How to Start A Blog On SiteGround (With Video)

However, if you’re going to be monetizing your blog later on down the road, I suggest that you start on a self-hosted blog. This will save you the headache of having to migrate to a self-hosted blog later on down the road.

The cool thing is that you can get a startup plan on a reliable hosting account. There’s no reason to overpay for your hosting service when you’re just starting out.

Of course, if you seriously don’t have the money to pay for a hosting account, then I would go ahead and start on Blogger or WordPress.com. Don’t let the lack of funds keep you from following your dreams.
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If you’re ready to start a blog, then I suggest using SiteGround, you can sign up here. This is the same hosting company that I use. They are awesome and I have no doubt that you will think so as well.

When I first started my blog, I was hosting at HostGator. However, after reading tons of tutorials about the best hosting account for beginners, I made the decision to pack up my site and move to SiteGround.

Related posts on SiteGround

• SiteGround Review
• Why I Left Hostgator For SiteGround

If you’re ready to get started, choose the right plan for your blog. Once you do, let’s get started setting up your new WordPress blog.

Video tutorial of How to Start A Blog On SiteGround

For those of you who would rather watch over my shoulder on video, then here’s my step-by-step tutorial as I set up a brand new WordPress installation on my own SiteGround account. I’ll even show you how to change your DNS nameservers to point to SiteGround.

If you’d like a step-by-step tutorial with pictures, then scroll down.

 

How to Start A Blog On SiteGround

Let’s get started so you can set up your blog.

First things first, you’ll need to create an account with SiteGround and pay for your account.

Related: Read My SiteGround Review

Step #1 Choose Your Plan

Here are your payment options when you sign up: If you pay attention to the SiteGround pricing, you’re going to notice that you can save more money upfront if you’re willing to pay for multiple years in advance. I recommend starting with a lower plan like the GrowBig plan when you’re just starting out.

Once your blog reaches 25,000 pageviews you can consider a SiteGround upgrade plan to get more room for your blog to grow. There’s absolutely no reason to pay for a bigger plan when you’re just starting out. (that’s my two cents, you can choose whichever one you want.)

• $3.95 for 12 months: $47.40 for one year of hosting
• $3.95 for 24 months: $94.80 for two years of hosting. (amazing deal!)
• $3.95 for 36 months: $142.20 for 3 years of hosting (BEST deal!) This is the payment plan I chose for my blog 🙂

Choose a plan that you want to start with and head on over to SiteGround to sign up.

Choose their web hosting shared services, you’ll be taken to a page like this:

Go ahead and choose the plan that you want to use. I recommend and use the GrowBig Plan. Of course you can choose whichever plan you want on the SiteGround sign up page.

The only thing that I can say is that you want to make sure that you choose the right plan.

If you’re planning on using the SiteGround server to grow your blog to your first 25,000 pageviews, I recommend choosing the most popular plan, which is the GrowBig plan.

Since I knew that I was going to monetize my blog and work towards creating a sustainable business, I went ahead and paid for the 36-month plan. Plus I love saving money whenever I can.

Step #2 Choose Your Domain

I always register my domains with Namecheap. SiteGround charges $14.95 for your first year for your domain. I am NOT sure what the renewal fee is.

If you want to get your domain from SiteGround you can enter it here. If you already have a domain that you purchased somewhere else, you’ll enter it here as well.

Just choose whether you already have a domain or if you want to register a domain.

Once you’ve filled out the domain portion, click on proceed.

Step #3 Review and Complete

This is the page where you decide how much you want to save on your hosting. You can either pay monthly or you can choose to save money upfront by choosing one of the yearly subscriptions instead.

Choose wisely as once you make the decision, you’re stuck with it. Go ahead and pay the invoice and then come back here and we’ll get your blog set up.

Congratulations You’re Now A SiteGround Client

Once you start your blog on Siteground, they’ll send you an email with your order details. It will tell you exactly which hosting account plan you’ve signed up with. You’ll also receive another email with your cPanel login details. Here’s how mine looks like.

