Although my Netfirms account already has the WordPress application available for installation at the click of a button, I decided to install the self-hosted version of WordPress for several reasons:

• I wanted more control over the WordPress application. The WordPress application provided by Netfirms is the WordPress MU (Multi-User) version and there are some limitations (though not critical) for the user who may wish to tweak the application.
• I wanted to have the latest version of WordPress which is Version 2.5.1
• I wanted to check out how easy it is to install the self-hosted version of WordPress.

This blog is now running on the self-hosted version of WordPress version 2.5.1.

For those of you who would like to try it out, here is how you do it in your Netfirms account. For those using other web hosting providers, the steps should be very similar except for the cPanel settings.

Basic Requirements:

I assume you have already done the following:

1. You have registered a domain name eg www.your-domain-name.com. If you have not, check out Netfirms for domain names registration for as low as $5.95.
2. You have signed up for a web-hosting account. Again check out Netfirms if you have not. They have great hosting packages starting from $4.95 per month although I would recommend going for the $9.95 package.
3. Netfirms has all the requirements for installing a self-hosted WordPress account. If you sign up with another web host, make sure that you have the minimum requirements needed to run the software on your hosting account, which are:
   • PHP version 4.2 (or greater)
   • MySQL version 4.0 (or greater)

Procedures For Installation

1. Download the WordPress software from http://wordpress.org/download to your PC. WordPress gives you two compression formats to download – zip and tar.gz. I recommend downloading the zip file as it is the most common format.
2. Unzip the downloaded file to a folder.
3. FTP the Contents of the /wordpress folder to the root directory of your website. If you need a free FTP program, try FileZilla at http://sourceforge.net/projects/filezilla.
4. Set up the MySQL database as follows:
   • Login to your Control Panel (or cPanel) of your hosting account
   • Click on Site Tools
   • Click on Database Manager
   • Click Add New (Database)
   • Enter Description of new database and click Add
   • Note down Database Name, User and Password (Important as you will need these to set up WordPress later.
5. Run the Install script by typing http://your-domain-name.com/wp-admin/install.php  and press Enter.
   • You will get a message telling you that you need to create a wp-config.php file
   • Click on Create A Configuration File in the message
   • Click on Let’s Go
   • Enter Database Name, User Name and Password that you noted down earlier
   • Leave Database Host as localhost and Table Prefix as wp_
   • Click Submit
   • Click Run The Install
   • Click the First Step Link and Enter Blog Title and Email and click Install WordPress
   • Click the Continue to Second Step button
   • Note Username and Password (Important!)
   • Click the wp-login.php link
   • Login with the above Username and Password
   • Click on Admin
   • Fill up details of Profile and change your Password to something you can remember!
6. And you are done!