Start a Profitable blog : The right way with Siteground

It seems everyone is doing it and making tonnes of MONEY! And if you want to start your blog using the right tools it needs to be on a self-hosted site. The best hosting company to get you started is to start a profitable blog the right way with Siteground.

HEH if they say they aren’t starting a blog to make MONEY then they must be doing it as a hobby because let me tell you it’s not EASY!

It’s darn HARD WORK to make your first $1 let alone your first $100. It took me 6 months to make my first $1. And even longer to make it past $100.

(If this post contains affiliate links please see our full disclosure policy although I have to say I tried really hard to make it interesting and even I struggled to write it so if you really must read it you can find it here)

So no more CRAP if you are doing this for the LOVE then well great but don’t say its all about passion yes that can be part of it – you are doing this because you want a different way of life and build a business that you can be proud of!

 

What is Siteground Hosting

I recommend starting your blog using the WordPress platform – SELF HOSTED at wordpress.org not via wordpress.com for the simple reason if you want to start monetizing it you can’t do that on a non-self hosted site. Plus you can have up to 10,000 visitors a month before you need to upgrade.

So if you’re looking to start a website cheaply then choose  SITEGROUND  for your hosting. I can recommend them now after they have helped me out at least twice now swiftly and efficiently.

If your curious (or in a hurry ) to find out what Plan is best then check it out here:

 

It’s an excellent choice for a beginner Blogger just check out the reviews BEST of all it’s under $4 per month on the startup plan. If you find it under $4 then its a bargain so grab it.

 

How to Start a blog on Siteground

I have made a Youtube video of how to Set up your Blog using Siteground here if you are stuck it can be quite tricky.

Ok, still want to go ahead with Siteground after looking at my video then check out these three different hosting plans.

I suggest going with the Startup plan which will give you everything you need to start off your website. I have the GrowBig account as you saw in the video I have two websites.

 

Why should you choose Siteground for Hosting

There are many reasons to start your blog with Siteground and here are just a few of the reasons why you should choose Siteground over other host providers.

1. It’s super easy to use have a look at my video especially when you are setting up WordPress initially
2. Siteground technical support is fast and very helpful you can see by the transcript of my interaction how they fixed things for me
3. As you can see its only $3.95 per month and you get plenty of extras with this including SSL security site.
4. Hosting if fast reliable and cheap.
5. 30-day money back guarantee
6. Free WordPress website set up
7. You are self-hosted with Siteground meaning you can monetize your site straight away
8. Being self-hosted makes you appear more professional than if you are just on wordpress.com site
9. If you need help with setting up your site with Siteground and I always will help you out if you send me an email.

So if you are planning on setting up your own site and use a fast reliable and cheap service with excellent technical help then

Start the process by clicking here

Don’t forget if you are struggling with any aspect of the setup get in touch with me via email.

CHOOSING YOUR PLAN

SET UP YOUR DOMAIN NAME

Choose a simple domain name THAT’S EASY to spell!

The longer you can buy hosting for the better monthly rate you will get. I initially signed up a years deal.

• make sure to start off with the basic plan for the longest duration you can afford 36 months is the best value
• If you are unsure start off with the 12-month plan then upgrade when it comes up to renew, this is what I initially decided to do when I switched from godaddy to Siteground
• make sure the extra you buy is for domain privacy because you don’t want every Tom Dick and Harry contacted you to ask if you want a website built – believe me it happens! I accidentally forgot initially and was bombarded by calls and emails till I purchased this and thankfully it went quiet.
• You don’t need to buy any other extras apart from the domain privacy

Next, follow my video to set up your WordPress site using Siteground!

If your curious (or in a hurry ) to find out what Plan is best then check it out here:

 

It’s that easy!

Ok, so I have talked you through setting up your account so why then am I writing the next section!

Well, I want you as prepared as possible without having to spend money till its absolutely necessary so lets head on –

Of course, you can purchase your Siteground hosting and then do the next steps as well!

So before You buy hosting then consider undertaking the steps below FIRST to get you on the right path!

For me, it’s amazing how addictive it can be I enjoy writing my posts because I love what I am writing about! – that is important if you don’t like what you are writing about it will be difficult to be motivated.

