So, I've had SSFIV for about a month, and have been total garbage until this last few days.
 
The difference? I changed to Bison.
 
Originally, I played Akuma in various Capcom fighters, rather casual. I knew he was powerful, and felt somewhat comfortable with him, so I decided to "main" him in Super 4. Turns out, that was a bad decision. Despite the help of the tutorials by our own delightful LordOfUltima, I kept losing match after match. So, I said "Self, eff Akuma. You can't win with him!" and played with some other characters. After trying Bison, I found his hit-and-run tactics to be quite to my liking, and quickly was beating the internet senseless. Well, when I hit "Same Skill" at least....
 
I think the key thing helping me with Bison is the fact he is a charge character. Down + Back is used for many charge moves, and is also the same position to block. The problem I had with Akuma is that I had played so much Arcade, on relatively easy difficulties, that I had grown so used to constantly moving in. Bison is teaching me how to play defensively. 
 
Try it at home!

Same exact thing happened for me a while ago, I was hovering around 2500ish BP with Makoto because she was my favorite 3s character, yet when I tried playing Chun I was better after like 2 hours.

if you like hit-and-run tactics, try Guy. there are no charge moves but if you keep moving he can be a real bitch to hit. also, his mind game tactics are really good.  
 
but congrats on finding "your" character. it's a magical moment.

Playing charge characters helped me to learn to block better too. Since you always want to have charge as much as you can, conveniently that is also how you block. I reccomend everyone try out a charge character or 2 when they start playing the game. They easy and fun once you get the hang on it.

I did all the character's trials, so I had an idea of the character's combos and maybe how to play them. Then just tried my luck with a load till i found some I like. Watching streams is also good, inspires you to play a character after watching such high level play.  
 
Watching EVO will be good if your indecisive, might see a character that looks awesome to play.

I switched to Dhalsim recently.

I switched to Makoto after playing a lot of Guile and Juri.  I guess I got bored with Guile and Juri not because I win using them (coz I still lose a lot even if I use them), but more of I just think they have moves that are kind of really powerful that I depend on them too much (like Guile's slow sonic booms and Juri's pinwheel kick).  But with Makoto, whenever I use her and I win, I kind of feel this fulfillment that I know she's not the best character in the roster and she's very difficult to use; however, the challenge of actually using her to win makes me feel like the win is a true accomplishment hehehe!

ugh more bisons

I played a lot of Ryu in vanilla SFIV, but I switched to T. Hawk and am doing a lot better for myself. Also, my secondaries have shifted from Balrog and Seth to Vega and Bison. In any case, they are certainly more interesting characters to use than the standard shoto.

I like Ryu and I'll stick with him.

I played Ryu when the game(vanilla) first came out because I wanted to learn how to play the game and thought fireballs were cool. Then I tried Balrog one day and things kind of clicked. Since then I've kind of learned the basics for a majority of the cast but still maining Rog.

Started on Cody until I realized he was garbage, then moved to Fei Long.

Good blog.

I've been maining Bison with some mild success. My win percentage is almost 50% in ranked matched which isn't too bad considering SSFIV is quite literally the first fighting game I've ever seriously played. With that said I can't decide on a second character to get good with; Bison is the only one who feels "right" at the moment. I really like playing Ryu but something about his status as the most popular character keeps me from seriously practicing with him.

Well I main Chun-Li, because she is an great all around. She's got reach, defensive capabilities and a strong offensive.