Step 3: Setting Up WordPress
23. Mar, 2010 
4 Comments
Allrighty! Now we get to the fun part!
In this section I’ll show you how to install the engine that’s going to drive your website. WordPress is a free piece of software that provides an easy to use publishing platform for your website. It will let you add content, images, video and audio to your site without having to know any geeky code.
WordPress is the most widely used website publishing platform on the Internet. I’m a huge fan of WordPress and use it for almost all the website I build. WordPress is used by 100,000′s of users because:
* It’s powerful yet incredibly easy to use;
* 1000′s of free WordPress ad-on’s which means it can do almost anything you can think of;
* 1000′s of free and premium design templates;
* It’s a one button install (well almost – let’s just say it’s very very easy to install if you follow my process;
* It’s free – yes free, as in beer.
Follow my instructions below and you’ll become one of the 1000′s if not millions of people enjoying powerful online publishing without the geeky stuff.
What you’ll need before you begin
You’ll need to have completed the following steps:
1. Register a domain name
2. Buy a website hosting package
3. Delegated your name servers.
Now, let’s setup WordPress:
Login to your hosting cPanels account
When your purchased your hosting account, your hosting provider would have sent your through your hosting account login details. Enter you username and password to access you cPanels hosting control panel. Once you’ve logged in you should see something like the above
Find Fantastico
Look for this little smiley face icon called Fantastic and click on it.
Find the WordPress install button
Fantastico is a great little installation wizard that makes installing WordPress a breeze. Look for the WordPress installation option in Fantastico and click on it.
Click “New Installation”
Next, just click on the New Installation link.
Add in your website details
The particular site I’m setting up here will sell electric bike conversion kits. For a simple wordpress install, leave the Install in Directory field empty. Enter in your preferred Username and Password (make sure you make a note of these).
In the Base Configuration area, enter a nickname (I just use my first name), email address, website name and a short description.
Once you’re done, click the Install WordPress button.
Finish the Installation
Fantastico will ask you to finish the installation – just click the Finish Installation button.
Installation Confirmed
After about 30 seconds or so, Fantastico will confirm that WordPress has been installed. You can email yourself the installation details by entering your email address in the field at the bottom and clicking the Send E-mail button.
Admire your hard work
To view your magnificent WordPress installation, type your domain name into the address bar and voila! Your new website lives!
In the next step, I’ll show you how to make it look a whole lot prettier by adding a WordPress theme.
Luke, what changes when setting up a second domain on the same hostgator hosting account? I get confused somewhere between Step 2 and Step 3 …
Answering my own question, it looks like this is an Add-on domain (free, depending upon your hostgator account).
That’s right Rich. If you have a Baby plan you can add as many domains as you like. I prefer to use a reseller account though, then I can give any outsourcing workers access to an individual domain instead of all my sites.