Building Your Platform On A Budget

Posted on March 8, 2010 by Phil Bowyer

In a previous post we showed how using someone else's platform for your foundation was a bad idea. Our alternative was to create your own with the help of a professional, but sometimes your budget won't support such a recommendation. Times are tough, and for some, the few thousand it takes to build a customized platform isn't an option.

Before we go on, I want to make it clear that the advice, tips and tricks I give you below is meant as a starter, a temporary solution, until you can afford to do it up right. OK, now that we have that out of the way, let's get to the good stuff.

Web Site Hosting

Let's start with your foundation- the hosting account. You need to find a web hosting company that runs on the cPanel software. cPanel is what you use to manage your hosting account. You can use it to set up email accounts, subdomains, redirects, and check your stats (AKA analytics). Make sure your cPanel installation includes "Fantistico", which is an add-on that allows you to install programs onto your server automatically. It may cost a buck or two extra, but it will be worth it.

Hosting accounts aren't created equal, and you should be careful who you choose. You need one that is big enough to meet your needs, but small enough to give you personal service. What about features you ask? Well, something like our Gold Account is a great place to start (I mention it only as a reference point- this post is to educate, not sell - but I'll give you a free month if you wanna give us a shot, just sign up and send me an email mentioning this post).

So why cpanel? Why not Plesk? Easy, growth. cPanel is used more on webservers than any other software. That means, if you need to move to a different host, things are a lot easier. You can essentially just move everything over to the new host (your hosting company can do this for you), and things will work great. Other reasons include ease of use and feature set.

Getting WordPress (and other software) Installed

WordPress is the most popular blogging platforms out there. They have two versions (well, actually 3) - WordPress.com (the hosted solution) and WordPress.org (the downloaded solution). The third is actually called WPMU, which is the software that runs WordPress.com which power users can download and install.

After you get your hosting account set up, and you have your log in information, log into cPanel, and find the Fantistico link/icon. From there you can find WordPress, click on that link, and you'll be sent to a form that you fill out a couple of things. Fantistico does the rest (creates the database, installs the software, makes the necessary configurations, and even creates the admin user).

You'll see that Fantistico has several programs that you can install in the same way, but WordPress should be enough to get you started. One word of warning about installing software using Fantistico - some say it poses a security risk, and it doesn't always contain the latest version of the software.

You can use the "extend" link at WordPress.org to find themes that give you a bit (not a lot) of originality that are easy to install (most have install directions). Please, don't just use the default theme. It's just not right!

Need Help? I'll be in the comments answering questions... see ya there.