?>”><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>

Remove a Page from the Menu Bar in the Header:

Use the exclude parameter to hide specific pages from the list to be generated by wp_list_pages in the header.php file.  Find the line below and edit to reflect your pages.

<ul> <?php wp_list_pages(‘exclude=17,38′ ); ?> </ul>

Lot’s more wp_list_pages stuff can be found here:  http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags/wp_list_pages

That’s all for now.  I’ll add more as I use it or think of it.  Happy pressing!

I am currently working on gssurvivalsolutions.com and it is coming along. I am hoping to get it completely up by the end of March. I have just finished osagevision.org, and although it is really a work in progress, I like how it turned out.

I am finding that working on websites is a great creative outlet. Although I have to adhere to what the customer wants, I also get to add my own personal touches to each site I do.

I’m hoping Bright Kitten has a very productive year!