Build your own blog in just 5 minutes

In just a few short years, the term ‘blogging’ has gone from a piece of obscure geek-speak to a household word. Everyone seems to have a blog these days, whether they’re a major rock star or your friend from down the street.

Blogs, or ‘web logs’, are a great way of putting down your thoughts and sharing them with the worldwide internet community. So how do you go about starting one?

The key decision you need to make isn’t one of technology, but direction – you need to consider what you want to get out of the project. To share your experience? To get feedback on what you have to say? Do you want to build a community around a particular subject? Demonstrate your skill for potential employers? Or do you just want to do it for the fun of writing?

All of these are valid; it’s just that you need to be aware of your inspiration and focus before even touching the computer.

Right, now you can worry about the technical side.

First of all, you’ll require a hosting provider. For this tutorial, we’re using Hostway (www.hostway.co.uk), although the majority will run the same software. We’ll be using the popular tool WordPress as our blogging engine, which requires PHP 4.2 and a database, which will usually be MySQL.

Coding Loops. WordPress uses ‘the loop’, a bit of code that repeats your theme’s formatting for each post

The latter is important; not all entry-level packages provide this function, and it’s essential for most blog tools.

Installing the software is the final hurdle. Many hosting companies provide tools such as CPanel to install popular software for you, but we recommend doing it yourself. This way, you have a better idea of where everything is, and will be more comfortable when the time comes to update your blogging software (which is vital, because it helps protect your site against security breaches as well as adding new features).

This is usually a case of deleting the main files, uploading the new ones, and visiting a web page to update the system to the latest version.

Follow the file

Any web tool you download will have full installation instructions. Read them through, and follow them to the letter.

Permissions. You may have to set ‘permissions’ on folders using your FTP client; you’ll be told which ones.

As a general guide, however, most follow the same steps. There will be a configuration file, where you enter your database details (see Going It Alone on page 88) and occasionally set your username and password. Next, upload all the files to your server using an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client such as Filezilla (www.filezilla-project.org). Windows Vista has basic FTP features built in, but you’ll want the additional power of a dedicated program for serious web work.

If you’re on a Windows server, things should be good to go. On a Linux server, there will usually be a list of directories you have to set as writeable (such as storage for any pictures you upload).

To do this rightclick on them in your FTP client, picking either CHMOD or Properties, and type the number 666 or 777 as instructed. Don’t do this for any directory you’re not specifically told to, as this has security implications.

Finally, fire up Internet Explorer and point it to a file such as www.yourdomain.gov/install.php. Assuming you followed the instructions correctly, everything else should be automatic, and visiting your domain name will throw up a fully functional blog. All that remains now is to fill it with content.

Richard Cobbett contributes to Windows Vista: The Official Magazine, writes for a number of technology related magazines, and works on PC Plus.