The Domain.com Blog

WordPress is THE hot blogging and content management solution these days, and you’ve probably thought about installing WordPress on your website, right?  If not, it’s worth checking out.  Our last post went over many of the general features and functions of WordPress, but to get to that point you’ll have to install it first.  There is more documentation on installing WordPress out there than you could possibly need, and we’d suggest you go straight to the source – in this case, WordPress.org and Domain.com if you’re a Domain.com hosting customer.

Two WordPress Install Options

When installing WordPress on your Domain.com hosting, you’ve got two options that both come with pluses and minuses:

Option 1: Automatic One-Click Installation

We offer an automatic Installation of WordPress through our Appication Vault provided with all hosting plans.  Here’s a quick rundown:

Head over to your hosting control panel in the account interface.  From there, you’ve got two different links to click that’ll both get you to the application vault.

Click through to the next screen, and choose the option that says “Blogging and Content Management”.

Next up, you’re presented with a variety of great content management applications including Joomla and Drupal.  WordPress is hard to miss.

Once you click on WordPress, you’re taken into the installation process.  There are several steps to walk through, but all are fairly straightforward. On the main screen you’ll need to modify, enter the directory you want WordPress to be installed in (for instance if you wanted your blog to be located at domain.com/blog, you’d type in /blog, or if you wanted the install to be at the root of your domain, simply type / in that field. From there, create a username and password, add the email you want to be used for administrative contact, and finish off the process.  Our system does all the work for you, and after a brief installation period of several minutes, your WordPress Installation should be set to go.

Automatic Install Benefits:

• It’s fast, easy, and worry-free.
• The Automatic Install provides the full feature-set of WordPress

The Downside:

• The automatic install version of WordPress has some file editing permissions locked.  This means you can’t upgrade through the WordPress interface, but instead have to manage your installation through the hosting control panel in the same area of the application vault you use to install and uninstall WordPress.  These permissions are locked to keep the automatic installation working properly.  Without them, the application vault would not be able to properly update settings or perform upgrades.
• Some access to files such as .htaccess or other database information is limited for the same reasons upgrading from within WordPress is blocked.  This can make things like setting custom permalinks more difficult.

Option 2: The 5 Minute Manual WordPress Installation

WordPress has a Famous 5 Minute Installation that works well with Domain.com hosting.  It’s a simple process that requires that you a) Download the WordPress files, b) Create a MySQL Database in the hosting control panel, c) make minor modifictions to the WordPress configuration file to match the database settings, d) upload the WordPress files to your hosting server via FTP, and e) visit your wp-admin/install.php file in your web browser.  It’s a straightforward process as long as you follow the simple directions closely.

The process of creating a database on Domain.com is fairly simple. Once again in the hosting control panel, click on databases, then click the “Add New Database” button near the top. On this page, specify a database name, username, and password. Save this information, because you’ll need it to modify the WordPress config file!

This method of installation isn’t as straightforward as the automatic installation, but it’s generally not too overwhelming for a moderately experienced computer user.

Manual Install Benefits:

• Complete control over your WordPress installation, files, updates, and automatic updates through the WordPress user interface
• The ability to use FTP to upload new files and modify files in your WordPress folder

The Downside:

• It’s not as easy as the automatic installation.
• If the installation doesn’t work correctly, it’s much more difficult to troubleshoot and determine what step was missing in the process or what setting may be only one character off.

Which Installation Option is for You?

If you’re an experienced web or WordPress user, the manual installation is probably the only way to go.  If you have past WordPress experience and are comfortable managing files via FTP, then the manual install is also the best option.

If you’re new to WordPress and blogging or are switching over to a self-hosted WordPress blog from a Blogger or WordPress.com blog, the automatic installation is probably your best choice.  It’ll keep life simpler for you as long as you remember that upgrades have to be done through the Application Vault control panel rather than from within WordPress.

If you’re a Domain.com hosting customer, you’re ready to install WordPress right now.  If not, check out our hosting plans and set up a blog today!