At the request of my friend Silvia Tolisano I have decided to put together a step by step tutorial for installing Buddypress for you do-it-yourselfers out there. However, if this process seems to complicated to even attempt I will help anyone, that’s right anyone install Buddypress via a Skype session or two. That’s how much I am committed to open-source! If you are interested in having me help you set up Buddypress just contact me.
 | Browse to http://mu.wordpress.org. Click the download button on the front page. Download the latest copy to your computer. |
 | Open upyour web host’s Cpanel and open the file manager. Once you are in the file manager, browse to the public_html directory. |
 | Now click upload and browse to the file that you just downloaded |
 | Find the .zip file in the public_html directory. Check the box next to the file and click the extract button on the top tool bar. This will extract the contents of the .zip file into its own directory. |
 | Find the directory that you just extracted and rename it to whatever you want, something like IAMUNBELIEVABLYCOOL would make a pretty cool URL. |
 | Now that you have the folder in the correct place, you need to create a database for the information to live. Go back to the Cpanel and click on MySQL Databases. |
 | Create a new database for your installation. Be sure to give it a name that makes sense to you and that you will remember. |
 | Add your database user to the database you just made. If you don’t have any users set up you will need to make one, which you can do from the same page. |
 | Give this user full control over the database by checking the All Privileges box. |
 | Now everything is set up on the backend and you just need to tell your WPMU installation the information it needs. So now browse to the URL of the directory you created. It will be whatever name you gave to the Wordpress-mu folder. |
 | I recommend you chose the sub-directories option because it is the easier set up. If you want your addresses to be sub-domains you will have to a a wildcard record to your domain using the IP address of your server. Sound complicated? Use subdirectories. Fill in the information about your database. Remember that there will be a prefix related to your primary address that you have. Look at my screenshot. |
 | The server address should be filled in for you. Change the site title and add your email, then click submit. |
 | Login to the backend of the Wordpress installation by clicking on the button and entering the password that was generated for you. On the left hand side of the dashboard you will see a tab marked Plugins. Click it, then click add new. Type Buddypress into the search bar and find the Buddypress plugin. Click install. |
 | Select the Buddypress theme from the themes page and you are running BP! |
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