6 Easy steps to install WordPress on Dreamhost

This is an easy step-by-step tutorial on how to install WordPress on Dreamhost. I have compiled the entire process into six easy steps.

1. Login to your Dreamhost control panel using your user name and password. Click on Free Website software.
   
   
2. You will see three options for installing/upgrading/removing software in dreamhost. The first option is the “Easy Mode” which doesn’t provide access to the files for installation and you may not be able  the themes/plugins/languages etc. So i would recommend the second option.  Click on “Install new website software - Advanced mode”.
   
3. There are number of softwares like WordPress,Gallery, ZendCart, Joomla, phpbb, etc. Click on the WordPress option which is the default one.
   
4. Select the domain you want to install wordpress (in my case http://www.freetipsandtricks.com). If you want the database to be created automatically, left the checkbox unchanged and click on the Install button. But if you want to create your own database name, user and password, uncheck the second option. Enter the details in respective fields and click “ Install it for me now!” button.
   
5. Make sure to delete pages (if you have uploaded,any) from the home directory before you start the installation. It will take less than ten minutes for the installation and after that you will receive a confirmation email with steps to follow. Here is what i received.


6. Click on the first link and follow this simple screenshots to complete the wordpress installation. Enter the Blog title and Email address. Make sure you check the box which says “Allow my blog to appear in search engines”. Cross check your Email address and click on Install WordPress.

You can also visit http://wordpress.tv/2009/02/09/one-click-self-installation-of-wordpress-with-dreamhost/ for video tutorial.

How to reduce spam comments on WordPress blog

For beginners like me, it is often difficult to differentiate between genuine blog comment and spam comment. I  receive 15 to 25 new comments each day most of which are spams and it is already difficult for me to manage them. So I googled over this issue and found some very useful solutions which i am going to share with you.

Akismet (Automatic Kismet) plugin : This plugin comes with every WordPress installation and is a trusted plugin for filtering spams from genuine comments. It checks each and every comments,  pingbacks and trackbacks submitted in your blog. In order to activate it, you need an API key, which you can get for free  by simply signing in Akismet.

Re-CAPTCHAplugin: This is another effective method to reduce spam but it might reduce the number of your regular comments because most people find it annoying to enter CAPTCHA for posting comments in a blog. The idea behind Re-CAPTCHAis to display an image with distorted words and ask users to type the word before submitting the comment. This way, spam bots will be prevented to post their comments in your blog.

Mollom: This is one of the largest website spam filtering system which drastically reduces the burden of blog moderation. You can install the Mollom WordPress plugin for free and need to create an account and activate the plugin. Molllom uses Akismet-type spam filtering technique combined with CAPTCHA to check spam comments.

Close comments on older posts: Older posts that receive a good traffic are often the best targets for spammers, so closing comments on older posts  is a good strategy to fight spam comments . Just go to Settings -> Discussions. Click on the “Automatically close comments on article older than” check-box and enter the number of days. The disadvantage of this method is that your post might miss some useful comments over long time.

Editing .htaccess file: If you find some IP addresses are constantly sending spam comments in your blog posts, you can block those IPs by editing the .htaccess file. First of all, download the .htaccess file from the root directory of your web server, edit the file by adding the list of black-listed IPs as deny from xx.xxx.xxx.xxx and upload it. <Limit GET POST>
order allow,deny
deny from xx.xxx.xxx.xxx
allow from all
</Limit>

 
It is highly recommended to backup your .htaccess file before editing. Thanks shoutmeloud for this tip.

Have a spam free blog :)