{"id":181,"date":"2012-08-30T01:12:40","date_gmt":"2012-08-30T01:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jeffwoodonline.com\/?p=181"},"modified":"2023-04-09T05:06:46","modified_gmt":"2023-04-09T12:06:46","slug":"how-to-set-up-a-blog-and-forum-setup-wordpress-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeffwoodonline.com\/blog\/181\/how-to-set-up-a-blog-and-forum-setup-wordpress-2\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Set Up A Blog And Forum \u2013 Setup WordPress"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a list of articles in this series, go here: How To Set Up A Blog and Forum Article Index<\/a><\/p>\n

Welcome to part six of How To Set Up A Blog And Forum<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now that we\u2019ve installed WordPress let\u2019s get it set up.\u00a0 This will be a long post.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to assume that you know how to use ftp.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t then leave me a comment and I\u2019ll provide a tutorial.\u00a0 You can either use a standalone ftp program like Filezilla<\/a>, or you can use the File Manager in your cpanel (not your WordPress Dashboard).\u00a0 We are going to upload our themes and plugins.\u00a0 I\u2019ll give you a list of recommended plugins later in the post.<\/p>\n

You can download your themes and plugins from WordPress under the \u2018extend\u2019 page.\u00a0 http:\/\/www.wordpress.org\/extend<\/p>\n

By default, WordPress comes with two themes called \u2018Default\u2019 and \u2018Classic\u2019.\u00a0 Most people recommend you don\u2019t use them.\u00a0 However I\u2019m not going to recommend that you change them.\u00a0 My position is this: If you like them, use them, if you don\u2019t like them, change them.<\/p>\n

If you used\u00a0HostGator<\/a> as your host, then you have two default plugins also.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s the way it is on other hosts or not.\u00a0 You get something called \u2018Akismet\u2019 and \u2018Hello Dolly\u2019.<\/p>\n

Akismet is a spam filter but it needs a WordPress API key to work.\u00a0 If you want to use it, create an account at www.akismet.com, copy the API number and insert it into your plugin.\u00a0 Again, I don\u2019t recommend using WordPress.com for your blog, you can\u2019t use plugins for one, you\u2019re limited on themes for another, and they don\u2019t like affiliate links.<\/p>\n

So just create the account and grab your api.<\/p>\n

I have yet to figure out why anyone would make \u2018Hello Dolly\u2019 a default plugin.\u00a0 It puts random quotes from \u2018Hello Dolly\u2019 onto the upper right hand corner of your dashboard.\u00a0 Let\u2019s be clear, it\u2019s not for your visitors\u2026it\u2019s for you.\u00a0 I don\u2019t use it at all.<\/p>\n

When you go into the directory that contains your WordPress installation, there will be a directory called \u2018wp-content\u2019 under that directory you have \u2018themes\u2019 and \u2018plugins\u2019 as in the picture below:<\/p>\n

\"wp-contents<\/p>\n

You upload your chosen theme into the \u2018themes\u2019 directory and plugins into the \u2018plugins\u2019 directory.\u00a0 Below you will see that I found a theme called \u2018Ocean Life\u2019 and uploaded it.<\/p>\n

\"themes<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s a few of the plugins I installed:<\/p>\n

\"plugins<\/p>\n

Now if you want to go through your Dashboard, you can install the plugins directly and do not have to upload them.\u00a0 If you are going to set up more than one blog, I recommend downloading them to your computer and uploading them as a batch.<\/p>\n

I have a directory that has all the plugins I use.\u00a0 Whenever I start a new blog, I just go into that directory and ftp all the plugins at once into the plugins directory.\u00a0 I do the same with themes and with the ping services.\u00a0 I\u2019ll cover ping services later.<\/p>\n

You can have as many themes and plugins as you want, provided you have the storage space on your server.\u00a0 I have a bad habit of uploading several themes that I want to check out, which is fine, but then I never get around to deleting the ones I don\u2019t want, which is bad.\u00a0 They just sit there and take up space.<\/p>\n

Just because you can have tons of plugins doesn\u2019t mean you should.\u00a0 I\u2019m only going to list a few, some are almost mandatory (you don\u2019t have to use them but it\u2019s unwise not to) and some suggested ones.<\/p>\n

Not all plugins are compatible with each other and some plugins are not compatible with the later versions of WordPress.\u00a0 In any case, cruise around the plugins on WordPress.org and you will see that they list what versions they work with.<\/p>\n

Below you will see that after plugins there is a number 5 in a red circle.\u00a0 That means that 5 of my plugins have new versions and I should upgrade them.\u00a0 Some plugins change frequently, that is one drawback to downloading them to your computer, you don\u2019t always have the latest.<\/p>\n

However, I just upload what I have and upgrade it later.\u00a0 I\u2019m not recommending you do that, I\u2019m saying that\u2019s what I do, because I\u2019m lazy.<\/p>\n

\"default<\/p>\n

So click on the Plugins link and you will see a list of plugins.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a screenshot of one of the ones in question:<\/p>\n

