I’ve had some enquiries regarding how to set up a blog. Some have tried setting one up on wordpress (the free hosting thing) and found restricted in the way of customizing it with plugins and making your own template.

Today you will learn how to make your very own professional BLOG! If your lazy follow the steps in RED at the end and I will make it very easy and set it up for you.

1. Download the software needed.

Before you start please download the following programs: (not required if following steps in red)

Filezilla – Install it and have it ready to be used. (a free FTP program, highly recommended

Wordpress - Leave it in its .zip package (the blog platform we will be installing)

2. Your Host:

You will need a host for your blog, do a bit of shopping around and find a cheap one or look at the bottom of this post for a deal. Some hosts you can find auto install your blog, in this case you can skip step 4. See www.wordpress.com/hosting for more info. If choosing a host not from here and want to install as I say in step 4, you will only need about 50mb space and 200mb bandwidth for a blog just starting off, your bandwidth will increase as you gain more readers. I am offering hosting for $25 a year (see bottom)

3. Your blog name/domain

Get a blog name, after all a professional blog uses a proper domain name NOT www.myblog.thisserver.thatserver.theotherserver.co.uk.au.com I have done my research, the best domain service for .com’s is www.clickfastdomains.com (you have full control over DNS and forwarding etc..) it cost $7.95US per year. Now log in and set your domain name servers to your hosts name servers or I If you found a cheaper one let me know. I am offering domains for $10 a year (.com) (see bottom) Now that you have your name and domain its time to set up your blog.

4. Installing your blog.

I strongly recommend you use wordpress as your blogging platform because of it’s powerful features and the large community developing it. If you haven’t gone with a blog hosting company than your going to have to install it on your server so it’s up and running. To do this unzip the wordpress download (as I told you above to download) and go into the folder. (If your in the right place you will see 24 objects including 3 folders called "wp-admin" "wp-content" and "wp-includes") Now leave this open and open the Filezilla program that you installed (as I told you in step 1) Now enter your FTP details, ask your hosting company or look on there website for this information. Once logged in make sure your in the right directory (in most cases you will be in the right directory otherwise go into the /public_html/ directory) One your in the right place go back to the wordpress window and select all the files (shortcut CTRL A) and drag them into the Filezilla program on the right hang side. (as shown below)

Wait for all to be uploaded (may take some time.) When completed you can now open www.mydomain.com/wp-admin/install.php in your browser. This should setup the tables needed for your blog. If there is an error, double check your wp-config.php file, and try again. Note the password given to you. The install script should then send you to the login page. Sign in with the username admin and the password generated during the installation. You can then click on ‘Profile’ to change the password.

5. Installing plugins and choosing your theme

To change your theme, log into your wordpress and click on presentation and select a theme. To upload a new theme upload it to wp-content/themes and then it will appear in your presentation.

These plugins are a must for every professional blog and I recommend you install them all. To install, download and upload them to wp-content\plugins using Filezilla and activate them in your wordpress.

Akismet – This will combat all your spam comments you come across.

diggIT – This plugin allows quick integration for WordPress users that want to automatically have the “digg” button show up for each of their posts.

Google Adsense Widget – Monetize with AdSense in your sidebar widgets!

Flickr Photo Gallery – This plugin will retrieve your Flickr photos and allow you to easily add your photos to your posts.

Post Star Rating – Plugin that allows to rate a post with one to five stars

Subscribe To Comments – Allows readers to receive notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry

WP-Poll – Adds an AJAX poll system to your WordPress blog. You can also easily add a poll into your WordPress’s blog post/page.

Translate – Adds a sidebar widget to display languages into which you can translate your blog

Im Online – Display status for MSN, Yahoo!, AOL, Jabber and ICQ via onlinestatus.org.

I also recommend you download and install Windows Live Writer for writing your posts. See this post for more information.

Now for the exciting part, If all of the above just seems to say blah blah blah here’s your chance. For a limited time I will giving you steps 1,2,3 & 4 for an amazing price of $35 a year. I will set you up with your own domain and host your blog. If your interested please contact me. In the form let me know what your domain name is (please check availability beforehand), your username and password and how you would like to pay. I can accept PayPal (creditcard), direct-deposit transfer, money order/check or you can give it to me in person if you know me.

As always if you run into any bumps let us know and I’ll help you set it up.

.VK.