Subdomains – an introduction
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One of the big advantages of using self hosted WordPress is that you can make use of subdomains. Rather than explain them in detail, let’s look at the steps involved.
I’ll copy a photojournal website (canadiary.wordpress.com) to a subdomain (canadiary.mikemcsharry.com). In the following notes, assume that the domain (in this case mikemcsharry.com) already registered
Here’s the steps
1. Set up the subdomain on your host
On your web hosting area make sure that you register the subdomain, and provide some file space for it.
2. Install WordPress in the correct place
You could copy the WordPress.org files and upload them to your hosting area, or you could make use of facilities which your hosting company provide.
In your hosts c-panel (control panel) you’ll find something like this -
Select WordPress Blog and specify where you want the blog to go
Then click ‘install now’
If we then use the file manager feature in the c-panel we can see that under canadiary we have the WordPress installation ready for our use.
3. Configure WordPress
In my case (the installer provided by your hosting company may be different) – I now have the WordPress install to finish.
As a quick tip – do not use admin for the username – why let hackers have the first line free of charge? And DO use a strong password. Note that as you type the confirmation password, it shows ‘mismatch’ – this goes away when the passwords match.
Note that with self hosted WordPress you don’t need to confirm the email message to start using the blog.
You’ll then see this message -
4. Clear the Junk
Following the instruction in my e-book (on www.primarypress.org), clear out un-needed posts, pages and comments – and at this stage block comments. Set the comments page something like this.
5. Export the Old Blog
Go to your WordPress site and make a note of which theme you are using. if you want to make your new site look like your WordPress.com site try to get the same theme. (Many of the themes available on WordPress.com are available). In this case the theme is called Modularity Light.
Still on the WordPress.com site select tools and export in the control panel
If you have a particularly large blog, you may need to download it in a few parts using the filters –WordPress has a coded feature of 2Mb upload limit. This can be worked around, and in some cases would need a bit of help from your hosting company.
Click download export file, then select the space where you want to save it on your PC
6. Import to the new blog
Now go to the control panel of your new blog and import the file you just exported.
This is a 2 stage process – you install the WordPress importer plugin then you use it to import the .xml file
In this window – select install now
Then in this window – select the option to activate plugin and run importer
Which leads straight to this -
Browse to the file you previously saved, then select ‘upload file and import’
Make sure you select this -
if you don’t then your images will stay on WordPress.com and many of the image related plugins which become available with self hosted WordPress will not work. (The plugins will look for your pictures in your folder areas).
As the pictures are downloaded from WordPress.com then uploaded to your new host, this can take a while.
Eventually you’ll see the file lists and you’re ready to work on your new blog.
7. Working with the new blog
New blogs in both WordPress.com and self hosted WordPress use a theme called TwentyTen as the default. This is a very nice theme, but not specifically tailored for photographs.
In the appearance-> themes tab of the new blog you can ‘Install Themes’
Using the search option in the themes window shows -
Clicking install will now make this theme available for you to use with this blog.
The ‘managed themes’ tab now shows the theme, which you simply activate.
Now with no further work canadiary.mikemcsharry.com looks very similar to canadiary.wordpress.com
Similar – but not the same. There’s a few issues I’ll build on in a future post.
