Now that I was able to get Apache, PHP and MySql running on my CentOS 5 64-bit VPS, I have to actually build a website. I decided to go with WordPress because it is one of the best Blogging/CMS systems out there. After all this site is powered off of WordPress as well. So I purchased a domain, http://www.popcornblogs.com/ set up the DNS servers to point to my VPS from Burst.NET. Now that everything is setup, I just need to go to the WordPress website to download the latest version.
WordPress can be obtained by visiting http://wordpress.org/. Download the latest version and extract the contents into your webserver’s directory. After you have extract the contents to your webserver’s folder. Navigate to the home directory and a page should come up stating that a configure file is required. Click to configure your WordPress blog and input your database information (Database, server, login, password). If you click next and you come up with the same prompt again, that means that your file permissions aren’t set correctly.
Apache usually runs on a different username to keep separate from any of the regular files. This is so if you site gets hijacked, the hacker won’t have permissions to make changes to any vital files. Also because of these strict permissions, it is important to make sure that any page that you host has both read and write permissions. Wordpress requires the write permission to create the configuration files.
Now that you were able to configure your WordPress Blog successfully, it will prompt you for a Blog title. For me I filled out “Ultimate Popcorn Blog” and my site was created! The basic theme for the WordPress Blog will look a little bland so the first thing that I did was download a new theme for my WordPress blog. If you visit http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/, there are thousands of different WordPress themes that are all available for free. Once you download one, you just need to extract the contents of the compressed file into /wp-content/theme/. After you have uploaded the theme, you can navigate to the Appearance section within your WordPress Admin page to switch between themes.
Thats all there is to creating a WordPress blog. It is very easy and is a great way to get your first website started. I just created my first website on my Burst.net hosting and I will be working on getting traffic to the site and I’ll keep everyone updated. In the meantime, check out my new website at http://www.popcornblogs.com/