Increase Income Potential by Starting a Money Making Blog with Siteground

So I finally caved in and made the switch. Why? Because if you really want to start a money making blog then Siteground is the way to go.

I’m really happy with the switch and will go over all the reasons why I made this decision, along with step by step guides on how to transfer current domains and how to start a money making blog with Siteground from the start.

Disclaimer: Please note this post may contain affiliate links. This means I may receive a commission if clicked at no extra cost to you. Though the opinions remain my own

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1) Faster site speed

So in my Q2 quarterly report, I mentioned that SEO (search engine optimization) is a HUGE focus of mine. Little did I know that site speed apparently plays a big part in your site SEO. In fact, you should really be aiming to have your site download in 3 seconds or less.

I have three blogs so I definitely did not want to move everything over at once. So I started with this blogging site as a “test” since it’s one of my newer sites with a good amount of content.

Now I will say that before I made the switch for faster site speed, I tried out two other speed plugins to help. I grabbed WP Rocket and ShortPixel. Yes, they did help reduce my site speed which was at like an embarrassing 6+ seconds but it only dropped me down to 4.6 seconds (still not fast enough but better than it was before).

So I decided, “okay fine, Siteground it is.” And whoa! Below are my results comparison from Bluehost to the premium self-hosted provider of Siteground.

Okay wow, that before screenshot is pretty embarrassing I know. But hey, I said I’m not an expert in these kind of things haha! And from where it was before I installed the two speed plugins, this is a huge improvement and now an even better result.

I guess I should also add that these screenshots were taken right before I made the switch and 12 days after. Super cool right? Now I definitely understand why Siteground is known to a premium self-hosting provider.

2) Higher uptimes

So the more research I did, the more I realized that Siteground has a better uptime than Bluehost. This represents the time that a website is available to the users over a given period. And though most providers state a 99.99% of uptime, that isn’t always the case.

I never really knew if my site had downtime or not but through research, Siteground just seemed to win the overall reliability with the site. This is also another critical component of SEO which was enough for me to decide to move over.

Side Note: As you see, the main reasons for my switch are very much related to SEO. I personally never experienced major issues with Bluehost and is a more budget-friendly option. However, if you are looking to upgrade to a faster site, Siteground is definitely the recommended choice.

Related Alternative: How To Start a WordPress Blog with Bluehost

3) Higher income potential

How can hosting possibly increase your income potential? Well, site speed is directly tied to SEO and how Google prioritizes the sites that appear on page one. And page one is definitely where you want to be my friend.

So if you’re especially looking to turn your blog into a more passive income stream, you definitely want to try to be the first website that appears when someone Googles a question. But being on page one helps also as these are the primary pages that over 90% of the people will click on to read.

And the more people that click to read your site, the higher your chances are at making money (with less work).

Like I mentioned earlier, I’ve recently learned that having super fast site speed is a high contributing factor to this. It’s all explained in this super affordable On-Page SEO eBook. So by having a slower site, it’s hindering my chances at getting on page one once I’m out of the “Google sandbox.”

Awesome! So now you know real reasons why I made the switch from Bluehost to Siteground. So now it’s time to help you get started with your own site.

Related Post: 7 Ways to Make Money Blogging

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Getting Started with Siteground

Are you as excited as I was to start a money making blog with Siteground? I hope so because it’s honestly such a great decision and route to take once you’re really ready to take your blog seriously.

So to start, you’ll need to visit the self-hosted provider’s website here and follow the three easy steps below.

1) Choose a hosting plan

Of course, the first choice is to decide your hosting plan. So because this is an important step, let me help you decide by simplifying who each plan is for.

– If you’re a beginner blogger with only one site and not extremely worried about site speed just yet, then the StartUp Plan would be a good choice

– If you’re a blogger at any stage, with one or multiple niches (notice I said niches and not sites), and want to focus on improving your site speed then the GrowBig Plan is for you.

And if you’re a blogger who has a much larger site with thousands of monthly blog views (over 25K), then the GoGeek Plan would be your best choice.

But if you’re reading this blog post then I assume you more than likely fall under one of the first two categories. Am I right?

Before we move forward, let me briefly explain why I said more than one niche versus more than one website as shown in the plan. Well, because if you have more than one niche combined under the same site domain, you may eventually need to separate them out in order to really gain SEO traction.

It’s what I ended up doing (I went from one to four blogs because of it) so it’s just something to consider when choosing your plan. However, the good thing is that you can upgrade your plan at any time also. So if you’re not there just yet, no problem.

2) Choose a domain name

The next step would be to choose a domain. Now I cover this a bit more down below but you’ll pretty much have the option of either purchasing your domain through Siteground or elsewhere.

I personally purchased my newest domain via Namecheap so in my case, I would select the “I already have a domain” option. But if you choose to get your domain via Siteground, simply click the first option and it’ll route you to select the domain you want.

