Set Up a WordPress Blog Here’s how you set up your WordPress Blog on your URL (domain). The first thing you need to do is to make sure you have a hosting account created. Your hosting account must include: • PHP 4.3 (or higher) • MySQL 4.0 (or higher) • Mod_rewrite Apache module You do not need to worry about what these features are, it is just important that you make sure you have them. Try to get hosting at the same place you set up your domain. In your hosting account you will find a control panel. In your control panel find the Databases option and create a new database. You will be asked to give the database a name and create a username and password. Keep this information in a safe place. This is your MySQL database that will store all of your blog postings.

Installing WordPress Once you have the hosting set up and the database created it is time to install WordPress. Some hosting companies have a quick install option. If they do not all you have to do is download the latest software at: http://wordpress.org/latest.zip (for Windows or Mac). Unzip the files on your computer. They will be unzipped in a folder called “Wordpress”. Within the unzipped files you will find a file called wp-config-sample.php open it the file (it will open in any document editor). You will find instructions in this document. Change the text as needed in your editor (you will be adding the name of your database, username and password. Save the file and rename it “wp-config.php”. Move each folder and file within the “wordpress” unzipped folder you created (do not copy the folder itself) onto your website host company’s server (your hosting company will give you directions, it is very easy). If your blog is the entire site put it in the root directory. Otherwise you will want to create a subdirectory for the blog. You may want to create one like: http://www.mydomain.com/blog or blog.mydomain.com. After the WordPress files are on the server go into your web browser and type www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin/install.php (or if you did it on a subdirectory you type www.yourdomain.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php. The software will then guide you through the last few steps to installing your blog on your server. WordPress makes it quick and easy to install a blog. Take your time and go step-bystep and you should have no problem installing and starting your blog