I started blogging with Blogger. Why? It’s a free service, it can be easily navigated and customized by someone as non-techie as me. However, like most bloggers who have grown to be serious about blogging, I wanted to have more flexibility so I decided to switch to WordPress blogging.

WordPress blogs are more flexible and customizable, it is search engine friendly and it has a large support community as well as lots of add-ons like plugins and themes to make your blog better.

Don’t get me wrong, Blogger is a great free service but if you have your own domain, consider moving on to WordPress.At first I was hesitant to make the transfer because I thought installation and its management is complicated and I feared losing Pagerank, traffic as well as the permalink structure of my Blogger blog.

With the launch of WordPress 2.2 though, IMPORTING from other blogging platforms have been seamlessly integrated already with WordPress.I have successfully managed to transfer one of my previously Blogger hosted blog, CelebrityAdsOnline to WordPress and this a guide on how transferring from Blogger to WordPress.

1. Get your own domain and your host. Change your NameServers and use the one’s specified by your new host. Domain propagation would take a few hours.

2. Install WordPress. Most web hosts include WordPress in their control panels. Login to your Cpanel, select FANTASTICO, select WORDPRESS, click on new installation. Fill in the required data and voila! your new wordpress is installed. If your host doesn’t include WORDPRESS in their easy install menu, you have to manually install it. Don’t despair though, WordPress CODEX has a step-by-step guide for that.

3. Fix your PERMALINKS structure. LOGIN to your WORDPRESS (admin page is usually at www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin).

Go to OPTIONS > PERMALINKS > select CUSTOM and enter the following values:

/%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%.html

We have to change your permalinks structure to match the post structure of your Blogger blog so you have less broken links and redirects.

4. Import your Blogger posts and comments. In your WORDPRESS dashboard:

Go to MANAGE > IMPORT > Select BLOGGER on the list.

You will be taken to authorization page where you will be required to sign in to your Google account.

This is how the authorization page would look like…

Once you have logged-in to your Google account your Blogger blogs will be listed on the Import page. Choose which blog you want to move and click on the IMPORT button.

You will be able to view how many posts and comments have been imported to your new WordPress blog.

5. Check your imported posts. Some of the links might be broken. This is because Blogger and WordPress convert post titles to URL’s in different ways. But this can be fixed using WordPress plugins like Redirection or Blogger Redirector.

6. Remember to transfer your feed. Check your feedburner guide for transfer steps.

IF YOU EXPERIENCE SOME GLITCHES, like I did, when I reached the import page and only one post could be imported and I waited for a couple of hours and the import did not proceed, here what I did:

I imported my Blogger blog first to a WORDPRESS.COM blog, then I exported the XML from WORDPRESS.COM to my SELF-HOSTED WORDPRESS blog. Here’s the step by step guide:

1. Register a new blog in WORDPRESS.COM.

2. In the WORDPRESS.COM dashboard, go to TOOLS > IMPORT > BLOGGER then follow the steps to transferring your posts and comments.

3. Once you are done with importing, go to TOOLS > EXPORT then download the XML file to your computer.

4. Now, LOGIN to your new SELF-HOSTED WORDPRESS blog, then go to TOOLS > IMPORT > select WORDPRESS and upload the XML file you have downloaded in Step 3.

5. Now you’re done with the transfer!

Some more pointers..

1. If you have uploaded images to your Blogger account, this would not be imported to your WordPress blog. You have to manually upload them, consider getting an account with Photobucket, Flickr or other free photo sharing service.

2. Your sidebar links, widgets, layouts and other blog add-ons will also not be included in the import. You have to customize the look and functionalities of your blog from scratch. Don’t worry though, you won’t get lost. WordPress Support forum has a lot of guides in customization.

3. Do check out your tags and categories. Your tags will be imported as categories so it might look daunting at first especially if you have already made a lot of posts. You have to manually change and reorganize your tags and categories but it would all be worth the effort.

4. Have fun playing with your new WordPress blog! It may be nerve-wracking at first and time-consuming but it’s a great learning experience for new WordPress bloggers. There are also plenty of resources for you to check out so you can come out with an awesome WordPress blog.

For plugins, visit WordPress Plugins. I personally recommend the following plugins:
Google Sitemap Generator,
Wordpress Automatic Upgrade,
Bad Behavior (I hate spam! ),
Adman,
CommentLuv,
Maintenance Mode,
Do-Follow,
Wordpress Related Posts,
Wordpress Stats,
WP-Contact Form.
The plugins available are really extensive so take your pick on which would best suit your blog needs.

For WordPress themes, you can go layout crazy with countless theme choices.

For more tips and guides, do visit the WordPress Forum.