GENESIS
If you are anything like me, making the decision to start a blog is something you have perhaps been passionate about for a while.
You maybe even see it as a means to breaking out of your rot, so to speak, and begin doing something you truly love.
By the end of this post, I hope to be your inspiration to starting your very own Blog on a SiteGround grow big hosting plan or any other plan that currently meets your needs.
I can tell you starting this blog is one of the very best decisions I have made personally, and if you take the plunge, very soon, you will feel the same way.
Blogging can be fun and therapeutic. You simply relax and write about fun topics that you are truly passionate about.
Moreover, being yourself is the best way to build an audience. Your potential audience can typically see through any faking.
Put in different way, it’s like starting a YouTube channel for instance. Only with blogging, you don’t have to sit in front of a Camera and feel like you are inviting the whole world into all your business.
You can communicate effectively with written word and visuals, and still be as effective. Perhaps even more effective since you can skillfully draw your readers into your world through your writings.
SO, WHY BLOGGING?
Every year, millions of people make the decision to start working from home, or pick up a side-hustle so to speak.
Many of these turn to blogging as it is one of the few profitable online gigs, with very low start-up costs. You do not need to approach blogging with an end all be all attitude. Choose what’s natural to you and let your inspiration guide you.
You’ll be surprised just how soon you can begin to cover the cost of your monthly hosting, and then more, with simple tips I’ll be more than happy to share.
The fun of blogging is in the growing – growing your confidence, growing your expertise, growing your audience, growing your income, and literally watching yourself grow from that timid place of indecision, to becoming a natural, money-making blogger.
If you are on the fence about blogging – get off it. Dive right in. It’s been on your mind, you know it’s worth the payoff, and it is perhaps exactly what you and your family need at this current time.
Take my hand and let’s begin this fun journey of starting your very own blog.
Discloure: I have an affiliate agreement with SiteGround. This means if you sign up for your web-hosting through any of my referral links below, I will receive a commission. Please note that this is at no added cost to you. On the contrary, you get to lock in a great negotiated rate. You win on the sign up pricing, mypenniestodollars.com gets to pay the bills and keep the lights on.
Now let’s get after it…
PICK A NAME FOR YOUR BLOG
First things first, let’s pick a name. Your niche will determine the blog name you pick. It could become your sole identity on the web so pick wisely.
Furthermore, your blog’s name is the first thing readers and potential lifetime newsletter subscribers will see so it should be centered on what your blog’s true identity is.
Your niche is essentially the core area around which virtually all content on your blog will be focused. Think travel, tech, food, self-help, motivation, lifestyle, or like me – Personal Finance.
I find it’s super helpful to blend in a keyword or two into your blog’s name (for example, pennypinchingpoppy.com, or jeanslovingjake.com) to immediately signal to your potential audience what the blog is all about.
If you don’t choose wisely, you could end up with something funky, or extra-long like mypenniestodollars.com. Yes! I just made fun of myself.
There might be the temptation to initially begin on of starting free on say “Blogger”. I would very politely advise against doing that.
If you are thinking about monetizing your blog at any point in time, you want to pay for self-hosting. Two of my personal favorite companies are SiteGround and BlueHost.
And just so I immediately spell out the advantage to you of paid self-hosting, you can almost immediately run advertisements on your site through AdSense or other sources, and input your own affiliate links.
Going with Blogger makes it close to impossible to make any real money. Companies who eventually want to work with you may not view or respect your blogger site as up to par with the big blogs out there.
SELECT YOUR HOSTING PLAN
To build your blog, you have two immediate needs – A blogging platform (where you do your blog writing), and host & domain combo (your very own personal space on the internet).
It is very convenient if you can have all of these provided for you in one service, and of course, companies of today have caught on to that fact.
The Domain hosting and blogging platform combination that I personally use is a WordPress blog, hosted by SITEGROUND.
SiteGround has three plans – the StartUp Plan, perfect for beginners, the Siteground Grow Big plan (amazing value for the money), and the GoGeek plan, tailored for people with e-commerce and larger sites and/or geeky things like GIT Integration (yeah, I know, Geeky)
SITEGROUND GROW BIG
Start cheap if you have to. You really do not need anything other than the startup plan. For the amazing value however, I personally went for the Siteground Grow Big plan and you are reading this blog off the Grow Big hosting.
