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I use 1and1 so I’ll use that to demonstrate how to create a MySQL database. After logging in, I go to MySQL Administration, and click the button New Database, which opens this page.

Description of the new Database – I called it Blah, as I will be deleting it as soon as I’ve taken screenshots. You should call it My WordPress Blog or something along those lines. It’s only use is as an identifier in your account, if you have more than one MySQL database.

Password – self-explanatory. It’s a very good idea to use a mixture of upper/lower case, numbers and symbols to create your password. Don’t be afraid of forgetting it, write it down and hide the piece of paper out of plain sight (if you get burgled then a piece of paper with your database password is the least of your worries).

Then I click setup, and get to this screen.

Now we have the important stuff – print it out if you have a printer, or save the information into a text file on your computer.

By now, the zip file containing WordPress should have downloaded, so extract the files, and you should see something like this

Rename the file wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php and open it in a text editor (DON’T use Wordpad or Word!). If you aren’t sure what to use then Notepad++ for Windows is free, or Textwrangler for Mac is free. The reason for this is that Word and other wordprocessors add extra formatting into the code, which can play havoc with the files.

At the top of the wp-config.php file is this section (yours might not be colour coded)

Where it says ‘database_name_here’ enter your database name – using my example it would say ‘db402114226′

Where it says ‘username_here’ enter your username – using my example it would say ‘dbo402114226′

Where it says ‘password_here’ enter your password – using my example it would say ‘blahblah’

Where it says ‘localhost’ enter your Host name – using my example it would say ‘db402114226.db.1and1.com’

You should now have something looking like this

Now save the file.

Connect to your website using your FTP client, and transfer all the WordPress files to your server (you can use a separate directory/folder if you want to – I use wp).

You now need to run the install script, which you do through your web browser. Go to yoursite.com/wp-admin/install.php (where yoursite.com is whatever your site is called – if you uploaded into a folder then it would be yoursite.com/thefolder/wp-admin/install.php). The installation will finish by prompting you for a Site Title, Username, Password and E-mail address. Fill it in and away you go!

Once you’ve installed Filezilla, and started it for the first time, you will see something like this (I’m using a Mac so the file listing on the left might look a little different to what you are used to) :

In this picture I’ve coloured some sections in, so that it’s easier to understand what each one represents:

1 – the toolbar
2 – connection bar
3 – message box
4 – your computer (Local Site)
5 – remote computer (Remote Site – your website server)
6 – file transfer queue

If we ignore the toolbar (1) for now, you should have some information from your website host about your FTP connection details. This will be in the form of:

Hostname – yoursitename.co.uk
Username – whatever is assigned
Password – whatever is assigned

NOTE – FTP passwords are sent unencrypted, so if you have secure FTP (SFTP or FTPS) then use that OR make sure your FTP password is different to your master account password!

In some cases you may be issued a port number.

You enter these details in the connection bar (2) and press enter:

You should then see a mass of text scroll past in the message box (3) until the last message states Directory Listing Successful. Below that will be the sites window (4 and 5):

To transfer files you drag them from the left (A) to the right (B). You can create new folders/directories by right-clicking and selecting Create Directory. Double-clicking on the new directory folder will then open it, for you to transfer files into that directory. You can download from your server by dragging from the right (B) to the left (A). You navigate your folders by double-clicking on the folder, but if you want to go back to the previous directory, you double-click on the folder marked with two full stops (..)

Once you have finished transferring then you click the disconnect from server icon (ninth from the left, on the right of the flag with the cross) next to the icon with the green tick.

I’ll go into this a little more next time, when we install and set up the WordPress framework.

Would I recommend them? I have done, and so far the people I recommended them too are happy.

I’m not going to push either webhost on anyone, just going to give a list of some review sites. Read the reviews, visit the companies, read their terms and conditions, read their support forums/FAQs, before you give them your card details. Be aware that review sites link to the companies and get commission for sales. If you spot a company you think you like, the use google to ask questions such as XXXX problems, or XXXX customer service. Or just ask me in the comments and I’ll go hunting for you

Here’s a quick list of some common terms:-

Shared Hosting/Dedicated Hosting – shared hosting means you rent a small part of a server, along with other small websites. dedicated means you rent a server all to yourself. Most small sites need shared hosting.

