I am continuing to work on 50 Things to Do to start a blog from scratch. I added some information to the About page and then added a new page called Contact. On the Contact page I installed the first plugin for this site, called WP-Contact Form.

Installing a Plugin

The WP-Contact form was fairly simple to install and works nicely on a Contact page. I located the plugin at a blog called The Marketing Technology Blog. Click on that link I just made and you will go to the page in The Marketing Technology Blog where you can download the plugin. Scroll down the page a little until you see this:

Click on the download link and save the file to your computer. This is very similar to what we did when we downloaded the WordPress theme in the 50 Things to Do to Start a Blog From Scratch - Part 2 post. If you need a quick review on downloading a file go back and review that post.

I use GoodNewsDomains.com to host my blog so the following steps assume that you do as well. If you use a different host your process will be different but this should still help. Go to GoodNewsDomains.com. Once you are there run your mouse over the Web Hosting button and the drop down menu will appear. Click on the My Hosting Accounts option.

At the Login screen type in your login information and press Secure Login.

You will see a screen with your blog site listed. Press the Open button.

At the Hosting Control Center screen look down on the left side of the page and select the Content option.

At the Content page you want to select the File Manager Icon at the right side of the screen.

This will take you to the File Manager screen. At the left hand side of the screen you will see the following options:

Press the + sign next to the wp-content option and you will get the following options:

Put your mouse on the plugins folder icon and click on it. You will see the plugins directory load up.

Click on the Upload Icon in the toolbar and you will see the browse screen.

Navigate to the WP Contact Form you downloaded and click OK. The zipped file will then show up in the Plugin directory.

Click on the box to the left of the wp-contact-form zip file and then click on the Unarchive Icon in the toolbar. Click Ok when the destination screen pops up and your wp-contactform file will be installed.

Login to your blog and at the WordPress dashboard go to Plugins. You will see the WP-Contact form there. Click on the Activate button. The plugin will be highlighted.

Click on the Options button on the dashboard. Then click on the Contact Form button.

Fill in the e-mail address where you want the contact information sent. You can change the security question and response if you want. Click on Update Information and your plugin installation is complete.

Go to the WordPress dashboard again and click on the Write and then the Write Pages button.

In the Write Page title enter Contact. In the page content field type in something like “Fill in the form below if you would like to contact me”. Underneath that type in

(If I type in the above code in this post it wants to activate the plugin so that is why it looks funny. You are typing in 2 percent signs,wpcontactform,and 2 more percent signs).

Click on publish. Go to the Contact page you just created and you should see this form:

Send yourself a contact to make sure it works. It could take a few minutes to get the contact information you sent so don’t panic if it doesn’t show up right away.

Congratulations! You are a step closer to starting a blog from scratch.