Build a blog with WordPress

Zack Stern

Most of those who are new to blogging often use free services with fixed, poor options. However, you can avoid this monotony and increase your Weblog's richness by installing your own blog software and customize it to your liking. You will control the appearance of the page and its functions - and when it is finished, you will get a blog that looks special and easy to upgrade to keep it fresh with lots of functional upgrades.

There are dozens of great blog tools available to you, among which we have selected a few tools. One of our favorite tools is WordPress. With this tool you can easily expand to meet your needs, so it can manage a blog or professional blog or news sites with similar confidence. equal. The latest version, WordPress 2.5, provides a lot of support, including photo galleries, powerful media management options, multi-file uploads, new look . And because it supports multiple plug-ins ins and widgets, so you can quickly add additional features when needed.

We will explain how to start the installation process, along with how to customize your blog and how to create posts. If you just want to do something for free, go to WordPress.com; if you want full control of WordPress content management and site design features, include in your own personal domain name and a Web hosting account to install it on. Then, use WordPress software, with this software you can adjust a myriad of unique settings of your own, besides being easy to manage the site.

Prepare

To get started with WordPress blogs you need 4 or 5 basic problems:

1. A Web hosting account with PHP version 4.3 and MySQL version 4.0 or higher

2. MySQL database to save your blog data. You will create the database during this WordPress installation.

3. A text editor like Notepad (Windows) or Text Edit (Mac's). Simple text editors will make your work more flexible than complex word processors like Microsoft Word.

4. An FTP client like FileZilla for Windows or CyberDuck for Mac, to simplify or enhance the processing of uploading WordPress installation files for hosting services.

5. An image editor can be very useful if you want to create your own themes. A free product you can refer to is GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), which includes many features available in Adobe Photoshop.

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Install WordPress

WordPress requires PHP version 4.3 or higher, and MySQL version 4.0 or higher. These tools allow WordPress to execute scripts and manage databases to instantly disseminate your site. Check your Web host to confirm that it supports these elements and whether they have been successfully installed; Most hosting companies offer these features as part of their standard services.

At the heart of every WordPress blog is the MySQL database, this database includes all its settings and posts. You should set up this database on the host server before starting to work with individual WordPress files. That way, you can completely customize the configuration file before uploading it, which can save you considerable time.

To create a database, you need to log in to the control panel of the service - cPanel, phpMyAdmin, Plesk, or whatever interface is possible. In the main control panel, you will see a list of MySQL databases. The host in the example here is cPanel, so let us click the MySQL Databases icon, give the new database a name, which we have set to 'wordpress' and click Create Database . We also need to enter a new user and password, in this article we created and named this new user 'blog' , then click Create User . You can choose whatever name you want for the database as well as the user because it doesn't affect your process.

Download the free WordPress software to your computer and extract the files. All of them will be included in a folder named 'wordpress' . Inside this 'wordpress' folder, find the file named 'wp-config-sample.php' and rename it to wp-config.php . Then open this file in plain-text editor (such as Notepad for Windows or TextEdit for Mac), replace 'putyourdbnamehere' , 'usernamehere' , and 'yourpasswordhere' in the file with the database name , your username and password accordingly. Quotations or spaces must be preserved.

Now upload the WordPress files - exclude the same wordpress directory itself - into the root of the host account. You will probably use one of the FTP programs as mentioned above to switch quickly.

The folder in which you put all your content will determine where visitors will be visiting. If you want the original page to contain a blog, put everything in a directory on your host. If you want to save the page at a different URL like 'http://mywwebsite.com/blog' , you need to create a folder called 'blog' located at the root directory level and put WordPress files in it. The root directory for your website host will have a name like ' public_html ' or ' http_docs '.

End the installation process of your Web browser. Go to the directory where you created the installation plus the extension 'wp-admin / install.php' . For example, if you put everything in a folder called 'blog', then you need to go to 'http://mywebsite.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php' . If WordPress files are in the original Web directory, go to 'http://mywebsite.com/wp-admin/install.php' . Enter details like your blog name and email address and then click Install WordPress .

You have completed the initial installation process. Go to your URL in another computer to see how it looks. If you find a problem, refer to troubleshooting tips related to specific scenarios at the WordPress Codex.

Design your blog

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WordPress blog can be surprisingly edited, giving you unique functionality plus a special look. We will explain how to create these simple design adjustments, how to import the free themes that come with their blog style, and how to add functional plug-ins and create your own themes.

Log in to your admin panel by going to 'http://your-domain-name.com/wp-admin' . (This path is the same as the directory address where you uploaded the files.) Click the Settings tab in the upper right to create initial modifications. Change blog title, labeling line (tag) and time zone if needed. Then click Save Changes .

You can make simple adjustments to the header of the blog through the 'Design' , 'Header Image' and 'Color' tabs. Click the buttons to adjust the font color, change the background by clicking Upper Color and Lower Color . (Use the same color if you want a layer). Click Update Header to change your blog instantly.

With larger changes, you can perform the default theme replacement. New themes will change all post details in other layouts and other looks, many themes are free and you can download through WordPress and other sites. Go to WordPress Theme Viewer to sample the officially tested designs.

Here are some design options in the left menu that are really interesting, such as '2 columns' and 'right sidebar' used to narrow the results; You can then browse through the options. Another option is to type in a word in the search box in the upper right corner. If you like a theme, check out the other themes of the same designer, so click on the More themes by this author link .

Once you've found one or more themes that may be appropriate for your site, download them to your computer. Themes will come with installation instructions, but in general you just need to upload their folders to / wp-content / themes . Go back to your 'Design, Themes' tab, click the new theme to apply it to your site instantly.

