FTP ~ How to FTP Files
Dec 28
This is the next in the series of wordpress tutorials. You can find all the tutorials, in order, under the “How to Build a Niche Blog” heading on the articles page.
As the new year approaches I find myself thinking, planning and plotting for next year. You’re responses to the survey were immeasurably helpful and I thank you so much for taking the time to answer. From your responses I can see there are a lot of things that you’d like me to cover, and a lot of things I would love to talk about besides just tutorials. I’ve decided I will keep the tutorial posts coming on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I will do other posts on other days of the week. I am thinking I will be writing more FAQ type posts ~ you guys had a LOT of questions ~ and I’d love to answer them. I will also be writing more posts on staying/getting organized and internet marketing mindset ~ how to be successful in Internet marketing. All of which are topics I have wanted to write more about, but wasn’t sure if you all wanted to hear about it. Now I’m quite certain you do.
I will continue to send emails when each blog post is up ~ I will start adding a little notifier to the end of the subject line ~ like [wp tutorial] [mindset] or something like that so you will know what they are about before you open the email. Once I decide on the notifier I will keep it the same every time so you can use them to create rules in your email to move them wherever you want them to go. 
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season ~ no matter what you celebrate. It’s almost a new year ~ that’s my absolute favorite time of year. While I *know* each day brings me a brand new beginning and a new opportunity there’s just something full of hope and promise about a new year! This is going to be a fantastic year… for all of us. I can just feel it. So let’s get started.
FTP – How to FTP Files
I just have to say these technical posts are my least favorite to write. I’ll tell you why. Because when I learned how to do all this stuff I just fumbled my way through it. I tried a bunch of different things until something finally worked, and now it’s difficult to reverse engineer it all from the beginning to tell you exactly how to do it. With that said ~ I’ll do my best, and if you have trouble your hosting company may be able to help you better than I with the specifics.
What is FTP?
FTP stands for file transfer protocol. In English that means it’s a way to move something from your computer to your hosting account so you can use it on your website.
You can FTP just about anything to your hosting, themes, plugins, opt in pages, entire websites (if you’re making html sites) and so much more. Before you panic, we’re really only going to use FTP (at least for now) in case of wordpress failure.
WordPress has made it super easy to get your plugins and themes uploaded and installed now ~ so you don’t even need to use FTP, unless you get some weird error message. If you get an error message when trying to install something throug your wordpress dashboard, well then, you’re going to have to resort to old school FTP.
Here we go.
To FTP you are going to need an FTP client ~ or a program that will do the work for you. There are many many different FTP clients out there. I use one, and one only. I have no experience with any others, so I’m going to show you what I know. If you are using something else and it’s working for you ~ then by all means, just keep right on trucking. If you’ve never done FTP, then come on with me.
FireFTP
The ftp client I use is FireFTP. It is an addon for Firefox, and is super easy to use and really easy to install. If you’re not using firefox you can try Filezilla ~ it will work on any browser and multiple operating systems. The process will most likely be almost identical.
1. Download fireftp. You can download it here. You may get a message from your browser that it wouldn’t allow it to install on your computer. Just hit the “allow” button on the right hand side to bypass that and allow it to install.
2. Install FireFTP. You will get a pop up window asking if you want to install fireftp. Hit yes, and it will do all the work.
3. continue to follow instructions as it installs.
Once you have Fireftp installed on your computer it will hang out in the tools link at the top of your screen.
Click the tools link and then you will get a drop down menu. FireFTP will be one of the options. When you click it it will open in a new window.
When FireFTP opens you will see a bunch of stuff that looks pretty confusing ~ but it’s pretty easy once you know what it’s showing you.
On the left hand side is everything that is on YOUR computer. You can scan all around in your folders and directories, on your desk top and in your hard drive to find whatever it is you’re looking for.
On the right hand side is your hosting account. (you can’t see it right yet because we aren’t connected yet). Here is where you will see all the directories for all your sites. You can manevuer through all of them as well to upload files to wherever it is you want them.
Let’s sign in.
You will need the ftp address you received in your welcome email from your hosting company. You are going to need this address to access your hosting account via FTP. It will be different depending on what hosting company you are using so I can’t just tell you what it’s going to be. 
To get started you will have to set up an account. You can do this by clicking the drop down menu button on the top left hand side.
When you click that you will get some options ~ one of which is to “create an account”. This is what you want to do.
You will get a pop up box you need to fill in to create your account.
Account name: choose something that you will know which account this is. You can use your hosting company name or whatever. This just lets you know what account you are accessing from the drop down menu.
Category: you can leave this blank.
Host: this is the ftp address you were given in your email. It will probably be something like ftp.yoururl.com
ID ~ this is the login information you need to log in to your HOSTING account. This is what you use to log into your cpanel. Just put in your login and your password.
Save ~ click ok when you’re done to save your settings.
Now lets’ log in.
Logging in is as simple as clicking the “connect” button.
When you click the connect button the FTP client will sync up with your hosting account and you will be able to see all your files on your hosting account.
These files are set up just like they are on your hosting account, they just appear right here for you.
