I Think It’s Safe To Say Most Content Creators Are Using AI For Content Creation These Days.
But I thought I’d go deeper, specifically, with how I’m using it.
There are a few different ‘camps’ when it comes to AI and some of them are totally over my head.
In other words, I’m not sure that I really care how it works, what LLMs are doing, which companies have completed a new round of billions of dollars invested, or whether Nvidia or AMD is producing more chips.
All I care about is how I can use it in my business to do one of two things (I’ll go deeper with each of these below):
Get clarity and create
Cut down the time it takes to complete things
I haven’t gotten into much in terms of automations or having AI do tasks I don’t want to do, but that’s mainly because I don’t have a significant need for it right now.
My primary focus with AI right now is on using it for content creation.
I write all of my podcasts, blog posts, and emails. In other words, none of this is generated by AI (probably obvious, but you know what they say about assuming).
I’ve created one post with the help of AI (you can read that here) because I wanted to test creating an outline, seeing what the output was, and then adjusting from there. It was a good experience and process, and I’ll use it again for a couple of more in-depth tutorial posts I’m working on.
For example:
I’m in the process of moving from ConvertKit to beehiiv (at the time of writing this post).
As beehiiv continues to grow, I know a lot more people will be making this move, and I think it’s a great way to get traffic to the site, attract new subscribers (people making this move are definitely my target market), and make some affiliate commissions along the way.
Here’s the prompt I used to start this post:
Good afternoon! I’d love your help writing an epic blog post (that I’ll create a video for as well) on the process of moving an email list, subscribers, newsletter, and automations from ConvertKit to beehiiv. Is this something you can help me with? I want this to be super clear, easy to understand and highly optimized for SEO. I’ll convert the blog post into a PDF that people can download as well. What do you need from me to get started?
By the way, that’s one of my favorite ways to start a conversation with ChatGPT (yes, I call them conversations).
I give simple context about what I want to accomplish, then ask what it needs from me to get started to accomplish what I’ve asked for.
I don’t want to get into the weeds with detailed prompts (I think I may start doing some video on this), but I want to give you an example of how I’m using it) – but the initial question of “what do you need from me” will help you get the best result possible.
OK, let’s look at the first of the two bullets I mentioned first.
Using AI For Content Creation To Gain Clarity And Create
First, I treat ChatGPT (or Chatty as I call her) as more of a partner than a tool, which is why I write in a conversational manner as opposed to simply imputing prompts.
I find the entire process way more enjoyable, and the relational nature works for my brain. So, I talk to ChatGPT rather than dictating to it.
Here are a handful of things I’ve used ChatGPT/AI for this week for clarity and creating content (btw, I use ClaudeAI and have started playing with Gemini. I tend to default to ChatGPT out of habit more than anything).
Images: I LOVE using DALL-E inside of ChatGPT. I’m publishing regularly (aiming for daily) on Medium and will create a unique image with DALL-E. I stick with illustration-style images and tend to go for a Pixar look (I have to entertain the kid in me somehow).
Lead Magnet: I’m running ads on Facebook via Laurel Portié’s teaching and need to come up with a new lead magnet (she calls them value bombs). My videos are performing well, but no one is asking for the lead magnet. I took my Everything is Content ‘playbook’ (the original 5-part series), uploaded it, and worked with ChatGPT to turn it into something that was more of a workbook.
Once I validate that people want this, I’ll add it to my site and integrate it into the welcome sequence for my newsletter.
Content plan for a client, based on an SEO Ahrefs report: This was pretty genius if I say so myself. I manage content and social for one client. A friend ran an SEO report for me (I don’t have a paid Ahrefs account), so I uploaded the report and asked Chatty to give me 20 blog post ideas based on keywords and a detailed social plan (the prompt was a little more in-depth than that, but you get the idea).
Social Media post for LinkedIn: I’ll share more on LinkedIn later (I never thought I’d enjoy that platform, but there is a LOT of opportunity there!)- but I had a hook from a LinkedIn tool (tools below), and asked for help writing a post and bullets for the hook I was using.
LinkedIn Carousel, based on a Medium article I wrote: There’s another amazing tool I’m using for carousels, and I wanted to see if ChatGPT would give me better textual output (it did). I pasted the post in and it generated the headline and copy for each slide in the carousel.
Podcast meta description: I copy and paste the entire written post into ChatGPT and ask for a 255-character meta description with my keyword (I use this for the ID3 tag for the audio and the SEO description).
Custom GPT for Everything is Content: I’ve been working on my framework for EIC for a while and knew I wanted to show people how to use the framework with ChatGPT, so I created a custom GPT to get people started (I taught this in my first “Everything is Content” workshop).
