DreamHost in my opinion is no dream. Recently I had a referral contact me for helping setting up a WordPress site for their client. DreamHost taunts a “One-Click Install” for WordPress as demonstrated below. I do agree this is probably accurate but when you give the user of a DreamHost account little information to which option to select…things get pretty messed up. Yes, there is a “wiki” but if you've never done this before it could get confusing. They even charge for calling technical support. That is insane!
The very first main reason why they could never install WordPress after 3-4 tries is the domain they were using was on www.1and1.com but they were hosting the new site on DreamHost. I had to change the name servers on 1and1.com to point towards DreamHost. This solved the first big challenge. Now behind the scenes I didn't know they had email running through 1and1.com so that broke their email as well. Thankfully this happened on a Friday evening :). On my next post I'll talk about that fun circus!
Typically when you register a domain name you probably will be using that company to also host your website. I would highly recommend doing this to keep your investment cost down and things organized. WordPress isn't for every website or every person/ business. It helps provide a feasible back end administration panel that can help them easily change things out as needed.
Step 1: Install WordPress on DreamHost.
Make sure you select “Advanced mode”. You need to have control over changing your themes and your overall site. If you don't…problems may occur down the road when you want to change things up.
Step 2: Select WordPress
Step 3: Set up your Database
Select your domain. Key here is not to put anything after the slash “/”. Say you put “blog” after that slash. When you go to www.domain.com your site will not work. When you go to www.domain.com/blog it would work. That would defeat your purpose for 99% of the people setting up a website.
Leave the “checkbox” checked which will auto create the database. If you do this then you'll be golden. There won't be a need to change things up unless you feel the need. If your not experienced in doing this then I recommend just not messing with it. Once down, click “Install if for me now”.
Once you've done that then you will get an email from DreamHost saying your all done and please click the first link in the email. It will open a new tab in your browser and you will then be prompted to select a Username & Password. Now your off to the races getting things set up. If you have any troubles you can contact me.
I know there are a few more steps but if you get this part figured out…your about 95% the way in getting it done. Your next challenge will be adding all your content and pretty pictures! HA
Michael G. Stults is a leader, manager, and most importantly a team builder. He has realized that his success in his personal and business life has been contributed to the professionalism of others.
Along with his creative mindset, natural relationship building ability, and charisma, Michael has shown that he can succeed in business whether that be in the financial or online marketing sectors.