Time for a new series of tutorials on how to blog your church with WordPress. We’ll start at the beginning and take one step at a time. I’ll keep it brief but if you get stuck or if I’m going too fast – shout through the comments section at the bottom of this post. The emphasis will be on using WordPress to run your church website, though the first few steps will pretty generic.
1. You don’t need to install anything to get started
If you have never used WordPress before, the best place to start is to register and get an account at WordPress.com. Here you can be blogging with WordPress in seconds and you don’t have to install anything. With this free service you can have a play with the WordPress software and write your first post (We’ll talk about posts in the next tutorial).
For now register and choose a good username – the name of your church would be a good idea. Then login and write your first post.
Many churches are using this solution to run their site, though most do at least take the next small step…
2. Getting smarter – Using a domain name
If you use wordpress.com, the url for your blog will be http://yourchosenname.wordpress.com/. This is OK, but it is really easy to get your own domain name and point it at your wordpress.com blog.
If you don’t already have a domain name you can get one here.
Depending on the company you used to register your domain name you should be able to configure your domain to point at your wordpress.com account. This is usually called Web Forwarding. Enable forwarding of your domain to the url of your WordPress.com blog and everybody will think you were really smart..
3. Be Really Smart – Install WordPress on your domain
Of course there are some limitations to using WordPress.com. You can’t install additional plugins and themes and so in time you may want to install WordPress on your own hosting account. It isn’t actually all that hard either. It really does only take 5 minutes.
Many hosting companies now have an auto-install feature which means you don’t even have to do the install to run your own WordPress installation. Grab an account at BlueHost or EUKHOST both of which have an auto install WordPress option on their hosting packages.
But I do want to emphasise that you don’t need to host it yourself. Running with WordPress.com is the best way to start out, especially if your have never run your own domain before. You can at a later stage export all your blog posts and move them to your own installation (a possible subject for a future tutorial).
Where next?
Now you have WordPress in your hands, have a play and have fun – we’ll talk about posts and pages next. Back soon with the next instalment. If you can’t wait that long or need more info check out the official tutorials.
Happy blogging…
Hi Tim,
Great website! I am also a fan of open source software and on the verge of transferring my fledgling website on to the WordPress platform. The only thing that is holding me back from making the final move is that WordPress requires that when one needs to edit certain files I will need to CHMOD and change the file permission to 666.
Actually my search for a Christian perspective on 666 and internet protocols, especially WordPress protocols led me to your site.
What is your take on this?
Hi Tim,
Great website! I am also a fan of open source software and on the verge of transferring my fledgling website on to the WordPress platform. The only thing that is holding me back from making the final move is that WordPress requires that when one needs to edit certain files I will need to CHMOD and change the file permission to 666.
Actually my search for a Christian perspective on 666 and internet protocols, especially WordPress protocols led me to your site.
What is your take on this?
Is that a serious question? I get some crazy comments sometimes.
I have been visiting this site a lot lately, so i thought it is a good idea to show my appreciation with a comment.
Thanks,
Jim Mirkalami
PS: I am a single dad.
I have been visiting this site a lot lately, so i thought it is a good idea to show my appreciation with a comment.
Thanks,
Jim Mirkalami
PS: I am a single dad.
Thanks for the help. We have our webmaster looking into this right now.
[...] fact, what is really encouraging here is that we have people like LivingOS who are helping churches build-wordpress-powered-websites and the guidance and help Living OS provides for these churches are quite thorough and practical. [...]
[...] fact, what is really encouraging here is that we have people like LivingOS who are helping churches build-wordpress-powered-websites and the guidance and help Living OS provides for these churches are quite thorough and practical. [...]
[...] plugin is a great idea and a great use of technology. If you use WordPress as the backend for your church’s website, you should definitely check it out. If we’d change anything, we’d probably make entering the [...]
[...] plugin is a great idea and a great use of technology. If you use WordPress as the backend for your church’s website, you should definitely check it out. If we’d change anything, we’d probably make entering the [...]
[...] you find yourself in this position, I may be able to help! As suggested in this article at Livingos.com, I can utilize wordpress and set up a professional site for you! Your [...]
WordPress is a good content management system for blogging. I have some websites running wordpress. I am very impressed with wordpress.
[...] There’s also some good material over on Living OS including an article on Getting Started blogging your church with WordPress [...]
[...] There’s also some good material over on Living OS including an article on Getting Started blogging your church with WordPress [...]
Thank you! Our webmaster will look into it and it will sure be of help.
I was looking around at church sites and discovered a large multi-campus church in Seattle, WA USA using WordPress. It’s Mars Hill Church and you can find them on the web at http://www.marshillchurch.org. Not only is this site elegantly designed, it’s useable and full of well thought out, relevant content.
I was looking around at church sites and discovered a large multi-campus church in Seattle, WA USA using WordPress. It’s Mars Hill Church and you can find them on the web at http://www.marshillchurch.org. Not only is this site elegantly designed, it’s useable and full of well thought out, relevant content.
WordPress is the best for content management and SEO link building.
Thanks for this guide, this is something I have been considering for a while now – hopefully this guide is foolproof!
Thanks for this guide, this is something I have been considering for a while now – hopefully this guide is foolproof!
Here is a good one for your website or church: If you want one of those stylish countdown videos before church worship starts, here is a good quality one without a sountrack so you can just play your own music over it. You can find and download it over at http://www.summitlectern.com/promotions.html at zero cost.
Here is a good one for your website or church: If you want one of those stylish countdown videos before church worship starts, here is a good quality one without a sountrack so you can just play your own music over it. You can find and download it over at http://www.summitlectern.com/promotions.html at zero cost.
Been looking high and low for this sort of help and tutorial, thanks very much I can finally get started on it.
That is a great article thanks for your share. I will add you to my RSS so I can see more of yuor articles. I started with the free site but moved over to hosting my own just because I have so many plugins, and a great new theme…
That is a great article thanks for your share. I will add you to my RSS so I can see more of yuor articles. I started with the free site but moved over to hosting my own just because I have so many plugins, and a great new theme…
@rogah I’m not quite sure about that…
[...] Living Open Source » Blogging Your Church with WordPress:– Getting … – A series of tutorials on how to run your church web site with WordPress. [...]
[...] Living Open Source » Blogging Your Church with WordPress:– Getting … – A series of tutorials on how to run your church web site with WordPress. [...]