What you need for your Wordpress Blog
[digg-reddit-me]
Get your own Domain Name
For these instructions I will suggest you get your own domain name. You can get a Wordpress blog without a domain name, but you have less control over it. For that reason I am only instructing how to setup your Wordpress Blog using your own domain.
There are many places to buy your domain name. For beginners and just to make things easy you can go to GoDaddy.com and follow the directions on the front page. It is very easy. First you search for a domain name that you like (I found thejimgaudet.com) and it is available you can purchase it online, just as you would a book from Amazon.com.
After configuring your domain name you will have to setup your hosting account. When selecting which package, make sure you select the Linux and not the Windows package. This will let you use PHP 5 and MySql 5.
Create the Wordpress Database
Once your hosting account is setup the next step is create the database that will store all your Wordpress information from your blog. You will create your database using the control panel that came with your hosting account. Be sure to select MySQL 5 for the database version, as you will get an option for MySQL 4 too.
Create Accounts
Here is a list of accounts you should have, and most likely have most of them.
- Gmail.com – You will need this for Google Analytics and Google Adsense
- Wordpress.com – In order to see Wordpress.com Stats you will need an account here.
- Feedburner.com – Do you want stats???
- Commentluv.com – If you have friends on your comment list, this can help new visiters check out their blog.
- Mixx.com,Digg.com, Reddit.com and StumbleUpon.com – Not needed, but a good way to get some traffic. Be sure to Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon your friends blogs.
- Yahoo.com – You will need a Yahoo email account in order to vote on Yahoo Buzz
Download Wordpress Plugins
There are so many plugins that these are in no particular order.
- Digg and Reddit Button – You have seen this on other people blogs (and at the top of this one). This allows people to see how many DIGG and Reddit votes this blog post has. And allows you vote for this blog post.
- Yahoo Buzz Button – This is the same as the Digg and Reddit but for Yahoo. You see this a lot too. A new service from Yahoo trying to be like Digg.
- Wordpress Database Backup – You need this. This will backup your wordpress configuration and post data. In the case of a server failuer, or if you just want to move to a new web host.
- Wordpress Automatic Upgrade – You need this for security reasons. Since you are hosting your own blog you have to keep up to date with the software. The developers at Wordpress keep the software up to date so you can be secure.
- Wordpress Stats – Everyone wants to know stats. Using the API key that comes with your Wordpress.com account you can see which posts have the most views and so on.
- Add to Any Share Button – With this you can help visitors add your blog post to Mixx.com, Digg.com, StumbleUpon.com and the rest.
- AdSense Manager – This will make it easier to put Google Adsense ads into your blog posts.
- All in One SEO Pack – This plugin will help configure your blog posts for search engines.
- Comment Image Embedder – If you would like to option for visitors to post images, then this is the plugin for you.
- CommentLuv – Use your CommentLuv.com account to fully configure this plugin.
- Feed Locations – This will allow you to change the default RSS feed locations to your FeedBurner.com account.
- Google Analyticator – Using your Gmail.com account you will connect your Wordpress blog to Google Analytics account. This will keep stats on all of your blog posts.
- Google XML Sitemaps – You will need to get a Google Webmaster Tools account, but it is well worth it. Then you can add the sitemap that this plugin creates automatically. Sitemaps help search engines find pages on your site that it may not have found crawling (although since all your posts have a link somewhere you shouldn’t need it).
- RSS Footer – This will add a link back to your post at the bottom of the post for all of those out there that will scrape your blog.
- Simple Tags – Manage your Tags
- Subscribe to Comments - Subscribe to Comments is a robust plugin that enables commenters to sign up for e-mail notification of subsequent entries.
- Lucia’s Link Love - This is a variety of “dofollow” plugin. It’s main function is to strip “nofollow” tags from links in comments. Love your commenters.
What plugins do you use?
I have all of these plugins installed and configured, if anyone has any questions on configuring any of these I will be glad to help. Just ask in the comment section. Also, if you are using a Wordpress Plugin that is helpful let me know. I am always interested in checking out new things.
