Okay. So now I’ve had some time over the past year to play around with ChatGPT and some of the other AI writers.
So far, I am just using the free version of ChatGPT. I am told the paid version has additional information and is more up-to-date.
For my purposes, the free version is sufficient.
Generally, I use it when I have a project subject I haven’t written much about before or I don’t know the topic at all. The AI writers save research time and also come in handy when the well has run dry.
In the past, I would gather material by doing a deep dive with my client, and I would search other websites. I still do that. But now I also simply ask ChatGPT to write for me giving it an outline of the general information I need; these are called “prompts.”
The difference between using an AI prompt and a Google search is that with a Google search, you tend to be as brief as possible in putting in search terms. With an AI writer prompt, you want to be very specific with as much detail as possible.
This is called drafting the prompt:
Please write a web page about furnishing a home office with professional, comfortable, ergonomic furniture. Include proper lighting and make it budget friendly.
This prompt yielded me a 599 word piece complete with good text, well-formatted, and so-called links to actual products … I say “so called” because the links didn’t work!
Once you get a result, you can ask the AI writer to refine its work.
Please revise the above by asking for the office to be in a small space and maximizing storage capacity and functionality.
The resulting revised copy came in at 613 words and, indeed, accommodated my request.
The AI writer does this in literally less than a minute.
It’s truly amazing.
But … there’s a hitch. You still need a human writer to write effective prompts, to review for accuracy, and then to completely rewrite.
Rewriting ensures there are no copyright infringements down the road. You don’t know where in the heck the AI writer got its information.
Rewriting also allows the writer to bring your company’s voice, specific experience, and customer input to the text. All of this is valuable humanity and specificity that will make your web page more helpful compelling your audience to trust and to buy from you.
In my opinion, the human rewrite will also help with search results (SEO). If a search engine has two pieces of good text, one written by a machine and one written by a human, the search engine will likely give the human piece more credit. Indeed, when I have checked text on various websites, the AI-written sites didn’t do as well as the human-written sites.
Easy Web Tip 357: When using AI writers like ChatGPT, add thoughtful specificity with a human rewrite.