Domain Name – that’s the unique name of your site. Computers connect to the internet using an IP address which is a series of numbers. People can’t remember lots of numbers so Domain Names point to the IP address. If we take Google as an example – http://74.125.224.72/ is the IP address, and http://www.google.com is the Domain Name. Some people get confused thinking that the name is the website, but it isn’t, the number is the website, the Domain Name is a sign post pointing to the number.

Webspace – This is the hard disk space that your website will take up. This is where you actual website is. If you only intend to have a small site, with a few images, then you don’t really need a large amount, but it’s better to have too much than too little, unless their is a large price difference.

Monthly Traffic – sometimes called bandwidth. Every time a visitor visits your site they will use bandwidth, so if your average visitor visited 5 pages, each of which was 100Kb then your average visitor would consume 0.5Mb of your bandwidth. If your total monthly traffic allowance was 100Mb, then you could have 200 visitors before you used up your allowed bandwidth. Going over your allowance doesn’t mean your site can’t be accessed, you will need to read your webhosts terms to find out what the penalty is. Many webhosts offer ‘unlimited’ bandwidth but I wouldn’t advise putting any of them to the test

Email accounts – I’d advise you get at least one. It looks more professional to have an email address attached to your site, that one from a free webhosting company, especially if you want to be taken seriously. you@yoursite.co.uk looks a lot better than you1234@live.com.

FTP – this is the protocol for uploading/downloading the files from your website. You will need a FTP client in order to access your webhost via FTP. A good one is http://www.filezilla.net

Features/Technologies – when you look at any webhost they will offer features that will undoubtedly confuse. PHP, Ruby, CGI, ASP, SQL etc etc. Find out what the platform you are using requires, and make sure that you get those features. Anything else is a bonus as long as it is included in your basic price. This series will focus on creating a website based upon WordPress, so you will need PHP 5.2.4 and MySQL 5.0. If you find a host and aren’t sure, email them, explain you want to build a site using WordPress and if they support it. WordPress.org even have a basic email that you can copy and paste – http://wordpress.org/about/requirements/

A good site that I’ve found that goes into more detail about technologies is http://www.w3schools.com/hosting/host_technologies.asp

If there’s anything in particular you need explaining, add a comment, and I’ll endeavour to answer your query.

Some webhost review sites

http://www.hostratings.co.uk/
http://www.hosting-review.com/

However before you really start, you need to ask yourself a few questions.

1 – Is it worth spending money on a website?

If all you business is local, then you may be better off advertising in your local paper. Even the most basic of websites, where you do ALL of the work will probably cost between £50-£100 just for domain name and hosting.

2 – Do I have the time to actually commit to building and maintaining a site?

The initial set-up and design can be time-consuming, especially when you are doing it yourself for the first time. You may find that paying a developer is actually cheaper and faster, in terms of cost per hour. The downside with a developer doing your site is that they will quite rightly, want paying every time you want to change or update something. Either way, the hosting and domain name will be an annual fee.

If the answer to the above questions is yes, then hopefully this will all be useful to you.

Apple have stepped up and offered a free application called iBooks Author (available on the Mac App Store) which seems to offer everything that a budding ebook author/editor might want. The only downside is that the format it exports in, can’t be read on a Kindle. So now I’m faced with a choice – ditch my Kindle and get an iPad (as there is Kindle software for the iPad) or hang on and hope that Amazon have something similar in the works, so that I can keep my Kindle, and build my ebooks for that. A friend has an iPad so I think a good test would be to scan, edit and build an ebook with iBooks Author, and test it that way.

Of course it would be great of Amazon and Apple decided on a common format, so we don’t have the Betamax vs VHS, Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD etc format wars all over again.

http://www.apple.com/ibooks-author/

EDIT – A quick test has thrown up some annoyances, one being you have got to have an iPad attached to you Mac in order to test even the basic functionality of your ebook. If all you have is an iPhone or iPod Touch then you have to export your ebook in it’s entirety, and transfer via the USB cable. How difficult would it have been to create a ‘virtual’ iPad using the Xcode environment in order to test?