Self-Hosting on Wordpress.org - Getting Started (Guide Series Part 1)

Why use Wordpress.org?

If you have an existing blog at Wordpress.com, you’ll find Wordpress.org extremely familiar. Even if you’re completely new to the Wordpress platform, you’ll probably find it easy to navigate, and I personally get a kick out of the many, many ways Wordpress.org allows you to customize with hundreds of pre-built themes, widgets, plugins… but we’ll get to widgets and plugins later.

Let’s get started.

1. Your Shopping List

Whether you have an existing blog to transfer or are starting entirely from scratch, you need a few things to make this work.

1. A domain name (www.yournamehere.com or something). Many servers will sell you a domain name (or even give it to you for free) when you sign up for a serving package.

2. A server or web host. These guys hold your site in the palms of their hands – all your writing, all your pretty pictures, everything. I have a link on this guide to my recommendation, Tiger Technologies. Tiger is one of many great servers that are specially designed to make Wordpress.org installation and hosting easy.

A note on hosting: If you are going to be using your site for photoblogging or v-logging or anything else with a lot of media, make sure to choose a plan with a lot of storage and high bandwidth. Tiger will let you upgrade your plan in the middle of your contract, which is nice,

3. A very complete reference. This guide is just a primer to give you a general idea of what it’s like to start up on Wordpress.org, but I can’t claim to be the be-all and end-all. Help books are your friend. I used Wordpress for Dummies and found it extremely useful throughout the entire process, so I highly recommend it.

4. Time. Don’t rush. Despite Wordpress.org’s advertisement of a 5-minute install, you do need time. The install really is only 5 minutes – but you must be all set up to do it, and then you simply must have time to get your blog content and theme started. I recommend putting aside 2-3 hours to get from blank slate to a site that is well on its way.

2. Okay, I've got it all! Now what's a MySQL?

There are things on your server called MySQL and PHP. Don’t tremble – all you have to do is give them names, use them once,  and then you never have to talk to them again.

When you are logged onto your server, you should be able to click to a screen called “Adminstration” or “Control Panel” or something similarly important-sounding. You should have an option on this screen for MySQL Databases, so click it. Give it a name and follow the instructions. You’ll need a password and a username for the database, and the add yourself as a user with administrative priviliges.

It helps to jot these names down on scrap paper as you go along, because you will need them to install Wordpress.org in a few minutes. After that you can use the paper for a coaster.

3. FTP? Another acronym, geeze...

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. FTP moves things from your hard drive to your server, where your server will take loving care of them and allow you to use them on your site. Think it might be important? Uh-huh.

If you plan to customize your site with themes and plugins, you will use FTP. Once it’s set up, a good FTP client will become second nature to you, even if you don’t use it very often. I use FileZilla -  it was recommended by Wordpress for Dummies and I have been very pleased with it.

Follow the instructions for downloading your chosen FTP client and open it up. You will need to connect to your server. Depending on your FTP client choice, you can get instructions on how to do this in several places: your client’s site, your help book, or your server’s help page. This is another reason I love my server, Tiger Technologies. All the info is on a page called – wait for it – FTP Publishing!

4. Now for the Wordpress upload!

THIS is where the legendary 5-minute install starts.

Go to http://wordpress.org/download and get those files onto your computer. They should end up in a folder called /wordpress in whatever directory gets your downloads. My downloads always go to a folder called “Downloads,” so these files are in a folder called Downloads/wordpress.

Are you still logged on to your FTP client? Good. You’d better be or you are going nowhere. Now it’s just a drag and drop operation. Open up that /wordpress folder. Now select all the files – NOT the folder itself – and drop them into your root directory.

What the heck is my root directory? On FileZilla FTP, it’s just the topmost folder on the right, called “/” but if you have questions, contact your server.

5. Run it!

All that’s left to do is install!

Go to your web browser and type in your domain name with /wp-admin/install.php behind it. Mine is http://shesgotbaggage.net/wp-admin/install.php. You’ll get what LOOKS like an error message, but fear not. Click on “create a file through a web interface” and walk through the steps.

Now get out that piece of paper with your MySQL stuff on it. You’ll need it to fill in the blanks as you install. Hint: “Database host” and “table prefix” fields should stay at their default settings.

Click a few more buttons and you are ON! Wordpress will send you an email to confirm login information and so on.

But it’s everything I’ve ever worked for! I don’t want to lose it! I’m scaaaared!

You don’t have to start your blog over when you start self-hosting. I know from experience that moving from Wordpress.com to Wordpress.org is pretty painless. In the “Manage” tab on your dashboard, go to “Import.” And God love it, they have a whole list of places you can import from – just click on your old platform and follow the instructions!

In most cases, this involves making an “export” file from your old place and saving it to your hard drive. Then you are told to upload this file by FTP, and your information is transferred to your new, self-hosted site. When I moved from Wordpress.com, I got to import not only my posts and comments, but my blogroll, my categories, my tags, and all sorts of things. Not every platform will do this.

CAVEAT: When I did my transfer, for some reason I lost 4 posts in the process. I have no idea how this happened. My post count on the new page was 4 less than on the old page, so I just skimmed the old page’s archives, copied and pasted the posts into new Wordpress.org posts, and backdated them correctly. Problem solved.

Exporting your blog does NOT delete your old blog, so you can always go back and check for losses or other screwups.