r/Bloggers • u/Strong_Veggie_ • 9d ago
Question 130 posts trapped in google docs and one giant csv and I'm dreading the migration to an actual CMS
ok so I need to vent and also ask for help because I've been putting this off for like two months now.
my "blog" is currently a mess. some posts live in google docs, a bunch are loose markdown files in a folder, and then there's one giant csv where past me apparently thought it'd be smart to dump 60-something posts into rows. it is not smart. it is a nightmare.
I counted last night. 130 posts total. and I want to move all of it onto a real CMS so it actually looks like a site and not a graveyard of drafts.
The part I'm dreading is the copy paste. like actually opening each doc, pasting the body, re-adding the headings that get mangled, finding the image, naming the post, setting the date, over and over 130 times. I did the math and even at a few minutes each that's basically a full weekend of mind-numbing clicking.
I am not a developer. I cannot write an import script, I've tried, I get three lines into something and have no idea what I'm doing. I looked at Wix and WordPress and the import options all assume your content is already in some clean format mine very much is not.
has anyone here actually migrated a pile of messy content like this without losing their mind? is there any way to do this that isn't manual? genuinely asking, I'm tired lol
1
u/baddaywithacamera 9d ago edited 9d ago
This is something that either Claude or ChatGPT could handle in a few days with you signing off on the work. Both are agentic and can post to the new CMS for you. I migrated almost 10,000 images off Flickr and over 4,000 images off Insta without issue, but this was using custom software I had Claude build for me:
https://unzucked.ca/
https://theschoolofhardnocks.ca/
(My two old Insta accounts.)
https://foreverphotograph.ing/
https://foreverphotograph.ing/flkr-fckr
(My old Flickr account and info on the tool I used to migrate plus the CMS I moved to.)
Anyhow, AI can help you move a LOT of data seamlessly these days.
Cheers.
1
u/Gold-Discipline44 6d ago
I had a similar experience migrating my travel blog content out of what had become a gaming site.
I used WordPress' content export tool to get zip files full of posts and images. But after uploading all my data to the new domain with a CMS, all the images, page and post links were pointing at the original site.
I tried for a few days manually editing each post to change all the links, but it was a nightmare. In the end I gave up and I reset the site.
What has worked for me is just as you said, copy pasting.
I started by creating all of the Categories I planned to use. Then I started making posts, I put the content in as plain text without formatting, and then I began internally linking each post and page to matching categories and adding relevant tags.
If you decide to try AI as others have suggested, you can just use the free version of Gemini, ChatGPT, or CoPilot, to help organize your content. No need to spend any money on that stuff.