You will find all your wordpress sites under “public html”.
You will need to click on the public html folder to get to your sites and the directories that go along with them.
Let’s FTP something!
While you could easily upload zipped files through your worpdress dashboard you will have to unzip the files before you can FTP them. If you FTP them while they are zipped they will not work. Go to wherever you keep your plugins/themes (whatever it is you want to upload via ftp) and make sure you have unzipped them. If you don’t have an unzipper program you can download winzip for free. Unzipping is another one of those technical things I just stumbled onto how it worked so I can’t exactly explain it to you ~ in fact, I don’t even know where I got my unzip program or how it got there. All I know is when I right click on a zipped file there’s an option to unzip ~ so sorry, not much help there.
(See you don’t have to know everything about everything to make money online you just have to know how to make it work.)
Once you’re files are unzipped you can go to your FTP client, connect to your hosting account and then move the files over via FTP. Let’s take a look at how that works.
Because I needed to use the whole screen to show you the FTP process I can’t fit it on this page. Click here to watch the how to FTP video.
For the non video folks:
1. Go to the folder where you are keeping the file you want to move to your hosting.
2. Click the file (one click to highlight) the file you want to transfer. Make sure you are on the deepest folder you can get to without seeing the actual files. (sometimes there is a folder in a folder, and if you don’t get to the bottom folder your file won’t work)
3. Once your file is highlighted click public html on the server side. Find the site you want to put your file in. Click on the site folder to open it up and see the rest of the directories for the site.
4. If uploading themes/plugins/something for wordpress click the wp-content folder to get to the place you want to upload the file to.
5. Choose the right folder for what you’re uploading. If it’s a plugin, click the plugin folder ~ if it’s a theme, click the theme folder.
6. Click the file you want to upload and then click the green arrow pointing toward the server side. This will move the file to the folder in your hosting account.
7. Viola. You’ve FTPd a file.
Once you have uploaded the file to wordpress you will still need to go into your dashboard and activate it or choose it. If it’s a plugin you’ll have to go to the plugin area and activate the plugin. If it’s a theme you’ll have to go to the theme area and choose it as the theme you want to show up.
You can FTP lots of things, but like I said, if you’re doing wordpress sites you probably won’t have to do much FTPing since they’ve made it so easy to do it from the dashboard.
If you have FTP questions you’re welcome to ask and I’ll see if I can help you. If you are seriously stuck it might be worth grabbing a 30 minute coaching session and I can walk you through it on skype or in a video conference or something.
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I love your blogs Jackie. I am fairly new at understanding computers and at 43, I dont pick things up as easily as I used to but I find you write so well and its easy to understand.
Thanks Jackie that right click trick worked a treat for me.
I now have my header image in place at last
Lakshmi.
Lakshmi´s last blog ..Everyday Bliss For Busy Women – My Next Read
I have no idea how to do it on a mac. I would right click on the file and then click rename and rename it the same as the other. You can also rename it on your desktop and reFTP it ~ you can delete the one there already or just leave it, doesn’t really matter. It won’t be seen because it’s not named correctly.
You can also go into your cpanel and find the image, click on it and then click rename from within cpanel.
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I moved an image by FTP before I renamed it.
Can I delete it with FTP?
Or can I rename it with FTP?
I can rename the file on my computer & FTP it again but then how to get rid of the 1st image that is now on my hosting acc?
I’ve tried to Command Delete ( I’m on a Mac ) but there is a jump & move of all the files on the right & the file is still there.
Thanks for any tips.
Lakshmi.
ps I’m using your FireFTP & it did seem the easiest option, thanks for that tip:)
Lakshmi´s last blog ..Everyday Bliss For Busy Women – My Next Read
If they have a customer service number I’d call and make them walk you through it the first time.
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Oh heck I don’t even remember getting a welcome e-mail. LOL Anyway, I’m using bluehost and their tutorials are the worst. I have wordpress so I’m going to just upload what I need through that. But, I do want to learn ftp and what it all means so I’m going to fumble through just like you had to do when you first started. Sometimes that is the best way to learn.
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are you using the address that they gave you for FTP in your welcome email? Are you using the password for your hosting account? Those are the two things that are most likely to be the problem.
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What am I doing wrong? I try to connect but it keeps saying unable to make a connection.
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Thanks a lot Jackie. I have the same dilemma as you had before but because of this blog, you have helped me a lot. Not i wont have any problem transferring files to my hosting account.
Can you give me an example of the kind of mistake you’re talking about? That will help me be clear whether it will help or not.
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If you FTP something and you noticed a mistake. When you fix the mistake and FTP the correction, does it double up what you have out there or just fix the mistake? Hope I worded that question well enough to understand.
Good to know, me too.
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OK I’m getting one of them creepy feelings. Just today I decided to install my new theme on my new blog and realized I totally forgot not only what FTP client I used on the old computer, but also how to set it up! (It’s been a while since I’ve set one up for the first use.)
I finally got the auto-install thingy in the WP admin to work, so I didn’t need to FTP this time, but this article is a keeper for the future, thanks!
