How AI is Revolutionizing Long-Form SEO Blog Writing: Tips and Tricks for Crafting Compelling Content: Justin McGill - Content At Scale

SPEAKER_01 0:04

This is the Beyond the Story Podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. And now, Sebastian Frost. Justin, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. Hey, thanks for being here. And uh it's been great to connect with you on both uh shows that we're doing here, both Beyond the Story and Grit Daily 2, uh, all talking about the conversation around artificial intellig intelligence, AI, AI. If I hear the word AI one more time, uh so we connected through um Julie McCoy, one of my favorite human beings, and uh the world continues to get smaller and smaller and smaller. And of course, I'm always looking to start conversations with individuals about stuff that I just don't know about. That's the beauty of being a becoming a podcaster, is that you're not that person that keeps asking questions. It's really my job to to ask questions. So let's back up a little bit, talk a little bit about just for context for our listeners, talk a little bit about your background and what kind of brought you to present day. And let's just dive into this whole artificial intelligence, AI, the robots are taking over uh conversation.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Yeah, man. So I guess going back to 2008 is when I launched a digital marketing agency and initially focused on websites, but had a client ask me if I did SEO. I had no idea what that was. I had to Google what is SEO and and read an ebook, and and I was like, yeah, you know, I think I could do that. And so that then got me down the path of recurring revenue and all that fun stuff. And and so from there, um had had kind of started to scale that out in a way. Uh back in the day, we were using all kinds of like article spinners and you know, replace synonyms and everything else, right? Completely ridiculous. But, you know, the idea was how could I scale this? Excuse me. And so with that, um, you know, fast forward several years, 2014, I launched my first SaaS company. And it was an outbound sales tool, yet focused exclusively on content marketing to drive traffic. And so sorry, I'm getting over a cold here. So uh, but anyways, always a big fan of inbound and just felt like AI was progressing to a point a few years ago where I thought like we could actually do this whole, you know, article spinning, but in a legit way, right? And so went to work and and took a couple of years. Uh, we launched to like a with a done for you service. We had a um basically a layer on top of our AI that that we would manage so the clients would never see it. Thought it was ready, uh, went out and sold like 30,000 a month and recurring revenue in the first like few weeks. And uh turns out at the time, I didn't realize, but we were like the first content agency openly, you know, using AI to provide the service, right? Well, the AI just wasn't quite ready, and so we had to put pause on all these accounts and and basically end up, you know, writing all of this content from scratch almost. I mean, it was just ridiculous. And so we put that on pause, went back to the drawing board, and then launched in uh in September of last year. Uh, and and at that point felt like the platform was ready, and and so we launched that versus the service, which um were actually sunsetting. So yeah, so that's that's the whole kind of quick backstory there to it.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

So you launched a platform how many years ago?

SPEAKER_00 3:41

So the actual platform was launched in September of uh last year, so 2022.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Okay, okay, got so so kind of the you know, in the when when when AI started to become popular, you said, all right, we got to do something about this and take some existing expertise, kind of what we've done before, and implement the new technology, and we really have a great solution. Then you quickly found out that AI just isn't wasn't quite where it needed to be in order to do that. So, how how did you dare I use the word pivot?

SPEAKER_00 4:09

Um, but so and that's correct. So I I wanted to focus on long-form SEO content, right? Like that is what we we are not like an AI writer, like more general purpose, like a Jasper type thing, right? Which was out there. Um, I felt like there were a lot of Jasper users that likely wanted long form SEO content and to make that easy, and that was my background, and so that's what I, you know, we've built and focused that part of it. If I was just trying to build like a you know, a UI on top of open AI or something like that, no problem, right? Like it was that was already out there and available, but um, to do it from an SEO perspective and and long form, like that just wasn't ready. And so um, you know, that's where we had to, you know, not only that, but you know, at the time Google was anti-AI, right? So that's changed now. They've they've changed their policies and stuff. But at that time, and by that time, I'm I'm literally talking like seven or eight months ago, right? Like it was it was not something that they they were okay with. And so AI detection was a big thing, and and so you know, we knew we couldn't just take the output from you know, say open AI to you know just deliver the blog post. There were multiple layers that it had to go through to become undetectable and everything else. And so, you know, we had to we were working on that. We launched without it, but we were able to, you know, quickly spin that up and and make that happen about a month later. Um, but yeah, so that's you know, yes, like the the AI was there for general purpose, but not for long form. So we just had to, you know, keep tinkering basically until we until we got it. And um, you know, that's not a pivot per se. It's just that I guess technology-wise, it was right. Like we couldn't just um use and do the same thing like Jasper was doing, right? We had to do it differently if we wanted, you know, the long form SEO content output.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