That’s just a handful of ways I’ve used AI (specifically ChatGPT) to clarify and create content over the past week.
The clarity of piece of this may not be as direct as the content creation piece but in some ways it can be a little more fun.
When I’m trying to flesh out an idea or concept, it can take a few sessions with ChatGPT to accomplish what I want, but that’s to be expected (hence the desire to get clarity).
Often, I need to sit with something or revisit it the next day. I can tell when I need to do that because it feels a bit like I’m going in circles with ChatGPT. I’m not getting the output I want (or anything I can work with) because of the input (FYI: it’s safe to say that most of the time, it’s your input).
Using AI For Content Creation To Save Time
I get that I’m stating the obvious here, but it only saves you time if you have a good base or foundation from which to work.
It’s not that you can’t spit out content quickly, but if you do that without something solid behind you, you’ll end up with obvious AI-generated content that people (and search engines) can see through a mile away.
You also run the risk of damaging your brand/business.
Even as AI gets better (remember that it’s also learning to write in your voice the more you use it – when you’re consistent with the tools you’re using), you still need to make sure that what you put out sounds and feels like you.
While it depends on what you’re creating, using AI as a starting point can significantly cut down your creation time.
It’s also an incredible brainstorming tool.
Take my initial example above, give it some context as to what you’re trying to accomplish, and then ask it what it needs from you to get this done.
Just like anything else, the more you use AI, the more possibilities you’ll start to see. Then it becomes fun to test and try things – especially if you do it in a conversational tone and talk with it as opposed to copying and pasting prompts (BOR-ING 🤣).
Suggestion:
Pick 1-3 types of content and platforms you’re going to focus on.
For me, that’s my own site, Medium, LinkedIn, and soon, YouTube (technically, that’s 4, but I’ve been doing this for a while).
When you find what works for you, create your own process and customGPT if it makes sense.
Because I have the original content and wrote it myself, it’s easier to edit any output I get from social (as opposed to starting from scratch with only AI-generated content).
So, a great custom GPT for me would be a podcast repurposing GPT. I have a friend who wants to know how to create a custom GPT, and I told her I’d do a video for her. Think I’ll create this and use the podcast repurposing GPT as my example.
This will allow me to open the customGPT and select one of four prompts:
LinkedIn content
Carousel prompt
Text prompt (to create a few different text posts for LinkedIn)
YouTube headline and description for that podcast episode
Email to promote the podcast
You see how this starts to feel a bit like the Matrix (or inception)… it gets a little meta when you start drilling down in different directions.
If you focus on using AI for content creation for only a handful of things at first and make mastery of what you’re doing the goal (because you’ll want to measure how that content performs) – then there’s no where to go but up!
OK, let’s talk about some of my favorite tools when it comes to AI for content creation.
General writing:
ChatGPT: obviously 😉
ClaudeAI (Anthropic)
Gemini: I’m still getting my feet wet here
Neuron Writer: Same; I want to use this primarily for SEO purposes
CoSchedule Headline analyzer: I returned to this for headlines, and the AI is helpful.
Reactor.is: This is a new tool by Rob Lennon that is pretty amazing. I plan on doing a full post on it as well.
Video/Audio:
Opus.pro (will probably cancel because RiversideFM will create shorts)
I had a great extension I was using for folders and removed it, sort of by accident. It added a second panel that I thought was something else, so I deleted it. Now I can’t find it again (I will keep looking for it).
Most of the Chrome extensions for ChatGPT felt like they just added clutter and didn’t really save me much time (patience isn’t my strong suit).
I’ve come across plenty and tried them and may revisit them in the future, but for now, my focus is elsewhere.
There are plenty of other tools I share and have mentioned in my newsletter (which, if you’re not subscribed to, can be found at KimDoyal.com/the-SPARK), but there is only so much time in the day.
My focus has to be on what I’m currently doing and whether a tool is a distraction that creates more work or helps me focus on what I’m doing.
There are a lot of AI tools out there that focus on one element of content or marketing, but unless they have something unique (like Rob Lennon’s Reactor.is or Neuron Writer for SEO), then for the most part, I can do a lot of that directly in ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini.
AI tools are pretty fun to play with, so I have to reign myself in and not get sidetracked.
The only other tool I want to really take a look at and test is Content at Scale, but for $249 a month, it may come later (I’d rather put the budget towards ads).
And just like everything else in content, marketing, and business (well, life really), it takes consistent practice and use of the tools to get to a point where you’ve found exactly what works for you.
We’re still in the very early stages of all of this, so the sooner you can adopt AI into your own content creation process, the better.
Keep in mind that you certainly don’t have to adopt using AI for anything… but I have a feeling it will eventually become a situation of “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”
