Struggling to get what you want out of ChatGPT? Getting content back that doesn’t quite flow well and sounds very brutish? (or you keep getting bullet point lists as I did)
Then you need to start using ChatGPT prompts.
These prompts will allow you to specifically ‘program’ ChatGPT in whichever way you want, so you can get content you want to use (and be proud of) on your blog.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re trying to sound like an expert on why pugs are so silly, or you just want to put out a cool thread on Twitter so you can finally have a positive followers-to-following ratio, prompts are going to be your ace in the hole…
In this article, I’m going to go over what prompts are, why they are important, provide prompts you can nab – regardless of your vertical – as well as a guideline on how to create your very own.
PS: This isn’t going to be another one of THOSE ChatGPT articles where I pull the rug from under you at the end, and say “Aha! This entire piece was written by AI.” as a way to prove what I’m talking about works.
Anyway, let’s get into what ChatGPT prompts even are…
ChatGPT is ever-evolving, we’ll be doing our best to update this article from time to time, so you’re always up to date with the latest and greatest prompt engineering methods.
What are ChatGPT Prompts?
In the context of ChatGPT, a prompt refers to the initial message or instruction you give the model when you start a conversation. Technically anything is a prompt, as it’s just a way to start a conversation.
So my “Why are pugs silly?” message I entered into ChatGPT would be a prompt.
Not a very good one to start with, but still
The AI would have seen this as a question that you wanted to answer, and it would have done so, in its typically robotic voice.
The First Prompt Is The Most Important One
Just like cold pitching a client on G-mail, the very first message you send to ChatGPT is the most important one
As it ‘remembers’ this first prompt, so when you ask follow-up questions in the future, it will go off this initial prompt to help with context.
So, let’s say I next asked “Are other dogs silly?”, it will compare other dogs to Pugs, based on the fact “Why are pugs silly?” was my initial prompt, as I used in the example previously.
Why Are Prompts Important for Producing Content?
ChatGPT prompts, as discussed in the intro, are important because they allow you to get the exact content you want; it doesn’t matter if you want the AI to type a certain way, or to go in-depth on a topic as if it were an expert.
They are essential if you don’t want to upload spammy content to your blog.
Why is spammy AI content bad?
- Poor user experience
- Potentially penalised by search engines
- Reputation damage (you show you don’t care)
- The potential drop in organic visibility (content too basic and similar)
A few other key reasons;
EVERYONE is using AI to produce content atm, readers all over the world are getting used to the way AI content flows, and they are getting bored of it.
You need to be spicing things up with prompts or you will lose your audience base to competitors.
Also, if you’re an ecomm brand or an affiliate site, the personality in your copy is EVERYTHING.
You need to guide a reader through your content so they click the little ‘Add to Cart’ button at the end or the Amazon PrettyLink. And if you sound like a robot? They won’t even get to that point in the first place, they will be off scrolling on your competitor’s site.
Good ChatGPT Prompts You Should Nab
Finally, to the meat and potatoes of the article; ChatGPT Prompts you can steal.
Let’s start with a prompt that will allow you to leverage the content you’ve written in the past for your blog or website…
Content Writing ChatGPT Prompt (If you’ve written content before)
In this first prompt, we’re going to train the AI based on the content we’ve written in the past; this is by far the best way to make the AI ‘sound’ like you.
Perfect if you’ve already got a site that you’ve published content on over the years and you want to make the transition to having ChatGPT be your ghostwriter, without jarring your audience without robotic content.
Prompt:
“Act like a professional copywriter. I’m going to show you some copy I’ve
written, and your goal is to imitate it.
You’ll start by just saying “START”. Then I’ll show you an example text and
you’ll just say “NEXT”. Then another example and you’ll just say “NEXT”
and so on. I’ll give you lots of examples, more than two. You’ll never stop
saying “NEXT”. You can only say something else when I say “DONE”, not
Before.
Then you’ll analyze my writing style, tone and style of the sample texts
I’ve given you. Finally, I’ll ask you to write a new text on a given subject
using exactly my writing style.”
—————————————————————————————-
This is what the convo will look like once you’ve added it:
Now, ChatGPT is ready to be trained on your content. Start pasting your old content into ChatGPT, just as I’m doing here.
You can do this as much as you want. I’d recommend at least giving it 3000-5000 words in total so it has a decent amount of content to go off of.
Once you’ve given all your examples, you need to indicate that you’re done.
Type “DONE” into the chat box and ChatGPT will give you back a description of how you write.
See what it thinks about my writing style below:
Congratulations, now the AI is ready to write in the way you do.
Now it’s time to get your little protégé to write you something. You can put pretty much anything in at this point, along the lines of “write about X topic”.
I’ve gone with this one, for an example:
Content Writing ChatGPT Prompt (If you’ve never written content before)
This one is a two-parter, and perfect for those of you who haven’t got much content in your portfolio to work with.
I’m going to use one prompt to give myself a blog outline, and another to use this same blog outline to create a blog post.
First, we’re going to need to get ourselves a blog outline. For this example, I’m going to use good old “What is SEO?” as my target topic.
