Copywriting / SEO Articles and ChatGPT - Is it possible to get customers anymore?

[Mountaintea]

Hi there,

For a few years, I've been running a side-hustle, where I write and translate articles, copywriting etc. Primarily with focus on SEO.
Now I want to ramp up my business, but I am afraid that people will reject me, because people now know of ChatGPT.
What do you guys think?
Have you experienced a decline in customers/gigs etc.?
Or do you have any tips on how to be more valuable than CHatGPT and convincing people about this?

 

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[Fox]

Hi there,

For a few years, I've been running a side-hustle, where I write and translate articles, copywriting etc. Primarily with focus on SEO.
Now I want to ramp up my business, but I am afraid that people will reject me, because people now know of ChatGPT.
What do you guys think?
Have you experienced a decline in customers/gigs etc.?
Or do you have any tips on how to be more valuable than CHatGPT and convincing people about this?

You have to skill up.

If you wrote just average content then ya ChatGPT might take you out of the game over the next few years.
But real copy is not content - it is strategy. And there will always be a massive opportunity there.

I hired a copywriter just a few days ago (and already have another staff writer on a monthly salary) for strategy.
They spend a lot of time thinking over the WHY of good content - which is why they get results.

If ChatGPT (and it's current level) is taking you out of business - then your writing is not good enough.
Because it is not writing that good yet, at least not as good as a copywriter should be.

 

[Mountaintea]

You have to skill up.

If you wrote just average content then ya ChatGPT might take you out of the game over the next few years.
But real copy is not content - it is strategy. And there will always be a massive opportunity there.

I hired a copywriter just a few days ago (and already have another staff writer on a monthly salary) for strategy.
They spend a lot of time thinking over the WHY of good content - which is why they get results.

If ChatGPT (and it's current level) is taking you out of business - then your writing is not good enough.
Because it is not writing that good yet, at least not as good as a copywriter should be.

Totally agree, you have to be better and deliver that personal touch and humanness that ChatGPT can't deliver.
I am just wondering if people are starting to dismiss the need for a copywriter.
Anyhow - May I ask, how did you find your writer(s) and what stood out to you, that made you decide to go with them?

 

[Fox]

Totally agree, you have to be better and deliver that personal touch and humanness that ChatGPT can't deliver.
I am just wondering if people are starting to dismiss the need for a copywriter.
Anyhow - May I ask, how did you find your writer(s) and what stood out to you, that made you decide to go with them?

I don't think ChatGBT can do effective copy - only help (with research and ideas).

It is more set up for content writing - knock out some quick paragraphs on a topic.

If anything I would say it is SEO that is in for the big knock.

Copywriting is a skill - the skill of selling. And ChatGPT is not (currently) not that hard to outsell.

To secure your business you need to up your skills. And not just writing - learn offers, marketing, upsells, downsells, payment systems, email systems etc.

Become an expert at selling through copy (all parts of selling) - you will always have work.

 

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[tenacity]

Hi there,

For a few years, I've been running a side-hustle, where I write and translate articles, copywriting etc. Primarily with focus on SEO.
Now I want to ramp up my business, but I am afraid that people will reject me, because people now know of ChatGPT.
What do you guys think?
Have you experienced a decline in customers/gigs etc.?
Or do you have any tips on how to be more valuable than CHatGPT and convincing people about this?

I wanted to add that Google knows how to detect AI content and it's a bannable offense to just publish AI written content according to the webmaster guidelines of ''automatically generated content'' . Of course differentiating your content might help with that. To add, there is talk about ChatGPT adding a hidden / open watermark to identify AI content.

Edit: ChatGPT also only covers content up to a certain date.

 

[Andy Black]

I liked how the copywriter in this video believes that AI will help you write more copy in the same time, or write the same copy in less time - at your current quality level.

Whether it can make you a better copy writer or not isn't really his point. I think it's more about producing more in the same time, or producing the same in less time.

3 Ways I'm Using AI To Improve My Content Workflow

My copywriter Lukas and I are jamming on how I should be using AI to improve my content workflow. Figured I'd hit that LIVE button so you guys can get some ...

www.youtube.com

Saying that, a business owner I know got ChatGPT to create his Facebook Ads copy and he says that version is running better than any of their previous versions.

