What will I need to upgrade my Macbook Pro's HDD to an SSD?

I wanted to know what I would need in order to upgrade my early 2011 Macbook Pro's HDD to an SSD. What should I consider before making the change from an HDD to an SSD? Also what are the pros and cons to making this change - excluding the price of the drive of course.
I have read in some places that changing form an HDD to an SSD will reduce battery life but I am getting mixed information about this because some articles say how it actually improves batterly life.
I also read that a lot of SSDs are incompatible with Macbook Pros and so it worries me that I would invest this much money for no reason. Another thing I am uncertain about is what SATA to get, I believe the early 2011 MBP has SATA III, but I've read that the SSDs don't perform at SATA III speeds.
In short, I don't know much about the specifications, but if you guys can elaborate on them and suggest the right thing to do would be great. Also, what kind of kits or seperate parts would I need beside the actual SSD to do this upgrade.
Thanks in advance.

Another thought about cloning to an SSD.
I've done my fair share of cloning to new drives to only later sanitize (zero out) it and do a fresh install.  I think cloning is a great alternative for Mac OS's 10.6.X and below, but for 10.7X and above A fresh install is MY preferred choice. 
As Bimmer mentioned "if you have unresolved issues with your Macbook, that gets copied over to your new drive when you do a clone...".
Sure it takes a little longer but you'll feel better in the end.  When you take out the OLD drive save it for a few weeks after installing the NEW drive (SSD) just to make sure your new drive is working properly.  That way if the new drive fail just swap them back.
Get all your ducks in a row before you start. 
1.  Solid backup
2.  Boot disk Snow Leopard and below or Boot USB drive with Lion or Mountain Lion
3.  Fast Internet connection, either LAN (fastest) or WAN (will work)
I'm willing to walk you through it and sure Bimmer will do the same.  Just let us know when your ready, hopefully you have a second computer to commutate.
Good Luck!

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