Here are 8 simple steps to ensure a smooth transition from a Blogger blog to a WordPress blog. This post assumes that you already have a domain name (myblog.com) and web host (one of the several out there : GoDaddy, Blue Host, DreamHost etc.)

1. Install WordPress: On some hosts (like BlueHost), installing can be a one-click step, simple and easy. I recommend that you start off with the default theme which comes with a WordPress Install, which is currently twenty-ten/twenty-eleven. Once you have all the details you can always go experiment with a new cooler theme (not that twenty-eleven is not cool enough). Another thing to consider is where to install WordPress : at root level or in a subdomain. If you are going to be running more than one blog, better to create a subdomain instead of installing at the root level. This gives you the freedom to later to do other stuff in other subdomains and still differentiate one from the other. Note that most subdomains are mapped to subdirectories. For example, assuming your domain is “myblog.com”, your subdomains could be :
   • Research.myblog.com (physical location : myblog.com/research)
   • Hobbies.myblog.com (physical location : myblog.com/hobbies)
2. Change to pretty permalinks : This lets you match the blog structure of your old Blogger posts, and helps in forwarding old links to their new locations. Go to Settings->Permalinks->Custom and enter

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

3. Move your posts from Blogger to WordPress. A useful plugin here is the Import plugin. Once you install it and activate it, you can import via Manage->Import tool. This will import text, images and comments. But it may not import labels, so if you have your posts labeled specifically you might have some more work here. When posts are imported, they all get published with the default category “Uncategorized”. If you do wish to change that default category, and you probably would, change it before you import your posts. Go to Settings->Writing->Default Post Category and change it to your preferred category.
4. Import your posts : In the Import plugin, there is an “Import from Blogger” option, but that may not work for too many posts, or those with special html (like embedded images, videos etc.). A more reliable way from my experience is this:
   • Login to your Blogger account, and export your blog.
   • This gives you an xml file to download. Download and save and give it a descriptive name, say : myoldblog.xml
   • Next upload this file to http://blogger2wordpress.appspot.com/ . This is a utility that converts your blogger xml to WordPress xml.
   • This will give you a file of the type : “myoldblog_wxr.xml”
   • Now upload it to your WordPress install, from Manage->Import->Wordpress File

   If you now go to Post in your Admin Panel, you should see all your posts, with images and comments, and categorized to default category.If you now wish to reassign categories, download the “Batch Cat” plugin. This will, upon activation, let you assign/unassign categories a batch at a time – you can specify the size of the batch.

5. Update your feed : Assuming you use FeedBurner, all your subscribers are currently subscribed to :
   • feeds.feedburner.com/myoldblog

   You would ideally like to not have your subscribers switch feeds. To do that login to your feedburner account, and edit your feed details. Change Original feed to specify the location you new feed, which will probably be :

   • http://myblog.com/feed
     This means that your feed is still located at the same address, but is updated to use the new content at myblog.com.
6. Redirect readers from your old blog to the new one. Login to Blogger. Go to Settings->Publishing. Click Custom Domain, and enter the URL your new blog. Save. Now everything that was at :
   • Oldblog.blogspot.com

   Will redirect to :

   • Myblog.com
7. Ensure that redirection works for older links : If you’ve setup your permalinks right then every page should redirect to it’s correct counterpart, ie;
   • Oldblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/this-thing-I-wrote.html

   Should redirect to

   • Myblog.com/2008/05/this-thing-I-wrote.html

   If your blog is in a sub-domain there is an extra wrinkle. So let’s say that you wish to redirect from

   • Oldblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/myreview.html

   To

   • Hobbies.myblog.com/2008/06/myreview.html

   Now being a subdomain, your blog is actually physically hosted at

   • Myblog.com/hobbies

   So the actual path to that would be :

   • Myblog.com/hobbies/2008/06/myreview.com

   Unfortunately blogger will not let you publish to a subdomain (Step #6) , so it will redirect to hobbies.myblog.com/myreview.com which does not exist. You will have to handle this in your new blog. Assuming you’re using Apache, you can do this via a rewrite rule . Example :
   # RewriteEngine on
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^hobbies.myblog.com$ [OR]
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.hobbies.myblog.com$
# RewriteRule ^/?$ "http\:\/\/myblog\.com\/hobbies" [R=301,L]

   Note that Blogger will show an extra page to readers to let them know that they are being redirected to a custom non-Blogger website. A little nasty but Blogger does not allow 301 (Moved Permanently) redirects. I can sort of understand why they don’t do this, but still nasty.
   There is also an alternative to the above method, and that is via the meta refresh, but the meta refresh is not supposed to be as SEO friendly. Both methods are 200 Redirects, which are not the same as 301 Redirects. 301 Redirects permit a seamless move which does not hurt your search rankings, while 200 Redirects do, in my experience.
   Also there is a very useful plugin call Redirection. Download and activate it and use it to redirect custom URLs, like those of static pages.

8. All done ! Once all this is done, your blog should be up and running and you can now switch themes, and add useful widgets like Outbrain, Twitter to your blog. Remember to update your blogrolls. Do not delete your old blog. Although you cannot view it anymore via the Web, it still available for you to log into.

You are all set! In your new blog, add a sticky post or header welcoming old readers to your new location.

While moving I looked around on the net and found these very useful posts – here they are for your reference :

• The Ultimate Guide to Migrating from Blogger to WordPress
• ScriptyGoddess : How to redirect to a subdomain