This is part 1 of 4 of the Blogging For Beginners series.
1. How to Start a Blog – Blogging For Beginners
2. Can’t Decide What’s The Best Blogging Platform to Use? Answers here.
3. 11 Things To Do Immediately After You Start a New Blog
4. 11 Blogging Plugins You Need to Rock Your Blog
Hello! Perhaps you’ve thought of starting a blog for awhile. It’s time to stop procrastinating and just go ahead to do it.
Pin me and let’s be BFFs, yo!
Things You’ll Need Beforehand:
- An open mind to embrace some basic techy stuff to get your website live
- Some $ for hosting
- Your desired URL for your blog (make sure the URL is available first using whois.net)
Even the most successful blogger on planet Earth started with 0 views from square 1, right?
The 5 Key Steps to Get Your Blog Up
- Get hosting
- Get a domain name
- Install WordPress
- Write your first post
- Install a theme
Here’s What You’ll Learn:
- How to start a blog in under 20 minutes
- The best and most affordable host you should use
- Where to get a free domain name (URL)
- How to set up WordPress on your self-hosted blog for the first time
Steps 1 & 2: Get Hosting & Domain Name
Hosting is server space on the internet where your website is at. Basically, if you’ve a house, it’s sort of like the land your house is on.
When I first started, I was confused by the tons of choices available. Should I go for company XYZ? Or company ABC? Picking the right hosting company is a pain in the ass.
Some of you may wonder if you should just opt for Wix or Blogspot (or something similar that’s free). You should always self-host and own your own blog. By that, I mean owning your own servers and URL. Do not be reliant on other people. You don’t want your blog to disappear overnight.
Own your personal assets.
The different kinds of hosting available
There are different types of hosting available.Shared hosting is when you share your server with other websites.
VPS hosting is when you share your server with other websites, but a portion of the available resources are reserved for you.
Dedicated hosting is when the server only has your website. You can google if you’re really interested in the nitty-gritty technicalities.When you’re small, shared hosting is more than enough for you. You can always upgrade to dedicated hosting when your website is bigger.
My Recommended Hosting Provider: SiteGround
(Update: I’ve since edited this post to recommend SiteGround. I was previously using Hostgator, but as the years went by support deteriorated, and I cannot by my best conscience recommend anything owned by EIG (Hostgator, Bluehost, a small orange etc) anymore.Here’s the guide I wished I had when I first started. You’ll be up and ready in no time. But first..
Why SiteGround and not other hosting providers?
I’ve been using Hostgator (owned by the same company that owns Bluehost) for 3 years, and quite honestly I’ve never had any big issues with them. They were affordable, and I was happy. However, their support, to put it real bluntly, sucked.I still remember, there was once, I waited for their support for so long that I fell asleep on my desk and woke up the next morning!
As someone who teaches people how to build blogs, I’m in a ton of communities where bloggers hang out in. Facebook groups? A few hundred. Google + communities? At least 100 of them.
Pinterest group boards? Maybe about 50. And as we all know, one question we hear over and over again is “What’s the best host to use?”
I’ve heard lots of people praising SiteGround to the heavens – and one thing that was repeated again and again was how good their support was. That got me real curious, and I decided to do more research.
When my agreement with Hostgator ended, I decided to take the leap. And let me tell you…
Hostgator was good. SiteGround is much better.
SiteGround is also pretty affordable, if not one of the most affordable hosting solutions out there that’s of good quality. It costs about $3.95 a month, similar to Bluehost & Hostgator.
If you use my affiliate link, feel free to email me at raelyn[at]raelyntan.com if you’ve any questions about signing up to SiteGround and how to do it.
5 reasons why you should choose SiteGround, off the top of my head:
- It is not owned by EIG. EIG is a company that has acquired many popular hosting companies, and many have said that these once amazing companies have been turned into incompetent companies.
- Social proof: It’s one of the most popular (if not the most popular) and common hosting provider used by tons of bloggers.
- Support is super fast and great, and not staffed by a bunch of tech idiots!
- 1-click WordPress Installation is perfect for beginners
- 30-day money back guarantee – no risk!