So so how does that all work? So let's let's break that down a little bit here. So when we talk about SEO long-form content, are we talking about blog posts? Yeah. Um, okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Yep, exactly. And these come out a little over 2,600 words on average. Um, right. So we're crawling Google, we're identifying all the top ranky content, we're pulling all of that in for context. Um, we're running natural language processing to identify all the keyword entities and and things that need to be included in those articles. And then um, you know, the content goes in and is put together based on all of that, right? And so uh, and now we're we're linking to sources, it's all research backed, right? I mean, it's it's pretty crazy the the level of quality. And so now um, you know, that's basically, you know, beginning to end, all you did is is, and you could upload like a hundred keywords, say, and minutes later you got a hundred blog posts that are all 2600 words, that are all, you know, I say 26, but it could be 2000, it could be 4,000 words, right? Um, but they're all like long form SEO driven content, basically, is um, you know, how it's constructed. And it's it's essentially published ready uh out of the gate now, right? Like, I mean, maybe you're gonna spend three minutes, five minutes on on an article or something, but by and large, these are published ready out of the box.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

So is this a platform that you've created? Is this like a so online software that you guys utilize and create?

SPEAKER_00 7:18

Yeah, so it's content at scale.ai is is the is the platform. But yeah, it's uh all self-serve, right? You just come in, you can um put in keywords, you can put in like YouTube URLs for podcast episodes, right? So you can actually take this episode link, put that in, and then you're gonna get a full-blown educational blog post around what it is that we're talking about. Um, it's not a transcript, right? It's it's much deeper and and uh more insightful than like just show notes. Uh it's an actual like informational article based on you know, again, the the discussion. So and the same thing with YouTube videos or or even different custom files and whatnot. So it's not just a keyword-driven thing, but you can really uh pretty easily scale out your content marketing, is the idea. Yeah, this is rad.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

So this is solely focused on long form content, i.e., blog posts. So you'll be able to you're exactly what's happening is you're able to repurpurpose a lot of your existing content, just like you got done saying podcast episodes, YouTube videos, a list of keywords, um, uh, etc. And and the end product is a ready-to-go 2600 2600-word blog post.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Exactly. Yep, you could do it even if it's like a competitor with like that they're crushing it with content marketing, right? Like you could take all their URLs and have all fresh content written on the same topics, right? Completely original and everything else. Um but yeah, that's the idea. And and that's it. I mean, so if you wanted like ad copy, right? Like you were you're trying to launch a Facebook ad campaign or something, like you're gonna use Jasper or or Chat GPT directly, right? Or something like that. Um, we're we're folks focused exclusively on long form and and you know the SEO aspects of it all. So um, but yeah, that's it's purpose built just for that.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

So why is it important, other than time, that someone utilizes a platform like this versus say hiring a freelance copywriter, just continue to do what they've always done? Is it just the speed of the process and being able to say, well, one person can write five articles a day? The software allows us to, you know, scale that correctly.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

Yeah, so certainly that um it's quality, it's you know, when are you gonna get the turnaround right? Um, I'm telling you, literally, so we hired 40 some writers, um, freelance writers when we were doing this as a service. And when the AI wasn't there, like we had to actually write the content, right? Like when it was all failing, I mentioned earlier. And so of those 40, like we had to let go 36 of them. 36 out of 40, we had to let go because they just weren't they weren't good writers, right? But these are freelance writers. I mean, so you know, when would people say, Oh, uh, you know, I want you know, human content, it's like that does human does not mean better, right? I mean, there's there's a whole other level of quality that that you know you need to go through. Uh, but this this does a better job, quite frankly, than than nine times out of 10, really, um, uh, with with freelance writers that you're gonna hire. So not only that, again, it's just the it's the turnaround time, it's the consistency, uh, it's the management too, right? I mean, oftentimes when you're working with a freelance writer, you've got to do all the research, you've got to put together a brief, you've got to send that to them. Um, you're gonna, you know, go through the editing process, right? So it's uh a little more of a headache. Um, and so typically the the old school goal is like one post a week, which you know is just not enough anymore. And and even back years ago, I mean, HubSpot put research out showing companies that were producing 20 blog posts a month were getting 4x the inbound lead flow. And so, uh, and that was that was you know five, six years ago, right? This is before AI. And so, you know, it's just a matter of time before platforms like this are are kind of like just table stakes, right? This is stuff you have to do. So then it becomes like, okay, well, what else are we gonna do? But that's the idea is something like this takes away all of that time commitment, and so you are able to spend more time on promoting that content or repurposing it into other formats or whatever, um, and building links, right? I think as as more and more companies have the ability to just spin up all this content, I think I think links become more important as well. And so, you know, that's time that you have back now to be doing those things to help you, you know, stand out even further. So um, you know, I think it's just the efficiencies all the way around. I think the money savings, right? I mean, it just makes it a no-brainer ultimately.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

