I’m looking for an answer to this as well.
As long as your hosting provider allows you to use an IP or server path, just install WordPress via that IP or server path and follow this guide when you’re ready to move it:
http://codex.ww.wp.xz.cn/Moving_WordPress#Moving_WordPress_Within_Your_Site
Well here’s what I’m attempting to do. The live site is on another server, and the new site will be built on my HostGator server. However the other site needs to stay up until launch so I was just going to change the nameservers on the domain to point it to my server.
What I’m trying to do now is build the site on my server without a domain name. Here is the IP of where I’m at now: http://67.18.22.92/
Using Coda, this ip and the username and password, I can access the WP files on the server, but I cannot get into the admin or see the site in the browser.
Does HostGator allow you to access web content in a browser via your server’s IP? Most hosting providers don’t as it bypasses their bandwidth meters.
I just tried and it appears the answer is no 🙁
In that case, install and develop your new blog in a subdirectory (like /test/) and follow this guide to move it when you’re ready:
http://codex.ww.wp.xz.cn/Moving_WordPress#Moving_WordPress_Within_Your_Site
