Setting up a WordPress site/blog is made sooooo DAMN HARD by TOONNNNEESS of people to try and make more money from you. No surprise there then!

I really wanted to set up a blog (and learn how to make a WordPress site) but I was NOT about to spend £50 quid on a 650 page book to show me how to do it.

So instead, I scoured the web, almost burnt out YouTube and scrolled through WordPress til’ my brain actually started to hurt!

The result? (after a few minor technicalities) is this fully-functioning, up and running, pretty-cool-even-if-i-say-so-myself blog.

Being the good friend (and fellow killing-myself-with-all-this-new-internet-stuff) I’m gonna show you the REALLY DAMN EASY way to do it from scratch.

1. Go to http://www.wordpress.org and download their latest version of the WordPress Software.

2. Find it on your desktop and right click “extract all” to unzip the file and put it on your desktop (you may wish to save it again into a different folder to make it easy to find again later  e.g. set up a “WordPress” folder and re-save the unzipped folder into there)

3. Register your domain name (this is the name you want people to search for to find you on the web e.g. www.thisisme.co.uk) I personally recommend Go Daddy because its simple, easy and one of the biggest registrars on the web! Take note of every account detail you can (passwords, usernames, URL’s etc)

4. Get some hosting (basically a place to store and edit your website account) for your site. I suggest Go Daddy too just to keep it simple and all in one place. Again, take note of every account detail you can (passwords, usernames, URL’s, hosting sitename etc)

5. Download an FTP program (software to allow you to send the WordPress Software to your website domain) I suggest WSFTPLE because it’s simple and it’s free. Download from the website and follow standard installation procedures.

6. Create a database on your CPanel (your editing and control panel from your webhost e.g. GoDaddy). Do this by logging on, clicking on “My SQL Databases” and creating a new database name. Then create a “New User” and “Password” – Take note of all these details as you WILL need them later! Finally click “Add Users to Databases” and select the user you just set up and the database you just set up. Select “all priveleges” to allow you to edit everything on your database and finish with “add user to database”.

7. Open up your extracted WordPress folder (hopefully saved in your new WordPress Folder)

8. Open up”wordpress” and “wp-config-sample.php”

9. Copy this file and paste it back into your folder so you have two versions. Delete the original “sample” file. Then rename the new config file “wp-config.php” and open it in notepad (right-click on it, left-click “open with”, then left-click “notepad”)

10. You will now need to edit this to read the following:

Amend the DB Name, User and Password in the “put your database name here” etc to read your own database details I told you to take note of earlier.

<?php
// ** MySQL settings ** //
define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘put your database name here’);
define(‘DB_USER’, ‘put your username in here’);
define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘put your password in here’);
define(‘DB_HOST’, ‘localhost’);
define(‘DB_CHARSET’, ‘utf8′);
define(‘DB_COLLATE’, ”);

define(‘AUTH_KEY’,         ‘put your unique phrase here’);
define(‘SECURE_AUTH_KEY’,  ‘put your unique phrase here’);
define(‘LOGGED_IN_KEY’,    ‘put your unique phrase here’);
define(‘NONCE_KEY’,        ‘put your unique phrase here’);
define(‘AUTH_SALT’,        ‘put your unique phrase here’);
define(‘SECURE_AUTH_SALT’, ‘put your unique phrase here’);
define(‘LOGGED_IN_SALT’,   ‘put your unique phrase here’);
define(‘NONCE_SALT’,       ‘put your unique phrase here’);

/**#@-*/

/**
* WordPress Database Table prefix.
*
* You can have multiple installations in one database if you give each a unique
* prefix. Only numbers, letters, and underscores please!
*/
$table_prefix  = ‘wp_’;

/**
* WordPress Localized Language, defaults to English.
*
* Change this to localize WordPress. A corresponding MO file for the chosen
* language must be installed to wp-content/languages. For example, install
* de_DE.mo to wp-content/languages and set WPLANG to ‘de_DE’ to enable German
* language support.
*/
define(‘WPLANG’, ”);

/**
* For developers: WordPress debugging mode.
*
* Change this to true to enable the display of notices during development.
* It is strongly recommended that plugin and theme developers use WP_DEBUG
* in their development environments.
*/
define(‘WP_DEBUG’, false);

/* That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */

/** Absolute path to the WordPress directory. */
if ( !defined(‘ABSPATH’) )
define(‘ABSPATH’, dirname(__FILE__) . ‘/’);

/** Sets up WordPress vars and included files. */
require_once(ABSPATH . ‘wp-settings.php’);

11. Click “save” and exit notepad.

12. Open up your WS FTP LE Program as we are now going to put our WordPress Software up to your domain name.

13. Fill in the details created from your Hosting Account and it will log you into your server.

14. Once logged in, your computer files are on the left and your server is on the right.

15. Using the left hand side, scroll through your computer to find your WordPress Folder. Open up the “wordpress” folders until you get to the big list of pages and folders. Select the first one and hold down the shift key to select all the files and folders in the folder. Then select the “public.html” file on the right from your server and click the arrow pointing to the server (——->) This will take a while to upload but should take all the files from your computer and transfer them over to your domain.

16. Now open up your internet browser and type in your web domain e.g. www.thisisme.co.uk

17. The WordPress Installation page should appear. Type in your desired website title and email address and click “Install WordPress”

18. Now it’ll give you a personal Username and Password option – enter these in and take note of them (you will use these to log into your blog and add posts/amend things)

19. Finally click “Log In” and it will sign you into your account!

20. If you now type your domain into another browser tab, you will see it live in all its simple glory!

21. Scroll through the various different options, themes and plugins on your dashboard to customise your site!

Have fun folks!

Hope this helped!

Your Pal, Natalie

P.S Leave me a comment to let me know if this helped you! And if it didn’t, tell me why.

P.P.S Be sociable.. share!

P.P.P.S   If you enjoyed this, sign up to my mailing list HERE and get sent more juicy stuff!