R1) There are a plenty of sites out there which will provide you with resources to find a host for your site. It would be a good idea at how much bandwidth you need as well as Disc space, Keep in mind, If you plan to host images off the same server as your Web site, then you'll need additional disc space for those images, and enough bandwidth as well.
R2) Unless you've disabled the "Cloaking" option within the GoDaddy Domain Control Centre then you shouldn't have a problem. There is the possibility that permalinks on your WordPress.com blog could be broken, Due to the fact that the domain will no longer direct to "yourwpcomblog.wordpress.com" and instead direct to yourexample.co.uk/date/postname
R3) The WordPress team has recently (within the last few days) rolled out the new WordPress Theme Viewer on the WordPress.org domain. There isn't currently a huge selection of themes, but the ones that are there are top-notch. This should become less of a problem as time progresses.
R4) Most features like multiple authors are included with the "core" (If you will.) WordPress install. Things like the tracking of Traffic data can be added on with any one of the many available plugins which can be downloaded from the WordPress.org Plugin Directory. One allows you to use the same WordPress.com Traffic system used here on WordPress.com
R5) Really, The entire process is quite simple. You simply need to use GoDaddy to change the Nameservers of your domain to those of your new host. Your new hosting provider should provide a guide to doing this procedure. But if they don't, You could search for something like "changing godaddy nameservers" in Google. As I mentioned above, I would recommend looking around for a host. Don't just automatically think that the hosting you'll be getting from GoDaddy or your Domain Registrar (like 123-reg or any others out there.) is the best you can get due to the fact that they are your "domain registrar"
I think you'll have better overall luck using the forums over at WordPress.org, as they'll be able to provide you with more help with "making the jump" to self-hosted WordPress installs. You won't "loose all your visitors" when making the move, Unless you choose to remove your current WordPress.com blog. I would rather suggest keeping your current WordPress.com blog up but changing the Privacy settings as for it not to show up in google. This won't cause your new exampledomain.co.uk (or .com) domain from showing up in google, But just the you.wordpress.com domain, Which could cause some SEO problems. To give you an idea the entire process kind-of goes like this:
1) You search around and find a new host.
2) Get an account with the new host
3) Export your current WordPress.com posts, categories and such. (Using the "Export" tab within your WordPress Dashboard.)
4) Change the Nameservers to those of your new host (example: ns1.host.co.uk)
5) Install WordPress on your new host. (upload wordpress, create a new SQL DB etc.)
6) Import your posts and such using the "Import" tab in your new Dashboard.
Those are most of the steps required to move your site. They sound a bit intimidating but they are fine once you actually go through the entire process, and your better off moving now while your site is "smaller" then later when your site has a large amount of views, and downtime could be negative to your visitors. Again, WordPress.org has an entire forum dedicated to getting your wordpress.org self-hosted blog up and running and searching for a host etc.
Hopefully this helps.
-Donald Kelly (donaldkelly.co.uk)
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