My honest opinion is if you have issues following the install guide on the website, you shouldn't be deploying it. Flarum is still in Beta, and from my more experienced standpoint the installation is pretty straightforward. Once flarum will be out from Beta, the deployment will probably be even simpler and it will be ready to use by the not so tech savvy people, too.
I'm not trying to be restrictive about who should use flarum and who shouldn't, I just don't think that the Beta is suited for you if you already fail at the deployment stage.
Otherwise there is a topic here in the forum where it is explained in a maybe easier way.