1. Login to your domain control panel. You need to point your browser to:

   https://yourdomain.ext:8443

   Not the “s” at the end of http and the trailing :8443

2. You may receive a warning about the certificate not matching the site, ignore that and continue to the site
3. For login ID enter your full domain name, for password use the password I sent to you when I set up your hosting account. You will find yourself at the domain “desktop”
4. Click on “Home” on top of the left column, this will take you to the actual control panel. You should see the following (click to enlarge)
   
5. First, you need to create a MySQL database, so click on the “Databases” icon, then on the following screen “Add new database”
6. The system will suggest a DB name, enter your own, don’t make it too short but keep it under 12 character with no spaces; write down the name that you chose on a piece of paper, you will need that. Make sure that you select from the drop down menu MySQL for the type. Then click on OK to create the DB
7. Now you need to add a DB user for this database with a password. Click on “Add New Database User”. You will need to enter the DB user name and password. Make sure they are not easy to guess or too short (again, make sure not to use more than 12 characters or spaes), you will not need to remember them after the installation. Enter the values into the fields and write them down as you will need them
8. Now, go to http://www.wordpress.org and download the application, it most recent version is 3.0.5 (version 3.1 is around the corner too) and you will see a link to download it on the front page. Save the file to a known location on your local computer
9. Using a ZIP utility, like WinZIP or ZIP Genius, extract the contents of the ZIP file making sure that you create the embedded directory names and contents
10. Locate the wp-config-sample.php file and edit it to reflect the DB name, DB user name, and DB password. There are a couple of other fields that ask you to enter an arbitrary phrase; don’t overlook them. Save it as wp-config.php removing the “-sample” part.
11. Using your FTP client, login to your hosting account, change to httpdocs directory (your Web root), and create a new directory called blog which will be the location of your WordPress installation. Note that there are no uppercase letters in the directory name.
12. After creating the directory, double click on its name to open it; then upload the contents of the WordPress extracted files into it
13. You are almost done, now point your browser to:
    http://www.yourdomain.ext/blog/wp-admin/install.php  and you will see the following screen:
    
14. Enter a blog name, you can change it later, and enter a working email address. Click on Install WordPress. The new versions of WordPress allow you to choose a user name for the site admin. Use a name you will remember but will be difficult for others to guess and do not use spaces or special characters in the name. A mixture of letters and numbers 8-10 characters long will be a good starting point. You will also be asked to create a password, use the guidelines above for that as well
15. WordPress will complete the installation and give you the login screen.
16. Click on “Login” and enter the admin user name you created, paste the password you copied and login. Do not put a check mark in “Remember …” if you are doing this on a public computer.
17. As soon as you login, click on the admin name on the top right corner to edit user information. Scroll down to the end of the page to see “New Password fields, you will need to enter it twice. If you want to change your password to a better one this is te place you will do it. While you are at it, enter your full name into the fields and choose how your name should appear on the posts that you write. Click on Update Profile button
18. Look for the Users on the tool bar on the left, click on it to expand its menu choices. Click on Add New and add a new user. Set this user’s role to “Administrator” as well. You may do the same for all the group members. Make sure you have a division of labor and do not perform the same maintenance functions at the same time. The second user name is an insurance against the main administrator ID and/or password corrupting and not allowing access to the site. In that case, you can use the “spare” admin credentials to login and repair the problems.
19. Congratulations, you now have a working WordPress installation
20. Login to Plesk again if you are not logged in. You need to change the permissions for the applications to use the folders so that you can upload images and other files and install various themes more conveniently.
21. On the domain home, choose “File Manager” and navigate to httpdocs folder where your site is installed in a subfolder called blog (or anything else you might have chosen.
22. When you see the folder where your WordPress installation is click to the lock icon on the right edge of that line to enter security settings. You will see a bunch of “users” that the system recognizes. Look for Plesk IIS User user and IWAM default user if it is there.
23. Click on “Advanced” to bring up the advanced attribute management screen. You will see a long list of attributes. Click on Plesk IIS User line on the top left group, then make sure all three “Files, Subfolders, This Folder” boxes are checked and then add check marks to all but the first and the last two options. See image for detail. DO NOT CLICK OK yet
24. Repeat above for IWAM Plesk default user if you see it.
25. Review your permission settings to save problems later on and revisiting this process. When everything looks fine, click OK to apply these permissions.

Now, applications like WordPress can create folders, add files to them, change them, etc. to maintain your site.

We will then tweak it to do more than the basic installation provides.