Mastering ChatGPT
What’s the Whole Debate About?
ChatGPT has its fans and detractors. Among marketers, this tool is polarizing .
To understand why this is happening, we need to look at the pros and cons of this text generator.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- It helps you overcome writer’s block
Trying to create content from scratch is difficult because of the writing inertia you may be facing. With ChatGPT, you can easily create outlines, get ideas and much more. It’s easier now to get the content creation ball rolling!
- Doing research is fast!
Instead of scouring through articles online or heading to the library and being in the presence of other nerds, with ChatGPT, you’ll be able to do excellent research in minutes – anywhere, anytime.
- It gives you ideas you would have never thought of
Since the tool has been fed data for years, it’s fantastic for brainstorming topics, slants, etc.
Now I could go on and on about the benefits of this tool… but let’s not waste time.
Just know that it’s excellent for assisting with content creation. This is why so many marketers love it.
Cons
Ohhh… there’s a bunch of them here.
- Marketers will misuse it
You don’t even need to think twice about this one.
Even now as you’re reading this, you can bet some marketer somewhere is generating tons of ChatGPT content for their private blog networks that are full of spammy links.
A whole bunch of them are probably scheming to flood Amazon’s Kindle marketplace with AI-written books.
This is just the beginning. There’s no depth to which they won’t stoop.
Which leads to another problem…
- Copyright, authorship and plagiarism
Currently, ChatGPT has over 100 million users. That’s a lot of people.
Now let’s assume that just a hundred of them are marketers in the yoga niche and they’re using ChatGPT to create content. (This is a very possible scenario.)
If they were to ask ChatGPT to generate an article, for example, “7 Yoga Tips for Beginners”…
… it would create 100 variations of the same article based on the data it has.
Now we have to wonder…
- Who owns the copyright to this content?
- Who’s plagiarising whom?
- If everyone sounds like everyone else, who’s going to stand out?
You don’t even know where ChatGPT is pulling the content from.
Plagiarism
You know what?
Let’s ask ChatGPT if we’re committing plagiarism here…
So basically, ChatGPT is telling you that you’re not plagiarising… but it’s not telling you where it got its information from.
And it’s advising you to give it credit! (Wow… that will definitely build your authority and impress your readers!)
It’s all a bit murky, isn’t it?
You Are the Writer
But there are 2 important points to note here…
- ChatGPT is telling you that it’s a text generator. It is NOT a writer. You are the writer.
- It’s telling you not to take its information as gospel. That’s because as good as this tool is, it gets facts wrong sometimes.
- You don’t know what the future holds…
There are already tools like Originality.ai which can detect AI-generated content.
So as marketers increasingly exploit AI tools to flood the internet with monotonous, repetitive content, you can bet Google will start clamping down on these sites.
It’s just a matter of time before AI content is deemed ‘unworthy’.
What will happen to your sites that have AI-content?
It’s anyone’s guess… but if history is any indicator, just like how sites which used spun content (and other methods to manipulate ranking in search results) got slapped harder than Chris Rock – the same just might happen with AI content.
So you must be wary.
- ChatGPT can ONLY give you what’s already out there
Since the tool creates content based on its data set, it’ll never think out of the box or come up with ideas that truly make you stand out.
It’ll give you variations of the same thing it’s giving anyone and everyone else.
The leaders in any industry are those who come up with new angles for existing ideas or create something that has never been seen before. ChatGPT cannot do that. It lacks creativity.
If you wish to make a name for yourself and stand above the noise, ChatGPT’s content alone will not do it for you.
- It lacks personality
Let’s be clear here…
ChatGPT is NOT like Arnold Schwarzenneger in Terminator 2 who can make people laugh with an “Hasta la vista, babehh” quote even if he's a robot.
AI-generated content has no humor or personality. While you could ask it to write lame jokes for you or model other authors, it’ll still never get it totally right.
People come online for entertainment. Even if they’re looking for information, they still want to be entertained. ChatGPT can’t do that. Only you can.
Only you can weave in your experiences, thoughts, personality, wit and voice into your content.
This is the type of writing that will polarize your audience, hook them in by the eyeballs, and keep them reading till the last word.
You’ll get fans and haters. Which is exactly what you want.
