TJ Vasquez
ChatGPT has been making headlines all over the internet recently, and the projected capabilities of the AI program are numerous. As such, plenty of business owners and content creators have wondered if ChatGPT Blog Writing can be used to generate full blog posts in a matter of seconds.
The short answer is yes, but if you’re planning this route for your content creation needs, you’re going to want to keep reading for the long answer.
Getting Started with ChatGPT
Currently, ChatGPT can be used to write (or assist with writing) computer codes, song lyrics, poetry, stories, research papers, and articles. The AI program can provide information and organize it into sentences, paragraphs, and even pages that make sense and at least reasonably mimic human language in text form.
These features can make ChatGPT useful when it comes to completing various tasks and providing written information about a wide variety of topics. However, the tool isn’t perfect by any means and some experimentation may be required to generate the results a user wants.
We’ll explain more about common pitfalls and how to avoid errors later in this article. For now, let’s explore the basics of using ChatGPT to create content.
Submitting ChatGPT Requests
If you’re new to using ChatGPT, you should begin your request submissions as simply as possible. Experiment with asking general questions or making simple commands until you get the hang of how the AI’s programming works.
Each request you submit should be done in the form of a new chat request, unless you’re providing additional details for a request you’re working on.
To start a new chat, click the “+” icon at the top right-hand side of the screen.
Key in your question or prompt and click the send icon.
If needed, add supplementary details. If the bot provides you with the information you’re looking for, start another chat to ask a new question.
Your prompt submissions will be stored in your account menu so that you can refer to them later. Organizing your storage is also a great reason to ask each question as a separate chat.
Prompt Types
ChatGPT tends to produce more detailed, in-depth answers when users provide prompts in the form of a statement rather than a question. While questions will usually produce an answer, the answer generated when the same question is written as a statement or command will likely be longer and more informative.
The question, “what is String Theory,” will produce a shorter (yet accurate) answer than typing in the prompt, “explain the concept of String Theory.”
Templates
ChatGPT is capable of creating helpful templates that users can collect and edit to serve various needs. Template options include but are not limited to the following:
- Professional Emails
- Newsletter Templates
- Scripts for Chatbots
- Customer Service Scripts
- Marketing Content
- Social Media Posts
- Headlines
- Product Descriptions
Content to Avoid
ChatGPT is still a relatively new tool, and because of this, its capabilities have some limitations. Depending on the type of content you’re requesting from the chatbot, the results provided are probably going to vary in their quality.
At least at this point in time, it’s a good idea to avoid asking ChatGPT to create a significant code for your programming needs. Users have noted mixed experiences when it comes to the tool’s ability to code accurately.
Speaking of accuracy, ChatGPT is also not very efficient when it comes to producing news articles or pieces of content that require much mental or emotional depth. In a way, this setback is understandable, as ChatGPT provides answers based on the input it receives. It was trained using scores of collected pieces of information but at the end of the day, it doesn’t truly understand the deeper meaning of the words provided.
For example, if you wanted to ask ChatGPT for opinion-based information, you might receive a shallow or nonsensical answer. At the same time, if you request ChatGPT content writing covering a controversial topic, the bot might not write with the same nuance or from the same standpoint as you.
The AI’s programming is also designed to reject questions that are deemed inappropriate and will usually avoid providing answers that may be harmful.
Finally, ChatGPT’s answers surrounding events that occurred after 2021 might lack accuracy. This is because the program was trained using information collected before 2021. While the bot will be able to look up some current events online, it probably won’t be able to answer a great deal of recent questions with confidence.
Examples of Prompts to Avoid
- Prompts Lacking Detail:
When a prompt doesn’t contain enough information, the AI will request more details in order to create a response. In this example, ChatGPT doesn’t know which book the user read and needs more information. - Opinion Prompts:
The bot isn’t designed to form opinions and will often explain the general consensus surrounding a given question. In this prompt, someone who doesn’t like the movie Ghost might disagree with this response. - Vague Prompts:
If the topic is too vague, the AI will generate a response, but it might not be as narrow as the user wants. In this prompt, say the user was interested in domestic pet vaccination. The prompt used wouldn’t be detailed enough to cater the response to that topic. - Direct Coding Requests:
ChatGPT can help with coding, but the AI is generally not able to create codes from scratch.
