I’m a big fan of AI tools like Koala and Machined that can generate a large number decent quality articles in minutes.
But they fall short if you have a very specific article type in mind that you want to create.
I recently started a new site where I’m only publishing AI content.
I tried using AI writing tools to create the articles for my new site, but it didn’t quite work out. For my new site, the articles I’m publishing follow a very specific format that the AI writing tools weren’t made to handle.
So, I turned to ChatGPT.
I spent a couple hours crafting the perfect prompt. With that prompt, I’m now able to generate articles following a specific format in less than a minute.
Since the prompt is very customized, it only works for a certain type of article I’m publishing.
Whenever I want to publish a different type of article, I simply adjust the prompt which takes maybe 10-20 minutes.
When I adjust the prompt, I mainly change the instructions for the article outline/structure.
Here’s my step-by-step process:
Step 1: Create the outline
You can either create your own outline, or let ChatGPT create an outline.
I’ll show you examples of each method.
Creating your own outline
This works better if you have a specific article structure in mind.
For example, let’s say you’re working on a batch of articles about individual actors/actresses and the movies they were in.
You may decide to use the following article structure (this is not my prompt template – I’ll share that in a bit):
[Actor Name] – Complete List of All Roles
Intro
H2: [Actor Name] Played Roles in the Following Movies
List of movies [Actor Name] had a role in. Table format.
H2: Movies [Actor Name] Starred In
In paragraph form, list the movies [Actor Name] played a starring role in.
You would then provide ChatGPT with the actor name, and it would create an article following your specified format. For each article you want to create, all you’d have to do is provide the actor name. No need to change the actual format.
As you can see, creating your own outline with variables allows you to customize the articles to your exact preference.
This structure is very different from the structure ChatGPT would offer without any input from you.
Which leads to the next method:
Letting ChatGPT create the outline
Having ChatGPT do the heavy lifting saves time initially, but the downside is that the result might not be exactly what you have in mind.
The other issue is that you’d have to generate the outline for every individual article you create (unless you ask it to provide an outline template like the actor example I shared above).
The advantage of this method is that it’s faster if you don’t plan to use a consistent article structure. An example where you might not use a consistent structure would be book review articles. Every book is different, so a consistent structure would stifle creativity and allow less room to dive deeper into unique aspects of each individual book.
The prompt I use to generate outlines with ChatGPT is:
Please suggest an outline for an article about “[your keyword]”. Be thorough, but ensure each section stays strictly on topic. Use simple language and proper terminology.This usually works well, but you may need to adjust the prompt if you don’t like the suggested outline.
BONUS (extra effort that will likely pay off): Take the outline of the top ranking articles and ensure yours includes everything relevant from all of them. Use a tool like Detailed to see and copy article outlines. Paste each outline into ChatGPT and ask it to create a complete outline (without duplication) based on the provided outlines. You can also ask ChatGPT if it would suggest any additional sections.
Step 2: The prompt
Once you have a structure in mind or an outline, you can combine it with my prompt template and begin generating articles.
My prompt template
Use the following prompt, but remember to replace the words in [brackets] with the appropriate information. Use the GPT-4 model.
Instructions for article targeting the keyword “[your keyword]”:
Title should be simple and descriptive, and list the target keyword first.
Article body:
[Insert your outline]
Guidelines:
Please add a quick summary after the introduction section. Concisely summarize the important points from the article using bullet points. Label as “Quick summary”.
Use simple wording that is easy for anyone to understand, but always use proper terminology.
Be thorough.
Do NOT leave any section unwritten.
Use short paragraphs.
Use formatting like bold, italics, lists, and tables where possible.
Avoid fluff.
Avoid explicit section and heading labels like “V.”.
Optimize for NLP with the provided target phrase.
Format using markdown for CMS compatibility.
Maintain proper heading structure. The title should be H1. Main headings should be H2. Sub-headings should be H3.
If the article is too long to create in a single output, simply stop when necessary and await the user to prompt you to continue.
End Note:
Take a deep breath and ensure you grasp the format and guidelines. Do you require any clarifications before we proceed?If you created your own outline with variables in brackets (like [Actor Name]), you will need to change the end note for the above prompt to:
Take a deep breath and ensure you grasp the format and guidelines. Do you require any clarifications before we proceed, or are you ready for the first actor name?Obviously, you’d change “actor name” to whatever variable you’re using.
Once ChatGPT confirms that it understands the requirements and is ready to proceed, simply ask it to begin.
ChatGPT will pause at some point. When it does, simply ask it to continue.
Once you have your prompt template in place and ChatGPT understands what you’re going for, you can create articles in less than a minute. Obviously, they’re done in parts, but it’s easy enough to copy each part over to WordPress.
Step 3: Correct ChatGPT as necessary
If ChatGPT isn’t following one of your instructions, specify what it did wrong and ask it to try again.
For example: “Looking good, except that you forgot to ______. Please try again”.
If ChatGPT continues to forget your original instructions, the context window was likely exceeded. If that’s the issue, you will need to begin a new chat.
The context window basically means how far back ChatGPT can remember. For GPT-4, the context window is about 6,000 words (which includes both your instructions AND ChatGPT’s output). However, in my experience, ChatGPT begins to forget things even before it reaches 6,000 words.
ChatGPT Alternatives
I’ve tried a few alternatives and there are multiple different AI models that perform just as well (if not better, in some cases) than ChatGPT.
For other AI models, you’d use the exact same process I shared above.
The models I like (in my limited testing) are:
- Claude 3.5 Sonnet (context window of ~150,000 words!)
- Llama 3.2 (context window of ~96,000 words)
- Google Gemini 2 Flash (context window of ~750,000 words!!)
You can access these models (as well as all the GPT models) on Poe.
Thanks for reading, hope this was helpful!