Emad Ibrahim

I have several WordPress blogs and I see myself repeating the same task over and over.  So I decided to write up this post as a reference for myself and others.

by ponanwi 

To make things easy and clear, I am going to write this as a bulleted list that you can run through.  Of course, I am skipping a lot of details here, but this should give you an idea.  I hope it helps and if you have other suggestions, leave them in the comments area.

Domain Setup

1. Register the domain or sub-domain.  I use 1&1 mainly because they are very affordable (6 bucks a year)
   1. Set it up to point to your Server IP
2. Create the domain/subdomain with your ISP – I use mediatemple

Database Setup

1. Create the database – usually done through your ISP’s control panel
2. Create a user for the database

WordPress Setup

1. Download the latest version of WordPress from http://wordpress.org/download/
2. Upload the downloaded file to the new domain
3. Connect using the shell to your new domain
4. In the shell, unzip the uploaded file
   unzip filename.zip
5. Edit your wp-config.php file (if you don’t have one, create it using the wp-config-sample.php)
6. Modify the wp-config.php to match your settings (shown in bold)
   define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘database_name_here‘); 
   define(‘DB_USER’, ‘db_username_here‘); 
   define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘db_password_here‘); 
   define(‘DB_HOST’, ‘db_host_usually_localhost‘);  

Blog Setup

1. Navigate to your new domain
2. Enter a blog title and email and click “Install WordPress”
   
3. On the following page, save the admin username and password and click the login link
4. Change your password
   1. Click Users
   2. Click Edit next to the admin user
   3. Type a new password and submit
5. Change the Permalinks to your taste (I prefer the date and name based format)
   1. In your admin site click Options > Permalinks
   2. Select the format you like and click update

by tanakawho

More Setup

1. Add traffic tracking to your site, I use one or more of these:
   1. Google Analytics – http://www.google.com/analytics/
   2. WP Stats – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-stats/
   3. Sitemeter – http://www.sitemeter.com
   4. Feedburner – http://www.feedburner.com
   5. SpotPlex – www.spotplex.com (I just started using this, so I am not sure how good it is)
2. Burn your feed – check www.feedburner.com for more information
3. Monetize your site, here are some of the few that I use:
   1. Google AdSense
   2. WidgetBucks
   3. Amazon.com Associates

Customize

1. Change the theme
   1. Upload a new theme to the folder wp-content/themes on your server
   2. In your admin site click on Presentation and select your theme
2. Add plugins
   1. Upload a plugin to the folder wp-content/plugins
   2. In your admin site click on Plugins and activate your plugin
   3. Follow specific plugin instructions to make it work

Resources

1. Themes
   1. http://themes.wordpress.net/ – WordPress theme viewer
   2. http://alexking.org/projects/wordpress/theme_browser.php – another WordPress theme browser
   3. http://www.wpdesigner.com/category/free-wordpress-themes/ – free WordPress themes
   4. http://www.solostream.com/ – Very good and affordable themes
   5. http://www.wp-glory.com/ – WordPress design tutorial
   6. http://news.revolutiontheme.com/ – good theme
   7. http://www.uniqueblogdesigns.com – lots of good themes and branding
   8. http://www.yvoschaap.com/wpthemegen/ – WordPress theme generator
2. Plugins
1. Plugin directory – http://wordpress.org/extend/
2. WP Super Cache – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-super-cache/
3. FeedBurner FeedSmith – http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/help/wordpress_quickstart
4. Aizatto’s Related Posts – http://www.wp-plugins-db.org/plugin/aizattos-related-posts/
5. Share This – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/share-this/
6. Akismet – http://akismet.com/
3. Other good articles
1. http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress
2. http://www.internetwealthmaster.com/how-to-set-up-wordpress/
3. http://www.thesitewizard.com/gettingstarted/wordpress1.shtml

by tanakawho

My Blogs

1. www.theTechBrief.com
2. www.sofachip.com
3. www.emadibrahim.com