We’ve had a wee bit of reprieve from winter, but I know it’s short-lived. Why can’t Mother Nature just pick a season and stick with it?
I have to admit, I was skeptical about using AI to help with my writing.
I tend to be one of those people who is afraid to try anything new for fear of losing the old way of doing things. When it comes to AI, that’s not the case.
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AI is designed to help write blog posts, product descriptions, outlines, emails, and so on. It should not (in my opinion) be used to completely write everything. The human element should still remain a constant factor in any piece of writing to some degree.
Initially I was skeptical, but after using both Jasper.AI and WordHero I have come to my own conclusions.
Jasper.AI – This is the first one I tried, and after some time spent on it I realized AI isn’t all that scary.
The more information you can provide, the better the content it produces will be. I also found the more I use it, the better it gets at providing me with content that’s relevant to what i want to say.
That’s not to say it just picks something out of a hat when I type in keywords or titles, but it’s as if it is figuring me out.
I also like the fact it gives more than one output (3 on the basic subscription; 10 in Boss Mode) at a time. It makes it easier to compare the results. I did notice there is some repetition depending on the topic. As I said before, the more keywords and information you can provide, the better.
I have used it to write the content for my Birchbark Publishing email list, and am pleased with the results. I typed in a phrase/sentence with a few keywords, and it generated 5 (the number I asked for) complete articles. In order to include the information I wanted, I pulled sentences and paragraphs from the different outputs to make it my own. Personal experiences and thoughts were also added in.
I do have to say it is a bit pricey: $59.00/month US for Boss Mode (which includes 50,000 credits). With the exchange rate that does convert into over $80.00 (on average) Canadian. I am considering going back to the basic package, which is $29.00/month US. I will lose a couple of the features, but I generally do not use the 50,000 credits I pay for each month. (And the unused credits don’t carry forward to the next month.) The referral credits, however, do carry forward and you have access to them as long as you’re a paying subscriber.
If you refer a monthly subscriber, you do earn 30% of their subscription fee each month, which is nice. You do have to be approved to be an affiliate, and you need a LinkedIn account. (It would not let me skip this when I was filling out the form.) You can earn 10,000 credits for each person you refer, even if you’re not an approved affiliate.
Another feature is it will write in almost any tone of voice you wish. I usually ask for friendly, casual, funny, or witty outputs. It’s amazing what the difference is with just changing the tone (and leaving the keywords/phrase the same).
WordHero – I was scrolling through my Facebook feed the other day, and an ad for WordHero popped up. I decided I had nothing to lose and got the lifetime pro membership ($269.00 US), which translates into much less money per month than Jasper.ai. (Note: the lifetime deal is only available for a short time.)
They also have a subscription plan available, which translates into more money over the course of a year, but still more economical than Jasper. (They also pay 30% to affiliates, no matter the plan.)
I got a little accustomed to having more than output generated at a time for me, which WordHero doesn’t do. Mind you, it doesn’t take much to make a slight change for a different output.
I haven’t tried all of the features of it yet, but I do have to say it’s comparable to Jasper. At time of writing, WordHero is $49.00/month for unlimited usage (although they do have a Fair use Policy in effect), and $348.00/year if paid for annually.
I have found that with using AI I have been able to come up with more ideas for blog posts (I have a running list in my notebook). Plus, by using just the outlines generated I find my own words flow much easier. Sometimes a person just gets stuck, and keying in a few words to AI is all it takes to get unstuck.
One final note: AI is not meant to replace writers. Humans are still needed to edit the outputs, and add the emotion and feeling. As advanced as computers are, my thought is they will never replace the human element entirely. (And no, I did not use AI to write any of this post. I did use it to write this post on my Birchbark Publishing site though.)
Have you used AI? If so, what do you like/dislike about it? If not, is it something you’re considering trying? Let me know in the comments below.