ChatGPT Functions
ChatGPT can serve several functions with relative accuracy, so long as those functions are centered around either written or spoken language. A few functions this tool has been capable of handling include the following:
- Outlines: Whether you’re planning a research paper, a novel, or another long piece of writing, ChatGPT can help you outline the flow of the project at hand.
- Research Aid: ChatGPT can collect information based on prompts or questions and explain that information in simple terms. Doing so can help simplify complex research by covering concepts or procedures in straightforward language.
- Citations: ChatGPT can create citations used for research in several different formats.
- Text Generation: This tool can be helpful when it comes to creating templates and scripts for customer service representatives, automatic messaging tools, and chatbots.
- Translations: ChatGPT can translate content from one language to another with relative accuracy.
- Idea Prompts: Using this AI bot can help improve creative efforts by providing users with story prompts and ideas they can use to develop the plot of the narrative they’re working on.
- Lyric Pitches: The bot can also come up with song lyrics, so if you’re stuck trying to come up with the next few lines of a verse you’re working on, you might find inspiration with ChatBPT.
- Short Story Generation: Requesting a short story in a specific style can present you with an interesting idea to build upon if you’re trying to battle writer’s block.
- Emails: ChatGPT can formulate well-written, organized emails, so if you’re one of many people who have a hard time composing important emails, this bot might be able to help you structure your replies or inquiries.
- Social Media Posts: ChatGPT can also generate social media posts based on the topics the bot is prompted with. If anything, this feature should help you make your social media content a little more interesting and diverse.
- Article Filler: Struggling to reach the word count on a specific project and you’ve already covered all of the information you need? ChatGPT can help you come up with filler content that won’t seem like obvious filler and will enable you to meet the word count minimum for the assignment in front of you.
Usage Pitfalls
The capabilities of AI programs like ChatGPT are amazingly diverse, but there are still several setbacks that accompany using AI bots for content creation.
For one, the answers that ChatGPT generates aren’t always accurate. In some cases, the bot only makes a couple of minor mistakes when answering questions or providing information, but in other cases, the answers and prompts are practically nonsensical.
To remedy this issue, it’s a good idea to fact-check the answers supplied to you by ChatGPT. This way, you can compare the information you have against verifiable resources before you post a piece of content that isn’t quite right.
Occasionally, ChatGPT responses will also be copied verbatim from other sources on the internet. To avoid unintentionally plagiarizing another source’s work, run the content you receive from ChatGPT through a plagiarism-checking tool and check for any matches before publishing the content you plan to release. You may need to make a few changes before the final draft is ready.
As mentioned above, ChatGPT’s ability to provide accurate answers is quite limited when covering current events (those taking place from 2021 on). When covering recent information, producing outdated answers is a common issue users are facing, but the problem doesn’t begin and end with recent information. Some older questions might populate outdated information as well, so again, fact-checking is essential.
ChatGPT also tends to use repetitive phrasing, which can make pieces of content you create using the tool sound clunky or disjointed.
To remedy most of these issues, proofreading the responses you receive and performing simple edits will enable you to adjust and improve your content before publishing it.
Influencing More “Human” Responses
ChatGPT is a general-purpose tool, but a lot of the time, the responses it generates can sound a little too technical for casual reading levels. To influence the bot to populate more human-sounding, casual responses, there are a few methods you can follow.
It’s possible to adjust the complexity of the responses you receive by prompting ChatGPT to provide answers based on the level you request. Let’s say you want a complicated topic explained in a way that the general public will understand.
You might ask for the bot to “answer in general terms,” or “provide simple examples.”
Additionally, you can influence the bot to answer you from specific perspectives. For example, if you’re writing legal content and you want the AI to give you answers that fit your industry, you can request that the bot acts like a lawyer. You might also ask the bot to answer your questions as a doctor or sports analyst would.
The bot is also capable of answering your questions or providing responses in specific writing styles. If you want to model your writing style after one of your favorite writers, for example, you can ask ChatGPT to provide you with an answer in that style.
Finally, if you receive errors or partial answers, you can rephrase your question or prompt so that the bot might be able to understand what you’re asking for with added context.
AI vs Human-Written Content
To make your AI-generated content sound more human, it’s important to view ChatGPT as a tool rather than an effective replacement for human writers. The program is definitely robust and capable of producing informative, well-written content, but the pieces you publish should not be left completely to AI tools to complete.