I still feel incredibly overwhelmed – for instance, I had a few hours this weekend and decided to revamp my Pinterest strategies AGAIN – I need to leave it and see what happens.

So then I was feeling overwhelmed as I need to revamp my resources page, write more posts to help with traffic and try and get my head round affiliate marketing.!!

Arggh it doesn’t get easier let me tell you but if you are ALL in and feel you have what it takes then this is what you need to do to get your website off the ground!

Things that you should do before you start that I did not:

1. Write more than one post
2. Join affiliate networks
3. Add affiliate links to your posts even before you start there is no limit to starting so start straight away is great.
4. Have Pinterest already set up and pinning happening – at least I had this part- look at how top bloggers are designing their pins think about how you want your brand to look don’t take a lot of time doing this you won’t want to get bogged down in the detail – no analysis by paralysis stuff get in there you can change things as you go!
5. Join group boards
6. Join an Email Service Provider- I use Mailerlite
7. Join hosting- I recommend Siteground
8. Have some freebies to go on your posts that people have been asking questions about in Facebook groups
9. Join Facebook groups
10. Join Google Analytics- so you’re ready to set up your blog
11. Have a coming soon page even if it’s on wordpress.com as a landing page to test out your freebie to see who will sign up you can start collecting email addresses straight away

Don’t do what I did and start your site with one post try if you can to have at least 5 it gives your blog history for Google and people will trust you more too!

So if you are stuck with what you should write about start off with a general search in Pinterest – that way you can see what has been popular pins topics the suggested bar at the top will have options that people have searched for too, look at whats trending as well this will give you some ideas.

Mr Google is also good to have a look add in your topics and consider what the top posts are can you add to these? – don’t forget the related searches at the bottom of the page this also gives you an idea of what other things people are googling about.

Facebook groups are another place to looking for questions to help answer for people add in the search for whatever group you are a member of “ help with” for instance and you should get some questions people have asked in the group.

You should also try and monetize your posts straight away.

There tends to be the debate on this  – my take on it is would you rather make sure your top posts are already monetized before you publish them rather than in three months time when you are overwhelmed! And don’t have enough time to write more.

Also, traffic takes time to build the more you have the quicker you can build.

Posts that answer questions = more traffic.

That’s it in a nutshell!

• Ok so the key is to have at least 5 posts
• Start to monetize asap
• Use Google and Pinterest to find questions to write posts about

JOIN AFFILIATE PROGRAMS

This will help you monetize your blog when you are starting out.

So who do you join – there are lots of programs you can be affiliates for here are some examples of ones I have joined my Resources page- YOU NEED this page set up so that you can showcase your Affiliates basically!

• SITEGROUND

• PRETTYLINKS

• TAILWINDAPP

Set up your Social Media

I recommend Pinterest to send traffic to your website. I was lucky as I already had my Pinterest account set up and had boards with pins on them. Make sure you transfer to a business account so that you can add your website and have analytics running.

If you are wanting to use a Scheduler I have a post to help you set up

How to set up Tailwindapp

How to drive traffic with Pinterest 

Set up your Pinterest account

Join Group Boards

If you are using Pinterest then you must join relevant group boards to allow your pins to get exposure. I have found the best way to find group boards is to follow the top bloggers in your niche and look at which group boards they are pinning to and try and join those ones. Make sure when you email the group board owner that you are polite and comment on either their website or pins if you feel you can in a positive way.

Join an Email Service Provider

Believe it or not, you can join Mailerlite without it costing you a penny until you reach 1000 subscribers. And you can also add an Optin offer to your welcome to my WordPress blog homepage if you set one up on the free website wordpress.com till you can get hosting set up will allow you start collecting email addresses.

Write posts

Have at least 5 posts if you can more than that would be great – write them in Google docs you can upload directly from Google docs to WordPress. Add content upgrades to your posts to help generate email sign-ups.

Join Facebook Groups

Join groups relevant to your niche so you can see what types of questions people are asking this will give you a clue about what to write posts about.

So as you can see there are lots of things you can do before you even buy hosting.

If you want a hassle-free Host provider then SITEGROUND is the way to go! They will help you with transferring over an existing site too.

 

Sharing is caring!