I Tried Letting Chat GPT Write My Blog Article

Backstory

Last week, I sat down to write a blog article about my experience with the Grand Rapids Econ Club. I started out by brain dumping some topics I wanted to be sure to discuss throughout the article. This looked like a framework. I had a few headings written with a paragraph underneath them explaining what I wanted to cover.

For you gear nerds out there, I do this part using my iPhone and Notion while sitting on the couch having a coffee.

With the article outline created, I sat back and thought, “I wonder if Chat GPT could fill in the rest?” I could see how it would be able to follow my framework, cover the topics that I mentioned, and maybe even do its own research on the Grand Rapids Econ Club to create a well-rounded review.

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Let's Give It A Shot

So I put the iPhone down, went over to my computer, and opened up Chat GPT. I gave it the following prompt:

"Below is a rough outline of a blog article I'd like to write. Please use the information from this outline to write a blog article that will go on the Launch Kit website. The article should be written in Launch Kit's personality. Feel free to use headings and lists to make the article organized, neat, and enjoyable for the reader. Target Reader: The target reader of this blog article is a business person who lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and has heard of the Grand Rapids Economic Club and is considering joining. Goal For The Article: The purpose of this article is to share Kevin Kamis's perspective on what it's like to join the Grand Rapids Economics Club."

Chat GPT went to work right away writing my article. I could see that it was indeed following my outline, and my first impression was - “wow, this is totally working.” Seconds later, I technically had a fully-fledged article.

As I started reading it, I began having thoughts about what I would do differently; no problem, I’ll just copy this over to ClickUp where we draft our articles and get it slightly adjusted.

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Making Adjustments

With my Chat GPT-written article in ClickUp, I took out my red pen and began making adjustments. This is where the honeymoon phase ended. I began to realize that I was changing quite literally everything because it wasn’t quite how I would’ve told the story. Speaking of the story, that’s actually what it was lacking. I felt like I was reading a stiff, academic article as opposed to a chill, personal story about my experience with the Econ Club.

The editing continued a bit until I realized something; I wasn’t having fun anymore, I was just trying to get it to be passable. That didn’t sit well with me. I began thinking about why I chose to write these articles in the first place. Nobody makes me write these. I don’t get paid to write these. I write these because I enjoy telling stories that might help others. This is a way for me to share my experiences with the hopes that the information can help you run your business/life just a tad bit better.

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Back to the Couch

Taking out the fun/soul in the writing and I’m all of a sudden posting articles just to say I did it. With this realization, I grabbed my iPhone and went back to the couch to tell the story my way.

As I was editing my own version of the article and getting it ready to be posted, I thought about what a valuable learning lesson this had been. Perfect for another article topic, haha.

So, I actually posted both versions of the article so that you can read them and see if you can spot the difference.

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Version A - https://www.launchkitdesign.com/post/a-local-small-business-owners-review-of-the-grand-rapids-economic-club---should-you-join

Version B - https://www.launchkitdesign.com/post/is-the-grand-rapids-economic-club-right-for-you

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What I've Learned

I’m glad that I tried out this experiment, and I’m happy to report that I’m currently back on the couch, with a coffee and my iPhone, writing this article today. It feels great to be here. This is fun.

I appreciate you taking a few moments to hear my story. I hope it maybe helped you find clarity in your own writing world as you explore how AI can be integrated into your work.

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Disclosure

I do have a great workflow for using Chat GPT as it relates to blog articles. Basically, I write the entire article on my phone, format it in ClickUp, then paste the article into Chat GPT and ask it to create a meta title, meta description, email body, subject line, and LinkedIn caption based on the article. I found that because the entire article is written in my style, it can then match my style for those subsidiary content pieces. This works great. Would recommend to a friend.