\"plugin<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to see, but you have two options, you can click and see the details of the new version or you can click and upgrade it automatically.\u00a0 I upgraded automatically.<\/p>\n

\"plugin<\/p>\n

What you see below is a list of plugins available.\u00a0 Some are activated and some are not.\u00a0 The ones in green are active.\u00a0\u00a0 One use for keeping plugins around that you don\u2019t have active is if you want to test other plugins.<\/p>\n

Say you have a plugin that runs an ad and you find another plugin that does the same thing, but sounds like it would work better.\u00a0 You can upload the new plug in, deactivate the old plug in, activate the new one and test it without the old one interfering.<\/p>\n

That way if you don\u2019t like it, you can just deactivate it and reactivate the old one instead of uploading the old one all over again.<\/p>\n

\"Active<\/p>\n

Now when I click on \u2018appearance\u2019 I get an option of themes, wigets, editor and sometimes a few other things.\u00a0 I click on \u2018themes\u2019 and it shows me a list of themes that I can use.\u00a0 I click on Ocean Life and in the upper right hand corner I click on activate.<\/p>\n

\"Activate<\/p>\n

And here is my new active theme:<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Now, a trick I use is to have two browser windows.\u00a0 I have logged into my WordPress Dashboard on one and have gone to my website on the other so I can see the blog from the visitor\u2019s point of view.<\/p>\n

This way, when I make a change, I can go to the other window and click refresh and see what my changes look like without logging out of WordPress and then back into WordPress and I can undo anything I didn\u2019t like right away.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s see what the visitor sees:<\/p>\n

\"Where's<\/p>\n

Hey! Where\u2019s my blog? Actually, I\u2019ve dealt with this before. It\u2019s an easy fix. Let\u2019s look in my main directory:<\/p>\n

\"There's<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the culprit, I have two index files. I want the php so I delete index.html in one window and hit refresh in the other:<\/p>\n

\"the<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s the real thing. I don\u2019t care for the fish, it reminds me more of a goldfish than a saltwater fish. If I keep this theme I may change the picture later.<\/p>\n

Now below you will see a list of things to change.\u00a0 Incidentally, any active plugins that have a settings or an option menu will most likely be listed\u00a0 here, although they do occasionally appear under \u2018appearance\u2019 or \u2018tools\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"items<\/p>\n

Okay, let\u2019s start with the general tab, by the way, the order you do these changes in doesn\u2019t really matter, but what does matter is that you make sure you click on \u2019save\u2019 after each page.<\/p>\n

And yes, I know I jump all over the place to set things up.<\/p>\n

\"general1\"<\/p>\n

You will find that most of these are pretty self-explanatory.\u00a0 The e-mail is the same e-mail you picked when installing WordPress, you can change it here.\u00a0 This field is filled in automatically, I just removed it for this example as it is not the e-mail for people to contact me with.<\/p>\n

If you want everybody to be able to register with your blog, put a check mark in the box next to
\n\u201canyone can register\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Change your timezone, date format and other options to whatever you want.\u00a0 I have included screenshots of my preferences in case anyone was curious:<\/p>\n

\"general3\"<\/p>\n

\"general4\"<\/p>\n

Now WordPress automatically comes with one sample comment, post, and page, delete the post and comment, the about page you can and should put in what your blog is about.<\/p>\n

\"comments1\"<\/p>\n

\"posts1\"<\/p>\n

You can change it by clicking on \u2018edit\u2019 under the appropriate heading (page, post, or comment) like this:<\/p>\n

\"api<\/p>\n

\"posts2\"<\/p>\n

Permalinks is where you change not only how your post will appear, but the directory structure as well.\u00a0 I usually do a custom, but for this blog I\u2019m choosing by year, month and post name.<\/p>\n

No matter what, you want the post name to be in there, you don\u2019t want the default for two reasons off the top of my head.\u00a0 One is that it\u2019s easier to find an old post sice it will be readable and two is that it gives you the chance to put keywords in your titles for the search engines.<\/p>\n

If you just want the post name, click on custom and put \/%postname%\/<\/p>\n

\"Permalinks\"<\/p>\n

Under \u2018Reading\u2019 you have the option to choose a landing page.\u00a0 In other words, you choose what the visitor will see when they come to your site.\u00a0 You can either have your latest posts be shown or a static page, similar to a html page.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t update your blog frequently, I recommend a static page.\u00a0 This way you don\u2019t lose visitors just by having an old post be the first thing they see.<\/p>\n

You can always change it later.<\/p>\n

Since people can go to either the blog or forum, I will use a static page, but I don\u2019t want it to be my about page so I will create another later.<\/p>\n

You can also choose how many posts are on one page at a time.\u00a0 Some marketers recommend only one post per page, which is what I have on my blog, other marketers have a few posts on their page.<\/p>\n

Take your pick.\u00a0 You also can choose how many will show up in any of your feeds.\u00a0 I recommend the last couple, but that\u2019s up to you.\u00a0 For feeds I\u2019d rather have a summary than full text.<\/p>\n

