Export your ghost.org Blog and import to Substack
Switching from Ghost to Substack is made easy with this step-by-step guide. Learn how to export your content, including subscriber-only posts, tweak your URLs, and import everything into Substack effortlessly. Enhance your blogging experience by leveraging the strengths of both platforms. Happy b...
Substack has some compelling advantages. This guide outlines a simple, step-by-step process to export your content from Ghost and import it into Substack. In this blog post, I will show you how you can do this in just a few clicks, even if some of your blog posts are only visible to subscribers.
If you have content that is visible only to subscribers, Substack won’t be able to import it. For this, you need to export the content to a file and import it into Substack. Now upload the file we exported earlier in the ghost.org admin UI.
Step 1: Open the export dialog
Open the export dialog
Step 2: Export your blog content
Click the export content button to export the blog content to a file
Step 3: Replace __GHOST\_URL__ in the exported file
Before we proceed with this file, there is one tweak you need: replace all occurrences of __GHOST\_URL__ with the complete URL of your blog. For example, use https://<your blog.com> (no leading slash!).
Step 4: Import into Substack
Now head to the import section of Substack and select Import posts.
When prompted, enter the URL of your ghost.org blog and click Next.
If you have content that is visible only to subscribers, Substack won't be able to import it. For this, you need to export the content to a file and import it into Substack. Now upload the file we exported earlier in the ghost.org admin UI.
Now select the file and make sure to select the checkboxes as described below.
Please note that importing multiple times will probably cause duplication of posts in your Substack account. To avoid that, you might need to delete the post archive of all posts. There is a button for that in the danger zone
Step 5: Finalize the import
Now hit the Import button.
The import might take a while, depending on the number of posts you have.
Please also note that images and posts might not appear immediately. In my previous import, all the posts were complete by the next day.
Now you can enjoy the power of both platforms and increase your reach.
Happy blogging!
