This September, I will build 30 AI tools in 30 days. The inspiration for this project came from two things. First, I have been building AI tools for my team to use on our own projects at OptSus. Second, I recently taught a workshop titled "Rapid Prototyping AI Tools".
One of the strongest points of feedback I received with this workshop is how bad the title is. For me, I was asking my mastermind groups about the systems and processes they were using to rapid prototype AI tools. I decided to name the workshop the exact question I was asking myself.
It turns out, most people don't know what AI tools are. They also don't commonly talk about prototypes, rapid or otherwise. Nothing about this title interested most people I talked with.
However, after learning the details of the workshop, many were interested. Unfortunately, they expressed this interest after the workshop had passed. Also, most of them were not in Raleigh, NC - where the workshop was held in-person.
Therefore, to reach a larger group of people and shine a spotlight on what rapid prototyping AI tools could be - I decided to build 30 AI tools in 30 days.
At OptSus, we have been using various AI tools for a few years now. We were among the many organizations that bought an annual subscription to AI content creation tools just before ChatGPT was launched in November 2022.
Most of the tools that came before ChatGPT could help with things like keyword research, outlines, and first-draft content that matched a template. After ChatGPT came on the market, we completely changed the way we create content.
Sure, we did launch a website with 100% AI generated content. We watched it get indexed, gain traffic, and drop completely off the search results. This taught us that AI content is not a simple prompt and publish type of tool.
Instead, we looked at the SOPs we had developed over several years. We had processes for researching and outlining content. We had templates for different types of content. We had guidelines for keyword use, readability, and data sources. The task of the writer was to pull all this together and create paragraphs from these templates, bullet points, and data.
At first, we continued sending this work to our writing team. Unfortunately, they returned words on a page which were obviously generated using low quality prompts. Our editors were spending too much time revising the work. So, we decided to have the editors work directly with ChatGPT.
The result of this new way of creating content was a significant increase in the quality and the output per unit of time our editors spent on these projects.
Over time, we began to develop a set of prompts that offered quality output. The new problem was training editors to know what prompt to use and how it should be formatted. That's where the idea to create our own tools for OptSus came from.
By creating a simple form and connecting it with the ChatGPT API, any editor could complete the form and receive output for the project. This created social media posts, outlines, first-draft content, and much more. All of this is being created with our own formulas which mix user input, data, and ChatGPT prompts.
Now that you know where the idea for this project comes from, here's how you can follow along.
First, I will be posting updates on Twitter and LinkedIn. You can follow my accounts here:
Next, you're invited to join the SEO Social Club. During our calls in September and October, we're going to be discussing the various AI tools that I'm building. We will also talk about your ideas for AI tools, and those that other members bring to the conversation.