How to Build Websites With WordPress

Preparing your server for WordPress
1. First, you'll need to ensure that your web host supports WordPress' minimum requirements. At the minimum, your web hosting account will need to support at least PHP 4 and MySQL 4. If you plan on utilizing the search engine friendly URLs feature of WordPress, your web hosting account must also have the 'mod_rewrite' Apache module available. If your web host does not meet the minimum requirements, you will have to either contact them to ask if they can install or upgrade PHP and MySQL, or switch to a web host that offers hosting meeting the requirements.
2. Next, you'll need to create a database for WordPress. There are numerous ways to do this, depending on your web host. Some web hosts offer database management within the account control panel. Others require you to use third-party database management software, such as MySQL administrator or phpMyAdmin. You might need to consult your web host's support documents or contact its support team.

3. After creating the database, you must create a MySQL user and give it full permissions over the database you created for WordPress. Again, you may need to consult your web host's support documents or contact its support team. When specifying the user's password, try to create a password that will not be easy to guess. If a malicious hacker were to gain access to this database, he could potentially destroy it or steal all of your website's information.
4. Connect to your website via FTP. Your web host's support department should be able to provide you with instructions on how to do this. If you haven't done so yet, unzip the latest version of WordPress onto your local machine. Upload the files onto your web hosting account's web accessible folder. Example: If your domain is testdomain.com, upload the files to the folder that would allow you to access them via www.testdomain.com.
5. The WordPress automated install program should run. WordPress will ask you for the location of your database server. Try 'localhost,' but if WordPress gives you an error stating that it cannot contact your database server, contact your web host's support team for information. WordPress will also ask you for the database you wish to use WordPress with, and the user with the credentials to access the database. Enter the name of the database you created earlier, the user name and the password into the respective fields. If there is an error, recheck the name of the database, the user name and password. If all else fails, using the database administrator, delete and recreate the database and user.
6. If you have done the previous steps correctly, you will receive an onscreen message that WordPress is installed correctly. You will then be prompted to enter an administrator's user name and password to create the admin account. This account is used to log in to the administrator's control panel of WordPress and modify the site. Once this is done, WordPress is completely installed and can now be modified to meet your needs.
Building a website with WordPress
7. Log in and explore the administrator's control panel. Enter 'http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin.php' into the address bar, removing the quotations and replacing 'yourdomain.com' with your actual domain. You'll be prompted to enter the administrator's user name and password you created.
8. Become familiar with the various admin tools available to you. You will use these to customize and build your website. The post and page builder are the most important tools, as posts and pages will comprise the majority of your website.
9. Learn the differences between posts and pages. Posts are basically blog entries. Use posts to add news and stories to your website. Pages are static entities, best used for content that won't be changed much. An 'about us' page is a good example of what pages are used for. Pages are also listed on your WordPress site all the time, as opposed to posts, which are pushed down when a new post is created.
10. Add new posts and pages. To add a new post, log in to the administrator's control panel and find the post manager. From there, you will be able to add, edit and delete posts. The page manager is similar. Both use a WYSIWYG editor, reminiscent of Microsoft Word. Once you begin to add posts and pages, your website will flesh out.
11. There are multiple ways to further customize your site. Plugins are small applications that, literally, plug into WordPress and extend its functionality. There are thousands of plugins. You can visit the WordPress Codex at the official WordPress website and browse through both plugins made by the WordPress team and those made by helpful third-party developers. To install a plugin, use your FTP program to browse to the 'plugins' folder of your WordPress installation and upload the code. You can then log into the administrator's control panel and activate the plugin. Consult the WordPress user's manual, available at the WordPress official website, for more information.
12. Add a theme to WordPress to customize the look of your website. The WordPress team maintains a repository of user created themes at the official website. There are also professional developers who create custom themes for free or for pay. To install a theme, use your FTP program to navigate to the 'themes' directory on your WordPress installation and upload the code and images. You can then use the administrator's control panel and activate the theme. Consult the WordPress user's manual, available at the WordPress official website, for more information.