Build your own theme

Building a theme from a mess may take you a long time, so we recommend that you go to the theme development page of the WordPress Codex before starting this work. Alternatively, you can see the instructions at BotHack for a brief tutorial on how the theme works.

Before learning to build a theme from scratch, we used Wordpress Theme Generator to save time. Although there are few levels of customization, you can easily adjust many settings to create a unique look for yourself with a short time.

To get started, go to the free site. The left column controls your settings, the right side will provide a current preview of the page's appearance. Use the options you want to make for your design. The 'Site name' section will control your own logo. Click on the white box to change the font color, or enter the URL for images with JPEG or GIF tags. Any image will be referenced from their original location, not downloaded into a theme - so if you change or delete the original files, your blog will lose them. We recommend uploading them to the server and then entering that URL.

We've retained the two-column design but edited the background pattern and text color. If appropriate, click the Preview button in the lower left corner to refresh the right panel when adjusting the settings. We ran and found a few errors - in each case, for example, there was a problem changing the URL of the imported image. Click the Save button to create the theme as a ZIP file. Then extract this ZIP file and upload the theme folder including PHP and other files to the ' / wp-content / themes ' folder on your server. In the WordPress admin panel, select the Design tab, Themes and click on the new theme to make changes.

Log in and create an article

Your blog has been built and configured. Now just a few more steps, you can start your post process. The user is initially named ' admin ', this is the name that will appear on posts. Click the Users tab to add your own identity. Fill in the details and select the Administrator role to let your new account have all the rights. If others share the blog with you, limit this person's rights. Editors can create posts and publish content from other writers but cannot access all administrative settings; The author can write and publish posts; co-contributors can write but cannot publish posts; The rest of the viewers can comment but cannot post.

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When you are ready to do the post, log out and then log back in using the new account. Click the Write button in the upper left part of the screen and start executing. Create a title and some text. You can write the body of the post first, then copy it here. In this way, if the Internet connection breaks down in the middle, there will be no loss of online text. Then click the Save button on the right when you proceed.

Use the word processor style toolbar to select bold typefaces, create lists or formatted text. If you need to work directly with HTML - for example, if you want to copy and paste an embeddable video - click the HTML tab. This appearance will show the basic commands and allow for direct editing. If you write HTML commands in the Visual tab, they will appear as text in the body of your post.

Add Media

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WordPress allows you to create multiple photo galleries in posts. Set the pointer to where you want a single image or gallery. Click on the rectangular image icon. (When you hover over it, the word ' Add an Image ' will appear). Click Choose files to upload to transfer your photos to the server. Select one or several of them and wait until the process bars finish. WordPress will then read the tags and data embedded in the images, then set the size of them and the format for your site.

In the Gallery tab, click Show to adjust the details, change the title and add instructions. Save these changes, then click Insert gallery into post . WordPress will then add the ' [gallery] tag' to the raw text and this content will become your photo gallery when published.

To add video files, click the Add Video icon. This will upload your video to the server. You should know how to compress everything through the editing software and should pre-process the file when using it for the Web. Therefore, you should upload videos to other sites such as Vimeo or YouTube, which will automatically format your clips for viewing on the Web. From there, click the option to embed the video in another page, and copy the embedded code. Back to your post, click HTML view and paste the code.

Tagging and content management issues

Your next task is to add tags (tags). Simple words and phrases in these tags will help readers find posts on the same topic. Use keywords to describe the post, specify what its content is and identify the right things inside. Distinguish tags with commas and click Add .

Categories provide a structured structure similar to tags, ranging from dependency on layout - WordPress can instantly create navigable tabs for each item. This arrangement works great if your blog has several repetitive themes like "work," "football," and "family." We recommend creating multiple tags, be it 5 or even more for each post - but limit the categories to one main topic. Type the name and click Add or use the checkboxes below to specify the category.

Click Save on the left, click Preview this Post . If its appearance is fine, you can click Publish . If you like to schedule your post, click Edit , then enter the date and time you want.

Post via E-Mail

WordPress 2.5 can publish posts that you or others email to a specific address; This capability is excellent in situations where you may want to send content from a mobile device away from your computer. However, the default process has many limitations: it does not work with SSL accounts, requires POP3 and currently does not work with image data. For these reasons, we recommend using free plug-ins, such as Postie. Besides overcoming those limitations of WordPress 2.5, Postie can also be provided to publish only emails that have been sent from a specific address, this feature is intended to enhance your security.

Create a new secret mail account for use with WordPress, upload the ' postie ' folder to / wp-content / plugins . Create new folders in the main folder called wp-photos and wp-files , where Postie can store its data. (Make sure they are writable on your server).

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In WordPress, click Plugins near the top right corner. Activate Postie . Log out and then log back in as an administrator. Click Settings , Configure Postie . Enter the email addresses you want to authorize in order to post entries to the blog. Set other settings at their default values, drag to the end and enter your email account settings. Click Update Options , and Test Config . If you encounter any problems, please confirm that the details of your email account are completely correct.

Postie is now ready but you need to create a scheduled Unix command to check the notification messages for your email account. In your server configuration tool, open Cron Jobs and create a new job. In this job, paste the text * / 5 * * * * / usr / bin / lynx --source http://www.mywebsite.com/wp-content/plugins/postie/get_mail.php> / dev / null 2> & 1 for WordPress to check for new mail every 5 minutes. Now you are ready to mail in your posts. Postie will use the email subject line as the post title and the body of the email will become the body of the post.