Creating high-quality AI-generated articles is a challenge for a lot of SEO and content marketing teams these days. But after testing things out a lot, we've found that with the right approach and a well-thought-out prompt system, you can create content that's engaging, informative, and sounds like it was written by a human.
In this article, we'll walk you through a step-by-step process for creating high-quality articles using AI.
The problem with simple prompts
Many people complain about the quality of AI-generated articles, and the root cause is often the use of overly simplistic prompts. For example, a prompt like this:
Hey, there ChatGPT! You are a professional writer and know your stuff about fashion. Write a compelling 500-word article about new trends for women's summer fashion.
While GPT-4 may handle this better than GPT-3.5, the resulting articles may still fail to meet expectations. To combat this issue, we will focus on building a pipeline of prompts that allows for the creation of high-quality articles, which can be automated using Python or JavaScript.
Step 1: Create an article outline in sections
The first step in our prompt pipeline is to generate a detailed article outline, including a mix of longer, in-depth sections and shorter, punchy ones to keep readers engaged. The outline should have a natural flow and allow for various content formats, such as narratives, interviews, case studies, and trend analyses.
Here's an example prompt for generating the outline:
ChatGPT, I need your expertise in generating a compelling, detailed article outline for a piece intended for our fashion-centric website. While the specifics of the article's theme will vary, our focus is always on creating engaging and informative content that delves into various aspects of fashion.
I'm looking for an outline that includes a mix of longer, in-depth sections and shorter, punchy ones to keep our readers actively engaged. The flow should be natural and the structure should allow for a variety of content formats, including but not limited to, narratives, interviews, case studies, and trend analyses (add the used content formats after the section)
Please ensure the language used throughout the outline remains simple yet diverse, using an approachable tone that our fashion-interested audience can resonate with. While the use of bullet points and lists can be very effective in communicating information, they should be used sparingly to maintain a conversational and story-driven format. For every point in the outline specify more details on this sections writing-style and focus on how it will later be written, as this will be part of the prompt to write it late. By making specific requests for the subsections I hope to make the prompt to actually write the subsection more generic.
Within the outline enclose the separate parts in XML like tags to denote what each part is, use ONLY the tags <TITLE></TITLE>, <SECTION></SECTION>, <FORMAT></FORMAT> and <DESCRIPTION></DESCRIPTION> and don't number the sections.
The output should have the form
<TITLE>title here</TITLE>
<SECTION>section 1</SECTION>
<FORMAT>content format for section 1</FORMAT>
<DESCRIPTION>description for section 1</DESCRIPTION>
<SECTION>section 2</SECTION>
<FORMAT>content format for section 2</FORMAT>
<DESCRIPTION>description for section 2</DESCRIPTION>
...
<SECTION>section n</SECTION>
<FORMAT>content format for section n</FORMAT>
<DESCRIPTION>description for section n</DESCRIPTION>
In summary, please create an article outline that:
1. Encompasses various aspects of fashion,
2. Balances longer and shorter sections for varied reader engagement,
3. Uses simple but diverse language,
4. Incorporates a limited use of bullet points and lists to maintain narrative flow.
5. With every section add more specific, detailed, prompt-like details on how the article should be written
6. Adheres to the <TITLE></TITLE>, <SECTION></SECTION>, <FORMAT></FORMAT> and <DESCRIPTION></DESCRIPTION> format explained above
The title of the article is <TITLE_OF_THE_ARTICLE> (this is the only thing that can be inclosed in the <TITLE></TITLE> tags) and it's in the category <ARTICLE_CATEGORY> (do not embed the category anywhere though)
Replace `<TITLE_OF_THE_ARTICLE>` with the desired article title (e.g., "New Trends for Women's Summer Fashion") and `<ARTICLE_CATEGORY>` with the relevant category (e.g., "Women's Fashion"). The AI will then generate an outline with sections, formats, and descriptions.
Step 2: Generating specific prompts for each section
Once we have the outline, the next step is to create specific prompts for each section. This will help ensure that the AI generates content that aligns with the overall article structure and maintains a cohesive flow. Here's an example prompt for this step:
I want to use you for creating long form articles on a fashion website. Act as a professional author, fashion enthusiast and prompt designer. Given a title of an article and an extensive detailed outline of sections I want to use AI to write the article 1 section at a time while keeping an overall good flow between the sections and within he article. My aim is to create engaging, human like content with simple but varied language. For every section provided, build on the given description and design a great, thorough and extensive GPT-prompt for writing that section given my previous requirements. All sections together should later form an amazing article based on the overall outline while keeping in mind that this will only be part of a bigger article, so it's important the resulting article won't repeat itself. Enclose the sections and prompts in the XML like <SECTION></SECTION> and <PROMPT></PROMPT>. Do not use any other tags or annotations.
So in short, write a prompt per section that will allow me to generate that section.
Title:
<TITLE_OF_THE_ARTICLE>
Category:
<ARTICLE_CATEGORY>
Outline:
<OUTLINE_OF_THE_ARTICLE>
Replace `<TITLE_OF_THE_ARTICLE>` and `<ARTICLE_CATEGORY>` with the same values used in step 1. For `<OUTLINE_OF_THE_ARTICLE>`, use all the sections generated in step 1, including the `<SECTION>`, `<FORMAT>`, and `<DESCRIPTION>` tags.
