(Part 1 in a series of 4)
Throughout the previous several lessons, I’ve covered a handful of different ways of building a website. Now it’s time to talk about my favorite method!
Today we’re going to use WordPress…
(Watch this video…)
Main points:
WordPress = blogging platform and content management system (CMS).
A CMS is basically a system of organizing data for a website.
WordPress is not the only CMS, and it may not be the best one for some types of websites. But it’s my favorite CMS because…
1) It’s free.
2) It’s open source.
3) The plugins!
4) It’s easy to install and use.
If your web host uses Cpanel with the Fantastico add-on, you can use the “one click” WordPress installer. (If you want a web host with the one-click feature, please click here – and use coupon code: ERICSTIPSCOUPON)
If you want/need to install WordPress manually, it’s still pretty easy (see video for full step-by-step walkthrough)
WordPress site (where you can download the zip file): www.wordpress.org
WP Secret key generator (as referenced in video): https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/
Action steps:
1) Decide if you’re going to use WordPress for your website.
2) If yes, install it!
In the next lesson I’ll show you what to do with WordPress AFTER you install it.
As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below 🙂
Have a great day!
I am trying trying to install WordPress using Fantastico on my cPanel of Hostgater onto my subdomain.
When I go through the steps you say on your video I get this:
The installation can not be completed:
– No valid administrator username provided.
– No password provided.
Click on the browser’s Back button to fix reported errors.
I do no understand why it is doing this if I am already logged into my cPanel.
The other concern I have and have not tried is installing it on my main domaine. If I use XsitePro on my website now, is installing WordPress going to create any conflicts to try it out and see how it works. The last thing I want to do is mess up anything that I have already created on Xsitepro.
Anyones help would be appreciated.
Thanks Mark
Hi Eric,
I installed WordPress to my computer.
But Adobe Reader could not open ‘WordPress-2.7.1 zip’ because it is either not a suported file type or because the file has been damaged.
What actually went wrong with the installation?
I appreciate your comments on this.
Thanks,
Mike Wong
E-commerce is not my specialty, but I do not think WP is the best option for a large-scale e-commerce store. But for a small business, it might work nicely. There are a handful of e-commerce plugins for WP, so it could be used. The plugins I found are WP-osCommerce, WP e-Commerce, and Shopp. (Shopp costs money but it looks pretty cool). I will not be covering e-commerce.
As for the error… it sounds like one of 2 possibilities…
– your host’s fantiastico instalation has a problem
– or you somehow did not fill in all the info during the install
Regarding it conflicting with your existing Xsite site… it will not conflict, just make sure you install WP in its OWN directory… not in the root directory or it may overwirte your current index file.
You need to unzip it with a zip program, not with Adobe. Normally you can just do a right-click and “extract all”. If you need a zip orogram you can get a free one at http://www.7-zip.org
Thanks for a great lesson – no problem installing from Cpanel once I figured out that it had to go on a domain (or subdomain in my case) with no existing index page on it! This should be fun to play with this week.
Hello Mr.,
Thanks for this lecture!
Graham.
I decided to install it manually and have run into problem. I think it is because of were I created my blog folder in my root directory of my website.
I did all the other steps you outlined in video.
When I created blog folder in a subdirectory of my public_html folder and dragged info from my hard drive into it, I then went to Run the WordPress installation script with the two options http://example.com/wp-admin/install.php and http://example.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php I got error messages in both. The error message was 404. I did use my web address in the example space.
I think my problem lies in where I put blog folder. In my public_html folder of my root directory is where I created my blog file subdirectory. But in that public_html folder in my root directory I have a folder that is called infrastructurehealing, which is the name of my website. In that folder is a cgi-bin folder, a images folder, a public_html folder and a script folder. In the public_html folder of my infrastructure healing folder I think is all my stuff to create my site from XsitePro.
My thought is to create the blog folder in a subdirectory of the public_html folder of my infrastructure healing folder.
I would like your thoughts on if that is OK to try or not and if it is can I drag and drop the blog folder I initially created in the sub directory or should I delete it and start from scratch in infrastructure healing folder.
Sounds confusing to me but I need some help.
Thanks Mark
I am using Filezilla to try and do this.
