NOT a Guru!
Keeping it simple, without the hype. PC tips and Internet advice for mom and pop businesses.
Keeping it simple, without the hype. PC tips and Internet advice for mom and pop businesses.
The first thing we’re going to do on Laura’s brand new website is to install a blog. This is because we’re going to be linking to it from the home page, and it’s easier to have the link “already existing” to avoid error when we create our file menu. All we’ll need to do is to copy and paste the URL into the home page menu (you’ll see that in a few posts from now).
Why Mom and Pop Online Storefront Owners Should Add a Blog to Their Sites.
This blog will be going into a subfolder on Laura’s domain. If you are a “mom and pop” business owner who will be setting up an online store, you should consider adding a blog like Laura is doing. Just a few reasons include:
- If you use the software I’ve recommended, you will get a lot of traffic;
- You can keep your customers up-to-date with specials and your latest news;
- You can easily add informative tips and other information that will interest surfers on the net. This is kind of a back door to your main online storefront … you’ll engage the interest of web surfers who will then see what you have to offer in your store;
- It will be easy to add fresh content to your site so that the search engines keep visiting — any authorized employee can add content without having to know how to build websites; and
- Your customers can interact with you in the comments sections.
You might want to consider getting a complementary domain for your blog. Let’s say that your main business URL is HappyFlowerShop.com — you could install your blog on a domain called HappyFlowerShop.net and then link to your main “com” domain on the blog. This is a good marketing strategy.
Setting Up a MySQL Database.
In yesterday’s post, we downloaded Jeff Johnson’s amazing (and free) SEO Blog Software and took a look at the wp-config file, which calls for database information. Today, we’ll set up a database on the example site, CalmingFood.com, and update the wp-config file.
The first thing you are going to do is log into your control panel (see previous articles about how to do this, or use the search function on this site). In your welcome screen, you’ll see all kinds of options. What you will want to do is to scroll down to the databases section and click the MySQL Databases icon, as shown in the image below.
You are then taken to a screen that will enable you to create your database, users and so on. Your first step is to create a database by typing in any name that you want and then clicking “create database” as shown. In this example, we’re going to call the database “blog.”
After you have clicked the “create database” button, you get a confirmation screen that the database was created. Take special note of the name of the database … write it down. The username for Laura’s hosting service is “calm.” You’ll see that it is a prefix to the database name. That’s so the server knows where the database is located. So instead of the database being simply called “blog,” it is actually called “calm_blog.” This is going to be very important, so take note of it.
Click the “go back” link and then scroll down the page. Your next step is to create a user. In Laura’s example, we are using the username “admin.” Choose a password and enter it twice, then click the “create user” button as shown in the screen shot below.
You will get a confirmation screen showing the user and the password. In this example, I removed the password because we don’t need to be announcing it to spammers and hackers.
After you click the “go back” link, you then need to scroll down your MySQL page and add the user you just created to the database. This is an important step that a lot of people forget to do their first time. You absolutely must add your user to the database. You’ll see in the screen shot example that the user is called “calm_admin” (the “calm_” prefix is important) and the database is called “calm_blog.” Make sure that you have the correct user associated with the correct database name if you have more than one database installed. If you have multiple databases, you can have the same user associated with as many blogs as you like. In this example, however, we’re creating just one database. Align your information as shown in the screen shot below and click “add.”
You are then taken to a screen that allows you to manage the user privileges. Click ALL PRIVILEGES and the different functions will automatically be selected. For your WordPress installation to work, you must select ALL PRIVILEGES.
After you click “make changes” you will receive a confirmation screen (not shown here). You can click “go back” and see the main MySQL management page again. As you can see from the image below, there is now a database called “calm_blog” with a username of “calm_admin.” When we install Jeff’s SEO blog software, the database will be automatically populated, so you don’t need to do anything else at this stage.
If for some reason your blog is now working right down the road, you can always return to this screen and run the “Check DB” and “Repair DB” options. Sometimes when your host updates or repairs your server, you need to do this.
You’re now done setting up your database.
Configuring Your Blog Software.
For Laura’s blog, we are using Jeff Johnson’s free SEO blog software. I highly recommend that you do the same if you are installing a blog. Yesterday, we took a look at some of the files within the software. You will need to modify one file, the wp-config file (which is a php file). In the screen shot below, I’ve opened the special folder that the software is located in and highlighted the file so you know what to look for.
Open your wp-config file using Notepad. To do this, right click on the file, click “open with” and then select Notepad. When you open the file, you will see that at the very top, you need to include your database information that you just created.
The very first thing that you need to change is the DB_NAME. As you can see, the unmodified version of the software says ‘putyourdbnamehere.’ Delete putyourdbnamehere and change it to the database you just created. In Laura’s example, it is called calm_blog.
In the screen shot below, we’ve updated the DB_NAME. There are a couple of things you should be aware of:
- Keep the ‘ and ‘ before and after the name of your blog. This enables the code to read correctly.
- Make sure that you have properly named your database. It’s easy to forget to include the prefix, but your installation will not work without it. In this example, the prefix is calm_.
The next thing that you are going to do is to type in the user name, replacing the highlighted words in the screen shot below with the user you created in your control panel. If you skipped the step described above about associating your user name with the database name, the software will not work.
In the image below, I’ve updated the username. Like the name of the database, you need to (a) keep the ‘ and ‘ in the code and (b) include the prefix; i.e., calm_.
You then type in the password that you assigned to the database. For purposes of illustrating what we’re doing, I’ll use the password 1234567. This is not the real password. I’m just typing it in so you can see what everything looks like.
You’ll also see a line where you can specify the database host; i.e., ‘localhost.’ It is very rare that you will have something other than localhost, so just leave this as is. If localhost does not work, there should be information in your control panel that tells you the correct host name. You can also contact your hosting company’s tech support.
The screen shot below shows all of the information we just modified. It’s circled in green. Your modifications should be similar.
Circled in red is additional information that you need to provide. I have not done this in the screen shot because it’s not information that you need. You can type anything … just be sure to retain the ‘ and ‘ when you do so.
The wp-config.php file is now modified! Save it AS IS. Do not change the name of the file.
We’ll install all of this tomorrow!
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Tomorrow: Uploading your free SEO blog software; How to FTP.
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The vast majority of mom and pop stores will never realize the benefit of a blog. Nor will they ever invest the time to truly benefit from a blog.
I think I have reached late here. Nevertheless it seems to be the answer to a lot of my queries. I need to start form page 1.
You are a guru and I am going to find out myself
Actually, I think some mom and pop businesses are catching on to some of the web 2.0 technologies out there. Also, glad the post could help, Goacom.