Creating a blog can be and start blogging. However if you want your blog to sit on your own domain (i.e. TravelingIsSuperFun.com), then the following setup is a great start.

These instructions help you to create a new website running WordPress. WordPress is a fantastic, free website-creation tool that is popular and powerful. Its ideal for blogs or simple page based websites. It can integrate handle Flash media and e-Commerce business, but that is far outside the scope of this article.

This article assumes you have no web presence whatsoever, except a personal email, which we will use only sparingly.

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ONE TIME SETUP

Web Host Setup

First you will need space to store your files. You can think of this as a harddrive, but one that is not on your computer. It exists in a building far far away. This way you can access the blog from anywhere on any computer, and so can your audience who reads your blog.

There are myriad options for a web host. I chose one ages ago, and always use it; DreamHost.

• Open your favorite web browser
• Browse to https://www.dreamhost.com/
• Sign-Up for your free Dreamhost Account.

Domain Registry

You can think of the domain as the front door to your blog. You can send anyone in the world your domain and they can access you. Its kind’ve like how an email address allows anyone send you an email – but the domain let’s anyone find your blog.

• Sign-In to the web panel. This is the Dreamhost Admin
• Add a New Domain. You may choose any name you like, as long as it doesn’t exist, but I recommend one long word without dashes without underscores ending in “.com” (i.e. “TravelingIsSuperFun.com”)
• Open your favorite web browser
• Waiting? Browse to your new domain (e.g. http://TravelingIsSuperFun.com). Most likely it is not ready yet. It will take “1 to 3 days” before we can Install WordPress per below. There is no way to speed this up. Just check back and when your domain shows “something”. Then you are ready to continue. While you wait you can “Setup New Email”. This is the only step you can do while you wait.
  Setup New Email

Certainly you already have a personal email. This is the one you likely used when you signed up with DreamHost per above. However for many reasons having a domain-specific email is beneficial (e.g. sammy@TravelingIsSuperFun.com). It looks more professional, and it helps separate your blog emails from your personal emails. It is unlikely you will receive much emails, unless you choose to distribute this email or list it on your blog. I do both.

• Sign-In to the web panel. This is the “DreamHost Admin”
• Add New Email. There you will see an option to “Create New Email Address”. Leave all settings as default, except these. Customize these settings;
  • Email Address
  • Mailbox Name
  • Password
• Choose “Create Address”
• Now Access Your Email To Test It. Enter your username and password at the “Webmail for your Email Account” (e.g. http://webmail.TravelIsSuperFun.com/ )

Install WordPress

Are all steps to “Domain Registry” complete? All of them? Sure? Ok then continue here.

WordPress will be the scaffolding for your entire site. It will be the graphics and text the user sees as well as the administration panel that you access to add/edit/remove content to your blog. There are mountains of great tutorials, videos on youtube, and books on the subject.

• Sign-In to the web panel. This is the “DreamHost Admin”/li>
• Add WordPress. Click the WordPress icon. It is located at the horizontal center and vertical center of the page.
• Choose “Simple Installation”.
• There are 4 form fields and one dropdown. Leave the first field blank.
• Set the dropdown to your new domain (e.g. TravelingIsSuperFun.com)
• Set the “Name:” to anything you like (e.g. This is my Travel Blog). You can change this later.
• Set the “Email:” to your new email (e.g. sammy@TravelingIsSuperFun.com).
• Click “Install It For Me Now”.
• Waiting? Browse to your new domain (e.g. http://TravelingIsSuperFun.com). Most likely it is not ready yet. It will take “10 to 15 minutes” before you see a WordPress at your new website. It will display something like “Welcome To WordPress”. At the same moment it becomes available, and email will be sent to your new email. So you can wait for that and click the links inside the email to see your blog.

Google Analytics Setup: Optional

Google Analytics is the enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. You can check back and see who visited your website, why, for how long, etc… for any day ever in the history of your website. Very nice. And its free. It is best setup on day 1, but you can add it at any time in the future.

If you are not interested in analytics, skip this section and skip any instructions which mention “analytics” in other sections below.

