How to Start a WordPress Blog on SiteGround

In this article you will learn what it takes to create a blog and how to start your own WordPress blog. I started blogging many years ago and it changed my life forever, allowing me to earn income each month by sharing information that I am passionate about.

For just a few dollars each month, you can start a blog that makes money. Right now you can get discounted pricing too!

Start your WordPress blog here on SiteGround then follow the easy tutorial included in this article.

If expense is a concern, SiteGround is a great webhost to start with. You can get cheap hosting with great service. I personally use SiteGround and highly recommend them. I switched my blog over last year and am extremely happy I did.

Blogging is a great way to earn income from home. I have been able to spend more time with my family doing what we love to do. I’ve traveled both overseas and domestically. My reliable laptop is all I need to keep my blog business going! Life is good and my family is happy.

Can you make money with a blog? Yes, anyone can. When I first started blogging, I made my entire blog hosting investment back within 2 months. And then my income just snowballed from there.

If you really want to start blogging seriously, you should be able to make the money back that you pay for blog hosting.

SiteGround is a top hosting company and recommended by WordPress for web hosting out of thousands of blog hosts. SiteGround was one of best and provides the perfect environment for your WordPress blog.

You can start your blog with SiteGround for as low as $3.95 per month (discounted price through my link.) I recommend that you sign up for the 24 month hosting plan through SiteGround.

It’s very reasonably priced and you lock in your discount for that period of time. If you purchase the 36 month plan you can lock in your discount for even longer! That’s exactly what I did to get the best deal.

Should You Just Start a Free Blog?

You might be tempted to start your blog on Blogger to get started or on the free version of WordPress. That would be a mistake if you really want to earn an income from your blog.

There are many policies on both those no-cost blog platforms that would hinder your attempts to make money from your blog.

If you really want to make money from blogging, getting your own web host like SiteGround for your blog is the way to go. It’s very inexpensive to get started with WordPress on SiteGround.

The best part is that you can sell whatever you want, use any advertisements you want and run your blog however you want to on Siteground.

In addition to following strict policies on free blogging platforms, many advertisers or affiliate merchants won’t accept you on these platforms.

When I first started blogging, I got a web host right away so I could be viewed as a professional and have the freedom to sell whatever I want without the chance of having content removed (yes, free blogs will do that.)

Why Choose SiteGround for your WordPress Blog

I’ve been with many other web hosts over the years and SiteGround is the best I’ve ever used. You should choose SiteGround for these reasons:

SiteGround makes it very simple to create a WordPress blog.

They have incredible customer support if you need it. You can contact SiteGround via phone, email or online chat. They are so efficient I was blown away!

If you are transferring a blog from another web host, SiteGround will do the migration for free.

Web hosting with SiteGround is very affordable! Imagine paying just $3.95 per month for your own blog which can potentially make you thousands of dollars? A small expense compared to what you can get out of it.

SiteGround has a 30-day money back guarantee in case you decide it’s not a good fit for your blog.

You have the freedom to monetize your self-hosted blog, have your choice of WordPress themes and appear more professional to your audience.

Get started with SiteGround to enjoy the benefits of a self-hosted blog with a top web host. It’s one of the most popular hosting companies with good reason. They are the best for speed, technology, website speed, customer service and more! Plus they have many tutorials in their knowledge base to help you if needed.

Click here to get started with SiteGround.

Start Your WordPress blog on SiteGround

Here are the basic steps to get started with your WordPress blog on SiteGround.

1 – Register your Domain Name.

Before you even purchase web hosting with SiteGround, you’ll need a domain name to use for your blog.

I recommend that you do some searches to find a domain name that is a good fit for your new blog.

You can purchase a domain name at the same time that you purchase your web hosting. OR, you can register a domain name at another company. It doesn’t matter where you register your domain name.

I like to use NameCheap for my domain names only. You can start there to research what is available. When you are ready to buy your domain name, you can either register it at NameCheap or SiteGround. Either way works!

Do some brainstorming to come up with a domain name that makes sense for your what your blog is about.

2 – Purchase Web Hosting for your Blog

Buying web hosting on SiteGround is a simple process. One of the decisions you’ll need to make ahead of time is which place to choose.

SiteGround offers three web host plans:

• StartUp: $3.95 per month is a great deal. For a year, you’ll pay just $47.40. If you choose 36 months, it will only cost $142.20 and you won’t have to deal with it again for 3 years. This is the basic plan and is great for all your needs if you are just starting out and have one blog.
• GrowBig: $5.95 per month is awesome for what you get. For one year, you’ll pay $71.40. With this web host plan, you can host multiple blogs on your account. Plus you’ll get more space and some great features like the SuperCacher and free backups.
• GoGeek: $11.95 per month. This is SiteGround’s top of the line plan. I have this one because there are fewer accounts on the shared server (all are shared servers.) They also include staging for WordPress so you can make changes etc and not affect your “real” blog until you are ready. It’s a little more pricey, costing about $143.00 for a year. You probably don’t need this to start.

The great thing about hosting with SiteGround is you can start with the basic StartUp plan and upgrade at any time. They take care of everything for you. I upgraded from StartUp to GoGeek and it was a smooth, efficient transition which was handled with care from customer support.

When you sign up, you’ll see some extra services at the bottom of the page. The only one you need is Domain Privacy (if you are registering a domain with SiteGround.) You can deselect everything else.

