12 Steps To Convert Your Blog From Blogger To Wordpress

These are the 12 steps I applied to convert, move or migrate blog from Blogger to Wordpress:

1. First and foremost, know the benefits of converting your blog from Blogger to Wordpress. See if the benefits worth the conversion for your blog.
2. If you’ve decided to convert your blog or go for Wordpress, signup to have one. If you host your own blog, install the Wordpress blog into a directory other than your existing blog through the Fantastico feature of your web host. If you opt to install Wordpress manually, here is the Wordpress installation guide.
3. After installation, sign in and access your Wordpress admin page. Select the Wordpress template you prefer. The popular templates are those with 2-column and 3-column designs. But, there are so many Wordpress themes or templates that will surely capture your heart.
4. Choose the Wordpress widgets you love. Popular Wordpress widgets include Popular Posts, Recent posts, Recent Comments, Related Posts, Top Commentators, and also the money making widgets. These are only few of the Wordpress widgets that attract readers and make them navigate or participate in your blog discussions.
5. Identify the Wordpress widgets and other blog sections you wanted to appear in your blog. Map these widgets and blog sections in your Wordpress template.
6. Edit the Wordpress template to implement the widgets and other sections in your Wordpress blog. Choose the URL structure your prefer as discussed in my previous post, Top 5 Reasons to Convert Your Blog From Blogger to Wordpress. Test if your final template and design are working properly by clicking the links or navigating it.
7. Before you may import your Blogger blog posts with externally-hosted Wordpress blog, edit first the blogger.php file in /wp-admin/import/. Delete the “2″ in www2.blogger.com.
8. Convert your self-hosted Blogger blog into blogspot in Blogger Admin Settings with any available name. Better do it during the non-peak hours of your blog. When there are less visitors accessing your blog. Then, click Formatting in the Blogger Setting and change the post timestamp into mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss AM/PM, the first option in drop-down menu. After that, click Archiving and set Archive Frequency to “monthly”. Then, import your Blogger blog posts and comments through the import link in your Wordpress blog Admin page. After importing, immediately convert your blogspot blog to its original state. This will minimize the inaccessibility of your original blog.
9. Test your Wordpress blog again but having your own blog posts. Don’t forget to delete the sample post if you’ve not yet done so. Navigate your blog to ensure that everything is fine.
10. If all are OK, backup your old Blogger blog and the new Wordpress blog. Then, edit your Wordpress blog base URL at Options in Admin page. Replace it with your original blog URL, either root or subdirectory. Here’s the details of moving Wordpress blog to another directory.
11. If you original blog is in subdirectory, just change the name of that directory with a new one. Then, rename your Wordpress blog directory with your original blog directory. Then, type your blog URL in your web browser address window. You must be directed to your Wordpress blog.If your original blog is in the root directory, you need to delete your original blog files. To minimize or prevent your original blog being inaccessible, implement a temporary redirection to your Wordpress blog directory prior to deletion. Then, upload your Wordpress blog to the root directory where your original blog is located.
12. Now, type your original blog URL in your web browser address bar and your Wordpress blog should appear. If everything is fine, you may delete or disable your Blogger blog permanently. Search engine robot access to your blog backup directory in your server must be disallowed using robots.txt to prevent duplicate content.