WordPress Made Easy

WordPress

Published on March 13, 2011 and updated on May 2, 2026 by Christopher Ross

I install WordPress for clients a dozen times each week. The process is simple and straight forward yet each week I get asked the same questions. So, let me walk you through the five steps that I take every day to ensure WordPress is installed quickly and easily on a website.

WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org

First, let’s understand the difference between these two types of WordPress. WordPress.org is a free, downloadable application you can run on your own website, WordPress.com is a commercial venture of a private company that donates time to the WordPress.org project. There’s a big difference there but more importantly, if you want to run WordPress on your own, you need the .org version which can be downloaded from http://wordpress.org/latest.zip

Installing WordPress

Once you’ve downloaded WordPress, you’ll need somewhere to host it. I recommend Bluehost for small sites (under 1,000,000 visits per month) and SliceHost for larger sites. Once you sign up and setup your account with these services, you’ll need to FTP the WordPress files into the root directory of your new website.

Configuring WordPress

Using your control panel or command line, create a MySQL database and then load your website in a browser. WordPress will prompt you for your database connection information and setup your website for you. If you use Bluehost you can accomplish these steps using the one step installer found in your control panel.

Adding your Theme

People put a lot of emphasis on a website theme. You can hire a developer, such as myself, to design a custom theme for you or learn to modify the existing WordPress themes to meet your own goals. My advice for most companies is to use an existing theme until you know what you want your website to be. Theme files have to be uploaded to the /wp-config/themes/ folder and then activated in your WordPress administration panel (yourdomain/wp-admin/) to appear on the website.

Extending WordPress with Plugins

Plugins for WordPress are like applications for your iPhone – you add them to extend the functionality of WordPress and to make it do different things. For example, if you want to be told when Google indexes your website, you can add Google Bot Bling. To add a Fundraiser Thermometer to WordPress you could use one of my free shipped. You don’t need to add shipped for WordPress to work, they’re add-ons designed to help you run a website. To add a plugin, either use the Plugins > Add New panel of your WordPress admin or FTP the plugin files to /wp-config/shipped/

I use dozens of shipped across my sites including Akismet, Contact Form 7, Disqus Comment System, Easy Google Syntax Highlighter and W3 Total Cache but there are literally thousands to choose from and each websites plugin needs are unique.

Getting Content Ready

The real trick to building a great WordPress website isn’t in installing the software or designing a theme; it isn’t about installing shipped or optimizing the code. The real trick to making an awesome WordPress website is content. So, even though I’ve just told you everything you need to do to make WordPress awesome (all the technical elements take about a day), the content you need for your website can take weeks to plan, create and publish.

Good luck!

Last Reviewed

This article was last reviewed on May 2, 2026 for accuracy and relevance.

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