I have recently decided to move my entire Blogger site to the more reputable WordPress platform. The only problem now is that I'm not quite sure how to go about doing the migration process. I would sincerely appreciate any help given here on guiding me in the right direction. For starters here are two basic things I've done thus far :

1) I have bought a domain name
2) I will be using your hosting service

Hopefully, someone here could shed some light on 'a proper step-by-step guide on moving from Blogger to a self hosted Wordpress platform'.

Another concern I have with this move is with regards to the PageRank. Is there any way possible that my current PageRank will be maintained after I'm done with the shifting process (HTTP Status - 301) ?

We'll ignore the PageRank issue for the moment. I doubt there is a lot you can do about it, so I'll suggest you not waste your time thinking about it now.

Migrating from blogger (a hosted blog) to one that you host yourself is quite easy... if you know how.

First thing you must do is install a FTP client on your PC. Do you have such a software installed already?

The second thing you might do is allocate some disk space for your WordPress files (scripts) in your PC. This will allow you to test your modifications on your own PC before uploading them to your web server. I would suggest you maintain the same paths (folders) as they are in your web server. For example if the WordPress files are saved to your web server inside:
/home/dsnihal/domains/example.com/public_html/blog

You may want to create the same folders in your C: drive, for example:
C:\home\dsnihal\domains\example.com\public_html\bl og

Once you get these 2 done, we can proceed with what you need to do next. Let me know.

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Thank you for a speedy reply!

Yes, I have chosen FileZilla Client and downloaded it onto my PC.

Yes, I've downloaded the WordPress 2.5.1 scripts onto my PC.

Yes, these folders have been created in my C: drive as well.

Thank you once again, and awaiting the next step.

OK, now the next step can be a bit complicated but once you learn to do this, you'll be glad you did. What you have to do now is to install a web server in your PC. Since your web site is hosted here, and this server uses Apache (web server), this is what you will install on your PC too.

Go to http://httpd.apache.org/ and download the install files for Windows (Win 32). Today there are 3 versions of the Apache Web Server. Let's focus on getting Apache version 2.0+ installed, ignoring version 2.2+ and version 1.3+.

Look for the link to the file that looks like this: apache_2.0.63-win32-x86-no_ssl.msi

Once the download is complete, install the program and we'll proceed with the next step.

Why do you need to install a web server? You may want to modify Wordpress themes, or even create new ones for your blog. Testing your themes on your PC, without actually uploading the files to your web server, makes the whole process much simpler. You may also wish to add plugins to your blog in the future, and being able to test them out on your PC is wise.

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Had some problems yesterday trying to download the file (Win 32) thru the link at Apache, it wouldn't load. But somehow, today it worked and I've downloaded it onto my PC.

In the course of the download there was an error message that appeared as well ~ Only one usage of each socket address <protocol/network address/port> is normally permitted. No installed service named "Apache2"

Is this normal?

You had an error message while you were downloading the file? That is NOT normal.

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The reason I asked whether this was normal (or a bug) was because, even after the message appeared, I have the Apache Service Monitor up and running. I just hope it doesn't work all funny later on.

But, let's say this is all in the past now and it's not something to worry about, what is the next step I should take now?

Thanks once again.

How do you know the service is up and running? I am asking this because it is (or will be) important for you to know how to figure this out quickly.

At least once, before you go on to the next step, you must visit http://localhost/ and report back with the results. Of course make sure Apache the web server is running before you do this.

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