Jul

Creating Web Blog (Part 1)

Introduction

In this article, I will show you the step of creating your 1st Web Blog. This is purely based on my own Web Blog experience to share with. In terms of domain, hosting, Cpanel, Web Application, Theme, Plug-in etc. may vary from yours. This information is best effort provided for reference only.

Register Your Own Domain Name and Web Host

Every website must have a valid domain name. It’s just like a residential house, office attached with a validated address. Either you would like to register for personal usage, reserving purpose or even for reselling purposes.

A domain name makes up the address of your site and ended in .com, .com.my, .net, .org, .us etc. To make sure there is still available domain name of your choice, simple visit to www.who.is for a quick search. Be sure choosing a good domain name which recommended a name that contains major keywords instead of your company name.

Now, we move into web host. Usually a web host provided with a space, tools and support to create your web pages and email accounts (you@yourdomain.com). And they are provided with Unix based or Windows based. It may be vary on the package what you subscribe to. I am choosing one of the most affordable packaged from www.ecommercemastery.com called “Experimental Web Hosting”. It’s cost RM30/year for domain name and RM50/year for hosting. This packaged ideally for students, first time web owner and anybody with limited budgets. Package included:-

a. 50MB Space
b. 500MB Bandwidth
c. 1 Ftp Account
d. 3 SQL Database
e. 2 Email Account
f. 1 Mailing Lists
g. 3 Sub Domains
h. 1 Parked Domain
i. 1 Add-on Domain

To know more about this package, please visit to www.ecommercemastery.com/50.html for more details. There is an advance package for chosen as well. Choice is in your hand.

Some important note that you must know:-

1. Avoid register a long domain name even the name of register is up to 63 characters.

2. Avoid using the hyphen even you can do so for your domain name.

3. Preferred domain and hosting register under same company/consultancy for easy support.

4. The support must be able to provide 24 hours/day, 7 days/week.

In normal condition, your domain and hosting will be registered and create within few hours times. Please note that your domain name will not be visible on the internet for between 24 to 72 hours. This process is called Propagation.

What is cPanel? CPanel is a fully featured web-based control panel that allows you to manage your domain through a web interface. The idea is to transfer as much of the control and responsibility of managing your web site to you. You have the ability to manage all aspects of e-mail, files, backup, FTP, CGI scripts, and web site statistics.

As soon as you have successfully register your domain and hosting, your will received an email regarding your hosting account information (Domain, Username, Temporary Password, Server IP, Server Name, FTP Host Name, Webpage URL, Control Panel, POP3 and SMTP Address).

To access your cPanel for first time, simply input the Server IP (http://192.168.1.1/cpanel) or your newly registered domain name (http://www.your-domain-name.com/cpanel) into any web browser application. Then key in your User ID and temporary password (Do remember change your password to avoid unauthorised accessing to you cPanel).

Okay, I can understand some users might felt difficulty and somehow frustrated how cPanel works and what is the functionality? What should I do in order to get the website visible for everyone?

Don’t be panic or frustrated. Always go to “Help” session for some understanding. A video tutorials also available for you to explore and understand more.

Before start installed the Web Blog application into your site, I would like to express some information about Fantastico. What is Fantastico?

Fantastico De Luxe is an amazing cPanel/PHP based Web application. It integrates with cPanel and gives you the ability to automatically install various popular Open Source Applications. With Fantastico the installation procedure of all of the following scripts takes only seconds and can be performed by novices without the need of setting up MySQL databases, importing structure, chmoding files and without the need of other tasks usually associated with installations:

a. Blog: b2evolution, Nucleus, WordPress

b. Classifieds: Noah’s Classifieds

c. Portals/CMS: Drupal, Geeklog, Joomla 1.5, Joomla, Mambo, PHP-Nuke, phpWCMS, phpWebSite, Siteframe, Typo3, Xoops

d. Customer Support: Crafty Syntax Live Help, Help Center Live, osTicket, PerlDesk, PHP Support Tickets, Support Logic Helpdesk, Support Services Manager

e. Discussion Boards: phpBB, SMF

f. E-Commerce: CubeCart, OS Commerce, Zen Cart

g. FAQ: FAQMasterFlex

h. Hosting Billing: AccountLab Plus, phpCOIN

i. Image Galleries: 4images Gallery, Coppermine Photo Gallery, Gallery

j. Mailing List: PHPlist

k. Polls and Surveys: Advanced Poll, LimeSurvey, phpESP

l. Project Management: PHProjekt, dotProject

m. Site Builders: Soholaunch Pro Edition, Templates Express

n. Wiki: PhpWiki, TikiWiki

o. Other Scripts: Dew-NewPHPLinks, Moodle, Open-Realty, phpAdsNew, PHPauction, phpFormGenerator, WebCalendar

Install WordPress Application Into Host

In this topic we are focusing on Creating a Web Blog. So we will choose “Wordpress” as for our site application. Why I choose “Worpress”? This is because “Wordpress” is a blogging software with focus on ease of use, elegance, performance and standard with a huge selection of themes and plugins.

Now from the cPanel, by pointing to Software/Services session, you will found “Fantastico De Luxe”. In the left hand side of “Fantastico De Luxe” panel, a list of application can be found. Please proceed to “Blogs”, you will found a “Wordpress”. As a reminder, by using the Fantastico to automatically install any of the scripts, will use one of your available MySQL databases. Removing any script will free up one of your used MySQL databases.

By follow the on screen instruction to complete “Wordpress” installation. A similar directory link will appear as follows stated “Wordpress” application successful configured:-

/home/your-domain-name/public_html/wp-config.php

/home/your-domain-name/public_html/data.sql

Now your Web Blog is ready to accessing and viewable by the public. Please refer to the link below:-

http://your-domain-name.com/ (This is your Web Site URL)

http://your-domain-name.com/wp-login.php (This is your Web Admin URL)

In order to upload your themes and plugins into your newly created Web Blog, a FTP application must BE install in your local PC. I personally recommend “FileZilla”. It’s an open source FTP solution software distributed free of charge under the terms of the GNU General Public License. Make sure you are downloading and install the FileZilla Client version.

A default FTP account will be given to every subscriber in order to upload or transfer files to / from your PC into the host. You are required to input Host Name, User Name, Password and Port No. during the established connection of FTP.