How to Download WordPress to a Web Host

Blogging is a great way of expressing yourself and getting information on the Web. There are a number of ways to write your own blog but one of the easiest is to use WordPress. It offers an easy, free outlet for your blogging needs complete with blogging software and the ability to upload onto a web host for your own website.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Go to the WordPress website, and click on the "Download WordPress" link. A dialogue box opens with the information about your download.
2. Extract the files using a file extractor. The extraction creates a folder called "Wordpress." Make a note of where that folder is created on your hard drive.
3. Visit your web hosting company's support pages to get the information for your specific database.
4. Return to the folder called "Wordpress" and find the file called "wp-config-sample.php." Rename it "wp-config.php." Open this file in a text editor, and fill in the information for the name of your database, your username, the password and the hostname. Don't change the character set and leave the database collation blank.
5. Use your favorite FTP client or shell to upload the contents of your wordpress directory to your webserver.
6. Run the installation script.

Tips & Warnings

• If your website is more than just your blog, upload your directory to a subdirectory instead of the root file.
• Your web hosting company may not provide a database, and you might have to create it yourself. Follow the instructions for creating a database on the installation page for WordPress.