What You Need to Know to Start a New Blog

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If you search for the phrase “Start a Blog”, you’ll find hundreds of pages which proclaim you can start your blog in less than 20 minutes. While the process to click through a few screens, enter your payment information, and then click the WordPress install button may only take a few minutes, any new blogger starting in 2016 knows that launching a blog for any reason except as a hobby requires research, thought, and planning.

This page will guide you through the few minutes it will take to choose a hosting plan, register your domain, create an account, and install WordPress software to launch your blog.

What do you do after you click Install?

This series will continue with each of the technical steps I believe are necessary to launch a blog with intention and excellence.

Part 1: Hosting, Domain, Install

Part 2: WordPress Dashboard

Part 3: Plugins

Part 4: Plugin Settings

Part 5: Theme

Part 6: Content Details

Part 7: Email, Posts, Media Library, SEO

Hosting, Domain, and Install

I recommend choosing a quality hosting service for your blog. Just because a hosting company is recommended by a number of well-known bloggers does not necessarily make it the best choice for you. A larger corporation has been purchasing hosting companies for the last several years. Based upon the experiences of many bloggers, service and reliability tend to decline after the purchase. For a well-written guide to which hosting companies to avoid, read this article from Chris Lema.

To start your blogging journey, click this link to SiteGround.

Click on Web Hosting in the top menu.

Choose the StartUp Plan and click the blue Order Now button.

The $3.95 per month is paid annually.

If you are ready to register a new domain, choose the first option in this box.

If you have previously registered a domain name with another company, choose “I already have a Domain” then enter your domain name in the space provided.

Click the blue Proceed button.

Complete the client and payment information requested on this page.

Your new domain registration is free with the creation of a new account.

You can choose to pay for Domain Privacy to hide the ownership of your domain.

The HackAlert Monitoring is not necessary.

Once all the fields are completed, click the blue Pay Now button.

You’ll arrive on this page with the option to Proceed to Customer Area.

The next series of screens will take you through SiteGround’s WordPress Install Wizard.

Choose the first option to have SiteGround install WordPress. Then click the orange proceed button.

Complete the fields on this page. These are the details you will use to log in each time to your WordPress site.

Your username should not be Admin or anything similar.

Your password should rank as Strong.

Then scroll down to the bottom of this screen.

You can choose a theme or allow WordPress to install the default theme with your installation.

This can easily be changed later.

Then click the orange Submit button.

The Congratulations page provides several useful links to tutorials along with the URL and log in details for your WordPress site.

Clicking the orange button at the bottom of this page takes your to Your Account page with SiteGround.

Watch for an email message from SiteGround in your inbox. Be sure to check your spam folder if you don’t receive the message fairly quickly.

This is the page you will see whenever you log in to your SiteGround account.

To reach a shortcut link to your WordPress dashboard and a link to your cPanel (control panel), click the ‘My Accounts’ tab.

The My Accounts page provides a one-stop-shop for almost any activity or piece of information you will need about your hosting account and your WordPress site.

The Support tab provides a searchable KnowledgeBase, a link for a Live Chat, a toll-free number, along with the option to Open a Support Ticket.

The Resources tag takes you to a page with links to all the tutorials available from SiteGround.

Watch your email inbox for up to four email messages from SiteGround. You can see the messages I received at the top of the screen.

If you register a new domain with your account creation, you may need to verify your contact information by clicking the blue button at the bottom of the email message shown on this screen.