Sorry, your website was dinging me over here. That was sound like someone was at the door. I went to the what content and scale, the chat blot. I think sounds dinging. Oh no. Someone, someone at the door here. So chat the chat feature works on the website. So, so who is this for? Is this anybody? I mean, right now it's in it's in, you know, you're you're in pre-launch right now. You can request an invite on the site. That's the first question. The second question is after I sign up, how difficult is me is it for me? Let's just say I'm a novice, I know how to check email and surf the internet for me to be able to go do that, or is this more geared towards uh, you know, a someone who's actually a copywriter?

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Yeah, so I think you'll find it super simple. Like we we've tried to make this as easy as possible to just come in and get started. So we right away, I mean, right when you come in, your um, there's obviously there's a video and everything you can watch, but um, there's a whole just kind of step by step, like name your your website project, right? So typically that's just your your business or website. Um, give a little context to who your readers or you know your audience is and what the site is about. And then um, you know, going forward, that all helps fuel the content that's produced for that project, right? So you can have multiple projects and everything else. Um, we have agencies using us, obviously. Um, some of the biggest content agencies in the world. We've got startups, we've got freelance writers, right? That that are using it to um supplement their own work and and this way they can take on more clients and and actually do less work. They can spend more time, you know, on sales, right? So I mean it does run the gamut. A lot of startups, a lot of freelancers, a lot of agencies, uh a lot of you know, a lot of uh uh affiliate like content site operators, right? That that need content pretty regularly. Um they might run a portfolio or or have multiple content sites, and you know, um, those are, you know, again, the the ideal type of audience there. But um, yeah, I mean, so it does run the gamut as far as who uses it. Uh, we we had been in beta since September. Uh, we actually just took the beta label off. That was something Julia wanted to do. Um, I kind of liked it because it it kind of helped set expectations, right? There might be UX issues, or um, also what I noticed too is is people were a lot more forthcoming with feedback when they knew that it was a beta. Yeah. Um, they liked being an early adopter, right? Like so I I liked a lot of the psychology plays with it, but Julia wanted, you know, she just felt like this is beyond that now, and and she wanted to kind of raise the brand a little bit. So um that's what we did. So we we just took the beta label off. Um, but yeah, so what you do is you go to the site, you can put in your email, you'll get a link to um like a dedicated page for the product and video and all that fun stuff.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Love it. So, so and how's it work? Is it like a per article thing? Do you pay for a monthly subscription? What's the what's the skinny on actually using the platform?

SPEAKER_00 14:31

Yeah, so there's there's multiple plans just based on how how many blog posts you need, basically, right? So um the agency one comes, there's like a white label option, and you know, there's so there's some different features as you go up um levels, but um, and then as you go, you get a better, you know, bulk rate on the on the posts that get created. Uh, but yeah, so you know, every every month you get you know additional those A, unused credits roll over, B, you get new credits, right? On on the subscription subscription renewal. Uh, but yeah, that's you know, that's how that works. Our our initial plan starts at eight posts, um, you know, because at minimum, I mean, we just don't think you should be posting just one post a week. Um, you know, so we're at an eight post uh minimum. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

So if you're listening this right now, you're like, this sounds fantastic. Holy cow, artificial intelligence finally makes sense. I want to use this. We're gonna put a link in the in in the uh description of this podcast episode to go over to content at scale and check them out. It'll be my link, full transparency, because I just signed up for their affiliate program. So uh you know we you know we're transparent on this show over here. But no, in all seriousness, well, if you've been looking for a tool like this, you know, it it makes sense to at least check it out and find out what's available.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

I'm sorry, go ahead. Yeah, if they use your link too, uh, that'll actually get them 20% more post credits. So instead of eight, they would have uh 10 on that initial plan. So that's just with your link. Let's go, ladies and gentlemen.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

