thought it would be fun and maybe even helpful to document the process of setting up a new nice clean safe self-hosted blog: if you are on a blog hosting service like wordpress.com or blogspot you will not be able to do some of the things listed here…

what do we have:

  • access to your “blogroot” (ftp,myphp,sql. etc)
  • you will need passwords and usernames here
  • wordpress.org (account, API, wp famous 5 min installation)
  • you will need passwords and usernames here
  • clean installation of wp (latest version)
  • thats all pretty straightforward…

what should we do:

  1. Upload: all files from WordPress to /yourblog.yourdomain.yourtld
  2. Edit wp-config with your infos (db, user; host, pswd, prefix) Security Tip: change the table prefix to something else other than the default “wp_” i.e. wp23_ use 2 letters and 2 numbers plus “_”
  3. Upload wp-config and browse to it at //yourblog.yourdomain.yourtld/wp-admin/install.php
  4. Once you are logged in to your admin area CHANGE the Generated Password to your Personal Password or CREATE  a new user for yourself with Administration rights and use as your Default Login.
  5. Ready.

once you are able to write a post you can begin tweaking and testing and tweaking

write a post; add tag(s); add categories; save; publish!

view your post:

in “dashboard”  go to settings- Permalinks and set a structure – any of the first list will do: press update: this is IMPORTANT as it creates .htaccess in your “blogroot”

note: you only need to do this if your provider is using php v. 4.x.x

FTP to your wordpress route and find .htaccess: save as x.htaccess and open in wordpad or editor:

add the following before the wp part:

AddType x-mapp-php5 .php
AddHandler x-mapp-php5 .php

save the file as (save as…) .htaccess and upload via ftp overwriting the original .htaccess file
you will now have forced your server to run php5 and treat all php files as php5 files.

is your provider using php4 or php5 – find out

you can do this by adding “anyname”.php doc into your “blogroot” containing the following code

/* <?php
phpinfo();
?> */

without the /*comment marks*/

upload to your “blogroot” and then browse to the document you created in your browser of choice

you will get a results page back from the server here you can see your php version

NOTE: once you are finished with this test php doc delete it from your server or secure it with permissions set to 700 or similair!!

if you are on php 4.x.x you will need the code above for next gen gallery plugin if you are on php5 then leave htaccess at wordpress default settings.

once that is all done and working properly we can begin to customize:

question: what comes first? the theme or the plug-ins?

both…

find a theme that works with your plugins and plugins that work with your theme:

wanna know more about the author...  countzeero - the self proclaimed EvilGenius™ behind OWN INDUSTRIES. Pixel Penetration and Code Cruelty are but two of his deadly skills. In his free time he likes to run too many blogs and twitter incessantly...