How to Move From Blogger to WordPress

Many first time bloggers start out with a free blog from Google’s Blogger service. But somewhere along the way, they decide that a third party hosted blog is just not cutting for them and decide to move to their own domain where they have more control over their website.

While fairly easy, switching from one blog platform to another does require a little bit of work and effort. Here are the steps you need to take to successfully move your blog from Blogger to a self hosted installation of WordPress.

How to Import Your Posts From Blogger to WordPress

So you’ve been using Google’s Blogger and have decided that maybe it’s time you got your own place on net. Or you have thought about moving for awhile but just haven’t gotten around to it because the thought of manually transferring each post from your Blogger blog to your WordPress blog makes you want to curl up into a fetal position and suck you thumb.

Well don’t fret. WordPress makes it easy to switch to your own hosted site. All you need to do is get WordPress installed on your website and then follow these easy steps to import your posts from your Blogger blog to your WordPress blog.

How To Install WordPress

WordPress is notorious for being simple and easy to install which contributed greatly to its popularity amongst bloggers. While the install itself takes only five minutes (literally) there are a couple of things you need to do prior to installing WordPress to make sure things go smoothly.

How to Buy a Domain Name

A domain name is your address on the web similar to the street address of your house. Just as you can pretty much live wherever you want, you can register any domain name you want provided that the name is not already being used by someone else.

While there are no hard and fast rules to choosing a domain name, for maximum effectiveness, I do recommend keeping these tips in mind when buying one.

How to Set Up a MySQL Database

Most blog software, such as WordPress or TextPattern, will require that you set up a MySQL database in which to store all of your posts. When you sign up for web hosting, your web host will provide you with an administration panel (usually located at http://www.yourdomain.com/cpanel) where you can set up the different parts of your website. The only backend I’ve ever used has been Cpanel so if you are using something else then you’ll need to consult your web host for the equivalent functions.

For Newbs: Blogging Tools

While you could go your whole blogging career without using any of these tools, you will soon find that these tools will make life a little easier (and maybe a little more interesting) for you.
Traffic Counters

Traffic counters keep track who visits your blog. These counters range in complexity and usefulness. The simple ones only count the number of people who visit your blog while the more comprehensive ones will tell you how they found your site, how long they hung around and even what pages they looked at. This information allows you to see what content on your blog is drawing in the traffic and tailor your blog accordingly.

Most bloggers use Sitemeter, Statcounter or Google Analytics. All three are free, easy to use and offer detailed information about your website’s traffic.

For Newbs: What to Blog About

As mentioned several times before, it is important to understand your motivations for blogging because those motivations will influence your decisions on how to best position your blog for success. Blogging for money requires a different strategy than using a blog as a medium for socializing.

For Newbs: How to Start Blogging

The only things you absolutely need to start blogging are time, inspiration and a blog. In this article, I will discuss the pros and cons of two options for getting your blog online.
Blog Providers vs. Self-Hosting

The fastest, easiest and cheapest way to get a blog is to sign up with a blog provider such as Blogger.com, WordPress.com or Vox. With these types of providers, everything is done for you. The software is installed, the blog is set up and many have a variety of themes to choose from so you can personalize your blog a bit. The only thing you need to do is start writing.

While this may seem like an ideal option, there are several drawbacks to third party blog hosting:

For Newbs: How To Blog

The official definition of a blog is that it is an interactive Internet journal in which entries are published in reverse chronological order. The term “blog” is the short version of the word “weblog” which was first coined by Jorn Barger in December 1997 and was soon after shortened to the well known version by Peter Merholz of peterme.com.

Brian E. Redman created the first blog when he started up his Usenet group mod.ber. In this group, Brian and his friends wrote about the interesting things they found while surfing the Internet. It wasn’t long before the novelty of this new media format caught on and people, like Justin Hall, began using it to share their daily lives with others in the web world. Like a small country town suddenly exploding into a metropolitan city, blogging has since evolved from being a hobby of the uber geeks into a public megaphone for anyone with access to a computer and an Internet connection.