A must-read if you're using or planning to use AI to generate blog posts

As a tech blogger, I come across many AI tools that are capable of generating complete SEO-optimized blog posts within minutes. Makes your life easier, doesn't it? You have an AI working for you while you're counting dollar bills, right?

Wrong.

Let's work on expectations

A lot of aspiring content creators and bloggers believe in the following sequence of events:

1. Start a blog
2. Write a few posts
3. Add Google AdSense
4. Make Money

And it's not their fault. Lots of "Gurus" will try to sell you exactly what I described above, it usually ends with you buying their book.

The reality, however, is much different. Just like anything else in life, nothing comes easy.

I'm not trying to say that you won't make any money but think of it this way. A blog is like an engine, but a car won't run without fuel.

The fuel that runs your blog is organic traffic. You're not going anywhere without enough people wanting to read what you have to say about their problems. Yes, their problems, because no one cares about yours.

Great, if we consider traffic, we can update the sequence of events to become the following:

1. Start a blog
2. Write posts that solve people's problems
3. Drive organic and (optionally) paid traffic
4. Go to #2 and repeat.

Where's the "Make Money" part you ask? Surely you need to generate income to pay the bills right? Of course, you must have a clear monetization strategy but you're not going to generate any money until you have a decent stream of organic traffic.

Therefore, set the right expectations. Don't start a blog to make money, start a blog to learn and help others, and then if you do it well and long enough, eventually your monetization plan will come to fruition.

How AI-generated content can help

Okay, going back to our main topic. If you're not solving actual problems, no one will spend the time reading your stuff.

So if you plan on using AI to write all your blog posts, ask yourself:

• Why would anyone come to my blog instead of using AI-generated solutions? Since you can do it, anyone else can.
• How does your AI content add value to existing content?
• Is your content different than competitors also using AI?
• Why are you using AI anyway? What if someone asks you a specific question or wants to dive deep into one of your posts, would you answer them using AI as well?

You get the idea... Using just AI to generate your content is fine if you want to be average and predictable.

Making use of AI vs. relying on AI

Now making use of AI tools instead of completely relying on them is completely different. For instance, I use a few tools that help me write better.

At the end of the day, if your content does not feel human, does not add value, and is not based on your personal experience with the topic you'll have a hard time establishing trust and building an audience.

So, how should you use AI for your blog?

Let me share with you three essential steps that you must follow if you want to bring your blogging A game.

Step 1: Make sure your writing is on point

At the very least, you should be using Grammarly. It checks your grammar, and spelling, and can optimize your paragraphs and writing as a whole. I highly recommend it and I use it all the time.

If you're not already, try it now for free 👇

Grammarly AI

Don't skip this one. Remember, other bloggers use it as well, and no matter how good of a writer you may be, this will save you a lot of valuable time.

Try Grammarly for Free

Step 2: Let AI do the heavy work for you

Another tool is Surfer AI. Out of the ones I've come across, it is the best in terms of generating SEO-optimized posts for your blog.

Surfer AI

Surfer AI generates posts in no time and optimizes the content based on ranking keywords. It's so easy that you can just enter your topic and then it takes care of everything else including structure and keywords.

Other than complete SEO-optimized posts with minimal effort from your end, a great feature in my opinion is custom knowledge. This lets you add personal experience so that your content is unique and personalized. This will also positively impact your E-E-A-T score and subsequently your overall rank.

Surfer AI

It's not free, but it's totally worth it. Get 150 SEO-optimized articles and 100 daily keyword research for only $239/mo when billed annually.

Try Surfer AI

Step 3: Optimize and validate before publishing

This step is absolutely essential. If you use tools like Surfer AI or ChatGPT or others, make sure to quality check and include your personal experience and expertise on the topic.

You must always check if AI content detectors flag your posts as AI-generated. You may have duplicate content on your site which may indicate to Google low effort/quality posts and you may be penalized.

There are a bunch of tools that I reviewed that can easily pick up AI content. Based on my review and experience I recommend Winston AI.

Winston AI

This one comes out on top based on my personal experience with it. Winston provides a great user interface and accurate results.

You can try it now for free. Right after creating a new account, you can activate the free trial that comes with 2,000 credits.

Winston AI Detector

Windows AI Detector came out as the best option in my opinion due to its accuracy, simplicity, and beautiful user interface.

Try Winston AI Detector

Wrapping up

So, why should you only use AI to generate content? The short answer: You shouldn't. But you should make use of AI tools and use them to your advantage.

Go for Grammarly, it's essential. Also, check out Surfer AI if you want to spend less time writing while creating content that ranks. Winston AI is a great tool that can detect whether a post was created by AI or a human, it's worth validating your work before hitting the publish button.

Always make sure your content is unique, personal, and provides value to your readers.

Thanks for reading! And I hope you find the content helpful, please let me know in the comments if you have any questions or thoughts, and follow me on X for more updates.