OK lets build some sites. What we are going to do in this segment is build a WordPress content site with Build A Niche Store on the back end. If you do not have a eBay ePN account you should only apply if you have a site up and running with content on it. ePN is being very selective about who is getting accounts now. You will go under a manual review. When ePN moved from CJ they simply approved everyone switching over. About 2 months after is when they started expiring accounts. The folks who where expired where even using black hat methods for cookie stuffing or had very thin sites with little or no content AKA thin affiliate site. So head on over to ePN and apply. Make sure you fill the application out completely. Don’t worry if you are denied. There are 1000′s of ways to monetize your site.

Staying with the Tea Pot theme I went and purchased “theantiqueteapot-dot-com”. What we are going to do is point the DNS from our domain manager to our Hostgator server. Depending on what account you purchased the method of doing this changes a little but not much. I use re-seller and dedicated server accounts. For the purpose of this post I am going to install the new site on a reseller account.

The first thing you do to point your DNS Name servers were you want dns to go onto your Hostgator server/account. Click on new new account in Webhost Manager. Enter all the information for your new site and click go. Hostgator will generate a set of DNS Nameserver address’s. It will look something like NS700.billssites.com & NS701.billssites.com. Open a new window with your Godaddy account and go to domain control panel of Godaddy, check the tick for the domain name then click on name servers above. A window will open with the Godaddy default nameservers there. Replace the 2 nameservers with the ones you just generated in HG. Click OK. Your site is now pointing to your Hostgator Server. Be aware that the dns can take 24 hours to propagate across the Internet.

What we just did was install Control Panel to the antiqueteapot.com. Cpanel is what we use to build our site. So the next thing is to open another window and enter yoursite.com/cpanel and enter the user name and password you created when creating your new site account.

 Note: If your are using a babycroc account think carefully if this site is what you want to be your MAIN SITE. A Babycroc uses a main site and then addon domains there after. Once you have your main site set up it is your PUBLIC_HTML or THE ROOT of your sites. It is very difficult to move the main domain once it is set up. I recommend re-read this post.

Once you are in your Cpanel for your site we want to configure WordPress on the root of our domain. The great thing about hostgator is that they make this very simple by using Fantastico. Depending on which Cpanel you have Fantastico could be on the top or on the bttom of the cpanel page. Click on Fantastico. A new page will open with all the scripts that come with Fantastico. On the left you will see WordPress. Click on it. The WordPress installation will open. Click on New Installation.

This is were things can get a little tricky. Since we want Word press on the root of our site we are going to leave Install in directory Blank. This installs our site on the root and not a sub folder. Why do we do this? That’s a whole other post, but it’s mostly for SEO. Next create the Admin Access Data, (write it down) Believe me write down your info. After you have a 100+ sites you will be glad you did.

Pick A Admin Nickname and change the email to your main email. Default email will go to your server based email and we don’t want that now. Also change “Site Name” & “Description” these two fields are what shows on the top of your pages and need to be SEO Friendly as the search engines see this first. Once everything is the way you want it click install. Another window will open, Click Finish Installation. Another window will open asking you if you want your information sent to you via email. I always fill this in with my main email. Again after you have 100′s of sites this info will be forgotten and when you clear you cookies WP doesn’t remember your user name and PW.

You now have WordPress installed on the root of your domain. Also when you installed WordPress HG automaticly created a database for the site. Now go to yoursite.com/wp-admin and sign in using the info you entered during set up. You are now in the default theme of wordpress. STOP !

You can leave your  WP Site in default, but we want to build a site that is informative and authoritative. For the purpose of this tutorial I am going to use the theme that this site uses. WordPress Premium , but wait before you go any further you need to make sure you stay organized. Create a folder in My Documents called “WordPress” then create two more sub folders in your wordpress folder called “Themes”, and one called “Plugins”. Go to WP Premium and download the zip file for the theme to your theme folder. Unzip the folder in your theme folder so you have two file. One zipped and one unzipped. You can get winzip on cnet.com

Next you need to decide how you want to move files from your computer to your server. I use a FTP (file Transfer Protocal) or you can use the file manager in your Cpanel. I use FTP because that how I learned, but if you feel comfortable using file manager go for it.  I use CuteFTP which cost $ so I recommend Filezilla which is a free download on cnet.

Once you have Filezilla installed open it on another screen or window. I don’t use filezilla but all FTP Clients are basically the same. Once the application is open you will see the files on your CPU on the left and on the right is your website files. You need to connect your website to your server using FTP. So you need to configure your FTP by entering you Cpanel information. Your FTP will ask for your site address, Sign in info. Once you enter the info click connect. If you did everything correct your site files will appear on the right side of the screen. You should see all the files HG installs plus PUBLIC_HTML. PUBLIC_HTML is the root of your site. Double click on it and you should see all your WordPress files. Be very careful NOT to double click any files on the left !. This initiates a upload of the file you clicked on and can make a huge mess. If you need to see files in a folder, RIGHT CLICK then click open.

At this point I’m going suggest you stop and decide if you want BANS on the backend of your site. Here is a example of what I’m talking about. Again for SEO purposes I will not put a direct link here because my WP/BANS sites are on this server and interlinking on the same server is bad. So type in lgdareupdates-dot-com in your tool bar to see a WP/Bans integration. If you would like to build a site like the example it’s going to cost the price of BANS and you will need Marks WP-Premium / BANS integration theme. So you can leave your site the way it is or take it to the next step and install WP/BANS. You need to buy BANS 1st then  Click here to view more details on integration. Mark provides detailed instruction for installation with all his themes

If you want to install BANS on the back of your site open your FTP Client and click on a open space on the right side of your FTP. This makes that side operational. Go to the tool bar and click “Make New Folder”. Name the folder/file Store or Shop. This is were your Build A Niche Store Files will go. If you want to skip adding a store to your site and just use the Premium theme open your Public_html and then double click on “Themes”. Then locate the theme on your CPU (left side) and drag and drop or highlight and click upload the theme into WP-Themes folder on the right. Once your theme is uploaded go to WP-admin and go to themes and activate your theme. Your done for the WordPress part of the tutorial. Mark Hanson has complete installation instructions for WP-Bans Integration when you purchase the themes. Please remember these folks like Mark Hanson spent 100′s of hours making BANS work with WordPress. It is not something that comes out of the box. If you have never done a install have patience. I have been building sites for years now and still have trouble with some installs. Take your time and if you are using BANS go to the Build A Niche Store Forum (Private). Wait to ask any questions on the BANS Forum. It’s a huge data base of information. Users get a little peeved when new users don’t do research before asking questions. It looks like your taking shortcuts by riding the backs of folks that have 1000′s of hours building and learning.

The next post will be essential plug ins and configurations to make your site authoritative and drive traffic to your store.