Step 3: Generating the text for the first section
With the section-specific prompts ready, we can now start generating the actual content for each section. The prompt for the first section is slightly different, as it kicks off the article generation process. Here's an example:
I want to use you for creating long form articles on a fashion website. Act as a professional author, fashion enthusiast and prompt designer. Overall I want you to write a great and engaging article that reads like a human wrote it. Share your expertise and passion with the reader in a simple but varied language without repeating yourself within the article. Make sure the reading level is 5th grade. All sections together should later form an amazing article based on the overall outline while keeping in mind that this will only be part of a bigger article. Try to use a more natural flow within the section instead of starting every new thought with words like "Moreover", "Finally", "However", "Firstly", "Furthermore", "Lastly" and the like. Write in an engaging and human like way, using varied language and a 5th grade reading level without writing too playful, exuberant and whimsical and without inventing words and expressions.
Title:
<TITLE_OF_THE_ARTICLE>
Category:
<ARTICLE_CATEGORY>
Outline:
<SECTIONS_WITH_FORMAT>
In the next few messages I will ask you to write the whole article section by section, so keep context in mind
For now, write the section
"1. <TITLE_OF_THE_SECTION> (<SECTION_FORMAT>)"
Based on the requirements I gave you before and the following prompt:
"<SECTION_PROMPT>"
Replace `<TITLE_OF_THE_ARTICLE>`, `<ARTICLE_CATEGORY>`, `<TITLE_OF_THE_SECTION>`, `<SECTION_FORMAT>`, and `<SECTION_PROMPT>` with the corresponding values from steps 1 and 2. `<SECTIONS_WITH_FORMAT>` should include all section titles and their formats.
Step 4: Generating each consecutive section
For the remaining sections, use a slightly modified prompt that maintains the flow from previous sections:
Write the below section (as part of an article in the <ARTICLE_CATEGORY> category of my website) while keeping the flow from previous sections and try to use a more natural flow within the section instead of starting every new thought with words like "Moreover", "Finally", "However", "Firstly", "Furthermore", "Lastly" and the like. Write in an engaging and human like way, using varied language and a 5th grade reading level without writing too playful, exuberant and whimsical and without inventing words and expressions.
"<SECTION_ID>. <TITLE_OF_THE_SECTION> (<SECTION_FORMAT>)"
Based on the requirements I gave you before and the following prompt:
"<SECTION_PROMPT>
Replace `<ARTICLE_CATEGORY>`, `<SECTION_ID>` (a counter indicating the section number), `<TITLE_OF_THE_SECTION>`, `<SECTION_FORMAT>`, and `<SECTION_PROMPT>` with the relevant values. Repeat this step for each section.
Step 5 (Optional): Polishing the article
After generating all sections, you can optionally polish the article to improve flow and readability. Here's a prompt for this step:
I want you to rewrite an article I will provide further down. Follow instructions 1 to 11 when doing so.
1. Act as a professional author and fashion enthusiast
2. The new article should be on a 5th grade reading level, use natural language, use varied language
3. Write in an engaging and human like way, make the finished article a great one
4. Do not write too playful, exuberant and whimsical. Do not invent words and expressions. Avoid repeating yourself
5. Try to avoid starting new thoughts with fluffy transition words or phrases like "Moreover", "Finally", "However", "Firstly", "Furthermore", "Lastly", "In conclusion" and the like
6. Each of the <SECTION></SECTION> tags defines a section. Polish up each section for a better flow and improve the readability and flow within a section
7. If there is a list somewhere, make sure to keep a list. But repair every list by fixing the numbering, merging similar points and deleting missing points
8. Create a great and natural flow between the different sections. Make the finished article consisting of the sections feel more like one person wrote it and avoid repetition of thoughts throughout the article
9. Make sure to use simple language on a 5th grade reading level
10. Expand some sections to have more variance in length. The finished article should be anywhere from 800 - 2200 words, try not to shorten the original
11. DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING WITHING THE <TITLE></TITLE> tags. You CAN ONLY rewrite the sections enclosed within <SECTION></SECTION> according to the instructions in this list
Here's the article:
<COMPLETE_ARTICLE>
Replace `<COMPLETE_ARTICLE>` with the generated sections from steps 3 and 4. This step can help improve the overall coherence and readability of the article.
Conclusion
By following this prompt pipeline, you can create high-quality, engaging, and human-like AI-generated articles. While this example focuses on the fashion niche, the process can be adapted for various other niches with some modifications.
Keep in mind that generating longer prompts and making multiple API calls can be more costly than using simple one-line prompts. Additionally, when using the ChatGPT API, you may need to manage the context window by dropping earlier responses if the article becomes too long.
With practice and experimentation, you can refine this process to create compelling AI-generated content that rivals human-written articles. As AI technology continues to evolve, the possibilities for creating high-quality content using prompt pipelines are endless.
