March is the month of blogging here at iGeek in an attempt to get more users to start blogging and expressing themselves online. Here is how you can install your own WordPress blog in a few easy steps.

Please note that before you can proceed with installation of your own WordPress blog you would have needed to read post about preparing for your WordPress installation. Once you are set with a domain and hosting you can proceed with the instructions below. Please note that we have a surprise in store for up and coming bloggers soon, so please follow me on twitter or join the Facebook Fanpage to stay up to date with whats happening.

Installing your own WordPress Blog

Step 1: Download the WordPress source code from WordPress.org and unzip and upload the files to your web host with the provided FTP details.

Step 2: In your browser go to your new domain name, a WordPress installation page should pop up asking for you to create a config file, you can just click the Create a Config File button and it should automatically create the file for you.

Step 3: You will now be at the main installation page and all you need to proceed is click the Lets Go button.

Step 4: The next step is to fill in your database details, you will get these details from your hosting company or you should be able to create it from the control panel provided by your hosting company.

Step 5: Run the installation, yeah that’s right, all you needed to enter was your database settings and now just click Run the install.

Step 6: Give your blog a title and enter the email address you are going to use for mail to be sent to when comments are posted or admin password are forgotten. Also check Allow my blog to appear in search engines if you would like your blog to be indexed by search engines like Google and Bing. Click install wordpress.

Step 7: If everything went well your installation should have been successful and you should now be presented with the login details to your admin area. Please write it down before proceeding to Log In.

Step 8: You can now log in to your admin area using the details provided in the previous screen. Please make sure to go change your password to something you can remember upon logging in. Go to the Users -> Your Profile menu to change your password.

That’s it, you now have a fully functioning WordPress installation and can start posting away. If you have any queries please feel free to ask it here, or if you need help installing your WordPress blog.

March is the month of Blogging here at iGeek where we are trying to educate the non tech savvy people out there how they can start their own blog and even make some money while they are at it. We have already covered the topic of starting your own blog with Blogger.com and also showed you some differences between a WordPress blog and a Blogger.com blog.

If you have read the post WordPress vs Blogger.com and decided to be taken more serious with your blog you are now asking the question, how do I go about setting up my own WordPress blog? Just note that this is a self hosted WordPress blog and not a WordPress.com blog.

Luckily WordPress is famous for their easy 5 minute installation, but before you get to the part of installing your WordPress blog there is a few things you need to take note of and get done before you can proceed.

Step 1: Register a domain

The first thing you need to do is decide what your domain should be, this is the part users type into the browser to get to your site Eg. www.igeek.co.za in my case. Domain registration is really cheap and will cost you anything from R50 to R150 depending on the type of domain you would like. There is a range of domain types available and choosing the correct one would be based on the geographic location of your audience. Com domain would be ideally if you would like to appeal to an international audience while co.za I would say if you are aiming at a local audience.

Try and keep your domain name as simple and as short possible, something users would remember easily. Once you have chosen your domain name its time to see if its available. You can register your domain through ISPs like WebAfrica, Afrihost, Hetzner or Serv these guys specialize in hosting and would help you out. A note WebAfrica currently has specials on their .com and .net domain registration for only R90.

Step 2: Hosting

Hosting is the server where your site will be running, it will be your WordPress installations’ home on the Internet. There is two types of hosting, local hosting where your site will be hosted in South Africa making it faster for local users to access and there is International hosting, much cheaper than local hosting and you get more features for the less price. It is normally advised that if your audience is local then you should stick with local hosting, but be warned if you start getting thousands of visitors a day this can become costly.

Your hosting packages requires 2 essential things for WordPress to operate on it, it must have PHP and must have at least 1 MySQL database. Opt for a Linux hosting package as they normally come standard with PHP and MySQL and they are generally cheaper packages. Also make sure you have at least 100MB of storage capacity and about 1GB+ bandwidth to start with.

You can obtain hosting from Hetzner, Afrihost, WebAfrica, Serv or Texo. Serv and Texo is ideal for a starting a blog, their prices start at R29 per month.

And that’s that, once you have sorted yourself with a domain and hosting package you are ready to install your WordPress blog, keep tuned as I will be doing a article on how to install your WordPress blog very soon.