I will be doing a survey post on favorite FTP clients and why…may I assume yours are FireFTP (which I never heard of before now) and or Filezilla (which I now think was the one I used)?
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Hey Dennis,
I haven’t actually used filezilla. I always go for the easiest thing when it comes to these technical things lol ~ I use FireFTP:)
Glad I could give you that creepy feeling.
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Jackie, as usual you were totally correct! I went to Fantastico, which says they are now using Simple Scripts, but I was able to easily do the upgrade from there. Now my dashboard looks like the one you show!
Looking forward to Wedneday’s lesson,
Debbie
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awesome! Glad it worked for you.
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Jackie
I go to your link to download FireFTP and it just tells me I must have Firefox installed to do the download. I already have Firefox installed, so where am I going wrong, and am I missing something I should be doing?
Regards
RUSSELL
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were you using firefox when you went to download it? You have to not only have firefox installed, but have it open and be using it when you download fireftp.
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No reason to stop now… people shop online all year round. That’s why we look at global search volume ~ the average searches over the last 12 months. I called it Christmas cash to get people MOVING and taking ACTION, but it works all year round.
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I completely understand now, although it is a lil’ late since Christmas was 3 days ago! Oh well, there is always next year!
Thanks!
Cindy
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Well it hasn’t actually NOT worked as of yet ~ it just hasn’t done it in the time frame you want.
It theoretically will work for any keyword ~ you just have to keep building links and quite frankly if it takes tons and tons of time your time is better spent building more lenses than to keep building links.
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Ahhh, okay….
I thought it would work for any lens that you did as long as you did all of the steps… that’s what I get for thinking! LOL
Thank you Jackie! I’m sooo very happy that I found you and your blog because I would still be lost in FTP hell without you!!!
Thanks!
Cindy
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Well that’s part of the problem. This strategy is not best served by one or two lenses. This is a strategy that needs many lenses ~ you will find that no matter how much or how little research you do there are some lenses that just aren’t going to take off. They may be lenses you think should do great. There are lenses that will take off ~ and they may be ones you thought should do nothing.
You just can’t judge from such a small sample of lenses. This is why I keep saying give it a week or two ~ then stop obsessing and move on to the next lens. You have probably done nothing wrong, sometimes it takes TIME for them to come up in the world. Sometimes it happens really fast, sometimes it takes a while. That’s why it’s crucial to build a bunch of lenses so you can get some that take off, and have enough to wait on the ones that don’t take off right away.
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I only did this one and another TAG Grand Carrera and I have no idea where that one is in Google because I could never find it.
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I’m really glad you finally understand FTP ~ it’s really not as complicated as it seems when you first get into it.
How many other lenses did you do for christmas?
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Hiya Jackie!
I finally understand how to FTP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This has a huge obstacle for me for the longest time! So, once again THANK YOU!
Now, I have another issue… I have been tracking my Definitive Technology Speakers on Google now since we started the Christmas Cash. I did everything that you suggested to do backlinks including running 2 different articles through UAW and my site has never made it past the 21st position on page rank in Google. It has jumped all around from position number 21 last week before Christmas to position number 166 today! I just don’t get it… in the past you have told me to be patient. I must have done something wrong, but for the life of me I don’t know what it is I did wrong… any suggestions??
Thanks!
Cindy
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Does your hosting have fantastico? If you do you should be able to just upload it as I have done. I’ve done every version of wp like that since I started. Which I know doesn’t really help you much.
If you do have fantastico click it and then click wordpress like you are going to install a new version. You will see all the installs you have done. Next to that you should see an “upgrade” link. If you click that link it should automatically upgrade you.
There is also a plugin I’ve used to upgrade that is quite simple ~ a 5 step process. http://techie-buzz.com/wordpress-plugins/wordpress-automatic-upgrade-12-release.html
Try the fantastico link first and then try the plugin if it doesn’t work. Sorry you’re having such a hard time.
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Hi, Jackie,
I got my hosting and domain name from Bluehost and downloaded WordPress. I’ve ended up with version 2.6.5 and it seems to be much harder to use than the version you’re using. I’ve had to figure out how to go to cpanel to install everything. Anyway, when I go to my dashboard there are 2 links for upgrading to version 2.9 but when I click them, I’m taken to pages of instructions that I cannot understand. Do you know of anywhere that I can simply click and download the upgrade? I’ve tried the help pages and forums for Bluehost and wp codex but either get sent to the same pages or advice that’s way over my head.
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Hey Jackie!
While I knew how to do FTP – I had never seen a better definition of what FTP does than yours:
“it’s a way to move something from your computer to your hosting account so you can use it on your website.”
Perfect – cuts right through all the mumbo jumbo usually associated with FTP.
Thanks,
Frank
Follow me @FrankDickinson on Twitter!
This series of posts is extremely helpful I wish someone would have done the same thing when I started online. Not only would it have saved me tons of time, I am sure I would have been making money a lot sooner.
Thanks Jackie,
It worked, Fireftp is so much easier to use than filezilla,
C