What you need to get started - WordPress Tutorial

- [Instructor] To install and run WordPress on a shared host, you need just a few things. First, you need a shared hosting account. There are many different kinds of shared hosting plans with pricing available on a monthly or yearly basis. Once you sign up with a host, you will be able to log into your account and get things set up. Pro-tip, when you sign up for a new account, make sure to save any emails that are sent by your host. They will contain useful information like how to log in, how to connect via FTP, and more. You also need a domain name that points to your shared hosting account. Typically, when you sign up for a new shared hosting account you can choose a domain name that automatically will be pointed to the correct location. Or if you host your domain name someplace else, you can make sure that the domain name is pointing to your shared hosting account. If you need help with pointing your domain name at your hosting account, contact your hosting provider and, or domain name provider. The next thing you need is WordPress. Don't worry about getting it right now. Later in the course I'll explain where to download WordPress and how to upload it to your web host. You also will need an FTP application. This will enable you to upload WordPress from your computer to your shared web host. There are many good free FTP programs available. For this course, we will use one called Filezilla, which we will cover a bit later. And last but not least, you'll need a text editor. Your computer should have some sort of plain text editor already installed and ready to use. This will enable you to edit the WordPress configuration file, which we'll cover later in the course. So to get started, everything except for domain and web hosting is free. WordPress is open source publishing software that is free to download and use. Likewise, FTP apps and text editors are freely available for any operating system. And for the hosting, most shared plans are quite inexpensive and provide a free domain name when you sign up. So with everything ready, let's get started.