How to Create a Website Password Protected with WordPress
Have you ever shopped online and forgotten your password? Worried that your personal details were compromised? You’re not alone. We’ve all been there. Whether it’s for Amazon or Ebay, we’ve all been frustrated by forgetting our login details and having to start again from the beginning. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to create a website password protected with wordpress? You can do this! In this article, we’ll teach you exactly how to create a password protected website using wordpress.
Pick A Suitable Domain Name
It’s always good practice to ensure that your website’s name reflects the content and tone of the site. If you name your site something light and happy, then you’ll likely have a different mindset and approach to your content than if you’d named it something dark and sinister. As a general rule, it’s best to choose a name that isn’t already in use, because you don’t want to buy the wrong domain name and end up with a crappy looking site. On the following list, you’ll find some of the most popular and simplest to remember website names to help you choose the perfect one:
- Wedding Planner
- Shopping Blog
- Real Estate Blog
- Blog for Lawyers
Once you’ve chosen the perfect domain name, it’s time to move on to the next step.
Install WordPress
WordPress is the most popular blogging platform online, which means there’s tons of great documentation, tutorials, and examples of how to use it. In this case, we’ll be using the free version because we don’t need anything more than the basics (installation and a blog post or two). To install WordPress, navigate your browser to http://wordpress.org/ and click the green Install WordPress button. Once the installer has downloaded and installed WordPress on your computer, it’ll provide you with a WordPress login email address (usually wordpress@yourdomain.com) and a password.
Create Your First Blog Post
Your WordPress login email address will be the same as your email address from your domain registrar (usually hyphenated-names.com, godady.com, or name.com). To create your first blog post, log in to WordPress and click the blue Create New post button. A text editor will open up, prompting you to enter a title for your post and to write the content. Since this is a tutorial on creating a password protected website, we’ll use the wedding planning theme as our example. Click the button that’ll submit your post to the server and your blog will be live! You can find the wedding planning theme here: http://wordpress.org/themes/wedding-planner/.
Activate Your Blog’s Password Protection
To activate your blog’s password protection, log in to WordPress and click the blue ‘Activate’ button at the top of the General Settings panel. This will redirect you to a page where you can enter a new password for your blog. Make sure you use a strong password (at least 8 characters) and enter it twice so you can verify you typed it in correctly. Once you’ve verified the new password, click the Activate button again.
Congratulations! Your blog is now password protected. You can browse through your blog’s pages and posts without having to remember a password. However, if you want to post something new, you’ll have to log in to WordPress and enter the correct password each time to post new content.
Secure Your WordPress Installation
Now that your blog is password protected, it’s a good idea to secure your WordPress installation. The most basic way to do this is by running an antivirus scan on your PC or Mac. Most antivirus scanners can find and remove malware (malicious software) and hackers from your computer, protecting your installation from any threats. Keeping your PC or Mac updated with the latest version of antivirus software is also an important aspect of securing your WordPress installation. If you don’t have time to keep your system secure, then hire a professional to do it for you. Antivirus software isn’t perfect, so you shouldn’t count on it to keep your system secure. A properly configured and updated antivirus program can, however, help to prevent the majority of malware-related threats. If you want to keep your blog secure, then make sure you have some sort of security measure in place (e.g., antivirus software, firewall, etc.).
Customize Your Blog’s Appearance
The look and feel of your blog can be customized to fit the theme you’ve chosen. To do this, navigate to Settings > Theme Options in WordPress. From here, you can change the header, create different sidebar options, and change the text color of your blog posts. To see all the different headers and sidebars available in the theme, click the Try Out button next to any of the theme options. You can also download and install the custom theme I’ve created for this tutorial from the name_of_your_blog.com. To create a password protected blog, log in to WordPress and click the blue Create New button to start a new post. Once you’ve posted your blog article, you can navigate back to Settings > Theme Options to change the appearance of your blog.
The above steps will walk you through the process of creating a password protected WordPress blog. With just a few clicks of the mouse, you can have a fully functional, brand-new blog that you can customize to your liking. Don’t forget: if you forget your password, it’s not hard to recover it. You can use the email address you used to register the domain to reset your password. Once you’ve done that, you can install WordPress again and create a new blog post to write down your new password. Easy, right?