Last Updated on August 16, 2024
If you don’t live under a rock—no offense to you Patrick Star folk—you’ve probably heard of ChatGPT by now. Everyone is talking about it: how to use it for school, business, sales, research…the list goes on and on. But how can this new AI tool be used for blogging?
As a blogger myself, I was interested to see how this tool could help me speed up the process of blog post writing.
Here at Graphite Grind, I am always looking to share resources that make writing more fun and less work for us newbies. Writing is a grind, but it doesn’t have to be a churn if you know what I mean.
So, is this tool helpful or harmful for someone looking to start a blog?
What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) app created by Open AI, a tech company that specializes in making AI more accessible and useful for everyone. Along with ChatGPT, the company has also published a photo generating and perfecting app called DALL-E (2021), and another, more advanced version of ChatGPT named GPT-4 (YEAR PUBLISHED).
The company has been getting a lot of praise for their ground-breaking—and mostly free— products, and with good reason. They are constantly updating the programs to be better, faster and more accurate in their responses.
ChatGPT, just like its name, uses a chatroom setup to allow the user to ask the GPT questions. So, you ask it a question and it answers to the best of its ability. If you don’t like the answer that it provides, you have the option to “regenerate” it’s response (aka make it try again).
What is Artificial Intelligence?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a type of “false intelligence” that humans program into algorithms powering computers. These algorithms aim to mimic human intelligence, like reasoning, puzzle solving, and understanding context.
In ChatGPTs case, the developers have programmed the app to answer questions (sometimes very creatively!) as if it is having organic conversation with us. Due to this, ChatGPT can also be classified as a “chatbot”.
ChatGPT For Research
One of the first things we are told to do before writing a blog post is SEO research. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. We, as bloggers have to keyword research before writing a blog post to make sure that readers can actually find our work.
You wouldn’t want to write an article answering a question that no one is asking, right?
There are many different services, and WordPress plugins that can help bloggers accomplish their keyword research. Some of these services cost money, though. It is possible to use ChatGPT to help you with this step of the writing process!
All you have to do is ask the chatbot, “What keywords do people often use when looking for [insert niche here] online?” It will instantly give you twenty options of words that you can try to rank for in Google.
Additionally, you can ask it, “What questions do people ask the most when searching for [insert your niche here]?” Again, ChatGPT will spit out twenty options. These questions asked by your target audience can be your next 20 posts!
In terms of basic research, this service is pretty straightforward. Like everything else, just make sure the you phrase your question as specifically as possible. The results may be less helpful if you are asking it broad questions!
ChatGPT For Writing
In order to have a blog, you have to write. No way around it: point blank, period. This is not a daunting thing for me, considering that the entire blog is about writing (go figure!), but many people don’t actually enjoy this practice.
It may be worth your time to use ChatGPT to help with your writing. All you have to ask is, “Write a blog post about/explaining/giving advice on [x].” By asking this, ChatGPT will output the outline of that entire post!
This strategy can be especially helpful for those that struggle to figure out what to say next. Though I don’t copy the outline point-for-point, it can be useful when my brain stalls for ideas!
Keep in mind, ChatGPT won’t write the whole article for you—and it shouldn’t!
It’s important to have a personal touch to all your work. Outsourcing the job to a robot is going to kill that.
If you aren’t convinced of this, here’s the bot’s response to, “Write a paragraph describing the beauty of an early morning”.
Although this paragraph describes a sunrise very well, there’s a lot of repeating of the same words (tranquil, captivate, breath/breathtaking). When I asked the bot to write a journal entry about the Italian sunrise, the repetition of words was even worse.
I say all this to say, ChatGPT will get you some decent results, but it cannot replace human intuition or style. It’s just a bot.
ChatGPT For Pictures
Another key element to a blog post is pictures. Not only do relevant, pretty pictures draw people in, but they also help to break up the text so your posts look less intimidating.
Although your post may answer a person’s questions, that same person likely doesn’t want to read something that looks like a full research paper.
Unfortunately, ChatGPT’s code only applies to text; the chatbot cannot provide you with royalty-free pictures. If AI-generated images are something you need, you should look toward OpenAI’s DALL-E 2 app instead (which is free up to a certain point).
There are also plenty of free stock photo services online, so no worries if this is more involved than you care to get!
Final Review
Overall, I’d say that ChatGPT can be useful for a new blogger or writer, but it is far from necessary or ground-breaking. You can do everything it does with some creativity and a little research!
Of course, there are times when you may be running low on those creative juices or just time in general. If that’s the case, give it a go—especially while it’s still free! You can also read through my easy strategy for outlining a blog in 10 minutes, max.
Do you have a blog and use ChatGPT for one of these functions, or something else? Leave a comment down below!
