Are you questioning yourself whether or not you want to create a self hosted website? Based on my own experience, you should! I can promise you that having your own self-hosted website is the best thing you can invest in.

When I started this blog, I was using the free version of WordPress and was limited to lots of things. All I can say is, changing to a self hosted website was the best moment of my blogging life!

Why didn’t I buy self-host earlier? I had plenty of reasons for it but mostly, I had no money, I couldn’t use my bank account online till I was 18, I was blogging random things and had no knowledge of niches and like my other older blogs, I would stop blogging.

Here, I’ll share reasons on why you should start a self hosted website using this SiteGround tutorial.

So grab your mug of coffee or tea and let’s get right into it!

Going from free to a self hosted website changed the way I had control over my site. This meant more freedom for what I want my site to be and how I wanted it to be.

I went from having limited plugins to any available plugging there ever was. Limited media and photo limit to unlimited, having a non-“ugly” URL to a more professional one and the list goes on forever.

So if you’re someone who needs help going from WordPress.com to self-hosted, then I’m here to help you in need.

I made another post explaining more reasons on why you should start a website. You can check it out here.

Related Posts

• 11 Lessons on Blogging with 100 Posts
• 5 Brilliant Ways To Earn Income Blogging for a Living
• Ultimate Tips for Starting a Blog on WordPress

Self Hosting

WHAT DO I PICK?

So which one do I pick? SiteGround, BlueHost, WPEngine or GoDaddy? What I picked to self-host my site is SiteGround.

I love SiteGround because of how easy it is to install and how CHEAP it is! (coming from a girl with no money). The cost is under $5.

Many other bloggers recommended SiteGround and you know what? I totally in on the recommendation. I didn’t use the chat or the popup wizard (because I’m literally a go-go person when it comes to tutorials) and as far as it goes, it’s pretty easy to install.

The Plans

There are 3 plan instalments on SiteGround:

1. StartUp
2. GrowBig
3. GoGeek

I use StartUp since I only use one blog and as I said, I am a girl with no money (*cries in the corners*).

Basically, if you want to go to the extreme business, want more premium offers, have more than two sites and be able to handle loads and loads of traffic, I suggest going for the 2 other options which are GrowBig or GoGeek.

Update: My storage was filled so I had to upgrade to “GrowBig”. So worth it!

CHOOSING YOUR DOMAIN

Next Step is choosing your domain.

It could be anything from your domain on your last free WordPress site or something different. I personally used the one on my old free WordPress site because that name is “GONNA STICK WITH ME FOREVER”.

It’s funny because now that I think of it, I could have added something to make it more personal and easy to remember but oh well, things can’t be reversed. That doesn’t mean I don’t like this name.

REVIEW & BUY

The last step is to buy of course! Add all your personal information like your address, email, phone number etc, review your cost and on you go.

BUT WAIT! What about this?

Oh, I almost forgot about this! (not really) this here is where you need to read carefully and pick your decisions.

Let me explain it to you in simple terms.

Hosting Plan

• Hosting – Plan: You already picked the plan in the beginning (step 1) so you leave it as it is unless you changed your mind on planning to go bigger.
• Hosting – Data Centre: This is where data is collected, distributed and stored. Leave it as it is.
• Hosting – Period: Here is where you can pick a month on whether you want to continue with the hosting or trial it. There is 1 month (trial), 12 months, 24 or 36 months *caution: bills will add up when picking a higher month*

What I suggest is using 12 or 14 months. 1. Because you’re not wasting your money with only 1 month and 2. You’re not sure how long you want to run your blog for.

Extra Services

• Domain Registration: Since you already made your domain, you could leave that as it is.
• Domain Privacy: What this means is that if you don’t have Domain Privacy, your personal information like your address, name, phone number, and other personal info will be available to the whole wide web (public) so I do recommend checking that.
• SG Site Scanner: This is a site scanner where they check and monitor your site for any hackers lurking on trying to hack your site or install codes that you do not want on your site. I personally don’t buy this so if you feel risky on those hackers out there, tick the box. This is only optional.

Get started, it’s cheap and easy to set up!

Conclusion

That’s it! You’ve finally gone through and self host your own website. Now you have the freedom to make your site the way you want to make it.

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~ Ellen