Moving From Markdown+Hugo to Notion+NextJS

date
Dec 2, 2022
slug
move-notion-nextjs
status
Published
tags
Tech
summary
After years of using markdown and Hugo, I decided to switch to using Notion and NextJS for writing and publishing my website.
type
Post
After years of writing my blog in markdown and publishing it with Hugo, I have recently decided to switch to using Notion and NextJS. In this blog post, I want to share my experience and explain why I made this switch.

Pain Point

One of the biggest pain points with using markdown and Hugo was that I couldn't easily add images to my blog posts. I had to upload the images separately and then insert them into my markdown files using the appropriate syntax. This was time-consuming and painful, and it often resulted in broken links and missing images. With Notion, I can simply drag and drop an image into my blog post, and it will be automatically uploaded and inserted into the right place. This makes it much easier and more intuitive to add images to my blog posts.

Why Notion

One of the main reasons I decided to switch to Notion is because of its rich formatting options. Unlike markdown, which is a simple and plain text-based format, Notion allows me to add formatting, images, videos, and other rich media to my blog posts. This makes my writing more engaging and visually appealing, and allows me to express my ideas in a more creative and effective way.
Another advantage of using Notion is its ability to collaborate with other people. With markdown, I had to send my blog posts to other people as plain text files, which they would then have to edit and send back to me. This was a cumbersome and error-prone process. With Notion, I can share my blog posts with other people and work on them together in real-time. This makes it easier for me to get feedback and suggestions from other writers, and to improve the quality of my blog posts.

Why NextJS

In addition to the benefits of using Notion for writing, I also decided to switch to NextJS for publishing my blog.
One of the coolest features of NextJS is its support for Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR). This means that when I write a new blog post in Notion, NextJS will automatically detect the change and update the corresponding static page on my blog without me having to manually push a new commit to Git and rebuild the website. This allows me to write and publish blog posts quickly and easily, without having to worry about the technical details of building and deploying my blog.
Craigary on GitHub has a great template to get started: Nobelium

Migration Challenge

I have not finished migrating all of my old blog posts yet, so for now, they are still available on my subdomain https://hugo.augusteo.com
Moving from markdown and Hugo to Notion and NextJS was not without challenges.
The biggest challenge I am facing now is migrating my old blog posts from markdown to Notion.
This involves converting the markdown files to Notion pages, preserving the formatting and images, and organizing them into a logical structure.
Let’s see how it goes.
 

© Victor Augusteo 2021 - 2024