As this is the age of blogging, and many people want to know step by step guides to setting up a blog, this two part guide shows you guys how to go about doing it.

Part 1. Hosting

The first step in setting up a blog, is figuring out how you are going to host it. if you didn’t know already - there are two options in the world of  Web hosting.  Windows or Linux. You will need Linux hosting for the most trouble free install of Wordpress, although it does run on Windows. Many Wordpress plugins dont really like Windows hosting, and for that reason, its probably safer to stick to Linux hosting. If you already have Linux based web hosting - great, if you have an existing site and want to integrate a blog on a subdomain, you are going to have to do some tinkering first.

Just to back pedal, subdomains are special web addresses which hang of your main domain. For example. http://mail.example.com (mail) is the subdomain, or in your case http://blog.domain.com, would be a logical choice for hosting a blog.

These can sometimes be setup easily via your host, if they support it. That will be the easiest way to get one working, for the least hassle.

If however like me you discover that your webhosting isn’t flexible to add subdomains at will, you will have to take a look at part 1a) Setting up a subdomain using a free DNS provider.

Alternatively you may choose that you’d like to host with another company, or use a host that have automatic Wordpress installs available in their CPanel. In my own situation, I was using Windows hosting, but they didn’t support Wordpress installs, and for this reason I decided to go with a different hosting provider, and run it in parallel.  You can find a list of good hosting providers on Google or use one of the (sponsored) recommended hosts via Wordpress. If you need a Wordpress host in Ireland, you could do worse than using Blacknight.ie. You’ll need to ask your chosen Wordpress company, if they meet the requirements.

1a) Setting up a subdomain using a free DNS provider

One of the best free an easy DNS providers is ZoneEdit.com. I currently use them to manage my DNS records. Again if you are a bit puzzled as to what a DNS record is exactly, basically DNS is the phonebook of the Internet, and it maps IP addresses (which are attached to physical computers on the web) with domain names.

It’s what translates www.webdistortion.com to > 213.171.218.34, and blog.webdistortion.com to > 81.17.252.110. In other words Im using two different computers to get my website running as it is, and this can be a useful strategy if (as I’ve mentioned) you need to use more than one webhosting provider, for whatever reason. Anyway, onto using Zonedit.

ZoneEdit.

Go and follow the useful and idiot free guide over here.

ZoneEdit, moving your nameservers.

Nameservers are used to find out what web server a particular domain should be looking to for its files.. The records that they check for this are known as A records. Let’s say for the sake of argument that you register a domain with one company, and want to host it with another. Here’s what you are going to need to do.

Get the nameservers from your domain provider, and change them to the nameservers of zoneedit. You can find out the nameservers you will need by creating a free account at Zoneedit as described.  Again, you may be able to do this just by contacting them, or using your control panel.

Setting the A records

The beauty of ZoneEdit is that you can have as many subdomains as you want, and just set a records for each one of them. Each A record will be an IP address that your web hosting provider gives you, or if you are using a Static IP address (i.e. one that doesn’t change) on your broadband provider you can even host Wordpress on your own Web Server at Home! If it wasn’t already obvious, assuming your DNS has resolved, type in your subdomain (on the A record screen) and assign it to the Numeric IP address of your new found hosting provider.

You’ll also have to set A records for your main domain, i.e. domain.com and www.domain.com. Believe it or not you will need A records for both of these. Set these to the address of your existing hosting. In my case I set these IP addresses to my Windows hosting server (213.171.218.34).

Checking things have worked.

Ok so most hosting providers give youa holding page, once you setup the system. You can expect to see the holding page on your new subdomain within 24 hours, depending on how quickly things resolve. Hooray, you’ve just setup your new sub domain.

The next part in this series will go on to show you how to download and install Wordpress and MySQL on your server.