WordPress is the most professional and the most customizable blogging platform. Installing WordPress will definitely help you create a great blog.
Many bloggers have questions about how to install WordPress on your own hosting server, how to setup etc. This is the complete step-by-step guide on how to setup domain name and hosting, setup MySQL and how to install WordPress 3.0 on your own server.
Get domain name and hosting
- First step to is to buy your domain name and hosting. I use GoDaddy personally
- At GoDaddy domain name is $1.99 when buying it with hosting
- See more on how to choose a domain name for your blog
Setup your hosting account
- Hosting plan I use is “Economy” ($4.74 a month when buying a year)
- Login to your GoDaddy account
- Click on Hosting and chose My Hosting Account
- Find your hosting plan and click on Setup Account
- Select the checkbox and click Next
- Chose username and password you would like to use for your FTP hosting access and click Next
- Chose Select a domain from this account and find your domain name
- Finish the setup by clicking Submit
Get your FTP Account Information
- When your hosting has been setup you will get an email titled “Hosting Account Setup” from GoDaddy
- Find your “FTP Account Information” in the email
Hosting/FTP User Name: your username
Web Site URL: your domain URL
FTP Site URL: your FTP URL
Your Web Site Visitor Statistics: Your stats URL
Create MySQL database
- Login to your GoDaddy account
- Click on Hosting and chose My Hosting Account
- Find your domain name and click on Manage Account
- In the upper menu click on Databases and chose MySQL
- Click on Create Database
- Write description, chose username and password
- Click OK and wait until GoDaddy sets your MySQL
When the MySQL has been setup, click on the pencil to “Edit/view details” and save the following details:
MySQL Database Information Status:
Setup Host Name: your host name
Database Name: database name you have chosen
Database Version: 4.1
Description: description you have chosen
User Name: username you have chosen
Downloading the files
- To install WordPress, go to WordPress.org and download the latest version
- WordPress 3.0 comes in a .zip file so unzip it
- Now you have a WordPress folder
- Find the wp-config-sample.php file and rename it to wp-config.php
Open wp-config.php in text editor (like NotePad++) and find this part:
// ** MySQL settings – You can get this info from your web host ** //
/** The name of the database */
define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘putyourdbnamehere‘);
/** MySQL database username */
define(‘DB_USER’, ‘usernamehere‘);
/** MySQL database password */
define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘yourpasswordhere‘);
/** MySQL hostname */
define(‘DB_HOST’, ‘localhost‘);
Take your MySQL Database Information you have from GoDaddy and insert them in places where I have marked with bold:
- Your MySQL Database Name should replace putyourdbnamehere
- Your MySQL User Name should replace usernamehere
- Your MySQL password should replace yourpasswordhere
- Your MySQL Host Name should replace localhost
Now find following in your wp-config.php:
define(‘AUTH_KEY’, ‘put your unique phrase here’); define(‘SECURE_AUTH_KEY’, ‘put your unique phrase here’); define(‘LOGGED_IN_KEY’, ‘put your unique phrase here’); define(‘NONCE_KEY’, ‘put your unique phrase here’);
Visit secret key and copy details you get there and insert them instead of the above.
- Save wp-config.php
Login to your web hosting
- Get a FTP client (like FileZilla)
- Open FTP client and login to your hosting account using your FTP account information
- Place all the files from your WordPress folder onto your server
- In this example I will place all files in root directory (http://www.yourdomain.com). The directory will look something like this when the files are uploaded:

- Install WordPress by going to http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin/install.php
This is what you will see when you enter the address:

- Fill in your Blog Title
- Fill in Your E-mail
- Make sure your Allow my blog to appear in search engines like Google and Technorati is checked
- Click on Install WordPress
- Next screen you see should say Success! and should give you your Username and Password.
- Click on Log In.
- Now you will see your blog’s Log In page. Make sure to bookmark that URL.
- Fill in the Username and Password you have just received
- Click on Log In.
Now you will see your Dashboard where all the optimization, customization, post writing, plugin installing, comment moderating takes place.

