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One year ago, if some one asked me what was meant by a ‘self-hosted wordpress blog’, I’d roll my eyes and give a vague response. This year, not so much.

One of my New Year resolutions included taking this blog seriously and working on it throughout the year to have a kickass blog by year end with 100+ posts and 100K+ views (I’m at 55+ posts & 65K+ views so far). This included revamping my entire website, reading as much as I could on how to run a successful blog, which affiliate programs to join to monetize my blog and drive traffic to my blog.

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in 2018, I have moved to a new domain (a month ago), a new theme and a brand new host called Siteground. (Read the review here)

The process included a lot of back and forth but this Siteground review is aimed to share more on what my experience was when I migrated from a wordpress.com hosted blog to a wordpress.org hosted blog. If this is sounding like rocket science to you, go here and read my step by step tutorial on how to start a successful blog first.

Done? Great. Let’s jump right in!

I needed a cheap hosting platform that would grow with me.

After doing a lot of research, I came to the conclusion that for a fast growing blog, Siteground would be the best bet. I was looking to spend less than $5 (student life, yay) to begin with and grow my hosting plan as my blog grew.

Fret not, I will guide you through my sign up process:

Step 1: Choose your hosting plan

SiteGround has three plans and you can sign up for any one of them (get a discounted price with my link here):

The StartUp plan is perfect for people with one website that are just starting out
The GrowBig plan is a great value for money offer, including the option for multiple websites and the SuperCacher that greatly improves a WordPress website speed
The GoGeek plan is perfect for people with e-commerce and larger sites, or more geeky development needs like staging and GIT integration

Step 2: Choose a domain

You could either use an existing domain (and change the name servers later) or buy a new one with your hosting account on Siteground. I would highly recommend to do this together, but I didn’t and things worked out just fine.

You can also use the free website transfer which is included in the ‘Grow Big’ and ‘Go Geek’ plans. I’m currently on the ‘Grow Big’ plan and I cannot stress HOW helpful, quick and easy the free website transfer was. (more on that later).

Step 3: Review & Complete

Once you are done picking your hosting plan and domain, just go ahead, review and finish payment! The special price for one year is unbeatable. The downside is that you don’t have an option to pay monthly, but since EVERYTHING that you hope to do starts and ends with a good blog host, you ideally want zero down time, which may not be the case if there is a delay in payments.

I’d much rather be safe with an annual option to know that the back end of my website is running smooth and I can contact the customer care anytime for help.

I needed the technical expertise of migrating my website content with minimal downtime.

Let me get this straight. I have zero technical background. I mean I can code a few lines here and there but by no means do I have the expertise to migrate my website from a wordpress.org to a wordpress.com which is exactly what I had set out to accomplish.

This is where the option to have the free website transfer helped tremendously. Back when I was transferring hosts and set up my self hosted blog, I was contacted by a specialist to do the same who performed a smooth transfer in under one hour.

As of this month, Siteground has automated this process and you can find a complete tutorial here.

It’s super duper easy. I promise.

I needed quick and efficient customer service.

I save the best for the last.

During the course of my four month association, I have had two major technical issues (on my end).

I changed to a new domain a month ago, so I had to request Siteground to create a permanent redirect to ensure minimal downtime. They did, and for free!

I used the Siteground live chat, and man it was quick and smooth.

The second problem was when I wiped out my back end while updating a theme.php folder by myself. This resulted in my entire database crashing. Thanks to the automatic back-up and with the help of Siteground customer care, I was able to get my site back up in less than two hours.

[irp posts=”11123″ name=”How Do Bloggers Make Money (and How You Can Too)”]

Needless to say, this made me want to write a Siteground review, just because I have honestly had such a good experience with them as a newbie blogger.

I may have been blogging for over a year, but I REALLY started my journey with my self-hosted blog four months ago and I wouldn’t recommend anyone else but Siteground for this purpose.

I would also highly recommend you to read the WordPress Tutorial of moving from WordPress.COM to WordPress.ORG.

<<DO YOU WANT MORE BLOG TRAFFIC INSTANTLY? GET MY TOP TRAFFIC STRATEGIES>>

Planning to start a blog? Find a domain name and a server on Siteground today! If you would like detailed tips, check out my step by step guide to start a blog.

Have an existing blog in need of powerful growth? Check out these services I use and love:

Tailwind: Pinterest and Instagram scheduling tool.
Teachable: Create courses online and add to your blogging income.
ThemeIsle: Premium WordPress themes.
Grammarly: Automated in-browser Proofreading.
OptinMonster: Convert and monetize your website traffic.
LinkTrackr: Affiliate Link Tracking.
PickMonkey: Photo-editing, Logos and Social Media Graphics.

Before you go, read these articles to grow your blog the right way:

Comments

Activelifeliving says
16/08/2018 at 13:11
Shruti this is a great detailed review. I usually use bluehost but it is great to know in depth about siteground. Your posts are great resources and very well written😀
Shruti says
16/08/2018 at 13:37
Thanks a lot for reading! Always happy to help! 🙂
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