• Sign-Up for Google Analytics. You can use your existing free Google account if you have one.
• “Add New Domain”. If you can’t find out how, search on http://www.google.com for “Adding a domain to Google Analytics” and follow the instructions. Complete analytics setup here is outside the scope of this article.

Google AdSense Setup: Optional

AdSense is an ad serving application run by Google Inc. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image, and video advertisements on their websites. These advertisements are administered by Google and generate revenue. Its fast and easy to setup and totally free.

If you are not interested in AdSense, skip this section and skip any instructions which mention “AdSense” in other sections below.

• Sign-Up for Google AdSense. You can use your existing free Google account if you have one.
• “Add New Ad”. If you cannot find this. Follow this help section.

WordPress Setup: Part 1

• Following the “WordPress Install” section above you will receive an email outlining how to login to your website. You will access the admin with a web browser through a subdirectory of your domain (e.g. http://TravelingIsSuperFun.com/wp-admin/). This is your personal blog’s “WordPress Admin”. You will spend 99% of your time on this project inside this admin.
• The first page of the admin is the “Dashboard”. It shows a navigation bar with tons of buttons on the left.
• Click the arrow next to “Users” to expand the menu. Click on “Users” (yes, same word used twice)
• Click on “Admin”. Change the password. Memorize it.
• On the Users Menu, click “Add User”. Create a new account with your preferred username and password (you can use the same password as you used for admin if you like). Be sure to set the Role to Administrator. This way you can add/edit/delete (do everything) on the blog.
• In the upper right, choose log out.
• Log In again with your new username and password. Use this new username and password 100% of the time. Leave the original “admin” user account as a backup (i.e. You really never use it, but DO remember the password in case you need it.)
• Browse to your blog. Just to see how it looks. (e.g. http://TravelingIsSuperFun.com/).
• Then continue with ‘Part 2′.

WordPress Setup: Part 2

• You will access the admin with a web browser through a subdirectory of your domain (e.g. http://TravelingIsSuperFun.com/wp-admin/).
• On Left-bar menu, expand ‘Plugins’ and choose ‘Add New’. For each of the following; search, install, activate.
  • Advertising Manager – This you will use for AdSense, per above
  • Akismet
  • All in One SEO Pack
  • Google Analyticator – This you will use for Google Analytics, per above.
  • Duplicate Post
• On Left-bar menu, expand ‘Appearance’ and choose ‘Themes’. Browse any, preview, any, and activate one. For now this will be your theme, so pick one you want for at least a few weeks. Any changes to ‘widgets’ will be lost when you change themes, so pick one you like.
• On Left-bar menu, expand ‘Pages’ and choose ‘Add New’. You will add 4. For each; Enter a the title/description here.
  • Home / This is the home page.
  • About / This is the about page.
  • Services / This is the services page.
  • Contact Us / This is the contact page.

• Browse to your blog. Just to see how it looks. (e.g. http://TravelingIsSuperFun.com/).
• Then continue with ‘Part 3′.

WordPress Setup: Part 3

• You will access the admin with a web browser through a subdirectory of your domain (e.g. http://TravelingIsSuperFun.com/wp-admin/).
• On Left-bar menu, expand ‘Posts’ and choose ‘Categories’. Add 2 new ones. ‘Fun’ and ‘Work’. You can delete these later.
• On Left-bar menu, expand ‘Posts’ and choose ‘Add New’. Add a few posts. There is TONS you can do here. But just give a title, input a sample paragraph, choose a category (of ‘Fun’ or ‘Work’) and click ‘Update. Checkout the site again to see.
• On Left-bar menu, expand ‘Appearance’ and choose ‘Widgets’.  Each widget is a block of real estate on your blog. It can contain many things. A list of links, some text, an image, a calendar, a search text input, and much more.  Drag a box from the center area to the right. Checkout the site to see the progress. Experiment!

That’s it. You did it. We’ve used the most commonly used 20% of WordPress. There is much more to learn, but you already have all the basics now. You can send the link to your friends and share it!

ONGOING MAINTENANCE

DREAMHOST MAINTENANCE

-Only visit dreamhost to; pay your bill each year, add new email accounts. I.e. basically you never visit here.

WORDPRESS MAINTENANCE

-Login to the admin to add/edit/expand your website. You will login here frequently until your site is “done”.

That’s it!