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Hey, y’all! If you’ve been following along on my blog for a while, you know that I have really enjoyed helping other teachers learn to start their professional blogs to help them achieve whatever goals they may have, whether they’re wanting to become a thought leader in their niche, share ideas with teachers in their area, or to showcase their products to accompany a Teachers Pay Teachers store. In my How to Start a Teacher Blog: The Beginner’s Guide post, I laid out the general steps you would be going through to get your blog up and running. In 3 Reasons Why You Should Have a Self-Hosted Teacher Blog , I explain the importance of starting your blogging journey as a self-hosted blog and the difference between WordPress and Blogger. In this post, I want to show you with screenshots how to get your blog up and running in 15 minutes or less!
By the end of this post, if you follow the steps, you’ll have a host, a domain name and a theme installed! You will just need to customize it to look how you want it to look! In writing this post, I’m assuming you already have a theme picked out. If you don’t, you can still do all of the steps to grab your host and domain name and to install WordPress, and you can finish set-up once you choose a theme (more on that below)!
Are you ready to jump in? I’m so excited for you!
To begin, you will go to Siteground homepage here and click sign up.
Then, you will be prompted to choose your hosting plan. Be sure to review the 3 types of plans to make sure that what you’re purchasing matches up with what your goals are, but if you’re starting a brand new teacher blog, the “Start Up” plan should be fine (that is what I have!).
After you choose your plan, you will be prompted to choose a domain name. To register a domain name, the cost is $14.95/year. If you already have a domain name through another company, choose “I already have a domain” and follow the prompts from there.
Once you choose a domain name that is available, you will be asked to enter your personal information to officially register the domain to you.
Then, you will be asked to choose how you’d like to pay. You can pay for 1 month of hosting (3.95/month with the start-up plan + $14.95 set up fee for the start up plan) to qualify for a “Trial” period and get the 30-day money back guarantee, or you can pay for 12, 24, or 36 months to get free set-up (and not be charged the $14.95). You will also be able to choose if you want any other add-on services.
Congratulations! Now you have a web host and domain name!
All you have to do now is set up your blog. Begin by selecting “Start a New Website”.
Then, indicate the type of site you need. If you’re looking to set up a teacher blog, like mine, then you’ll select “Personal/Blog” and “WordPress”.
Now, you have to choose your WordPress log-in credentials. Your username and password should be something you can remember since this is what you’ll be using daily to log in to blog!
YAY! WordPress is installed! You will want to bookmark the ADMIN URL that you’re given. In this pic, I’m pointing to where your specific ADMIN URL is. This is the URL you will go to to login to WordPress and see the “back end” of your site. Go ahead and go to this site.
Now is the fun part! Once you’ve gone to the ADMIN URL that you were given, you will see your WordPress dashboard! The only thing you have to do now is install your theme! If you don’t have a theme and want to browse for a while, come back to this step later to install your theme.
Your theme is the look/feel/layout of your blog, so you want to find a layout that you really like. You can find themes via WordPress, or you can “blog stalk” other blogs you enjoy to try to find the layout they have, or at least elements they all have in common that you may want to have on yours. To find out the specific theme other bloggers are using, scroll to the footer of their blog and it should be listed. Then, you can just Google that theme to find how to get it 🙂 Many other bloggers I have talked with have also used Etsy to find themes, or have purchased one from Georgia Lou Studios (I have their Felicity theme!)
To install a theme, click “Appearance” and “Themes”.
Click “Add New Theme” if you’re going to choose a different one via WordPress or upload your own.
To upload your own, choose “upload theme” and choose a file from your computer. Again, this option assumes that you’ve gotten a theme elsewhere and have already downloaded it to your computer. If you haven’t yet, come back to this step when you’re ready!
Once you upload your theme, you will be taken to an “Installing theme” page that will tell you if your theme is installed successfully. All you have to do now is customize! You can begin customizing by clicking “Live Preview”.
On the left hand side of the page, you should see options to begin playing with to change the look of your blog (fonts/colors, etc.). On the right, should be a “live preview” of changes you’re making so you can see them in real time. Once you’re finished, or just want to save changes to take a break, click “Activate and Publish” and everything is saved! To come back and customize, you will follow the same steps from the Dashboard page (Appearance > Themes)
Congratulations! At this point, you now have a blog! Please reach out to me with any questions you may have and send me your brand new blog name in the comments! I’d love to follow along!
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