If you want to balance human writing with the efficiency of AI tools like ChatGPT, it’s going to require some work on your part.
Think of the process you’ll be following from the perspective of a marketing editor. Much like working with a professional writer, using ChatGPT can help you save time when it comes to organizing and publishing high-quality pieces of content. However, much like the relationship between professional writers and editors, you and ChatGPT will need to work together to produce the best possible results.
Even human writers make mistakes, which is why editors comb through their articles and blog posts to fine-tune the information in front of them. They look for spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, factual errors, and ways to improve the overall flow of the piece.
You need to do the same when you’re using ChatGPT to create content. When the AI bot is your writer, you need to be the editor by making a selection of tweaks and adjustments before giving the final thumbs-up and publishing the ChatGPT blog post or article.
Proofread the post that ChatGPT has provided. You probably won’t run into many spelling mistakes, but you can adjust sentence structure, improve grammar, clarify confusing details, and eliminate repetitive phrases. After editing the piece, read it one more time to make sure it sounds human enough for your taste.
Before publishing, fact-check any information that requires verification and run your article through a plagiarism checker. If any matches are found, you’re going to need to rework the sections ChatGPT copied.
Finally, when you’ve edited the article and cleared up any issues you discovered during the process, you’re ready to publish what you’ve helped create.
ChatGPT Blog Writing
While ChatGPT and other chatbots technically can be used to write blog posts, using AI tools as your sole content creator isn’t recommended. This is especially true if you want your blog posts and other pieces of content to receive decent SEO rankings.
Google penalizes AI-generated content and trying to trick the algorithm isn’t an easy task (plus it’s dishonest).
However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t use ChatGPT at all. Using AI to generate email templates, social media posts, landing pages, or ad copy is generally an acceptable practice.
On top of this, you can still use ChatGPT to help you come up with content ideas and structure the articles you’re planning to write. To avoid triggering search engine penalties, though, the writing you publish should ultimately be your own human-generated creation. As mentioned above, using AI to collect information is acceptable, but you should proofread and edit all of the content you plan to use so that you’re publishing work using your own words.
Chat GPT SEO and Strategy Assistance
ChatGPT can also be extremely helpful when it comes to developing the SEO components of your content. You can research potential keywords to use in your blog posts, plan and organize your content creation strategy, and come up with eye-catching title ideas for your publications.
For keyword research, type a keyword of your choosing into ChatGPT and ask it to provide you with closely related keywords. You can use the results to diversify your keyword usage and avoid stuffing the same iteration of your main keyword into a piece of content.
Building your content strategy is also worth exploring through ChatGPT. By prompting the AI for help, you can learn about a wide variety of methods and steps you can take to create the perfect strategy for your needs. ChatGPT might suggest that you create target audience profiles, make a schedule that highlights when and how often you’ll publish specific pieces of content, outline your business objectives, and define your own writing style.
From there, the AI program might walk you through different tools you can use in order to monitor your performance metrics and create analytical reports that enable you to fine-tune your content approach.
In conclusion, though, ChatGPT is best suited as a content creation tool instead of a content creation source. For business leaders who want their blog posts to receive favorable SEO rankings, an AI program cannot create 100% of your content for you. It can be an excellent program to use if you’re looking for inspiration, structure, planning, organization, and other elements associated with creating content.
Your blog content should be original if you want to pull traffic to your website and establish your company as one of authority. Consider ChatGPT your content creation assistant, and you’ll be able to enhance the work you publish.
If using ChatGPT to create content for you sounds like it’s going to require too much work on your end, don’t despair. There are easier options to pursue if your end goal is well-written content. Outsourcing is an option that’s well worth considering if you want to save yourself the hassle of having to edit your AI-generated work.
Reach out to Content Cucumber if working with marketing professionals is an avenue you’d like to pursue!
SOURCES
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-use-openai-chatgpt-text-generation-chatbot/
https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/
https://community.openai.com/t/chatgpt-functions-for-education/59842
https://github.com/lencx/ChatGPT
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/what-is-chatgpt/473664/
https://lablab.ai/t/chatgpt-guide
https://medium.com/@asarav/the-limitations-of-chat-gpt-8b73f5859bb4
https://www.makeuseof.com/how-to-get-best-results-from-chatgpt/
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/ways-seos-are-using-chatgpt-right-now