Fantastico Clarification: Hi Eric, I think Mark got lost in filling out the fantastico form. In the video you moved on to a manual upload before finishing the fantastico feature.
After filling in the first step and deciding which directory to put the blog in, you move on to choosing an admin name and password etc.
Once all the boxes are filled in, you hit the button to create everything. Once created, I like to copy & paste the info into a notepad and move on to polish the blog.
WordPress is right up there with templates in my love’em & Hate’em category. Tremendous potential, but when the headaches come, they are doozies! Colin
I think your folder structure got a little messed up somehow. I went to your site and it appears you have an public_html folder within your public_html folder. You need to delete that folder within the folder. Then put your blog subdirectory within the “real” public_html directory 🙂
When you are unfamiliar with how things are suppose to look and be, it feels scary to mess with things. I will do what you said and keep my fingers crossed.
Fear is always I will screw up function of website or computer. To many times I have had that problem when I have messed with something I have very little knowlege about.
Thanks Mark
Did that and did not work.
Frustrated. Guess will start from scratch and read the word press stuff on their site.
Do not have a lot of time but would like to keep up with the lessons.
As long as you’ve got a BACKUP of your Xsite site on your hard drive, you shouldn’t need to worry about messing up your website.
Also I still think the 1-click install should work. If it’s still not working, maybe you could get in touch with your host. (if you’re with hostgator, they do have live chat)
cool, you have one customer waiting!!
Hey Eric and others,
Eric Farewell just came out with a product in January that gives you wordpress designed sales letters. He joined up with Alejandro Reyes’ blog designer to create them.
Jason Marshall
I did some research on this for a client and I have found 2 options that I may go with… WP ecommerce plugin or the Market Theme. I like the Market Theme just because I am so comfortable working with and modifying wordpress themes plus it has the grid view included. When it comes to a large ecommerce business Joomla is a pretty good option.
Jason
Hi Eric, These Lessons are amazing, Thank you for you great advice. I got a domain name from LifeDomains and sign up with Hostgator, but I still can’t decide what to do as far as information products are concerned. When choosing a domain name I went for a name that was easy to remember as apposed to relevance for the site. The name I went for was CUZMAN.COM.
Does It really matter if the name has no relevance to the site?
thanks, for me this will be a great help,What I don’t know how to do is rotating the cover to look 3D.
thanks
By the way, I bought last E. Chia book, it is a good on.
Hi Eric,great stuff.I don’t have a site nor a webhost yet,how do I go about installing WordPress?
Hi Eric, I followed the link to source code goldmine from your email, and I know that there are alot of IMers out there who would sell you anything, but I feel as though you are different, do you honestly recommend this product as it would tie in nicely with a membership site I am also member of.
Kind regards
Peter Shuker
I went through and got my affiliate link and put it on my website but when you click on it nothing happens. did i do it wrong. i am still new at this and learning but my other links go to the proper site. can any help with this
thanks for your lessons. i dont think i would be this far if it wasnt for your teachings.
where is it? I do not see it on your site…
you need to go back to lesson 23 and 24, at a minimum:
these lessons are intended to be followed sequentially 😉
Yes I recommend it, along with the one caveat: do not buy if you don’t know what you’re doing. But IF you know what you’re doing with it, it’s a great resource. I actually took a product from one of the earlier SCGM sales and did over $100k of sales with it.
its towards the bottom of the page. i even tried to redo it and copy and paste it [edited]
this is the way it appears on my paydotcom account and my site
[link edited]
this is the affiliate code that they gave me when i signed up. i even tried to take it out and put it back in. I know you are busy so if anyone has any hints
thnaks
It really depends on what you’re selling and how you’re marketing it, but typically you DO want the domain to be relevant. In fact I prefer that the domain be descriptive of what the site is all about (in one, two, or three words). I covered some of this in Lesson #23. But it’s easy to change to a different domain at any time in the future, simply for the cost of a new domain name 🙂 In the mean time, that is a decent 6-letter domain, so I’m sure you can use it for something.
I’m not sure how you got that link, but this one will work: https://paydotcom.com/r/81982/YOURIDHERE/23335145/
So here is some code you could use on your site:
Replace YOURIDHERE with your PayDotCom username.
