In my last post, I explained step by step how to install WordPress manually. However, not everyone is a web developer, so I figured I should mention that there are a few ways to use WordPress without installing it yourself. First, you could hire me to do it! But that isn’t really the point of this post. I’m going to explain two other ways to use WordPress without installing it yourself.

First, you can sign up for a free account at wordpress.com and they’ll set you up with everything you need to get started. However, there will be a number of limitations on what you can do. They provide you with a limited amount of space, allow a limited number of file types to be uploaded, and limit the ways you can embed external content such as videos from other sites. Customizing the look and feel of your site is also off limits under the free plan.

To get more control of your site, you can sign up for web hosting with a company that supports automatic WordPress installs. There are quite a number of web hosts that provide such a service and you are free to do as much research as you’d like. Personally, I prefer Dreamhost. They have one of the nicest control panels I’ve seen and they provide a one-click WordPress install. When a new version of WordPress comes out, they are quick to provide a simple upgrade option.

Here’s how easy it is to install WordPress at Dreamhost.

1. Sign up

Not much to say about this one. Just go to dreamhost.com and click sign up!

2. Login

Simply go to https://panel.dreamhost.com and enter your username and password.

3. Start the install

Click “Goodies” in the menu on the left, and then choose “One-Click Installs” from the sub-menu.

4. Choose a mode (easy or advanced)

Next you’ll be presented with this screen:

I would suggest choosing “Advanced Mode” since easy mode will result in many of the same limitations that we would have run into with a wordpress.com account. Don’t worry, advanced mode doesn’t take any advanced skills.

5. Finish the install

After choosing advanced mode, you will be presented with a number of options. You can accept the default answers for all of them. The only thing you need to do is choose a database name. You can enter pretty much whatever you’d like. It doesn’t really make any difference what you name your database. If you don’t have an existing hostname for your database, it will give you the option of creating one. That’s it! It’s that simple. Click the “Install it for me now!” button and you’re set.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave a note below.