Thought Sparks

If you are even semi-serious about blogging or have been blogging for quite a while, getting your own domain and host is a very solid move. If you run or want to run more than one blog, it’s a no-brainer as the little effort you put in to setting up the initial site will pay big dividends.

Steps to setting up a site with your own domain

1. Decide what you are going to blog about. Write a purpose statement for the blog.
2. Select a host provider. Compare cost for initial domain name, disk space and built-in features. If you are going to podcast, bandwidth becomes a big issue. If you want to go the low-tech route, built-in functions like a ready-made blog may be appealing. Do your homework and make a good decision. I use 1and1.com and like what they have to offer.  They have been around a long time and are very reasonable. (Note: some of the instructions are centric to this provider, but essentially will be the same for others.
3. On the host providers site, check for domain name. Many providers offer good deals when you purchase the domain with the hosting. Select a domain that is preferrably; short, unique, easy to spell, a combination of normal words, conveys the purpose of the blog, is one that you could live with for a long time.
4. Go through the registration process which the provider will guide you through step-by-step. Unless you are going to be doing intensive development, I recommend going with the lowest priced package. You can always upgrade later.
5. If you want to go the low tech route, 1and1 comes with an instance of WordPress that you can initiate. I don’t recommend this step though as you will have more control by doing your own install. It’s not that hard, honest. There are just a few things you need to do. They call it the famous 5-minute install. It will take you a little longer, but it’s pretty straight forward.

Preparing your site to install WordPress

1. Write down every username and password as you are given it or supply it.
2. 1and1.com will give you a subdomain of online.us that is essentially your username for accessing your site until you setup your domain.
3. In the main Administration tab, click on Domains and select the newly assigned domain.
4. Create a folder on your domain in domain destination settings. For ease of reference, name the folder the same name as your domain. I recommend this as it will make managing multiple websites very easy.
5. Point the domain destination to this folder.
6. Setup a database by clicking on MySQL Administration link.
7. Write down all information. You will be given:
   1. Database Name
   2. Username
   3. Password (You can change it later if you want)
   4. Host Name
   5. Description (You will enter that yourself on creation).
8. It will take a few minutes for the database to setup.
9. Setup an FTP account by clicking on the FTP Account tab. You will use the cryptic username and set your password. Write this information down.
10. Download FileZilla or some other FTP client to upload data to the website. Enter the FTP information including username, password and domain. If your domain is still propogating, you may need to use the online.us domain as mentioned above.

Setting up an instance of WordPress

1. Surf the bazillion WordPress themes on the web and decide which one is closest to your desired theme. You can switch-out graphics and if you do a little snooping in the css file you can tweak the look a bit.
2. Download the theme. On some of the sites you have to peck around as they don’t make the download that obvious. I don’t know why, but keep looking and you’ll find the zip file.
3. Download WordPress from wordpress.org.
4. WordPress has pretty good instructions on how to do the quick install.But essentially:
   1. Rename a file in the folder to wp-config and enter the database information you wrote down.
   2. put the unzipped folder of the theme into the wp-theme folder. You can always upload new themes once you post the site.
   3. In your FTP software, connect and upload the unzipped WordPress folder into the subfolder you created on the server.
   4. Go to your site and WordPress will ask you to log in. It will give you a password. Write this down.
   5. Log in and immediately change the password to something more meaningful for you.

Customize your Site

Among other things here are a few things to do first-off:

1. Change your Permalink under Manage/Options to a more user-friendly URL. Going w/ the Date/Title option is probably a safe bet.
2. Play around with your theme before you get serious. You may want to upload a couple of themes and see which one will work best in terms of functions. Remember, with a little patience you can always alter the look later.
3. Upload header and other graphics with the same dimensions, with the same names to replace the ones that come on the blog. You may not go through the process of creating a funky mural-like image as mine, but at least find a unique photo rather than the default. A good source for free quality photos is: www.sxc.hu. Check the licensing for each photo as some are free under Creative Commons and others are more restrictive in terms.
4. Start posting or moving posts to your new blog.
5. Follow the previous post "How to Redirect Specific Blogger Posts" for your most popular ones.
6. Setup a google analytics account to track traffic. This is really easy to do and is essential for blogging. It will give you invaluable feedback.
7. 1and1.com also gives you coupons for several major adwords such as yahoo and google. Pretty good deal, but you do pay a $5 setup fee at least for Google. If you are interested try one out and setup a few ads to draw traffic to your site.
8. If you haven’t yet, join mybloglog community and put one of those widgets on the side. There are other communities you can join, but it seems to attract some pretty engaging folks which will both increase your exposure and make the experience more interactive.

There’s the quick overview of setting-up your own domain. Let me know if something is not clear, if you have questions or are confused in the process.