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You might want be wondering if it’s possible to start a self-hosted WordPress blog from scratch without knowing how to code or with limited technical knowledge.
You’ve come to the right place.
I will be teaching you how I started my WordPress blog on Siteground with very limited technical skills.
My first blog, This Village Girl, is the proof that a blog managed and owned by a third world village girl with zero patience for technology and coding knowledge can thrive. This just means that you can too and earn money while doing what you love to do or talk about for hours or even days and still make an impact.
However, it is overwhelming especially at first. The secret is to dive deep into it and play around it until you familiarize yourself with it.
Read also: 10 Things I’ve Learned After One Month of Blogging
Until that day comes where you’ll say that WordPress isn’t that complicated, I am here to guide you.
Let’s start.
Others will start by telling you to know your niche first but I will not. I have only started being clear with what my niche would be six or even eight months into blogging. If you are serious making money from your blog, then it is a must. It is easier to monetized a niched down blog. If you are blogging as a hobby, not being so clear in having a niche from day 1 is okay.
Pick a domain name
Your blog needs to have a name. It could be your name, your nickname, pseudo name or your niche, the topic that you will be talking about.
The key is to keep it short, easy to remember and catchy. It is quite hard to remember a blog name that has more than 10 words on it.
If thinking of a blog is hard for you, don’t beat yourself up. Grab a pen and paper, visualize what your blog will be about and write all the words that come to your mind. Write all these keywords or even draw a mind map to allow you to have a clearer picture of how you want your blog to look like.
These words will give you a name that will resonate well for sure. Take note of this name but keep the list still as back up in case that the first one is already taken. We need to make sure first that the domain name is still available.
Choose your hosting provider
There are so many free platforms where you can start a blog and you might ask why you should be paying for a blog if you can get one without spending a dime like WordPress.com.
Answer is, it is quite more challenging to monetize a blog using a free platform because most of them don’t allow you to and if they do, it is very limited.
If you are serious about blogging and want it to be your business one day, you have to have a professional one so companies, businesses, brands and clients you would want to work with one day will take you seriously.
Having a self-hosted blog is an investment because it will allow to make infinite earnings.
Read also: How Much Does it Cost to Have a Self-Hosted Blog?
There are so many affordable web hosting providers out there but you would want something which offers more value and with great customer service especially if you are like me who has serious technology and technical problems.
I have tried other two hosting providers before but now I am with Siteground. They make me sleep like a baby at night knowing that they got my blogger back. I worked for customer service so I know what to look for when it comes to servicing the customers. Siteground has that.
Read also: Why I Host my Blogs with Siteground
Also, for just 3.95 a month, you’ll have that little space in the internet and you can do whatever you want with it.
How to start your blog with Siteground
Choose a Hosting Plan
SiteGround has three plans:
The StartUp plan
This is perfect for you because you are just starting now. But once you have bigger traffic, you can upgrade to a bigger plan like GrowBig. I used to have this plan for This Village Girl and upgraded to GrowBig to host Virtual Besties too.
The GrowBig plan is a great value for money offer, including the option for multiple websites and the SuperCacher that greatly improves website speed.
The GoGeek plan is perfect for people with e-commerce and larger sites, or more geeky development needs.
Choose or Enter your Domain Name
This is the part where you will be asked to enter the domain name that you have chosen earlier. If you haven’t reserved any yet, you can register a new one. You will also be able to check if the domain name you have chosen is still available.
Step 3: Review and Complete the Order
Once you have entered/created your domain name, you will be lead to the page where you’ll be asked how long you want to keep your plan, the longer the plan, the cheaper you have to pay. This is if you want to blog for a long time and if you can see this as a potential business.
You will also be asked to enter your information and payment preference.
Once you are done entering your details, you’d have to click on “pay now”.
You’ll be receiving order confirmation, sales receipt and Domain Service Notice via email. You will then need to click on the link provided on the email that contains your Domain Service Notice to verify your domain registration.
Domain verification can take up to 24 hours. The world wide web needs at least 24 hours to be informed about the existence of your brand new site.
Also, you can create an email address for your website. For the mean time, create one on Gmail or Yahoo or use the one that you currently have. Whichever you prefer. You can link them later so you can access in just one email.
While waiting for the registration’s confirmation is the prefect time to install WordPress.
How to Install WordPress
You have two options in installing WordPress.
You can either contact Siteground customer service via live chat or by calling them and second, you can log in to your Siteground customer area.
Go to Website tabs and click on cPanel. Look for WordPress Installation and click on it and wait for it to install.
You will be asked to choose log in details for your WordPress access and for security purposes, you will be recommended not to use a username other than admin and a strong password.
I know the number of usernames and passwords will be overwhelming. Take note of them and keep them somewhere really safe.
The number of these usernames and passwords will increase as you go further along.
Once you have submitted the required information, you will be receiving a prompt that the account has been set up and you will also be receiving an email that contains your login information.
Once your WordPress has been installed, you can already start working on and playing around with your new WordPress blog.
I hope this helps. Let me know how it goes and if you need help setting it up. I’d be more than happy to help.
Your Virtual Bestie,
Dani
