Tired of Myspace, so was I…

Friday, January 20th, 2006
at 10:02am

Hookin’ it up with WordPress

Getting away from Myspace was one of the best things I ever did online. I started one of those lame accounts just to keep in contact with people, but soon I learned this is what people considered to be the web. …let me explain…

I get tired of hearing people say, “Hey, you wanna see my website?” And then they give me the URL and its “myspace.com/someusername” That aggravated me, yet I was a part of it.

I’ve wanted to launch a site for a while, but I wanted to do it myself. Blogging seemed cool, but too myspace for me, so I stayed away from that idea, until I stumbled upon WordPress.

WordPress lets you make a blog your way, you create the MySQL database, you do the coding, you run the site! That is exactly what I wanted. Here is how you can do it too!

Hosting

For starters you have to get some space out there in the magical world wide web. I bought my domain and server space through godaddy.com. They offer great packages with sweet bandwidth and space. I pay $3.95 a month for their 250 GB of bandwidth and 5 GB of space. This is plenty for a blogger. Be sure that you buy a package with PHP, I made the mistake of using a windows server…don’t do that. Go Linux and enable PHP, its the same price on godaddy.

GoDaddy.com

When you get the server you need to set up WordPress. To get the source Wordpress file click here. Wordpress gives a decent tutorial on how to configure their PHP files, but don’t worry, I’ll walk you through it!

Configuring WordPress’ PHP

WordPress’ famous 5 minute installation worked pretty good for me, but I’ll share with you how to do it in simplier steps.

First you need to set up a MySQL database, its pretty easy if you are using Godaddy. Open your control panel and click MySQL under databases. Setup a name and password for the database, and don’t forget it! Also be sure to jot down the hostname, because you’ll have to configure this later.

your settings

Now that the database is setup you’re ready to configure WordPress. Open the WordPress folder and click on the wp-config-sample.php file. Enter you data about your MySQL database. The DB_NAME is the name of the database, the DB_USERNAME is the username of the database. Also the DB_PASSWORD is your MySQL password and the DB_HOST, which says you probably won’t have to change, I did, it is the Host Name.

configuration!!!

Save the file as wp-config.php and your ready to get your blog launched! How awesome.

FTP

From the Godaddy control panel click on the FTP client and add the wordpress folder to your server. It is as easy as that. You can rename your folder to anything you want, the URL will be yoururl.com/wordpress (or whatever you name it).

Once you’ve FTP’d the files go to the URL and WordPress will take you step by step through the process.

Themes

This is really the final step in the configuration process, because using WordPress from here is easy. Setting up a different theme is a breeze. I use the K2 beta two theme for my blog and configured the colors using the excellent tutorial by Paul Stamatiou found here. By clicking on the Presentation tab and the Themes sub-category WordPress gives in detail how to add new themes to your blog.

Conclusion

Blogging is an awesome tool if you do it yourself and WordPress is the perfect way to do it! Go dump your myspace and start today, its really easy and I’m here to help. If you need more information or help drop me a line at zach@zamwi.com

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23 Comments

Jill

January 20th, 2006
at 11:26am

As you can see I have the same issue…:P Know any good ones for free for a beginner? Feel free to email me.. ps good luck with the hits :P

Zach

January 20th, 2006
at 3:23pm

Jill, Thanks for the comment. From what I understand GoDaddy.com does offer an ad sponsered service, which is free as well as their paid services. I’d recommend looking into them, they are a great company. Before I bought space though my sites were being served by Tripod.com, which has free plans as well. They just released a free FTP client too, which means the setup would be very similar. Thanks for the comments,
Zach

Dani

January 24th, 2006
at 6:35am

HAHA
i was there when you typed it. hopefully you helped many people
oh yeah desperate housewives was on last night haha i was laughnig thinking of the argument over why its ok for guys to watch it. GO YOU DESPERSTE HOUSEWIVES LOVER! hope you are having fun. bye

Zach

January 24th, 2006
at 10:44am

Thanks Dani, yea this tutorial was featured on Digg.com which is pretty cool, so hopefully it will help people. Anyway desperate housewives is great show…rock on!
-Zach

Haarball

February 6th, 2006
at 5:00pm

I might have to try out godaddy. I’ve been meaning to get my won domain for a while, but it’s a tad too expensive. Can you pay them monthly, or do you pay the whole sum as you sign up for it?

Good on you for leaving MySpace.

Now resent the fact you were ever there.

Zach

February 7th, 2006
at 12:24pm

Believe me I do resent it. But what can you do besides try and save other people? You can pay godaddy monthly, but if you pay ahead its cheaper, listen to Diggnation too, because they give the 10% discount code every week.

myspace

February 12th, 2006
at 4:49pm

Rumor has it that myspace is coming out with a better version of there site on another domain starting march 1st it will be another social networking website with alot more features. I guess to stay ahead of other sites coming out like myspace.com also i heard it will be http://www.FriendWise.com i guess well just have to see if that happens.

My sql hosting

February 16th, 2006
at 9:22am

Hi,I have been visiting several blogs people have created and its so much fun to read alot of good info about a lot of things. I was looking for info about my sql hosting and I think you have one of the best blogs I`ve ever seen !! If you have some time could you please check my link to my sql hosting. Thanks and keep up the good work.

hosting mysql php

February 21st, 2006
at 6:22pm

Great Blog, you guys must check this out: hosting mysql php.

TreeFrog

February 21st, 2006
at 8:37pm

Terrific Blog you have. Peace Out.
TreeFrog

JiggyWittit

March 6th, 2006
at 9:11am

Kewl blog you got goin on up here.
Peace, JiggyWittit

buttheadchilliranch

April 27th, 2006
at 9:53am

ur all gay and ur going 2 die because im going 2 kill all of yall fat people and white motha fucking cock heads out there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

chinablue

May 18th, 2006
at 1:41pm

Awesome, I just posted as my headline on Myspace “Kill Your Myspace “Television”. The TV part so people will get the connection of Myspace rotting your brain. I did a search on my new headline and was directed here. Funny thing is that in my decision to leave Myspace I set up my own account and I am using Wordpress. Just starting so not up yet. I like to be able to have more control over my site. Myspace tracks you— not for individuals but for News Corp. (Fox) to track trends of its Myspace clients and what kind of material will sell. Using Myspace means you are part of a huge marketing “Nielsen” ratings scheme. Stop feeding Fox.

sfoeburq

July 8th, 2006
at 12:47am

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Bulk Email

October 5th, 2006
at 10:23pm

“What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not… the guns of our war steamers, or the strength of our gallant Bulk Email and disciplined army… our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted
in our bosoms.”
–Abraham Lincoln, 1858

brian cliff

October 30th, 2006
at 10:56pm

Rumor has it that friendsnest.com is coming out with a better version November 20th, 2006

http://www.http://www.friendsnest.com

Rowan

December 1st, 2006
at 4:56am

Anyone else having bother with myspace or is it just my pc?
Last couple of days it seems it wont let me download any song from anywhere.
Anyone having same bother - or anyone how to sort it?

What you can do with Wordpress [Part 1 - the Basics] at zamwi.com

January 7th, 2007
at 11:43am

[...] If you are looking to install Wordpress, I recommend this post, however the people at Wordpress also spell it all out with their five minute installation. Installing Wordpress is pretty simple, but there are a few things you need to know to control your installation. [...]

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