Since I don\u2019t have my custom landing page yet, I\u2019ll change that later.<\/p>\n

\"reading\"<\/p>\n

On your \u2018Writing\u2019 page, you have various options.\u00a0 Change your default category and link (blogroll) category if you don\u2019t like the defaults, but do check\u00a0 both the feeds if you are going to allow people to subscribe through rss.<\/p>\n

\"writing1\"<\/p>\n

The post through e-mail is if you want to be able to post through your e-mail instead of your dashboard.\u00a0 I don\u2019t use it and there\u2019s more secure plugins available.<\/p>\n

\"writing2\"<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where you put in your ping updates.\u00a0 I will give you a list, just copy\/paste into here.\u00a0 Some people think it\u2019s becoming ineffective because everyone uses it, but my philosophy is \u201cevery little bit helps\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"writing3\"<\/p>\n

Under \u2018Discussion\u2019 you have more options.\u00a0 Pick as you choose, personally I like to have people register before they can leave a comment and I like to moderate the comments in case something makes it past the spam filters.<\/p>\n

\"discussion\"<\/p>\n

I then click on \u2018Pages\u2019, then \u2018add new\u2019 and create a landing page.\u00a0 After the forum is installed, people will be able to click on a link to take them to either the forum or to the latest blog entry.<\/p>\n

\"landing<\/p>\n

I want comments on my blog posts, not on my pages as they don\u2019t change.\u00a0 On every page I uncheck the comments option.<\/p>\n

\"landing<\/p>\n

Back to the \u2018Reading\u2019 and I update it to reflect my changes.\u00a0 I set it to \u2019static\u2019 and I choose \u2018welcome\u2019 from the drop down menu.\u00a0 The drop down menu will contain whatever pages currently exist.<\/p>\n

\"landing<\/p>\n

\u2018Privacy\u2019 is pretty explanatory.\u00a0 Either search engines see it, or they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\"privacy11\"<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t do anything with \u2018Media\u2019 but here it is if you want to see it:<\/p>\n

\"media\"<\/p>\n

Ditto for Miscellaneous except I think about the organizing my uploads.\u00a0 There\u2019s no right answer, only preference.<\/p>\n

\"miscellanous\"<\/p>\n

Everything is now setup sort of.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have your plugins activated, I haven\u2019t given you a list yet, and you don\u2019t have your ping services.\u00a0 I will give you the list of plugins, but we\u2019ll go over them next time, so grab them, upload them, update them and wait with bait breath\u2026er\u2026baited breath.\u00a0 \":)\"<\/p>\n

Pings:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/blogsearch.google.com\/ping\/RPC2<\/p>\n

http:\/\/rpc.twingly.com\/<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.blogdigger.com\/RPC2<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.bloglines.com\/ping<\/p>\n

http:\/\/ping.weblogalot.com\/rpc.php<\/p>\n

Plugins:<\/p>\n

[UPDATE: Several of these links no longer work, so I've removed them]<\/em><\/p>\n

All in One SEO Pack<\/p>\n

commentluv<\/p>\n

Do Follow<\/p>\n

KeywordLuv<\/p>\n

Cross-linker<\/p>\n

Easy AdSenser<\/p>\n

Google Analyticator<\/p>\n

Google XML Sitemaps<\/p>\n

Gravatar Signup<\/p>\n

Link Cloaking Plugin<\/p>\n

Paged Comments<\/p>\n

Privacy Policy<\/p>\n

SimpleTwitterBox<\/p>\n

Subscribe To Comments<\/p>\n

WP Auto Tagger<\/p>\n

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin<\/p>\n

TweetMyBlog!<\/p>\n

– Jeffery<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a list of articles in this series, go here: How To Set Up A Blog and Forum Article Index Welcome to part six of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,7,11],"tags":[29,38,40,42,98,102,119,130,144,157,163,171,189,200,212,213,229,233,306,323,334,370,373,385,401,418,435],"class_list":["post-181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-tips","category-general","category-starting-a-blog","category-wordpress-how-to","tag-akismet","tag-api-number","tag-article-index","tag-article-series","tag-cpanel","tag-dashboard","tag-download-themes","tag-editors","tag-filezilla","tag-forum-article","tag-forum-setup","tag-ftp-program","tag-hello-dolly","tag-hosts","tag-how-to-set-up-a-blog","tag-how-to-set-up-a-blog-and-forum","tag-install-wordpress","tag-installing-wordpress","tag-people","tag-plugins","tag-random-quotes","tag-setting-up-wordpress","tag-setup-wordpress","tag-spam-filter","tag-sweaty-shop","tag-upload","tag-wordpress"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffwoodonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffwoodonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffwoodonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffwoodonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffwoodonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181"}],"version-history":[{"count":81,"href":"https:\/\/jeffwoodonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3112,"href":"https:\/\/jeffwoodonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions\/3112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffwoodonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffwoodonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffwoodonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}