Here is the blog outline prompt:
“Please ignore all previous instructions. You are an expert copywriter who creates content outlines. You have a Professional tone of voice. You have an Informative writing style. Create a long form content outline in the English language for the blog post titled “What is SEO”. The content outline should include a minimum of 20 headings and subheadings. The outline should be extensive and it should cover the entire topic. Create detailed subheadings that are engaging and catchy. Do not write the blog post, please only write the outline of the blog post. Please do not number the headings. Please add a newline space between headings and subheadings. Do not self reference. Do not explain what you are doing.”
Note: See the underlined and bold words in the prompt above? Change these depending on what style of outline you want ChatGPT to produce.
Once you’ve made the changes to the prompt, paste it into a new conversation with ChatGPT. You should be given a blog outline like below:
(You can’t see the whole blog outline in this screenshot, but you get the idea.)
Now you’ve got your outline, its time to move on to the second and final part; using our outline so that we can create a blog article.
Here is the prompt:
“Please ignore all previous instructions. You are an expert copywriter who writes detailed and thoughtful blog articles. You have a Professional tone of voice. You have an Informative writing style. I will give you an outline for an article and I want you to expand in the English language on each of the subheadings to create a complete article from it. Please intersperse short and long sentences. Utilize uncommon terminology to enhance the originality of the content. Please format the content in a professional format. Do not self reference. Do not explain what you are doing. The blog article outline is – “YOUR BLOG OUTLINE PASTED HERE” “
Note: Again, change the underlined and bold words in the prompt above to get the style you want.
Here is the article I’ve just generated using this prompt and my blog outline:
(Again, this is not the whole blog, but you (again) get the idea)
Pretty impressive eh? You could even use the blog outline generator alongside other prompts.
Guide on How to Create Prompts for ChatGPT
Now that I’ve given you some prompts you can use, I want to let you in on how to make your own prompts, or at the very least give you an idea of how you can tailor the ones I’ve provided you.
The one thing need to keep in mind: Be assertive. You need to be as clear as possible when giving instructions as to what you want ChatGPT to do, leaving all the guesswork out.
So don’t be afraid to be blunt. (you won’t hurt its feeling. Not yet anyway…)
Here are some other key areas to think about when designing prompts:
- Be clear and specific: Clearly state the context or scenario you want the model to follow. Specify the desired outcome or information you are seeking. This helps narrow down the focus and ensures more accurate responses.
- Example: “You are a travel agent helping a customer plan a trip to Japan. Provide information about popular tourist attractions and recommend an itinerary for a week-long visit.”
- Use explicit instructions: Give clear instructions to guide the model’s behavior and response style. Specify any constraints or requirements for the generated content.
- Example: “Provide a detailed explanation of how photosynthesis works, using simple language and avoiding technical jargon.”
- Set the user’s role: Establish a role or persona for the user in the prompt. This helps set the context and creates a more engaging conversation.
- Example: “You are a restaurant owner responding to a customer complaint. Apologize for the issue and offer a solution to resolve their dissatisfaction.”
- Provide initial context: Briefly provide relevant background information to ensure the model understands the context and responds accordingly.
- Example: “You are a tech support representative assisting a customer who is unable to connect to the internet. Ask them for their operating system and troubleshoot the issue accordingly.”
- Ask for step-by-step explanations (if content needs it): If you need the model to provide detailed explanations or walk through a process, explicitly ask for a step-by-step response. This helps ensure clarity and completeness in the generated content.
- Example: “Explain the process of solving a quadratic equation step by step, including how to identify the coefficients and apply the quadratic formula.”
- Iterate and refine: If the initial response is not what you expected or lacks accuracy, try modifying the prompt or instructions to guide the model more effectively. Experiment with different approaches until you achieve the desired output.
It will take constant retuning to get things just right. Not to mention the fact that the AI model itself is always evolving, so more possibilities will open up eventually as to what you can do, so even if you managed to get perfect prompts, you’re going to do more experimenting.
Feeling Really Lazy? Try Keywords Everywhere Prompt Templates for ChatGPT
If you’re in the SEO space, I’m sure you’ve heard of Keywords Everywhere before.
If not; it’s a tool that allows you to see and track data for keywords, right within Google Search.
But that’s not what we care about today.
Did you know, that Keywords Everywhere also provides you with ChatGPT prompts templates, all within the usual open ai place where you go to use ChatGPT?
The best part is, if you’ve already got the Keywords Everywhere extension, then you’re good to go.
If not, here is the link to go get the Keywords Everywhere Chrome extension (its a really good keyword too, if you’re not using one already)
Once you’ve got it installed, if you go to ChatGPT, you should see a “Templates” tab at the bottom left corner of the page, like so:
All you have to do now is left-click this and a box should pop up – and you’ll get to pick from a range of prompts. There are prompts here for everywhere, whether you’re a Lawyer or a Teacher (I’m not kidding.)
and it is constantly being updated too.
Make sure to fill out the fields you need, and then its a case of clicking “Execute Template” so that ChatGPT can begin pumping out content:
Boom, you’re all done.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, prompts are the key to unlocking the true potential of ChatGPT and creating content that aligns with your site’s goals
By utilising prompts effectively, you can engage ChatGPT to generate tailored and captivating content while maintaining your unique voice. Remember, don’t be afraid to experiment and iterate with prompts and ChatGPT in general, you never know what you might be able to come up with.