Installing WordPress & Godaddy hosting

Should I have something installed locally on my computer, or is my only access by launching through godaddy.com?

Nope, WordPress is a web app, meaning that it runs on a server and you access it through your browser, no local app required. ??

I’m trying to figure out how to install the premium version of the theme I am currently using (Sugar and Spice).

Try just installing the theme’s .zip file via Appearance -> Themes -> Add New in your blog’s Dashboard. ??

I believe I need to upload through FTP

Uploading via FTP is just the more manual option for only when you can’t install the theme via the Dashboard as mentioned above.

I cannot locate my IP address on godaddy.com

In general, you don’t need this, and I’m pretty sure that GoDaddy doesn’t give out dedicated IP addresses anyway (those are expensive).

Thank you, MacManX!
To clarify, when I try to install the premium theme…I get as far as the Add New, which brings up an upload page. I click Browse to find the file, but it takes me to the unzipped folder with all the individual files…and I am only able to select one of those. I’m not sure how to select the ENTIRE theme file… Hopefully I’m using the correct language…I’m not 100% sure what I’m talking about or doing right now! LOL!

You’ll want to select the .zip file. Do you still have the .zip file? If not, you can probably download it again from the premium theme vendor.

I can’t upload my theme. WordPress used to be so simple and now I have to “theme check,” ugh! Now it’s saying I have to add a tag to my style.css. I never had to do this before. I don’t know about this and I’m getting pretty frustrated. How can I load my theme plain and simple?

P.S. my hosting site is godaddy. I don’t know if that makes a difference.

Significantmag, that means that the header of the style.css file is not properly formatted. This has been a requirement of WordPress for several years: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Theme_Development#Theme_Stylesheet

If you need further help, please start your own thread: https://www.ads-software.com/support/forum/themes-and-templates#postform

In regard to FTP, you should be able to use the following information in FileZilla to access your server

ftp server: https://ftp.yourdomainname.com
username: your godaddy username
password: your godaddy password

That should take you to the root directory of your hosting.

Once there, you can find your way to /wp-admin/themes/ and upload the entire folder that your theme files are in.

Alternatively, as mentioned above, you should be able to upload the original .ZIP file that you downloaded from the Themes website by going to

Appearance / Themes / Add New / Upload

Click Browse, find the .zip file that was downloaded from the Theme website, and upload it.

WordPress will unzip and install it.

the problem is that when i get to the step of browsing and finding the .zip file, it takes me to what looks like an unzipped file that shows each of the individual files in the theme folder. so it seems that i cannot select the entire .zip file to upload.

Is the .zip file present on your computer? Also, which web browser are you using?

it looks like it is not saving as a .zip when i download it, though it is on my computer. i am using safari.

Resolved! I ended up creating a new .zip from the file I had on my computer and uploaded that. Worked like a charm!

Ah, perfect! You probably have something on your computer that’s automatically expanding the .zip for you, or your browser is doing it. Usually the .zip winds up in the Trash when that happens. ??