Of course there are no service providers who are flawless, and of course, there are people that are pissed off, but SiteGround is one of the better ones with a good track record.
There’s a 30-day money back guarantee if it doesn’t work out for you anyway, so there’s no risk whatsoever! Aka: if you sign up and regret for some reason, just cancel and they’ll give you all your money back. They won’t refund you the $ for the domain name though, but you’ll still need that anyway, regardless of which host you use.
Let’s Get Started
Go over to SiteGround‘s home page, and click on web hosting.
Pick the package that’s most suitable for you – if you’re just starting out, it’ll be the “Startup” plan, but if you’ve more than one blog, you’ll need the “Growbig” plan (which is the one I’m using right now)
If you’re starting out from scratch with only one website, then StartUp would be the plan for you.
Otherwise, I recommend getting the GrowBig for multiple websites, priority tech support, free SSL certificate and 2x as much webspace.
Select, “get a new hosting account,” and then “register your domain.” Write your desired blog URL here.
You’ll then be asked to input your contact information to register a new account.
Select your plan, server location and how long you want to purchase your package for.
The best server location you can have would be the one that’s closest to where the majority of your blog readers are located. For instance, about ~75% of my visitors are from the USA; hence I would select “Chicago, USA” as my preferred server location.
For extra services, I did not pick any.
If you’re uncomfortable with sharing your personal information online, go ahead and pick domain privacy, or use a PO box address. Bare in mind that if someone really wants to find your personal information they will do so privacy or no privacy. Also, you shouldn’t be using your real address anywhere on the net. Email and telephone numbers are things that are readily available on your blog anyway.
The hack alert monitoring will let you know when your site has been hacked. This is a nifty feature provided by SiteGround. Do note that there are other ways that you can monitor your website’s security via other plugins like WordFence, and you can also do regular backups for your website as well!
Next, input your payment information, and you’re just about done.
You’ll then be sent a welcome email and asked to proceed to the customer area.
Step 3: Install WordPress
Proceed to the customer area and set up your website. There’ll be a pop-up asking you to install WordPress. Click on “Get WordPress Pre-Installed On This Account” and follow the account setup assistant.
Alternatively, you can select “My Account” > “Access My Cpanel” > Under Preinstallers, click on WordPress. That’s your 1-click installation process.
Once you’ve completed the installation process…
Access Your WordPress Admin Dashboard
Your WordPress admin dashboard is the backend of your WordPress website. You can access it at www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin (just replace “yourdomain” with your URL) and input your credentials.When in doubt, feel free to ask SiteGround’s support. They’ll guide you there.
Step 4: Write your first post and just publish it
Do you know that many web owners never get around to even publishing their first post?Consequently, 99.99% of these blogs die and fizzle out. Writing your first post gets you in the groove and dramatically increases your chance of following through with your blog instead of leaving it to rot.
You want that, right?
This is something I recommend to all my clients – get your first post out there ASAP. It increases your chance of success SO much.
It doesn’t even have to be a long post! A simple introductory post, along with what users can expect from your website is more than enough for a first post.
Step 5: Find a Suitable Theme
A theme dictates the overall look and design of your website.Here are your options:
- Free ones from the WordPress marketplace
- Plenty of websites that sell really nice designs like themeforest.net
- Hire a website designer and get real professional from the get-go.
Blogging For Beginners In a Nutshell:
- Get hosting at SiteGround
- Have a domain name registered
- Install WordPress
- Write your first post
- Find a nice theme
xx Raelyn
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Pin if you think this post is useful for beginner bloggers!
This is part 1 of 4 of the Blogging For Beginners series.
1. How to Start a Blog – Blogging For Beginners
2. Can’t Decide What’s The Best Blogging Platform to Use? Answers here.
3. 11 Things To Do Immediately After You Start a New Blog
4. 11 Blogging Plugins You Need to Rock Your Blog
If you liked this post, please share this?
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I know most people don’t share because they feel that us bloggers don’t need their “tiny” social share. But here’s the truth…
I built this blog piece by piece, one small share at a time, and will continue to do so. So thank you so much for your support, my reader.
Some great suggestions:
– Pin it! (I even made a pretty pin for ya!)
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