Updated August 25, 2021

 

Do you want to make money blogging, or collab with brands? Well, Siteground hosting is gonna be your best match and I’ll explain why and how to set it up.

If you want to setup a blog with Bluehost, read this post: Setup a blog with Bluehost in 5 steps.

Please note this post has affiliate links!

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How to Set up a WordPress Blog with Siteground

This guide will help you set up a wordpress blog with siteground hosting in 5 steps:

1. Choose a plan
2. Get a Site name
3. Purchase hosting
4. Install WordPress (through cPanel)
5. Become a successful new blogger!

So let me start with an introduction. If you hate intros and helpful info, just skip to the steps!

 

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Intro | My experience with Siteground Hosting

 

In 2017, I signed up for a free wordpress.com blog. That blog is soyvirgoblog.wordpress.com. I decided 4 months later that I needed to get my own domain to make money with my site.

In March 2018, I bought website hosting for the first time with Siteground.com. The plan I paid for was the start-up and I included Domain Privacy and Scanner.

That came up to a total of $95. 

You don’t have to do what I did, you can easily pay $63 for the domain name (if you don’t have one) and hosting.

Recently, on February 14 2019, I had to renew my service. The price came up to $203! The reason being the cheap deals only last for 12 months then the regular prices come at you. How sad! 

I decided to take off the extra services and only pay for my domain name renewal (soyvirgo.com) and the hosting. 

Total: $159.35

P.S! Please make sure to pay the annual fee up front, if you decide to do monthly payments, there is a hidden fee of $14 if you decide to go monthly. 

I will be making blog posts about my experience with Siteground and will link them here! For now, let’s continue learning about Blogging and Setting up hosting!

 

Why should you get a blog?

If you’re having trouble understanding why you want or need a blog ask yourself some little questions.

• Do I like working for someone else?
  • You can have a blog as a side hustle. It doesn’t have to be a blog, it can be an e-commerce store. You can do so much with a website!
  • Do I want to be my own boss?
  • What if Instagram goes down again? How will my followers know what I’m up to without a website or email subscription?
  • Think about how you can invest in yourself for your future. A blog/website is a great way to do that!
• Determine your blogs purpose
  • What are your true passions?
  • Your inspirations?
  • Do you have any skills?
  • All these can help you find your purpose and your blog’s goal.
• WHO DO YOU WANT TO HELP?
  • You want to give advice to college students who work full time just like you? Make a blog!
  • Do you need to share your experience as a single mother? 
  • Have a knack for reviewing products? Maybe you will do great as a reviewer for anyone who is stumped about buying a certain product.
  • Are you struggling with an illness and want others to understand they’re not alone?
    • •  

There are many other reasons why owning a blog is great! My reason is that I am able to work from home, not get stressed out working for someone I don’t really care for, and I can do literally all the things I want from a laptop and the comfort of my bed, couch or bathroom really… 

 

by Yoshiko

Why WordPress?

 

If you’re serious about blogging as a business and want to actually own what you create, then I suggest going with a “self-hosted” platform like wordpress.org.

I’ve been on Tumblr and Blogspot for years! When I started on soyvirgoblog.wordpress.com, I actually had people read, follow and comment on my posts. I only purchased hosting with Siteground to make money with my blog posts and website. That’s exactly what happened 6 months into owning SOYVIRGO.COM! 

 

Read: How I made $200 on my blog within 6 months of being self hosted!

 

I have a blog, but why get hosting?

 

Many people love being on a free-hosted site and I would love it too, but for some reason I was stuck with soyvirgoblog.wordpress.com. I didn’t know how to change it and I also couldn’t edit my theme much or make money with my site. So, everything was pointing me to Siteground Hosting!

Reasons why you should purchase hosting if you’re serious about blogging and making money/a brand:

• You own ZERO of your content on a free-hosted site, meaning WordPress.com can delete your site, content or people can even steal your work!
• Free platforms put their own ads on your site. It’s really annoying!
• You’ll get yourblog.wordpress.com instead of yourblog.com on a free host.
• WordPress.com platform restricts your ability to monetize your blog, so you can’t make money.
• No support available on a free program!
• You have to adhere to WordPress’s Terms and Conditions, which means you gotta be careful about what you blog about.
• Limited customization options, so you can’t have a cute theme.
• Not much opportunities with a free-hosted blog.
• You look unprofessional to big brands and maybe other bloggers!
• Self-hosting means you’re basically your own BOSS and you can follow your own rules! So get a host!

 

 

Now, if you’re convinced, find out how to get hosting now!

If you hate it, you will only lose some cash, but it’s a great investment to your future side hustle/being your own boss! It’s definitely worth it to give it a try!

I really recommend you do this after you’re sure you want to write, share photos and stories, or make a business online. I’m not sure why else people get self-hosting and a domain other than that reason.

 

 

by Yoshiko on Unsplash

 

 

Step 1. Choose a plan

Siteground.com has three plans. 

Since you’re reading this, you might be thinking to start a blog. If so, go with the Start Up plan.

• $3.99 a month: The StartUp plan is perfect for people with one website (What I have)
• $6.69 a month: The GrowBig plan includes the option for multiple websites and the SuperCacher that greatly improves a WordPress and Joomla website speed
• The GoGeek plan is perfect for people with e-commerce and larger sites, or more geeky development needs like staging and GIT integration

 

Step 2. Choose a domain name

You can choose to buy a new domain or sign up with a domain you already have. There is a free website transfer, which is included only for GrowBig and GoGeek plans. 