It's a tool. Figure out how to use it to make your service/product better.

 

[Erik Heyl]

I just got hired at an agency the other day (literally last week), and have other irons in the fire, so, yes. And ChatGPT isn't on the internet, doesn't cite sources and in a test done by Ahrefs, really isn't good for deep content or persuasive writing:

View: https://youtu.be/59hsPSrYvmk
. There is still quite a bit of value in the human touch. I mean, let's say content writing, copywriting, songwriting, art creation all go to AI. what's left for humanity? Physical labor (we're already seeing robots and 3D printing)? We need to be careful how we tread with this, I think.

 

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[MichaelCottam]

I liked how the copywriter in this video believes that AI will help you write more copy in the same time, or write the same copy in less time - at your current quality level.

Whether it can make you a better copy writer or not isn't really his point. I think it's more about producing more in the same time, or producing the same in less time.

3 Ways I'm Using AI To Improve My Content Workflow

My copywriter Lukas and I are jamming on how I should be using AI to improve my content workflow. Figured I'd hit that LIVE button so you guys can get some ...

www.youtube.com

Saying that, a business owner I know got ChatGPT to create his Facebook Ads copy and he says that version is running better than any of their previous versions.

It's a tool. Figure out how to use it to make your service/product better.

Great points, Andy. SO MUCH press is focused on "can ChatGPT replace this", when really it's more like a chainsaw. Sure, it's POSSIBLE to create a piece of furniture with JUST the chainsaw, but in general, it's just one of the tools you'll use along the way. Hey, I grew up in a logging town on Vancouver Island .

For anyone who's interested, I did a podcast for Perpetual Traffic (Kasim Aslam of Solutions 8 and Ralph Burns of Tier 11) quite recently on how to use AI tools to help create SEO content (notice I said "help" create!):

‎Perpetual Traffic: How to Use ChatGPT to Rank #1 in Google with Michael Cottam on Apple Podcasts

‎Show Perpetual Traffic, Ep How to Use ChatGPT to Rank #1 in Google with Michael Cottam - Feb 14, 2023

podcasts.apple.com

Seems to have been pretty well received. Don't blame me for the title, I didn't name it that!

 

[MichaelCottam]

I don't think ChatGBT can do effective copy - only help (with research and ideas).

It is more set up for content writing - knock out some quick paragraphs on a topic.

If anything I would say it is SEO that is in for the big knock.

Copywriting is a skill - the skill of selling. And ChatGPT is not (currently) not that hard to outsell.

To secure your business you need to up your skills. And not just writing - learn offers, marketing, upsells, downsells, payment systems, email systems etc.

Become an expert at selling through copy (all parts of selling) - you will always have work.

I MOSTLY agree with you here. But I would say that for some of the content, it does a decent job of the wordsmithing. Yeah, you still need to go back over and do some heavy-handed editing, remove repetitive phrases (ChatGPT LOVES to say "It's important to note that...."), and tweak the tone a bit. But it can really help cut down the time that the first draft takes you to grind out, and get you pretty much straight to the editing/proofing work.

I find ChatGPT much more useful if instead of feeding it my article topic, I come up with my outline (headline + 8 to 12 subheadings), and feed it questions about the subheadings.

The other thing people seem to skip over is that ChatGPT only produces a portion of the content: the text. Long gone are the days when you can grind out 1500 words, stick an iStockPhoto on the top and call it good, and expect to rank. For any piece of content that you expect Google (and humans!) to like, you're going to need some original (NOT stock photo) images, an embedded video (even if it's just you reading the text to the camera...at least you're enabling people to listen instead of read, i.e. while they're driving), some intelligently crafted schema markup, and hopefully some other rich elements like embedded maps, virtual tours, dynamic charts, etc.

 

[DerekOlsen]

Wow, this is an old thread, but I'm here to help. It's true that ChatGPT is getting a lot of attention these days, but don't worry, there's still plenty of room for human touch and expertise. People still want that personal and high-quality content that only a human can provide. So, don't sweat it. Show off your unique skills and use professional seo software tools. Just my thoughts.

 

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[Mac]

You can ask ChatGPT to write copy in the style of Dan Kennedy or Gary Halbert.

And it does a pretty damn good job once you play around with it, mixing and matching paragraphs so that it flows smoothly.