Related Post: Focus on These During Your First Month of Blogging

3) Review and complete order

Lastly, you will then choose the length of period in which you want to keep Siteground as your hosting provider. Now I do want to point out that an awesome benefit that Siteground offers is that their promoted price in the plan is valid for any period length.

Unfortunately, this is not the case with other hosting providers. Most hosting providers will show you the lowest monthly price but at checkout, you’ll notice that the lowest price promoted is only for the highest period length.

So it’s definitely something to consider and keep in mind. Another thing to note is that you will pay the full price upfront for whichever time period you select. So if you’re on a lower budget, definitely go with a shorter time length and then renew when the time comes.

And then that’s it! You now have yourself a premium self-hosted provider so yayyy!

Now in the next section below, I’ll walk you through the actual site set up process along with how to transfer an existing domain.

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So I recently also discovered that ideally you should not buy your domain through your self-hosted provider. Therefore, for my new niche site, I decided to buy my domain name through Namecheap. The process was super easy and I was able to get my new name within a matter of minutes.

So once you’ve purchased your domain name via Namecheap, here are the easy next steps to take.

But first, you should have created your self-hosting account with Siteground and be logged in to begin.

1) Choose domain

So in my case, since I grabbed my domain name via Namecheap, I selected “Existing Domain.” However, if you choose to get your domain through Siteground then simply choose “New Domain” in this step instead.

2) Set up site

Here is where you would choose how you want your site to be setup. Although I do not use WooCommerce myself, I know many other bloggers who do and would find the second option extremely useful.

But in my case, all I needed was to have WordPress set up so I clicked the first option. Another cool thing about the StartUp or GrowBig plan is that it comes with a free email address. So that’s what this third inner-step is helping you set up.

3) Add extras if needed

Now I personally skipped the SG Site Scanner as I haven’t looked too much into it myself. The good thing is that you can always go back and add extras at any time. So for now, I recommend you just skip over it and select “Finish.”

4) Site created and almost done

Yayyy once you’ve done these quick and easy steps, your job is almost done. Well.. if you purchased your domain via Siteground, then yes, you are done.

However, if you got your domain via Namecheap like me, then there’s still one more thing you have to do before your WordPress site is officially set up via Siteground.

5) Reroute your domain servers (depends)

Like I said, if you bought your domain via Siteground, then go ahead and skip this final step as you’re already done. But if you went my route with Namecheap, then there is one more step you have to do.

You’ll have to reroute your domain servers from Namecheap to Siteground. And believe me, it’s super simple and here is how to change servers away from Namecheap.

Once you’re done, it’s just a matter of waiting 24 hours for the configuration to be complete and then whoohoo! You’re now the owner to a brand new site! That means you’re done starting a money making blog with Siteground and can move right along to actually customizing your site.

What To Read Next: Avoid Legal Trouble and Legally Protect Your Blog From The Beginning

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How To Transfer Domains

But what if you’re like me and decided to start with a different host but are now ready to upgrade to Siteground? Well, since I’m going through this right now, I figured I might as well include it in this guide as well.

1) Choose domain

Similarly to the first step above, you will first need to choose your domain and select “Existing Domain” and type it in. You will get a little error message saying that Siteground is not the current host for that domain and if you wish to proceed. So go ahead and continue forward.

2) Skip and create empty website

At a glance, you would think to select “Migrate Website” but upon confirming with a Siteground tech, there’s a much easier method to transferring over your domain. So instead, go to the bottom and click on “Skip & Create Empty Site.”

3) Follow Siteground migration steps

From there, Siteground actually already has a super detailed guide on the next steps. So instead of copying and pasting everything over, you can take a look at how to migrate your WordPress site to Siteground here.

It’s literally a series of 4 extremely easy steps that you’ll get done in less than 5 minutes. From there, Siteground will actually take care of the transfer process for you! Isn’t that awesome?? I thought so.

The awesome thing about Siteground as well is that they are extremely helpful and can usually take care of anything in that moment. So use it to your advantage haha! The perks to having a premium self-hosting provider.

And in case you cannot complete all these steps in one setting, make sure to pin me for later. 😉

Related Post: How To Create a Blogging Schedule and Blog Strategy Plan From the Start

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Here are some helpful posts you should review next before deep diving into your blog:

Legally Protect Your Blog From the Beginning: Avoid legal trouble and legally protect your blog. Here is everything you need to know about blogging legally and why free legal templates won’t cut it.

8 Easy and Simple Steps Before Publishing Your Blog Post: Before hitting that publish button, go back and make sure you have done these eight steps to ensure your hard work actually gets seen.

Best Free Blogging Courses for Beginner Bloggers: Learn how to start a blog, how to use Pinterest to boost blog traffic and the legal aspects of blogging… all for free with these free blogging courses!

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And remember, there is always something to be happy for… Cheers to blogging! What are you cheering to today?

Lucy