Step 2 - Installing Wordpress
Check Your Confirmation Email
The first thing you need to do is check for the confirmation email you received from your Wordpress Hosting company in Step 1.
You probably received between 1 and 5 emails welcoming you, attaching invoices etc. The email you are looking for is the Account Details one. This email should have the URLs of your Control Panel administration site.
No Confirmation Email?
Sometimes it takes an hour or two to receive the account information from the hosting company. If you don't receive it immediately, you should skip ahead to Step 4 to search for a Wordpress Theme while you wait. Then come back when the email arrives.
Log In to your Control Panel
Find the Control Panel section of the email from your hosting company, it should look something like this:
e.g. http://www.yournewsite.com/cpanel
It can take a 2-72 hrs for your new domain to take effect, so in the meantime, your host will provide you with a temporary address which might be an IP Address (a bunch of numbers).
e.g. http://111.22.333.44/cpanel
Open this address in your browser and log in with the username and password provided in the email.
Install Wordpress using Fantastico
Once you are logged in to the Control Panel, follow the Baby Steps below to get Wordpress installed:
| Baby Steps | Instructions | Screenshot |
| 1 | Find the Fantastico Control Panel main page. If your hosting service uses cPanel you can click on the Fantastico icon as shown in the screenshot. If you signed up for Site5 hosting, you will find the Fantastico link in the menu under "CGI & PHP Scripts". NOTE: Please read the Simple Scripts sidebar information. |
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| 2 | Click on Wordpress in the left-hand navigation menu. |  |
| 3 | Click on "New Installation" to start Installing Wordpress |  |
| 4 | Complete the first form as shown in the screenshot. Use admin as the name for most things (username, nickname, admin email) and choose your own password (don't use yourpasswd). Then click 'Install Wordpress'. Write your username and password down - you will need them in Step 6. |  |
| 5 | On the next page, simply click the 'Finish Installation' button and you will get a confirmation of the installation. | |
| 6 | NOTE: With the latest version of Wordpress (2.8) you may get a few error messages at the final step. Don't worry about these and continue as usual. You will be sent to a new Wordpress setup screen when you go to your blog and you'll have to add a name and email to complete the process. Simple stuff. |
Check Your Wordpress Blog for the First Time
Let's take a quick look at the default installation of Wordpress to check it worked and so you can get to see your blog/site starting to come to life.
We'll use the temporary site address again (so check your email again to find the temporary website address). It should look something like this:
http://111.22.333.44/~yourusername/
As it's a temporary address, the blog won't work properly yet, all we're looking for is a basic blog welcome message to show that the installation worked.
Existing Domains
If you have had your domain for a while, you don't need to use a temporary address and can go directly to the correct domain.
Step 3 - Find a Wordpress Theme (Design) »