It’s just amazing value for the money. My hope and prayer for you is that you grow big and need more space anyhow, so just claim it and grab the siteground grow big plan (if it’s within your current means).
Another thing worthy of note is, if you can afford to, go with a longer initial term as you lock in the discounted rate for 36 months.
That’s right; you keep the cheapo rate for three long years. I cannot over-emphasize the importance of that. I wish someone had advised me at the beginning to do just that. It’ll have saved me a ton upfront.
If life happens, sometimes it just does, and it takes you longer than anticipated to get your blog going, you’ll feel much better knowing you locked in an uber-discounted rate for a longer period, which in itself, could be the difference between quitting and fighting on.
If you’re a person who learns by doing, feel free to pause here, go register your own domain, and secure your siteground grow big hosting plan using this exclusive link available via my pennies to dollars, then jump right back in to follow the step by step instructions below to setting up your own blog.
REGISTER YOUR SITEGROUND DOMAIN NAME
As side note, if you already have a hosting plan elsewhere but need to move to SiteGround, their professional site migration experts will do it for free so you can rest easy that it is done right.
If peradventure, your carefully crafted name is already taken (darn it!), SiteGround will let you know right below, so you can go with another option.
Once you’ve made your final selection and been give the green light by SiteGround, it’s time to register that bad boy.
REVIEW AND COMPLETE YOUR SITE ORDER
Here’s where you select the 12, 24 or 36 month plan and complete your site purchase towards becoming the sole owner of your very own plot of internet space.
This is important: I would be remiss if I didn’t remind you that going with the longer initial term is the way to go.
Selecting for example, the Siteground grow big plan for 36 months, saves you boo-koo bucks on the front end and mentally, could be your own personal stay in the game therapy tool.
I don’t know about you but, If I only sign up for one term of a gym membership, it’s likely I don’t go back once that initial term is over (especially if the rate is going to sky-rocket on me).
If I can lock in a cheap rate upfront (like you would be doing here), it’s likely I stay in the game. It’s just us being human.
SITEGROUND GROW BIG ADD ONS
I strongly recommend Domain Privacy Protection. SiteGround offers it during your sign up process for $.0.99 monthly.
In today’s security conscious society, your audience and all potential traffic to your site will feel much more secure when your site looks like this [Secured] with the lock clearly shown, versus like this [Unsecured].
SiteGround is in the money-making business, of course, so they will offer you’re a ton of bells and whistles. All great stuff that you can look at later.
I would advise you stay away from all those shiny objects at the beginning of your journey.
Stick to the siteground grow big essentials as we have discussed here and keep the budget light for starters. The time for the big stuff will come.
INSTALL WORDPRESS & PICK A THEME
Now we are finally getting into exciting territory. You can put the credit card away, stop scaring the spouse who’s nervous you’re about to spend all your savings, and get to the exciting business of building a blog
SiteGround actually has you covered in this step. No need to fumble around wondering if you are doing anything right.
The Dashboard all but holds your hand and tells you what to do. In a few clicks you are done and ready to start writing your very first blog post
After you’ve done all the security set ups, picked an air-tight password, etc., SiteGround leads you straight into your back-end Dashboard. Here you’ll be asked to pick a theme for your site.
There are a ton of free themes to pick from, right within your dashboard. Paid ones too, but the free ones are great. I ran this blog for over a year before changing to this $35 theme. I always say, my best price to pay for anything is free ninety-nine.
You are not stuck to your first choice. You can change your theme later or update it, so do not overthink this step. Pick what immediately speaks to you, and move on.
Hu-Freaking-Rah! Now you are all set up and ready to begin building your first blog.
Hello world! Here comes YOU.
P.S. Some bloggers prefer to start with Bluehost. Personally, I prefer my SiteGround grow big because it’s faster and the customer service is top notch. See my full read on how to start a blog on Bluehost here.