Hi,
i did install wordpress on my cpanel directly since it has fantastico. The issue is how to start putting contents there, i will to change the site i designed with Kompozer to wordpress, ’cause i think it’s going to look better with their themes. So how do i do this please?
This will be covered in the next lessons.
I have created a lovely graphic for Monthly Income Formula and I have posted on my blog. Look at:
http://michaelacernescu.com
I’ll post on some lenses as well.
Yesterday I have created a lens for Ewen Chia last book, look at
http://www.squidoo.com/Ewen-Chia-Internet-Marketing
Today I’ll tweet both.
Regards
Michaela
Thanks Eric, The Ideas are popping into my head as we speak.
Eric,
I keep getting emails on Mike Filsaime: giving away free for trying his newletter= butterfly marketing software which helps in making sites.
You must have known this software.
Is it useful or just stick with wordpress or xsitepro.
Your opinion matters a lot me like for so many here.
Thanks.
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I bought Butterfly Marketing years ago for $1000. I have used it on several sites, and it has paid itself over 100X. I actually mentioned it in lesson #32: http://www.ericstips.com/tips/lesson32/
Here is my link for the new Butterfly Marketing Giveaway:
http://toplevel.butterflymarketing.com/
Cool, thanks for the promotion!
You need 1. Monetization 2. Targeted Traffic for your blog.
Monetize your blog such as google adsense, banner ads, text link, affiliates,reviews and etc is vital for successful blogger.
Targeted Traffic is “lifeblood” for the bloggers. You can generate targeted traffic from paid and free traffic such as google adwords, forum, articles and etc.
To Your Success
Bryan Hee
I saw that you mentioned for membership sites.
But Filsaime claims that you can build any site. If it is true, can we use it instead of xsitepro or wordpress, just wondering.
Thanks.
It really depends on what kind of site you want to build. I would not say Butterfly Marketing is a replacement for Xsite or WP… because Xsite is great for designing sites, and WP is great for blogs. But BM is a very good platform for membership sites/info products.
Great Video, I just switched from Blogger to WordPress on my Site. I had it taken down from the terms and condition. This is why you should have your blog on your own server. This is a prime example.
Pingback: LESSON #35: WordPress Themes and Plugins | Eric’s Tips
Hi Eric: I think the video on WordPress is excellent. I downloaded the WordPress files, changed the name of the wp-config-sample file to wp-config.php, and filled out MySQL on my server as instructed. However, when I upload the WordPress files to my server I get a 404 error message. I mentioned that in a support email to my server (Hostgator) and they said the problem was that I had to make up a script for the wp-config.php. I thought the script was already made up in the WordPress downloaded file which I changed to wp-config.php. Is it true that I am required to make up the wp-config.php? Thanks. Richard
in addition to renaming the wp-config file, you have to edit it, with your MySQL variables, and the secret keys, as I showed in the video. Also if you have Hostgator you could use the Fantastico 1-click installer.
Pingback: LESSON #36: Customizing WordPress | Eric’s Tips
Thanks for the great video. Just one thing I didn’t get: When you gave the url to make the blog as a sub. Ex: Your blog is erictips.com/blog. I didn’t understand how to do that, so my url (suchaslife.com) is linked directly to WordPress. I preferred /blog, like yours. BTW, I was able to click WP from the Fantastico site.
I am finally caught up to Lesson #33. I have a very basic quesion. I don’t know how to open the unzipped file into notepad.
I assume you’re talking about the WP-config file. You would right-click on it, and select “Open with…” then select Notepad. You could also try right clicking and select “Edit” and your computer might open it in Notepad by default.
Eric, If I right click on the unzipped file, I do not have the option of opening with or editing with. If I right click on the zipped file I do have the option of opening with notepad but then I get gobbelygook. So I’m stuck again.
Help Eric!
I just ordered Mike Filsaime’s Butterfly Marketing 2.0 using your link and now I am unable to log into the member’s area to claim my bonuses. Say’s my login is invalid, yet I have an e-mail from Mike to congratulate me on my purchase so I know my e-mail address is correct. I wrote my password down as well after creating it and does not work either nor can I get a temporary one as I get a message to say that my e-mail does not exist in their database.
Any advice or help would be much appreciated!
Thanks Eric!