Going to Wordpress... but want to keep current website live...how?

futureal33

futureal33

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Hello,

I am wondering if anyone could give me any simple help with a website related issue.

Firstly, I know naff all, nothing, zilch about WordPress.

I have been a Zenfolio user for 3-4 years and my only experience of building a website is Zenfolio based. Nothing else ever.

I want to build a Wordpress website, but I dont want my current website to go down.

In simple terms, could someone help me or give me a step by step on what I need to do, to "have a play" with making a wordpress site (offline or online) but not touching my existing website.

Would I need a new domain, hosting?

Thank you in advance
 
you can setup a sub folder on your hosting space (same place as your live site) and call it test/new or similar then install wordpress into that.
 
You can do what I did with my husband's website - I installed wordpress into a 'beta' folder and build the site up in there. Then when it was time to switch off the old, after much googling and research and a stiff drink, I moved the whole site into the main directory, after moving out the old website files. It was actually quite easy to do.

You'll need to get yourself familiar with using an FTP client though... as working in a sub folder and not the main directory means you have to do everything manually.

That's what I did anyway...
 
do you want to keep the old site when you are finished?

If no...just develop your site on your host using a temporary sub domain, when the sites ready to launch you can change the dns settings for your domain name to point to the new site and delete the old one.

If yes...get a new domain name or a subdomain of the existing site and develop a new site.

If you want to develop locally install xampp or similar for an easy route but tbh it's easier just to develop in place with wordpress.
 
Ah, @whitey and I must have been typing at the same time...
 
if you're currently zenfolio i doubt you'll be able to go the other recommended routes of developing on the existing site as as far as I know zenfolio is a closed platform only allowing you to develop through their tools. Also developing in a temporary folder can cause problems with the wordpress databases if you later move contenet, it's not too hard to fix but if you're not used to working with databases adds extra complexity. finding a new host and develop it seperately in place is the simplest way as long as you own the domain and not zenfolio you can just change the dns to point to the other site when it's ready.
 
just one quick note about wordpress, as there are so many wordpress sites they are the target of attacks from bots and hackers.
I have a couple of v.small sites that I assumed no one would bother with, well they have. So I would recommend that you beef up security immediately by -

Enable two factor sign on or if not at least Google recaptcha
Do not use "admin" as the admin account
change the login link address
Limit the number of login attemps
Ban users who hit too many 404 errors

There are many add-ons that can help and I use:
https://ithemes.com/security/
https://www.google.com/recaptcha/intro/index.html
Not to put you off, just to make you aware, the wordpress platform is good but the built in security less so.
 
Security-wise, Wordfence Security plug-in seems to do the job when it comes to securing WordPress itself.
Of course, the whole hosting environment needs to be secured - and if you are not hosting it yourself, there's nothing you can do about that other than use strong passwords for accessing the control panel etc.

Presumably, you have a custom domain name already for your Zenfolio site? If so, then you could host your new site temporarily with on a sub domain, for example:

"myfotos.sometld" for zenfolio
"wordpress.myfotos.sometld" for your development site.

Then you will need to visit your 'registrar' - the company you bought the domain from, and then add the DNS A (and AAAA records) for your subdomain. These will point to the IP address of your WordPress server.

To be honest, if none of this makes any sense then you either need to start educating yourself first, or better yet hire someone who can help get you started.
 
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