Do I need to have an existing website to set up a WP blog?

[SylviaC]

[TracyR]

Hi Sylvia,

You don't have to have a website to set up a wordpress blog (which will essentially BE your site ) but you do need to have website hosting in place.

If I understand correctly, the site you're currently working on and the "site" that you'd like to use with WordPress will be different topics?

Not to confuse you further but a "blog" can be a stand alone "site" or incorporated with your existing site. It just depends on what you want to do with it.

[angienewton]

Hi Sylvia,
Tracy has ya covered. You definitely don't have to have a current website to have a blog.

[SylviaC]

[TracyR]

[AlexNewell]

[terrapin719]

[tknoppe]

[AlexNewell]

[tknoppe]

[AlexNewell]

TeeHee!

No probs Traci!



Alex

[SylviaC]

Thanks guys! This is all really helping.

Traci, I watched your video on installing Wordpress. At the part where it says 'install in directory' if I leave it blank does this mean it will attach to my existing site? If I don't want it to attach to my existing site do I make up a name for a folder I want it to install to(like you did when you entered the word 'blog' in that field)?

Also, what would I do if I wanted more than 1 WP site. Do I go through the exact same procedure for each site?

Thanks alot!

[tknoppe]

Yep, if you want it in a folder, just enter the name of the folder in that spot. So if you wanted to install WordPress into a folder called /journal, enter journal in that blank.

Yep, rinse and repeat for each site.

[lindastacy]

Let's see if I can clarify more for you (and hopefully not confuse you!) by giving some examples.

For any website to be available to the public online you need two things. A domain name and webhosting. For example, the domain name for this site is selfstartersweeklytips.com and hosting is provided by a company such as hostgator (or one of many others)

This message board is attached to SSWT and was placed in a directory (or folder) and is served by the same hosting service. You can see the URL for the forum is
www.selfstartersweeklytips.com/forum

The rest of her website can be found by going to www.selfstartersweeklytips.com

Lynn's blog could have been added to the same domain and hosting by adding another directory or folder called "blog" or "clicknewz," so it would have been
selfstartersweeklytips.com/clicknewz/
And she would have installed that blog through the same hosting account as SSWT

But instead, Lynn choose to get a different domain name for her blog:
clicknewz.com
And she installed the blog in the "root directory" of that domain through her hosting account. (so when you type in clicknewz.com you go to the blog; there isn't another directory such as clicknewz.com/blog). She may have used the same hosting company and account (for example, one like hostgator that allows you to host multiple domains/sites on the same account), the same hosting company but under a different account, or a completely different hosting company.

You probably don't want the blog in the root directory for an existing website (or one your are building). Whatever is set up in the root directory is what visitors will see when they type your domain name into a browser.

Multiple blogs can be added to the same domain/site by setting up multiple directories/folders. For example
clicknewz.com/blog1
clicknewz.com/blog2
clicknewz.com/blog3

(The folders can be named anything you want, like
clicknewz.com/pencils
clicknewz.com/pens
clicknewz.com/chocolate)

Does that help?

[tknoppe]

Good explanation Linda. However, WordPress can be more than just a blog - it can actually power an entire web site as it's a content management system (CMS) - not just blog software, with pages, not just blog posts - so one may very well want to install WordPress in the root.

So it goes back to what the overall goal/plan is for the system being installed. If one would be using WordPress for merely blogging only - no static pages, then yes, you can/would install it in a sub-directory and then they were need to either upload static html pages in the root or upload another content management system or something else there to run the root/main portion of their site; but if one were to use WordPress to drive their entire site, then install it in the root and you're good to go.