This means your blog has been setup and is live online. Check your http://www.domainname.com to see it. You will also get an email titled New Blog which includes your URL and your username / password. That was it, it is very simple to install WordPress. Enjoy your new blog!
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@Marko
Yes, you have put every small detail and that has made this post quite long. I am impressed!
I had installed WP for my blog using Fantastico.
Next time, I will use this method.
You have put good details for newbies but doesn’t Fantastico makes it more easy?
I use Doreo hosting and I had to just click Wordpress option in cPanel, enter usermame, passwore and after 30 minutes, I could log in to Wordpress and configure my blog. I had full control over it and did not need to mess up with any settings.
Most of good hosts offer Fantastico for free and I think it is more newbie friendly.
@Blogging With Success – I have never tried Fantastico personally. My guide might seem long but it is only because I wrote all small details. When you follow it once/twice you will see how easy it is and that you do not need anything else. If you have your domain and hosting set, it doesn’t take more than 5 minutes to install WordPress and have your blog live online.
Marko great post…i wanted to make a new wordpress blog and this was of great help…can you provide a list of the plugins you use for this blog? there are a lot of options available and it is hard to choose the best.
Great blog, you gained a new subscriber!
@Blogging With Success – Sounds good! Post a comment here on how it went.
@myln – Thanks! I have put that on a list for future posts so keep an eye for that sometime next week probably. After writing a bunch of social media marketing posts lately, I plan on going back to basics and writing some tips for new bloggers and new users of WordPress.
Great article I wish you had written it 3 weeks ago. I have just paid an IT dude to move my blog from blogspot to a self-hosted site. He did have to fiddle with HTML code on my theme which I could not have done.
I would really appreciate some advice on how to improve my results on the search engines. On my blogspot blog I had a google page rank of three, so you usually pop up in the first 2 pages on google in my niche.
However I have changed the domain name from realityravings.blogspot.com to realityravings.com, so now I am plankton on the google food chain again. How can I quickly improve my search engine ranking?
Also I have left my blogspot blog up so my regular readers know that I have moved. Will this be hurting my search engine ranking?
Love you site by the way I subscribe via RSS.
@Reality Raver – I would suggest setting a 301 redirect on your old domain to tell search engines that you have moved to a new domain. Hopefully you will have your old rankings/PR back by the next PR update. See what Google says at: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=93633
Thanks Marko, and Blogging With Success I have sent you an email.
@Reality Raver
I have also moved from Blogspot to Wordpress and it does hurt your rankings.
Best you can do is set blogspot address to new URL and install a redirection plugin that forwards old urls to new as WP permalinks differ a lot from blogspot ones. This way, at least old links from Search Engines will go to right pages instead of 404 errors. I can help you set up plugins etc. (for free)
Self hosting is definitely the way to go. Gives you ultimate flexibility with how you organise your blog.
For a slightly more advanced (but in my view tidier way) to manage your wordpress installation, I wrote a guide on how to do this with subversion. This allows you to have greater control over how the upgrade process happens. It is nice to be able to upgrade the wordpress installation and all your plugins with one simple command.
I admit that with the latest release of Wordpress 2.7 the upgrade process is a whole lot easier, but I’ll reference the guide in case any one is looking to do this a little differently.
Marko,
I really appreciated your blog. That was just wonderful.
Thanks,
Susan
Probably the best guide around for installing a new WP. It’s good to memorize the process step by step, and it’s pretty easy to remember if you’ve installed WordPress over and over and over again.
This is great, thanks Marko. I’m going to be changing to a self-hosted WordPress in three or four weeks’ time – now I can stop worrying about how I’m going to manage it!
Great overview. I was thinking about taking my blog to the “next level” by moving it to my own hosted site. This overview is fantastic!
I will be checking back often.
great guide – i am off to set up my first blog so i have printed this off and will follow it to the letter
PLEASE HELP ME!!!
After following with great attention all previous steps, when I go to “http://yourdomaint.com/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php”
that’s what appears:
“Your PHP installation appears to be missing the MySQL extension which is required by WordPress.”