So go ahead and log into your cPanel so we can get your WordPress blog installed. For this tutorial, we are going to use the WordPress auto installer. For those of you who’d rather install your blog manually, I’ve written a step-by-step tutorial on installing WordPress.

Setting Up A Blog On The Grow Big Plan

Before we can actually set up the blog on SiteGround, we need to add our domain to our account. You’ll also want to point your domain to Siteground. You’ll find your SiteGround nameservers in your account dashboard, just log in and go to My Accounts.

For the rest of this tutorial, I am going to assume that you’re on the Grow Big plan. I’ll walk you through on how to do a SiteGround WordPress install so you can see how easy it is plus you’ll be able to be up and running in no time.

Getting SiteGround to Install Your Blog

If you think that you’re going to struggle with the installation of your WordPress blog, you may want to consider asking SiteGround to install your blog. I believe they offer a free installation for new signups.

All you’ll do is contact their customer support. Log into your account and go to Support>> WordPress Assistance

Scroll down until you get to Technical Assistance, you’ll want to choose WordPress Assistance.

A little window will open up and ask you if you want to open a ticket or want live chat.

Choose live chat, don’t worry, you won’t wait very long. You can tell them that you’re a new customer and you’d like for them to install WordPress on your new account.

I am not sure if they ask this question when you first sign up. As I mentioned, I always install my own WordPress sites, so I’ve personally never used their customer support for an installation. However, I have used their knowledge base to help me find out something quickly.

If you’re somewhat knowledgeable with WordPress, you’ll love their knowledge base.

Installing It Yourself

If you feel froggy and want to follow along with me, I’ll help you get your blog setup. Plus, you’ll be amazed at how easy it is to get a blog set up on SiteGround.

Adding Your Domain to SiteGround

If you purchased your domain from SiteGround, your domain will already be set up on your account. However, if you purchased your domain from Namecheap or anywhere else, you’ll have to add it to your account.

Go to cPanel >> Addon Domains

This is where we’ll add our domain that we registered somewhere else to our SiteGround account. So let’s get this filled out so you can add your domain.

You want to make sure that all the check marks are green. Once you get an all green, you can click on add domain.

Congratulations, you’ve added your domain to SiteGround and now we can install WordPress.

Using Softaculous

Go to cPanel >> AutoInstallers >> Softaculous

You’re taken to a screen that is going to allow us to install WordPress quickly. It’s only going to take a few steps.

Step 1: Install WordPress

Since you’re installing WordPress, click on the WordPress icon.

Step 2 Software Setup

On this page, you’ll fill in all the required information. Let’s run through these steps, so you’ll have a better understanding of how to fill them out.

Choose Protocol: Choose whether your site has HTTPS or you’ll be using HTTP.

Choose Domain: Click on the drop-down arrow and find your domain.

In Directory: I usually leave this blank. If you want to read more about installing WordPress into different directories, you can read this.

Site Settings

These are pretty self-explanatory, so I’ll only cover the ones that you may have trouble with or can’t be changed later.

Enable Multisite: Leave unchecked

Admin Account

Admin Username: I use Roboform to help me generate my admin username. The main thing is that you don’t want to use the generic admin username.

Admin Password: Choose something extremely strong and don’t forget to copy and paste it on a notepad, so you can access your site as soon as it’s installed.

Admin Email: Use an email you use as a copy of your admin and password will be sent to this email.

Choose Language

Select Language: It’s already pre-set for English

Select Plugins

Limit Login Attempts: You can either choose to have it installed or not by checking the box.

Choose Theme

Again another personal choice. I recommend and use the Genesis Framework for my theme on my blog.

Advanced Options

If you’re NOT a techie and you’re feeling overwhelmed you can disregard the advanced options.

Just click on Install once you’ve filled out all the information on the software setup page.

Installing WordPress

Once you click on install, Softaculous will go to work for you. All you have to do is patiently wait. After a couple of minutes, you’ll get a notification saying that your SiteGround WordPress blog is ready to start using.