Attention is the currency online. Stand out and people will follow you. Now you have an audience.
If ChatGPT’s content was what the unwashed masses wanted, people would be in libraries reading the dull textbooks there.
But no. They’re on TikTok watching brain dead people doing dumb dances. And marketers think people are going to read their boring ChatGPT content.
PFFT! Not happening. You've got to be better than that, if you want your engagement and audience retention to be high.
This is why so many other marketers aren’t too happy with ChatGPT.
They have an acute understanding of the online scene and predict that formulaic, insipid content will saturate the internet.
With the hordes of mindless marketers using ChatGPT, everyone’s content will sound the same… and their writing will be duller than a dirty bowling ball.
But let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater! This AI tool can be highly useful… more to come.
Recent Comments
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I am a member of a Facebook group of Filipino freelancers (most of them are on UpWork) where members can share tips and guides to help one another.
Interestingly, whenever content creators ask for tips on how to get their job done quickly, their best advice is to use ChatGPT. ☺
Getting it done quickly is easy with ChatGPT. Getting it done well is another matter entirely.
Hey Phil,
I love the idea that ChatGPT is being used by the masses to churn out boring content, It opens up huge opportunities for thought-provoking content by original thinking writers.
You hit the nail on the head in this post. I am in total agreement. I have used ChatGPT as the tool you described. And I will continue to use it that way. But definitely not all the time. It will depend on the kind of content I am writing.
Thanks for sharing.
Cheers.
Edwin
Thanks, Edwin. Your first paragraph is so true. It's an opportunity for the rest of us to stand out.
Good morning Phil,
Thank you for your blog post, it's appreciated.
There certainly is a lot of talk about AI across the Internet and Wealthy Affiliate.
I must admit I'm not particularly excited about it and I haven't used ChatGBT. I did test out a so-called AI writer but have stopped using it as it was writing absolute rubbish. I have also had it confirmed several times that Google can detect content that has been written by an AI writer.
I am talking about something that I don't know very much about. I can see that ChatGBT may have its uses, but I can see it being really abused and lots of rubbish being published on the Internet. I could be wrong, as I have been wrong many times before.
I'm sure it does have its good points, as you mentioned about writer's block etc. I thought that I might have a look at ChatGBT, but I have to say that my enthusiasm for it is dwindling rapidly.
I appreciate your interest in and informative post.
Wishing you a great day.
Roy
Thanks, Roy. I think as long as we realize that it's a tool with specific uses, we'll be well ahead of those who don't.
Good morning Phil,
That's a good way of putting it, I believe you're right.
Have a great day,
Roy
Yep, pros and cons to everything in life. I think it's good if you need some ideas or dealing with writer's block.
It's fun playing around with it but there are a ton of things that (for now) won't replace writers. With errors, incorrect info, and lacking a 'human voice.' But just like all things, it's getting better, and will be interesting to see where it all goes.
Oh, for those that are reading this, what do we think about AI taking over? I'm asking for a friend ;-)
I believe Google can tell if it is AI-generated, and as far as I know, posts don't rank well in search engines.
However, if used for brainstorming and as an outline, it is okay. Then you can write your content original in your own words.
Yes, it's a matter of using the tool wisely.
As for your last question, there's no true AI. It's just a convenient label. There's no danger of Skynet just yet.
If Google's not there yet, it will be. Then everyone who's copied and pasted AI generated content will suffer major ranking drops. The lesson is don't be that person.
Ha! I'm glad you got what I was getting at. And I know, but it's always fun to see what others think.
I cannot agree with you more on that! It's amazing how people don't see it. Time will tell I guess (not that far away if you ask me).
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Hello Phil,
I believe too, that the internet will be saturated, eventually, with all the same content... Bor-ing!
It's tempting and I certainly will try ChatGPT, I just don't want to lose "me" in the content. I need to maintain creativity, but a little nudge in the right direction is good and keeps me thinking.
Thank you so much for taking the time to write this.
So informative and I am exhaling slowly!
I feel now that I won't be left behind by Google!
Regards, Corinne
Thanks, Corinne. It's all about using it as a research and ideas tool, but injecting your own take into the content that you actually publish.