Risks in changing to custom domain

I think you should wait.

Wait for what P?

I am also going to go for custom domain, 

weigh all pros n cons. n then only. you have put a good thread here.

Yes, trying to do that. One thing is for sure... it improves page rank

I've already went to custom domain  (from progamist.blogspot.com to progamist.com)... Anything happened??? NO!!!

So dear you're saying I can go ahead and nothing changes?

My experience... That's it.. nothing else... My alexa and google ranking's improved after that!!!

Yupp, I read it somewhere and that's why looking for a custom domain

Go for it :)

You can shift from Blogger to a Self hosted blogs without affecting your search engine ranking. Do some googling, with a little bit effort you can do it by yourself else hire some experts. They will charge around 50$ but do the complete migration. I can do the migration but, the paucity of time stops me however if you want I can suggest some experts.

Thanks Sujith, please let us know the names

$10 per year...

Ya shubham, I know that. On blogger

thanks sujith ji, domain name registration charge + annual charge they take., i wanted to know of overall charge incurred on it. per annum, is there discount fr group purchase 

• What happens to my design and existing posts? Is it retained or do I need to re-work all over.
• Does blogger still allow me to change design using its XML part?

i am sure these two keep same!

I'll get back to u abt the rest

Thanks Gaurav, waiting:)

A wordpress plugin is available to make the migration process easier. This is the plugin link

I don't know about blogger, but I recently shifted from WordPress.com ( http://manavdhiman.wordpress.com  ) to self-hosted WordPress.org (  http://manavdhiman.com ).

Didn't have any problem. Imported all my old posts. But had to re-register my blog's feed. But it's worth the effort man. 

Animesh this is nice topic thanks i m learning all this!  I don't know much abt that

same here!.. even i'm learning!

My observation is, should have clear objective, changing to any media or domain is not related to increasing your popularity. It is readers perception about you, gives you popularity, many of them wants to promote there presence by visiting to your blog, just like I am doing ? ? ? 

simply add custom domain to blogger old users will still  be able to come usingh older blog address

1)Your subscriber stay on your feedburner list no issues

2) Design will remain or go depending on your choice 

3)There wont be any issue , just go ahed its just a 5 min task trust me .

a)Take a backup of your posts in an XML file (automatic option within blogger dashboard) 

b)Install your blog , on WP / blogger whichever platform you want , i would advice WP is better .

3)Goto Import options in dashboard >> browse for the file we created in step a) and import it!

All your posts will get transferred to your new site with their original date / comments and everything .

Once the posts are moved , use a 301 redirect so all your post urls will be mapped from something.blogspot.com/your-article to something.com/your-article . this is the only critical step . It will tell the search engines that you have shifted the blog permanently and they will 'learn' the new IP and accordingly credit you with all your backlinks and your PR will be retained .

PS : Your blog is already migrated at step 3) ,  the 301 redirect is an additional step to make sure you will not lose rankings and backlinks and its a way to notify the search engines that there is a permanent redirect. thats the only difference ;) 

Tell me how it went .

Not prepared as in ? I saw that you scared Animesh too ;) What are your apprehensions ?

Nw that depends on what you expect out of your blog and what you blog for .

@subham - It will not cost 10 $ universally buddy :D It will cost around and above 100$ per year if you move to wordpress . Unless you find a benevolent friend who is willing to host your sites files on his server :D 

Shubham, thanks for comprehensive info. One more query, why is everybody so insistent on WP? How is it different from Blogger?

@Animesh: You'll know once you use it!  

:) Right, but some insight will help taking the decision as I see there are cost complications

This may help you take your decision. :)

http://heartifb.com/2011/01/21/hoping-on-the-blog-bandwagon-why-you-should-be-a-wordpress-org-groupie/

Animesh, you can test try creating yourself a wordpress.com blog and try it for a few days. am sure you will find a better and much user friendly UI.

Ok, help a dummy here:  Bought the domain, have blog what next ?

Want to migrate the current content to the domain I bought. the current content is at  

http://kidsandcar.blogspot.com/

Well.. I moved into a self hosted site some time back last year. Never was much of an issue, instead its pretty interesting when you can tweak around anything you wish too :-) play with the coding, edit css et al. 

• What happens to my existing subscribers and followers?

>> Well, redirect the site url and the feed. Nothing will be affected. Or else what you can do is add a sticky post to the old site, notifying the change of adress.

• What happens to my design and existing posts? Is it retained or do I need to re-work all over.

>>  Might change, as per my understanding goes if you keep the platform same (wordpress to wordpress) you will have a chance to use the same templates. However I would advice tweak the design/template as much as you can. Its yours totally.

• Does blogger still allow me to change design using its XML part?

>> No idea on this mate, never used blogger much. 

• I have my feed on feedburner. What happens to it? Do I need to re-register or it automatically starts getting feeds from my custom domain?

>>  i guess u can just regenerate the feed url and bingo!

• What happens to my Alexa and Google page-ranks?

>> Mine was affected, from a GPR 2 it went down to 0. I might have missed out on something. I used a different migration strategy, migrated the the 150 odd posts on a monthly basis, might be becuase of that.

• Any other issue which might crop up post I shift to custom domain?

Nopes, not all. It will go about smoothly, go for it, it feels nice to a domain of your own. btw, you planning to go for WP or Blogger?