Tags: amazon, analytics, buy domain, buzz, control panel, database version, Digg, directions, domain name, front page, Google, google adsense, linux, Lucia, reddit, search domain, select mysql, thejimgaudet, traffic, windows package, wordpress blog, yahoo, yahoo download, yahoo email account
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Additional comments powered by BackType
Thanx, this is very helpfull info.
Even though I already have a a blog. I still see things that I forgot to configure.
I like it!!
Marc Williamss last blog post..Be Prepared To Be Creeped Out: Ziggs.com Lets You Know Who’s Googling You
Comment by Marc Williams on October 5, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Hey Jim,
I found that Akismet wasn’t doing a great job at catching spam, so I installed the Bad Behavior plugin to work alongside Akismet. I now don’t get any spam comments making their way to public view. They all get caught by Akismet or Bad Behavior.
The other plugin I like is “Odiogo Listen Button”. It converts your posts to an audio file so readers can download them as a podcast and listen to them, rather than reading them.
Jamie
Jamie Harrops last blog post..Blogger Interview Series – Hunter Nuttall
Comment by Jamie Harrop on October 6, 2008 at 2:45 am
Excellent! Thank you so much for the checklist! I’ve bookmarked, and will be using it to tie up loose ends.
Comment by Betsy Wuebker on October 6, 2008 at 6:07 am
@ Jamie – Cool, I will check out Bad Behavior. I use Odiogo on my blog too, I guess I should have added it.
@ Betsy – Con Mucho Gusto (You’re Welcome)
Comment by ~ Jim on October 6, 2008 at 8:33 am
Thanks for the list of plug-ins. I downloaded and installed a few that I didn’t have.
Another really good one is the WP-Print which allows readers to print the post they are viewing. You can configure it to print without graphics.
Down it here: http://lesterchan.net/portfolio/programming/php/
Wendys last blog post..Make Money Online: Pinecone Research
Comment by Wendy on October 6, 2008 at 10:15 am
@ Wendy – Thanks, checking out that plugin now. Glad you liked the list.
Comment by ~ Jim on October 6, 2008 at 10:31 am
It’s crazy how much start-up effort is required to get a blog up and running with all the latest and greatest plug-ins.
I hadn’t heard of Bad Behavior, so I’ll have to give that one a try. Although, Akismet is working pretty good for me. so far it’s blocked anything I would call spam.
thanks for sharing.
Comment by Justin on October 6, 2008 at 10:32 am
I agree with the other Justin. it is amazing how much work it really is to get a blog up and running. It really does take a lot of time and effort things rolling along smoothly. Checklists like this will make it a lot easier to not forget important tasks along the way.
Comment by Justin Wright on October 6, 2008 at 11:17 am
I forgot Comment Counter
http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/liz-strauss-comment-count-badge-widget-wordpress/
Comment by ~ Jim on October 6, 2008 at 4:23 pm
WP Super Cache is a great plugin.
Susans last blog post..Melayu Boleh Theme
Comment by Susan on October 6, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Damn, this is complex stuff. I am grateful immensely that you have put all of this together, but as a member of an generation that is heading toward extinction I am completely overwhelmed by this and actually terrified. I guess I will just keep on blogging the old style. And die alone…
Guys, you should professionalize yourselves and offer blogging services to us, dinosaurs, you know, a few bucks per months to get all this darn plugins and other technical thingies on our blogs and keep them running.
On the second though, I guess thousands of teenagers are already doing this and perhaps I need to start searching for some help. Professional help, so to say…
Roberts last blog post..Give us back some heavy duty maturity rituals
Comment by Robert on October 8, 2008 at 1:17 am
In fact, you provide us a very useful check list U could use to switch from Blogger to WP in a self hosted blog.
Thanks a million for this.
I truly appreciate.
AO
Comment by Free Adsense bestseller on October 12, 2008 at 6:46 am
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future. And as a designer, I think you have a pretty nice layout
Comment by web site design Brisbane on February 28, 2009 at 8:44 am