Since I never had a domain, I bought mine straight from Siteground by clicking “Register a New Domain” as you see in the image below.

Also, since I was on wordpress.com, all I did was download my files and upload them on the wordpress.org dashboard. DON’T WORRY, you still can transfer your followers, content and most of your likes and comments. As long as it’s less than 4 months of content. Not all my comments photos and posts were transferred since it was too big of a file. At least that’s what I think happened…

 

Tips to choosing a blog name:

• If you want your brand to be focused around you, name it after your own name (ex: KikiCutie.com).
• Want your blog to be named after the niche you’ve picked? Try MomBossLady.com, TeenKitchen.com, BujoSpreads.com or BeautyBoss.blog
• Try to avoid names that are hard to spell and a struggle to remember.
• Don’t get a blog name that’s too long. It will be hard for us to remember it too!
• Try to combine similar and short words that are easy to spell and are catchy. Something that you will love!

Check your blog name availability!

 

Step 3. Purchase

Taking advantage of Siteground’s cheap prices are worth it, especially for your first year of blogging! You will not only get amazing service but you will get more than what you ask for.

I really had no idea I would get the option of making business emails,  but I did and I’m glad. 

 

Step 4. Install WordPress

Once you got all that done, sign in to Siteground. 

Then, Head over to your accounts.

Click “Manage Account” on the appropriate hosting account and domain name combo. 

Then, go to your cPanel.

Select the WordPress icon and hit the install button.

Customize your settings!

Need more help, try Sitegrounds post here. 

 

For me, it was very easy to do because all I did was transfer my old content to a new one, edit my theme, and boom. Jk, there’s obviously more than that, but like… I can’t explain how to do it if you’re not a wordpress.com user… 

 

 

Step 5. Become A Successful Blogger

Now that you have your site, learn how to be more of a success than what you already are!

Install Plugins

Plugins help your site perform better, like how some apps help you do extra things on your phone. Below are some of the Plugins I recommend for blogging beginners:

• Akismet – As a new blogger, you’re going to get a ton of spam comments. To successfully avoid these, you will need this plugin! You can also head over to your Settings > Discussion in WP to further edit your preferences too.
• Yoast SEO –This plugin is a must-have if you want readers from all over the globe to hit up your site. It helps your posts be better optimized for SEO so Google search engines can rank your site higher in their search results. 
• WP Fastest Cache- If you want your site to load faster, then having a caching plugin is a must! Siteground has it’s own cache system to make my site load quick but I thought it would make my site faster to have a plugin.

Installing the plugins:

WordPress makes installing plugins easy.

In the WordPress dashboard, look on the left sidebar.

Go to Plugins > Add New.

You can search for different plugins in the search bar or upload ones already saved on your computer. Once you’ve chosen a plugin, click on Install Now > Activate.  Now it should show up in your dashboard!

Get the right Theme

This is a must because depending on your theme, you may have to add extra plugins to even do the things you want to do. Luckily I chose a theme that has a built in Social Share button feature. Lots of bloggers say to get Social Warfare (?) plugin, but I don’t need it since my theme came with social share buttons already in the theme.

My theme also came with cute social media follow buttons, a search bar, a cute footer and instagram widget that shows all my recent Instagram pics. 

Anyways if you want to get my $4 theme or find others like it, check out this post!

 

 

I bought Siteground hosting. What’s Next?

Take a break!

After your break from setting up a website, ask yourself a few questions— “Do I need a theme?” “Does my site need a shop?” Also, you will have to navigate through Siteground and the Cpanel. That’s one thing I had some trouble with at first.

Maybe I will make a post about it!

Here’s some things you can work on:

• Publish at least 5 high quality posts. (Create content that solves a problem for your readers)
• Write an About page, Policy Page, Work With Me page, and other important pages on your blog.
• Focus on gaining your 1,000 true followers. (See why here)
• Claim your blog on Pinterest, Bloglovin’ and other sites/apps. Also, add the follow button on your theme so wordpress users can EASILY FOLLOW YOU.
  • Like this: Follow Take Note on WordPress.com
  • If you want the button generator, go here! 
• CREATE YOUR BLOG’S SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS (Remember you don’t need all, just the ones you like and that work for you) 
• Create an email list with MailChimp(free) or ConvertKit.
• Start getting traffic to your blog with Pinterest. (See how here)
• Add code and extra widgets to your site. I added the Pinterest widget since I use it so much.
• Setting up your FREE business email (which comes with the siteground purchase, which I guess isn’t free lol)
• Learn more about blogging by visiting my Blogging category for a list of tips, tools & tutorials.
• Start branding your site (post coming soon since I’m learning about this now)
• Add an SSL to your site (free with bluehost and siteground)
• Apply to Google Analytics, Ads to make money and see what is working for your site
• Sign up for Affiliates, Sponsors, Guest Posting and more!

 

Common Questions and Advice:

 

 

If you want to setup a blog with Bluehost, head over to this post, Setup a blog with Bluehost in 5 steps.

 

That was a ton to read but I hope it helps!

Thanks for reading How to Setup a WordPress Blog with Siteground!

The best advice I can give is to not let fear of making a business/site hold you back. You never know, you can become really successful. Being scared of possibly being a success just doesn’t make sense, does it? You will never know if you’ll make it unless you try. Also, you don’t need to know how to do everything right away, look at me, I’m still learning every day! I’m trying to share what I know because frankly, it’s not that hard, sometimes it seems hard because we really don’t know anything about making our own website, but it won’t take forever to learn TBH. You can do it!

Have a great week <3

Want to collab with me? Check out this page!

 

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