Little by little, I am evaluating the Smaug's hoard of self-publishing advice out there in the wide world and cherry-picking the tips that make sense (to me, at least). I'm finally getting around to transitioning from Blogger to self-hosting. I had no beef with Blogger. It just seems the logical next step in my journey as a self-published author to graduate to self-hosting as well.
Here's the upshot: I watched Jane Friedman's video on how to transition to self-hosting and followed her instructions. Unfortunately, a few things have changed in the process since she posted the video, and I wish I had a take-back on one or two of the steps that caused me some angst before they sorted themselves out. The main thing you might want to consider is to just point your domain to Bluehost instead of transferring it. In hindsight, it seems a little easier. But I wanted to be free and clear of Go Daddy, where my domain had originated many years ago, because the whole elephant hunting thing really rankled and I was looking for an excuse to stop doing business with them. I won't bore you with the tech nerd details, but if you want those details, reach out to me in the comments.
I'm still in the honeymoon phase of learning a new interface. I've always been a DIY fiend and tinkering around with customizing this site is loads of fun for me. But I need to set some boundaries on the tinkering since November is fast approaching and I will be participating in NaNoWriMo again. I expect I will futz around with the theme options indefinitely. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Also if you have any comments about your experience with Bluehost or WordPress, chime in. I look forward to hearing from you.