Postcards from the Funny Farm

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1. Understand the difference between Wordpress.org and Wordpress.com

.com is a free blog service like blogger, Yahoo! 360, or Livejournal (there are many many more). You have very limited control over the files apart from the post content. Furthermore, most ad campaigns will not pay out to free hosted blogs such as these. These are free but they have many limitations.

.org is a self hosted set of templates that you install yourself on your own server. You have complete control over all the files that make up your blog. If this tutorial fails to help you 100%, try the support at Wordpress.org They have a lot of material and recommendations there. Most blogs with large readerships and who are making money have this type of a blog platform.

This walk-though is for a self hosted Wordpress.org install

2. Start an account with a hosting service like Topclasshost.com

You need to get the credit card out for this. There is no free lunch when it comes to serious blogging … well, not at first anyway ;) NOTE: there are many other recommended hosting services at Wordpress.org I like Topclasshost because it’s cheap, they have excellent customer service and you can install unlimited Wordpress blogs in a couple clicks through “Fantastico” in the control panel.

3. Download FileZilla (free) from filezilla-project.org/

4. Enter your ftp information that the host emailed to you into File-Zilla. Connect to make sure it works.

5. Go to your control panel, usually located at domainname/cpanel and select “Fantastico.”

6. Select from the blog choices “Wordpress” and go through the steps to install your own ass-kicking Wordpress.org self-hosted blog!

Voila! Congratulations … You’re done.

Of course, after that there is still a ton to do along your journey but that’s where the fun begins. Mine began in December of 2006 and what a ride it’s been! There is so much “accessorizing” and optimizing to do at this point.

For example, you can install themes by finding them online, downloading, and dragging them into Filezilla into your Wordpress folder wp-content/themes and for plugins wp-content/plugins

At this point, you need to bookmark Wordpress.org as you are learning all the “tricks of the trade.” They have an amazing forum there for help. Of course, you may always email me for support. The Wordpress blog platform exists because of people willing to help others. I’m always eager to help my readers because so many have helped me. Even if you don’t need help, please leave me a comment letting me know if you have questions and if you found this walk-through useful.

Have fun.

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NOTE TO THOSE WITH NOT MUCH TIME to wade through all this : For a very reasonable one-time fee, I will set you up your own blog and get it the way you want it. Of course all plugins and settings will be seo optimized and I can also add custom graphics to the job as well. My wife and I have a small graphics company. I also give “Wordpress” lessons. Let’s chat.

Blogging right can mean the difference between beer pong tables and a million bucks.