by Abigail Abanilla

Created on: October 02, 2010

Wordpress is obviously one of the most popular free blogging scripts available out there. More people are switching to Wordpress from their previous blogging softwares for the fact that it's easily customizable and is flexible in many ways. It also has so many features other blogging softwares can not provide, not to mention the fact that it's free with thousands of themes and plugins available online. 

In this article, we will be talking how to install Wordpress in a step by step manner. There are two ways to install Wordpress to your server and we'll talk about both. It's either using Fantastico Script Installer or a Manual installation. The following instructions are for using Fantastico Script Installer.

Given the fact that you have your own server or using a shared hosting, make sure you have fantastico script installer. If you don't have your own server, you can use a shared hosting - there are many web hosting available online, choose the ones with free Fantastico Script Installer.

There's not really a detailed instruction to follow when you use Fantastico, cause it's a one-click script installer and will take of all the configurations.

So, now we'll talk about how to install Wordpress manually to your own server.

1. Download Wordpress blogging software from wordpress.org.

2. Extract the files and rename the file wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php

3. Edit the wp-config.php file and enter your database details (Database Name, username, password and host)

4. Generate your secret key and include on the wp-config.php file. 

5. Upload all the extracted files to your server.

6. Go to yourdomain.com/wp-admin/install.php (If you have installed Wordpress on a Subdirectory like, yourdomain.com/blog - then you'll have to go to http://yourdomain.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php)

7. Follow the on-screen instructions and you're done!

It isn't that hard. The above instructions are just a revision of the famous 5-minute installation from Wordpress.

From there, you can start editing your profile, write posts and choose themes and plugins for your site. To start choosing a theme, go to your dashboard > appearance > themes. To start choosing your plugins, go to your dashboard > plugins > add new.

That was one easy way to install Wordpress. Although using Fantastico Script Installer is still a lot easier. When you sign up for a blog at wordpress.com - you don't need to install a Wordpress software cause they provide free Wordpress blog for anyone. The above instructions can only be applied on self-hosted blogs.

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