[WP Install] Step 9. Installing and testing the first Blog (the Famous 5-Minute Install, at Long Last!)
Tuesday, 1 May 2007OK, we are nearly there. Actually, we might have taken the long and winding road to get to this point… but from where we are to having your first test blog up and running, it is now a matter of seconds!
Virtually all you need is in place, and WordPress can now be installed by simply opening Safari and typing in the following URI in the Location field:
http://www.soapboxcorner.info/martad7/wp-admin/install.php
That’s basically it. Follow the instructions on screen, and your first test blog will be up and running before you can say Banjo Paterson (ehm, Jack Robinson). Here is a quick step-by-step rundown:
- Read the first screen (though you might want to ignore the ReadMe documentation, at this stage) and click the First Step ยป link.
- In the First Step screen, fill in the form with your Weblog title and your e-mail address. It doesn’t matter what title you choose here, since you can always change it later. Also, it is wise to supply a valid e-mail address, because that’s the one WordPress would use if you wanted to retrieve a copy of your admin login password —but you really don’t need to worry too much about this, either (you’ll see why later on).
- Uncheck I would like my blog to appear in search engines like Google and Technorati (this is your test blog, and you don’t want
spammersanybody to find it before you are ready for prime time!), then press the Continue to Second Step button. - In this Second Step, WordPress creates the database tables and assigns a random generated password to the default admin user (that is, you, with the email address you supplied in Step 1).
- Print out this page or write the values down in your Web book, together with the URI to the admin login page, which in this fictitious installation is:
http://www.soapboxcorner.info/martad7/wp-login.php
In WordPress’s own words, Were you expecting more steps? Sorry to disappoint. All done! 
But is this really all there is to it? - I hear someone ask.
Well, actually, no. There are quite a few other aspects of installing, running and maintaining a (WordPress) Weblog that are worth spending a few extra words about —and this, apart from the most obvious feature and requirement of a Weblog, which is the actual “Blog” writing…
For details on how to move around the administration screens to carry out your daily tasks of writing and maintaining your Blog, I would for now refer you to the WordPress documentation (links to WordPress can be found at the footer of every page of your new Blog site, and also in several places throughout the Administration screens).
Some important changes I found I had to implement, before making my blogs ready to go public, concern a (rather significant) number of default features —such as the admin user and password, the permalink format and the blogroll list… to say nothing of basic security issues, including spam filters and directory permissions.
In the next Step, as a preliminary to optimising and “automating” the installation of multiple WordPress blogs, I will be describing those changes I consider fundamental before making any new Blog publicly available.