Backing up your blog.

Download all your wordpress files from your sites root directory to somewhere safe on your local computer.

Easiest way to do this is using a FTP manager. If you don’t have one, Google filezilla, it works well and its free.

Backup your database.

 Go into cpanel and click on mysql databases then at the bottom of the page click on phpmyadmin

 Phpmyadmin should now load in a new window, near the top left of the screen you should see your database name with a number in brackets after it. Something like myblog_seoblog (13) click on that and wait for your database tables to load in the main screen.

Once that loads click on export at the top of the screen, when the next screen loads you want to select the box at the bottom left save file as and then click on go to the right (see pic below)

Once you have clicked on go you will be prompted to save the file, save this on your computer somewhere near the site files that you have recently downloaded. when you click save the file will be downloaded and should look something like myblog_seoblog.sql

That’s the backing up part complete.

Next, set up your new hosting account. (something similar to below)

+===================================+

  | New Account Info |

  +===================================+

  | Domain: yourdomain.com

  | Ip: 123.12.123.123 (n)

  | HasCgi: y

  | UserName: user123

  | PassWord: password123

  | CpanelMod: x

  | HomeRoot: /home

  | Quota: 10000 Meg

  | NameServer1: ns1.nameserver.com

  | NameServer2: ns2.nameserver.com

  | NameServer3:

  | NameServer4:

  | Contact Email:

  | Package: hosting 4

+===================================+

We will use the details above as an example of how to upload your files and database to your new host BEFORE changing the nameserver to avoid any downtime.

Open your ftp program and create a new ftp site connection. something like below, this will vary depending on the FTP client but you will have similar options.

Label: this can be anything you like, usually your site name will do.

Host address: this must be the IP address of the new hosting account, for the example we would enter 123.12.123.123 you would enter your IP details

Username: we would enter user123 you would enter your username

Password we would enter password123 you would enter your password

Now click connect, to connect to your new hosting account.

Uploading your blog

Now you have connected to your new hosting account, navigate to the www folder and upload the whole of your site files that you previously backed up.

Once that is done you need to create a new database and import your wordpress tables and information.

Log into you new hosting accounts cpanel via the IP address. some like this: http://123.12.123.123/cpanel and when prompted enter your username and password.

Now you are into cpanel click on mysql databases and create a new database, create a new username and password and add user to database. (see below)

Once you have completed those step its time to import your wordpress data into the new database, click on phpmyadmin at the bottom of the screen.

What you have to do now is basically the opposite of what you did to backup the database.

Click on your new database name at the top left of the screen, then click on import near the top of the screen, then browse and locate your backed up database and click on go at the bottom of the screen.

Once you click on go you will need to wait, this can be anything from a few seconds to a few minutes depending on the size of your blog.

When its complete you will see something like xxx amount of queries completed. This means your database has been imported completely.

Only two more steps left.

Connect your wordpress blog to the database, you do this by editing a file called wp-config.php in your sites root directory. The first part of the file should look something like this:

// ** MySQL settings ** //

  define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘newdbusername‘); // The name of the database

  define(‘DB_USER’, ‘newdbusername‘); // Your MySQL username

  define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘newpassword‘); // …and password

  define(‘DB_HOST’, ‘localhost’); // 99% chance you won’t need to change this value

  define(‘DB_CHARSET’, ‘utf8′);

define(‘DB_COLLATE’, ”);

The 3 parts you need to change are in bold above, replace these with the details you gave when setting up the new database in cpanel.

Once you have done that all you need to do is change the nameservers, go to your domain registrar, and change the nameservers there, giving the new details you got from your new hosting account. Once the nameservers have resolved your wordpress blog should be running on your new hosting account without any downtime.

It can take a few minutes or a few hours for your nameserver to change completely, a good way to check is by opening a dos prompt on your computer and ping your domain, type ping www.yourdomain.com you should get a reply from your new IP address if the nameservers have resolved.

That’s it your all done, if you want a recommendation for a hosting company, i can recommend hostgator.