WordPress has quickly become one of the world's most popular web-publishing platforms. Its ease-of-use and versatility to create almost any kind of site, from a simple blog to an e-commerce site, and of course the fact that it's free has attracted many web site owners. The WordPress community produces many useful extensions, little programs to extend functionality e.g. adding a shopping cart, displaying images in an attractive image gallery, embedding video and many many more.
In this short, easy-to-follow tutorial I'll quickly show you how to get a WordPress site up and running in 20 minutes. I use DreamHost* for all my websites so I'll be taking you through steps on setting up WordPress using DreamHost's one-click process.
Step 1
Go to the DreamHost website* and click on the sign-up link. For $8.95 per month you get a free domain for the first year and you can then host as many websites as you like at no extra cost for the hosting space.
Step 2
Sign up for the hosting package. Depending on your method and type of payment you should be able to start using your new account within an hour or so.
Step 3
Once DreamHost have provided you with your account access details, log into your control panel and click on the 'One-Click Installs' menu item in the 'Toolbox' menu.
Step 4
The 'One-Click Installs' page gives you 3 options; Select 'Advanced Mode' as this will give you the ability to install new themes and extensions into your new WordPress site.
Step 5
Installing WordPress
Select the WordPress option and then select where you'd like to install WordPress: This could be in the root of your domain so you would leave it at 'http://www.yourdomain.com/' or if you wanted to install it in a sub-directory then you can specifiy the name and the Installer will create the new directory for you and install WordPress there e.g. 'http://www.yourdomain.com/blog'.
Click on the 'Install it for me now' button, leaving the database option as-is.
You will see a confirmation screen and when your WordPress site is ready, usually within 10 minutes, you'll receive a notification email with further instructions on the final steps to get the site live.
Step 6
That's it! Your WordPress site is now live and from the Admin area, usually 'http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin', you can now further configure the style and other options for the site.
For more about WordPress and the business benefits of hosting your own WordPress site read "Hosting Your Own Wordpress Blog Is Better For Business" from @surajshah
*Affiliate link to DreamHost