Chapter 3

Setting Up Blogging Base Camp

In This Chapter

arrow Finding and buying a domain name

arrow Finding web hosting

arrow Brushing up on FTP

arrow Installing WordPress

Before you can start using WordPress, you have to set up your base camp. Doing so involves more than simply downloading and installing the WordPress software. You also need to establish your domain (your website address) and your web-hosting service (the place that houses your website). Although you initially download your WordPress software onto your hard drive, your web host is where you install it.

Obtaining a web server and installing software on it are much more involved projects than simply obtaining an account with the hosted version of WordPress that’s available at WordPress.com (covered in Chapter 1). You need to consider many factors in this undertaking, as well as cope with a learning curve, because setting up your website through a hosting service involves using some technologies that you may not feel comfortable with at first.

This chapter takes you through the basics of those technologies, and by the last page of this ...

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