SiteGround does not have a month-to-month hosting plan. Keep in mind that if you were to find a web host with month-to-month payment options, it will cost you significantly more money over a 12-month period of time.

Read to start your new blog? Let’s get started:

1. Go to SiteGround and click Sign Up.
2. Click Order Now for the hosting plan that works best for you.
3. Enter a new domain name that you want to register one or select I have already have a Domain, then enter that domain. Click Proceed.
4. Enter your account, client, and payment information.
5. Select the hosting plan and period of time.
6. Select or deselect any Additional Services. The only one you need is the Domain Privacy IF you purchase your domain at SiteGround.

That’s it. Pay and you are done!

3 – Install WordPress on SiteGround Web Hosting

Now that you signed up for a web host plan on SiteGround, you still need to install WordPress. Don’t worry, it’s very simple!

You should have received a Sales Receipt and New Hosting Account emails after you place your SiteGround order.

1. Follow the Log In information link and log into your SiteGround account with the name and password you set up.
2. Click My Account and then Go to cPanel.
3. In cPanel. under Autoinstallers, click WordPress. SiteGround’s one-click WordPress install is easy.
4. On the WordPress page, click the Install tab.

Configure the items on this page as follows:

Under Software Setup, enter information in the fields as follows:

• Choose Protocol: Select http:// from the drop down menu. You don’t need to choose the “www” version. Most people don’t use that when typing a URL. The https version is for SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. If you don’t have a SiteGround “SSL” blog, don’t use it.
• Choose Domain: Select your domain from the drop down where you plan to install WordPress. If you have multiple domains web hosted with SiteGround, you’ll see them all in this list.
• In Directory: You can leave this blank

Under Site Settings, enter the information as follows (SiteGround automatically fills these fields with default information):

• Sitename: Enter the name of your WordPress blog. You can always change it later after WordPress is installed. If you aren’t sure right now, leave it as-is.
• Site description: Enter the description of your blog. Don’t feel like you have to come up with something great right now. You can do it later.
• Enable Multisite: Do not select this. It’s a feature that enables management of multiple WordPress sites via one WordPress install.

Under Admin Account, these fields will be filled in automatically by default. You can change them if you want to.

• Admin Username: Choose a username to use for your WordPress login. You may be tempted to use “Admin” but don’t do it unless you want hackers getting into your blog.
• Admin Password: Keep the default suggested password or choose a new one. Make it difficult. If you are challenged to think of a good one, you can generate one at this strong password website.
• Admin Email: What email do you want to use for your blog? Enter it here and make sure it is working to receive email.

Other selections:

Under Choose Language, select your preferred language.

Under Select Plugins, select which of these plugins you want installed:

Limit Login Attempts: Check this one! Siteground will install this plugin for you to protect your blog from a brute-force attack.

Contact Form by WPForms: If you want a contact form on your site, SiteGround will install WPForms for you automatically. You don’t have to choose this and then install a contact form later.

Under Choose Theme, do the following:

Choose a Theme to Install: there is just one WordPress theme in the list. You can select it. SiteGround provides more themes with your WordPress install. After the WP install is complete you can login to your dashboard and have many more themes to choose from. You can also purchase premium themes when you are ready.

when you finish making your selections, click Install. That’s it. You are done installing WordPress on SiteGround web host.

You now have a WordPress blog. Almost finished!

4 –   Connect your Domain Name to your Web Host

If you purchased your domain name at SiteGround, you can skip this step. Only read this part if you purchased your domain name at another company other than Siteground.

If you purchased your domain name through NameCheap (or any other domain registrar), you will have to connect your domain name to your new blog host.

It’s very simple. If you use a company other NameCheap, the procedure is very similar but you may want to contact them to find out the details.

Steps to Change your Domain Name Server (DNS) to point to SiteGround.

1. Log into your SiteGround account. Look on the left side to view the Name Servers. You’ll need these to modify your DNS.
   
2. Log into your NameCheap account
3. Navigate to Account and then Domain List.
4. Click Manage next to your domain name.
5. For Name servers, select Custom from the drop down menu.
6. Copy and paste each new name server in the fields.
   
7. Click the green check mark to save your changes.

It will take about 48 to72 hours for your domain name to be connected to your new self-hosted blog. This time frame is normal.

But, it usually happens in a much shorter timeframe! I’ve had mine connect within an hour or two.

Start Creating your New WordPress Blog

Now that you have a web host for your blog and you connected your domain name, you are ready to create some awesome content!

If you want to have a nice design for your blog, I recommend checking one of these premium WordPress theme sites. You can always go with free themes but they don’t offer support or updates. When you actually purchase a premium theme for WordPress, you usually get customer support and tutorials to help you.

• StudioPress
• Elegant Themes
• Thrive Themes

At some point, you’ll want to start an email list of subscribers. You can get started with Aweber email marketing and try them out for free for a month.

Other helpful information for blogging to help you get started:

• Beginners guide to SEO (search engine optimizaion)
• Creating Content that your Audience will love!
• Repurposing blog content (for the future)
• Affiliate Marketing Tips
• Monetize your blog even if you are new

Conclusion

I hope you are off creating an awesome new WordPress blog on SiteGround. I am so excited as you start this new journey in your life!

If you have questions, please reach out.

Most of all, have fun, write great content and start making some money!

Grab your SiteGround web hosting and get a huge discount!