What went wrong?
@Massimo Grazzi – The message says problems with MySQL. Check if you setup your MySQL correctly. Your web-host should have details on how to do it.
@ImaNicePerson – Look for the “export” function in your current blogging software. WordPress has export / import option so it is easy to import the whole archive of blog posts into a new WordPress installation.
I’m attempting to change the banner from the boring blue background to a jpeg that i have and I don’t know how to set it up. I don’t think that I’m a complete idiot but for the life of me I can’t seem to get this right. Help!? please
@shonmiller – Take a look in your Appearance – Editor – header.php …. and then see this page for details on the code you need: http://codex.wordpress.org/Designing_Headers#Changing_the_Header_Image
@Eric – Looking at this: http://ripcordnews.com/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php … it seems that you didn’t upload WordPress files/folder correctly. Make sure to upload all the files/the whole folder.
I did this but my dashboard, stats and widgets didn’t transfer over. Any advice?
@rthastar – You will have to install new plugins / widgets to customize your blog after a fresh Wordpress installation.
Great guide…..Thanks for sharing….
Thanks Marko for your helpful reply. I was hoping I didn’t have to do that. While I’m at it, do you have any widgets/plugin that you highly suggest?
@rthastar – See this article for Wordpress plugins I recommend.
okay first of all, THANK YOU for writing this!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! I am trying to follow this step by step. So I am currently waiting for wordpress to email me my hosting account setup. Looking ahead I see you have to write a description for the MySQL database. I have no idea, is this a description of the blog? Key words? I have no idea what I am doing…
@Holly Lane – Just put your blog title or something similar as MySQL database description. Not really something to think too much about.
many thanks
Marko,
I followed your instructions to a “T” but this is what I get when I attempt to run the install:
The page you tried to access does not exist on this server. This page may not exist due to the following reasons:
You are the owner of this web site and you have not uploaded (or incorrectly uploaded) your web site. For information on uploading your web site using FTP client software or web design software, click here for FTP Upload Information.
The URL that you have entered in your browser is incorrect. Please re-enter the URL and try again.
The Link that you clicked on incorrectly points to this page. Please contact the owner of this web site to inform them of this situation.
Any suggestions?
@Dave – That basically means that you either didn’t upload the WordPress files to your server or that you didn’t write the correct URL in the address field. I cannot really say which one without checking your server.
I struggled so hard with wordpress and your walk through finally got me there! I say in all honesty I consider you a brother! Thank you soooo much!
@Daniel – Thanks for the nice words, I am glad I could help. Good luck with your blog.
Can I move an active blog from WordPress to GoDaddy? If so, what do I lose? What else happens?
@Mike V – Yes. Wordpress.com has the export feature where it saves all your articles, comments etc. into a file that you then can import into your Wordpress.org blog. So use export tool to save your current Wordpress.com blog, but domain name / hosting, install WordPress.org, and then import your WordPress.com into your new blog with the file you have.
I love your blog and find your tips helpful. I wish I had found you first. But love learning from you and the people who comment. I have a wordpress.com blog and would like to convert it to a self hosted blog. Do you have any insight on the process to convert/transfer wp.com to self-hosted blog?
@Ar – I have already answered your question in the comment just above.
Hi Marco,
You Have been real help to me .I wanted this kind of steps which can help me to create one. The response time is also amazing.I could not think I would get back answer.I am obliged to you
Thank you for your kind help
sumalya ghosh
Well done, im sure i will forward you site to afew others who have asked me similar questions.
Great tutorial as usual! I find that Fantastico make it effortless.
Why do you not just use Fantastico?
Is there any disadvantage of using Fantastico?
Thanks for any replies.
@Webmaster Sol – There is nothing wrong with Fantastico. It’s just good to know how it really works. And when you try it couple of times, my traditional method doesn’t take more than 5 minutes.
Hey Hallo, thanks for this explanation. I finally managed to install it. Now time to configurate it. Thnx !!!
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