So you’ve decided to give your business a voice through a blog, congratulations! Engaging your current and prospective customers is a great way promote your products and services, learn what people want, educate and entertain. Whatever the reason, here you are, and that’s a great first step.
Now what?
First, don’t be intimidated. None of the steps required to setup your blog are complicated and they certainly don’t require a significant investment of your time either. To break it down, here’s what you need to get up and running, hosting a Wordpress blog of your own1.
To get started, you’ll need:
- Access to a webserver. Since you already have a corporate website, then you’re set, although you need to check that you have MySQL and PHP as they are required to be enabled on your server.2
- The latest version of the Wordpress. Note that some webhosts offer control panel software that simplifies blog setup. If your host supports cPanel or DirectAdmin, you may have this option.
We’re not going to include every minute detail, but to get you comfortable with the process, here it is:
- Using PHP Admin3 (ask your webhost how to access this), or the control panel provided by your host, create a MySQL database called “blog”. This is where Wordpress will store your posts, users, comments, etc. You need to create an admin user that has FULL privileges on the database. Make sure you write down the username, password and database name. For our purposes we’ll assume user=’admin’, password=’WrT45#@JJ’ and database=’companyblog’.
- Extract and then upload the Wordpress files you downloaded earlier. These files, or scripts are the “brains” of Wordpress. We’ll upload them in a minute.
- In the extracted files, rename the file called ‘wp_config_sample.php’ to ‘wp_config.php’.
- Open ‘wp_config.php’ in a text editor. Replace “PUTYOURDBNAMEHERE”, “YOURPASSWORDHERE”, “USERNAMEHERE” with the corresponding MySQL database credentials we set above.
- Go to https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/ and generate your unique keys. Just copy the keys from the website and paste the whole thing OVER TOP of the existing section.
- Save the ‘wp_config.php’ file.
- Using an FTP application on your computer, create a folder called ‘blog’ inside your corporate website’s public_html,4 folder
- Upload the extracted Wordpress files and the edited ‘wp_config.php’ configuration file into your newly created blog folder.
- Open a web browser and visit http://www.YOURCOMPANY.ca/blog/wp-admin/install.php and Wordpress will ask you a few questions about your Blog.
- You’re done!
Believe it or not, these instructions are the long version! If your webhost provides an automated method for installing Wordpress through advance control applications like cPanel or DirectAdmin, we recommend you start there. But as you can see, setting up your own Wordpress blog from scratch doesn’t have to be mysterious, or complicated.
If you have any questions, or trouble setting up your business’ first blog, drop a line in the comments and we’ll see if we can help you through it. Otherwise, the wordpress codex website also has loads of useful info to get you through it too.
Happy blogging!
1 Some businesses opt for a blog hosted by Wordpress.com. While this may be an easier option at the beginning, you don’t have the same flexibility when hosting your blog and you will likely find you’ve outgrown the service a short while later.
2 Nearly all webhosting providers offer support for MySQL databases and PHP scripting.
3 PHP Admin is a web based application that helps you easily configure and manage MySQL databases.
4 Most website files are located in ‘public_html’, but yours may be something else. If you’re unsure, check with your webhost.
