Below is the 5 things usually I do when I install a fresh WordPress platform.

1. Change the Default Password

When you WordPress installation precess completed, it will generate a random password and give it to you as a default password. Go to http://myblog.com/wp-login.php and use the username and password to log in into your admin panel for the first time. To change this password you can go to Users > Your Profile and scroll down until you see the password textbox. Enter your new password and input it again in the text below before you hit the Update Profile button.

2. Change the Default Username

The default username for a fresh installed WordPress is admin. During installation process WordPress never ask you for your desire username. For security reason you should change the default username. My previous post on How to Change Your Default WordPress Username will guide you to change the username to something that unique.

3. Edit Permalinks

A URL like http://myblog.com/?p=12 is poor for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). But the default WordPress articles URL is something like that. So apply a better SEO for your blog by changing the permalinks so it display something like http://myblog.com/my-first-post/

To change it, go to Setting > Permalinks. Under Common settings click the radio button infront of Custom Structure. Then enter %postname%/ in the textbox. Hit the Save Changes button to apply the change. If your .htaccess is not writable, you have to edit the file manually and copy and paste the text inside the textbox below the Save Changes button. If you are using Nginx web server follow the instruction on my previous post WordPress Permalinks on Nginx. It will guide you to configure Nginx, so that you can use SEO friendly URL on WordPress.

4. Change Theme

You can find free theme at Free Theme WordPress or you search using Google or Yahoo to find your favorite theme. But if you have a knowledge of HTML, CSS, PHP and any image and graphic manipulation software you can designed your own theme. Upload it to wp-content > themes. If you do not know where is wp-content, you can find it on the root of your WordPress installation folder. Now, activate it via Appearance > Themes.

5. Create Your First Post

Now you have your blog up and running. Its time to create your first post. Go to Post > Add New. For your first post you can introduce yourself to you reader and tell them a little bit about yourself and what you are going the share in your blog. First post is really important because its give the reader the first impression about yourself. Once you completed writing read your post, read it one more time to check if any spelling or grammar error. When you satisfied you can publish it by pressing the Publish button. But don’t forget to add category and tags for the post.

The next things to do is tell your friends, family and the world about your blog. Keep posting, enjoy your blog and watch your blog grow.

Recommended Reading

WordPress For Dummies

WordPress Entrepreneur: How To Setup, Customize & Use A WordPress Website

if ($host = 'www.domain.com') {
    rewrite ^/(.*)$ http://domain.com/$1 permanent;
	}

Make sure you change domain.com with your own domain name and save the configuration file before you restart nginx.

Method 2
As usual, open nginx.conf and add the following configuration to the file. Don’t forget to change domain.com with your own domain.

server {
    server_name  www.domain.com;
    rewrite ^(.*) http://domain.com$1 permanent;
}

server {
    server_name  domain.com;
    Put all other web server configuration here
}

To make the change take effect you have to save the configuration file and restart nginx. Now when visitor type www.domain.com on their browser address bar it will redirect to domain.com.

Both method are simple and easy. Adding only a few lines and wah la, the jobs is done.

<?php system("uptime"); ?>

Now save the file as uptime.php and then upload the file to your server root directory. Once uploaded, open your internet browser and point it to the uptime.php by typing http://yourdomain.com/uptime.php. Change yourdomain.com with your own domain name. This script call the unix system command ‘uptime’ and display the result in html format so that it can be display on your internet browser. Below is the example result display by the script.

22:30:25 up 3 days, 17:02,  1 user,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

The first column is the current time of the server (22:23:25), the server uptime is display on the second column (3 days 17 hours and 2 second) and currently the server has 1 user online, whereas the last column display the current load of the server.

Please note that this script is only work on unix compatible operating system only.

First open  your lighttpd.conf using your favorite text editor. Normally I use nano and the following command will open my lighttpd.conf.

nano /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf 

Now add the following configuration to your lighttpd.conf, but remember to change 192.168.1.2 with your IP address.

$HTTP["remoteip"] !~ "192.168.1.2" {
	$HTTP["url"] =~ "^/wp-admin/" {
	url.access-deny =("")
	}
	}

Save your lighttpd.conf and exit the text editor. The change will not take effect until your reboot lighttpd.

/etc/init.d/lighttpd restart

Once Lighttpd completely restart, you are the only person can access the ‘wp-admin’ area. If other person with different ip address try to access it Lighttpd will return 403 error. This will help to reduce the risk of your WordPress blog from brute force attack run by some script kiddies.

If you have a root access to your webhosting account. Initiate a SSH session. Then connect to your MySQL server by using the following command:

mysql -u username -p

Change username with your MySQL username. It will prompt for your password. Once connected you need to connect to your database. The following command will does the jobs.

use database;

Change database with your WordPress database name. Finally you can change the default username with the MySQL query below.

update `database`.`wp_users` set `user_login` = 'newusername' where `wp_users`.`ID` = 1 limit 1;

You should change database with your WordPress database name and newusername with you desire new username for your WordPress blog.

Type quit to disconnect from your MySQL server.

But if you do not have a root access to your account you can still change the username by using phpMyAdmin. Normally share hosting account do not have a root access. But the database is accessible by using phpMyAdmin. You can access it from your cPanel.

First select your WordPress database its located in the left side.

Then select the table name wp_users.

Now edit the table by clicking the icon that looks like pencil. You will see a screen something like below.

To change the username find a field name user_login. You can find it below the ID field or the second field from the top. The default value is admin. So change it to any name that is unique and you can remember very well. But do not forget to click the button Go to save the change. Congratulation, you just change the default WordPress username. And you can login using your new username.