Why Generic AI Content Will Never Build You An Audience

Photo by Chris Spiegl on Unsplash

Yesterday I freaked out.

I saw a landing page for a tool that:

• Schedules your Notes

• Writes whole Notes for you

• Write whole blog posts for you

We’re seeing more and more tools like this pop up, aren’t we? Magical AI tools that help you write a lot of great-looking, yet soulless garbage.

I’m knee-deep in the AI rabbit hole myself, but I still don’t believe that AI should write your most important content. Not by a mile.

The truth is..

• Generic AI content WILL NOT move the needle AT ALL for you.

• It’s MUCH BETTER to use AI as a writing coach, not a ghostwriter.

I’ll break down the “why” behind all of that right now. But first off..

I’m In The Business Of Teaching You How To Write Better—Nothing More

I just wanted to get this clear right off the bat..

I’m NEVER going to be the guy that makes AI tools that write for you. All my tools are built to help you get better as a writer.

I DO NOT build my tools to just auto-generate blog posts and Notes for you.

I value writing as a tool for personal reflection and transformation. Why would I ever want AI to rob that from you?

So if you’re a writer who loves writing and wants to get better, you’re in the right place!

I build tools to help you LEARN writing.

My students tell me how much they love this all the time..

Marni Battista

wrote “I love (the NoteSmith) because it helps me take an idea and get clarity on it. Also, it’s like a built in writing coach because it sees the errors and explains how to improve.”

I just wanted to get that out of the way.

Generic AI Content Will Not Move The Needle At All For You

ChatGPT told me something the other day that’s helped me sleep like a baby ever since..

“Some folks might use these AI tools to auto-generate content, but once they see how ineffective they are, they’ll churn.”

It’s true.

Here’s why.

I’ve built a following of 10,000+ on basically every platform out there. I know a thing or two about growing followings..

99% of the time, audiences can only be built when you do something different than everybody else.

Whenever I create a new project, I always ask myself “Has the world never seen it done EXACTLY LIKE THIS before?”

For example, my publication, Letters With My Father. My Dad and I write letters back and forth to each other there. The idea was that there’s no place online where a father and son speak openly to each other about deep topics.

Even in crowded niches—ahem, “GROWING ON SUBSTACK”—you need to have something different about you that makes you worth following.

One of those for me is that I’m more honest than everybody else. I call out the B.S. in my own niche, even if I shoot myself in the foot to do it. People in my niche don’t do that because they just want to make as much money as possible. That legitimately pisses me off, lol.

And that anger is born out of my own values. My values, therefore, inform my writing, which make me different from everyone.

Do you see how ALL that aligns perfectly?

When I tell you to write what you want to write, I don’t say that just because I want you to have fun.. it’s that I trust your heart knows what isn’t being said enough online.

Now, imagine getting AI to just write stuff for you from scratch, lol. It’s based off what other people have already written online!

It’s literally impossible to stand out that way!

The brand AI builds for you will NEVER gain a following.

It’s Much More Effective To Use AI As A Writing Coach

I’ll be brutally honest here..

AI is nowhere near good enough to write a Note, article, or video script that can go viral by itself yet.

When I ask AI to help me write Youtube shorts from scratch, it’s awful. Even when I give it examples of videos that have gone viral for me, it still gives me back trash.

Go ahead and try it yourself. Ask AI to write a viral Substack Note about travel. It’s gonna suck.

I’m doing a great job advocating for AI, aren’t I? 😆

I’m just being honest.

BUT.

While AI might not be great at raw creation… it’s really good at diagnosis.

If prompted well, AI can tell you exactly what you’re doing wrong in your writing, business, or life.

AI is also really good at editing your work.

My NoteSmith is proof of that. It’s literally helped people polish Note drafts into viral Notes that drive hundreds of subscribers in days.

So just to review..

AI’s current capabilities include:

1. Creating something from scratch ❌

2. Diagnosing problems ✅

3. Editing your work ✅

Could AI write viral stuff by itself in the future? Probably. But as of now? Not by a long shot.

Your Only Option Is To Get Better At Writing Alongside AI

In the past, you might need to pay $100’s, $1,000’s, maybe even $10,000+ to get 1-1 access to a high-quality writing coach.

And if you couldn’t afford one, enjoy getting zero feedback on your work!

Now? Just use AI, baby. Your odds of success just went way up!

If you, over the next 6 months, gave every single data point you could to AI—your articles, your statistics, Notes, etc.—you’d 100% build a winning Substack. I have no doubt in my mind.

If you legitimately talked to it every day, and stayed diligent, you’d win.

This should be music to your ears.

I know it’s not as sexy as “Use this tool to write viral Notes INSTANTLY!” but let’s remember… a few years ago you had to, you know, figure all of this sh*t out for yourself.

So it’s a step back from “GO VIRAL IN SECONDS,” but it’s a major leap forward from “FIGURE IT OUT ON YOUR OWN.”

And when you realize the tools promising that you’ll go viral in seconds will not help you go viral in seconds, you’ll understand the only option to find success, right now, is to put in the work..

..beside an assistant/coach that’s a supercomputer.

Sheesh…I wish I had AI in 2015 when I got started blogging.