Congratulations the Software Was Installed Successfully

Once you see this, you can now log into your new WordPress installation.

Logging Into Your New WordPress Blog

Now that you’ve set up WordPress on SiteGround, you don’t have to worry about these steps again. Now comes the fun part of choosing the theme for your blog and learning about WordPress plugins.

I wrote a blog post on how to login into WordPress. It’s very easy to do just go to:

Enter the credentials you used when you installed WordPress.

This is where most people drop the ball. They get so hung up on the design aspect of their blog. The important thing to remember is that it’s going to take time to grow your blog.

Your main focus should be to start writing your first blog post. Don’t get too hung up on your blog design.

Yes, I know you want your blog to look amazing. However, the sooner you start blogging right now, the sooner you’ll have readers and your blog will start growing.

Related: Write Your First Blog Post Text Editor Explained

What Do I Do Next?

This article is just going to cover installing your WordPress blog on SiteGround. If you want a more in-depth article that will show you everything you need to do after getting your site set up, visit this post on the ultimate guide to starting your blog.

It goes more into depth on all the steps that you need to take from writing your first post, which plugins to use and everything you need to know to build your blog foundation the right way.

You don’t have to do everything right away for your blog. Because you will learn everything you need to know as you continue blogging. However, if you know what steps to take, you’ll save yourself a lot of time instead of trying to find all the information for free.

Your SiteGround Blog Is Ready

If you have made it this far, I am so proud of you. This means that you now you’ve installed WordPress. Believe it or not, that’s a big accomplishment. Especially, if you have never used WordPress before.

I still remember when I set up my very first WordPress site. It took me over 8 hours. At that time, they didn’t have the simple one-click installations that they have today.

It was frustrating to fumble my way through it. But after fumbling my way around it, I was finally able to get my first WordPress installed.

Now that I have been working with WordPress for over 9 years, I can say that I know my way around it pretty well. The cool thing is that anyone can start a blog, even if you’re not a techie person.

The truth is that 99% of new bloggers have no clue how or what to do when they start blogging. Now that you’ve installed WordPress on Siteground, you are further along than the person who is still thinking about getting started.

Now that you’re familiar with the SiteGround cPanel, it’s time to log out and start working on your blog.

So many new bloggers waste so much time on tasks that don’t matter. They’ll spend countless hours trying to make their blog pretty.

Yes, I know that you don’t want an ugly blog. But if you’re serious about making money with your blog, you need to sit down and start focusing on those blogging tasks that are going to help you earn money.

People Will Forgive You For An Ugly Blog

You’re not going to get readers as soon as you hit publish. Unless of course, you already have a huge social media following. You can always dress up your blog along the way.

I use and recommend the Genesis Framework for my blog. If you’ve never used a WordPress theme before, make sure you take the time to learn how to choose a WordPress theme.

If you buy the right theme from the get-go, you’ll save yourself a lot of money down the road. Not to mention headaches from changing your blog layouts.

You can always learn the basic techie stuff along the way, in fact, I’ve got a lot of WordPress tutorials that will help you out. Don’t forget to check out my Genesis tutorials.

Don’t Forget

I’ve created my first eBook that will show you how to setup WordPress the right way. It’s the same stuff I do with my own blog and it will help you get your blog set up the right way. You can purchase it here.

Related: How Much Does A Self-Hosted WordPress Blog Cost

Final Take Away

As you can see, learning how to start a blog on SiteGround is very easy, here’s my affiliate link so you can sign up with your SiteGround account. You don’t have to be a techie to start with WordPress. In fact, when I first started working with WordPress 8 years ago, I knew nothing about it.

I’ve learned everything I know along the way. So if you’re serious about starting a blog, I’ve written this step-by-step tutorial for you.

Here’s a more in-depth article on starting a blog if you want to read it.

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Follow it completely and by the end, you’ll have your own WordPress blog. Of course, starting your blog is just half of it. You need to write amazing content that people actually want to share.

So have you started your blog? Which hosting account did you choose and why did you choose them?