Setting your blog using Fantastico scripts is pretty quick and easy but what if you don’t have Fantastico scripts or cPanel hosting? Well then you will need to learn how to install Wordpress manually using FTP or File Transfer Protocol. In a previous post I outlined how FireFTP is by far the best and easiest FTP to use to get the job done and the best part is that it works right inside your Firefox or Flock browser. So before you get started installing Wordpress make sure you’ve downloaded, installed, and set up FireFTP and you can find complete instructions and a download link to FireFTP here.

To install Wordpress manually you will need the following:

- Firefox or Flock
- FireFTP all set up and ready to go
- The latest version of Wordpress (2.7 at time of writing)
- A text editor like Notepad or Notepad++

Step One – Unzip Wordpress once you’ve downloaded it to your computer
Step Two – Open the unzipped Wordpress folder and locate a file named wp-config.sample
Step Three – Open the file wp-config.sample in Notepad or Notepad++
Step Four – Look for these lines inside the wp-config.sample file:

Step Five – You will need to change the values listed here but first you need to create a database for your Wordpress installation inside your hosting account in order to obtain these values. So go ahead and log into your hosting account and let’s set up your database using MyPhp if you have cPanel hosting otherwise look for “Databases” in your hosting account.

- The first field you should see in MyPhp is your database name and here is where you can enter any name you want but you should make it relevant to your site name so you can remember it later on. Now click “Create Database”.

- Once your database has been created you will see a field marked “Database User” and you will need to enter a username of your choosing as well as a secure password (please note your username and password somewhere as we will need them for your Wordpress installation later). Now once you’ve filled out your database username and password click “Create User”.

- Now you will have to scroll down to the section that shows how many databases you currently have and it should be the one we just created, there should be a field next to it that allows you to choose a user to add to your database. Choose the username we just made together and click on “Add User To Database”.

- You should now see a screen asking what sort of privileges you would like the user to have and you should select “All Privileges” and save your changes.

Congratulations! Your Wordpress database is now set up!

Step 6 – Now we just need to go back to the wp-config.sample file we opened earlier and enter your database name, username, and password in the approriate fields. Where you see:

‘putyourdbnamehere‘ replace everything between the single quotation marks with the database name we just made
‘usernamehere‘ replace everything between the single quotation marks with the username we just made
‘yourpasswordhere‘ replace everything between the single quotation marks with the password we just made

Step 7 – Once you’ve made the changes to wp-config.sample you will need to save the file but use “Save As” and change the file extension from .sample to .php

Step 8 – Now you’re almost done, it’s time to load everything up to your web server using an FTP program. So go ahead and open the FTP program of your choice and log into your web server

Step 9 – You need to make sure that you are in the public_html directory before uploading any files and if you use Thinkhost it will be the docs directory

Step 10 – Locate your Wordpress folder and open it inside your FTP program…then upload all the folders and files inside the Wordpress folder into your web space (this should take a few minutes as there are quite a few Wordpress files to load)

* Once you are finished uploading your Wordpress files to your web space you will need to run the install script so Wordpress can set itself up inside your web space. Here’s what it should look like:

http://yournewdomain.com/wp-admin/install.php (of course you need to replace yournewdomain with your actual domain name) and if everything went well the install script will run. All you need to do is follow the onscreen prompts regarding your blog’s name, and email address.

You will be given a username (admin) and a password PLEASE WRITE IT DOWN as this will be your Wordpress Admin login until you change it.

If you have any trouble you can check out the Wordpress Installation guide here.

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Hopefully now that you’ve made the decision to start your own self hosted blog you’ve registered a domain name, bought your blog’s hosting, and changed your name servers so that your domain name points to your hosting account. If all of the above went smoothly then your site should be visible when you type it in the address bar even if it is just a hosting company placeholder page. Now it’s time to get your blogging software into your web space so that you can get to the serious business of blogging everything and anything that is on your mind.

In this post I will show you how to use Fantastico scripts to install your blogging platform and in a separate post I will also show you how to manually install your blogging platform without using scripts as it’s worth knowing how to do it that way too.

The benefits of using Fantastico scripts to install your blog are that it’s fast and simple enough to have your blog online and ready for you in less than five minutes. So if you’re ready, let’s get started!

Step 1 – Consult the Welcome Email Your Hosting Company Sent You

When you signed up for your blog hosting account you would have received a welcome email that contained details about your cPanel and how to access it. It will have a URL in it that looks something like:

This area of your hosting account is username and password protected so make sure you’ve located that information in your welcome email and enter it when you access your cPanel.

Step 2 – Accessing the Fantastico scripts

Once you’ve gotten to the cPanel interface you will see a lot of information and it can be a bit confusing and overwhelming. The information on the left side of the screen is a running log of your account activity like how much web space and bandwidth you’ve used. The right side of the screen is what we’re interested in and it is separated into rows and by category with names like Preferences, Mail, Files, Logs, Security, Domains, Databases, Software, and Advanced. While each section has its use which we will cover at a later time, for the purposes of this post we want to set up your blogging platform so scroll down to the section marked “Software” and you will see a blue happy face and that is your Fantastico scripts section so go ahead and click on it.

Step 3 – Choose Your Blogging Platform in Fantastico Scripts

Congratulations! You’re ready to pick your blogging platform from one of the many scripts available to you by your blog host.  There will be many options to choose from such as content management platforms and ecommerce, but this tutorial covers setting up Wordpress only. Once you’ve installed Wordpress you will have learned how to use the scripts in this section and you can experiment with the other choices available if you like. Locate Wordpress from the list of scripts in the section marked “Blogs” and click on it.

Step 4 – Setting Up Wordpress In Fantastico Scripts

Once you’ve clicked on Wordpress you will see a short description, the support forum and a link marked New Installation so click on it. The next screen is the first of three steps in your Wordpress installation.

You will now be able to view your Wordpress blog by typing in your domain name in the address bar and to log into your Wordpress administration dashboard you must add wp-admin to your domain name like this:

That’s it…you’re done! Now you can start blogging it up! Good luck!

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