You see that? We're just serving our audience of the people on this show here. You go check out a new platform and you get something for free. Who does free's a great price last time I checked? Everyone loves free stuff for some reason. Uh well, this is great. I I can't wait to check the platform out and dive dive in. Of course, I know you guys, uh well, I know you now, and of course I know Julia. So um I'm you know I'm impartial to well, which platforms we're checking out these days. I I recently invested into a podcast, um, similar podcast um related solution on there where it's gonna help on the production side of things on here. So I really believe in where we're going with this whole artificial intelligence thing. It definitely um does not provide this solution. So we should definitely have a conversation here because uh this is fantastic. And it's you guys, I love how you guys have really niched down to hey, long forms always happen, but the right way of doing long form hasn't always happened. We changed that and then we took technology, you know, weaved it into the equation here, and it's made things 10 times easier for everybody all around. So I absolutely love you know what you guys uh have done here. So uh the platform's live now. Anyone can utilize it and go to the website and check it out and all this. What are you guys excited for as we continue to what fly through 2023, it feels like, um, as far as what you know, what you guys are doing to to improve the platform.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

Yeah, it's pretty crazy. I mean, just the the the speed of this whole industry. I mean, you you miss what's going on for a day. I mean, you're all you're just way behind already. It's pretty crazy. There was I saw something that was like 1100 AI tools that launched in March. Like, unbelievable. Um, you know, as far as like what we've got, you know, coming. I mean, it's it's pretty exciting. I mean, we'll be writing in in uh natively across basically any language. Uh, so that's coming. We're gonna be integrating with we already integrate with WordPress. So, like, for example, if you have a WordPress site, we take all of the um the keywords I mentioned earlier that we find through NLP that are related to that blog post. When we sync that to your WordPress, we then try to find all of those phrases in your existing content and link that so all of the internal linking is done for you automatically as well. Um, but we're also going to be launching a Shopify plugin uh here shortly that will sync your content into Shopify, which kind of opens up a whole new um audience for us there as well. And we've got several other um platforms that we'll be rolling out, some stuff with images we'll be doing. So a lot of a lot of uh lot of fun things right around the corner, actually.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

And so these will be all things that are available through the platform, regardless of how you know what what what what level you join at or what you utilize on a monthly basis. Yeah, yep, exactly. Yeah, because the alternative, if you're listening to this right now and you're like, why don't I just go to Chat GPT and do this? Well, good luck with the right prompts and the right way of actually being able to tell Chat GPT exactly what you want, but more importantly, actually getting what you want. So I, you know, I can't believe that number of 1100 platforms, but I can believe that number of platforms because when when I ask the consistent question of, you know, what's AI gonna do to change the world, the consistent answer that I get from smart people like yourself is it's just a tool. Will it replace some human work? Absolutely, it will. But if you think you're just gonna hit the snooze button, stay in bed all day, and the robot's gonna do all of the work and think for you and do all the above, I think, you know, you got another thing coming. And I think that's what people actually confuse it as. If they really just look at artificial intelligence as a whole, just making life easier like technology has always done, it really just is a tool for your business to actually start implementing things maybe you've never done or that you're already doing, but you want to do better. What are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_00 19:39

Yeah, I I completely agree. In fact, I mean, if you look at some of the social media comments on on whether it's Jasper or just Jat GPT or anything like that, the comments that that you see in there are just brutal. I mean, and then it's so obvious that it's it's people that are just scared, right? I mean, they're scared for their their livelihoods. It's so anti-you know, AI and everything else. And it's like you just you have to understand that if you don't adopt, because this is it's very clear, this is not a fad, right? I mean, this is this is here to stay. And and if you're not adopting to this, I mean you're gonna get left behind. That's just the bottom line. So, you know, you can either accept that and and find a whole new career that's maybe not in tech or something, right? Or you can learn how to, you know, take advantage of this and and see all the opportunity that comes with it. Um, you know, whether you're you're trying to build a business on on around AI or just incorporating AI in your existing business to make you exponentially more productive, right? I mean, so yeah, I mean, I I see it as a tool, no doubt about it. Um, I think you know, it's gonna continue to advance, obviously, and and you know, do more and more, uh, which is awesome. But, you know, things like them, you know, robots coming to clean your house and make your food and all that, I think is is probably a pretty ways off, I'll say. Um, but you know, it's absolutely going to happen. I I don't doubt it, right? That's where it's going. But uh, you know, in the meantime, I'd be taking advantage of these and and trying to figure out how to incorporate it every chance you get.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

Well, I'm pissed because according to the Jetsons, when we were kids, all this shit was supposed to be happening already, but it's still not happening. So stay tuned. The future, uh, we always like to say the future is here, but uh, I don't even think we've started to scratch the surface. If you don't believe me, go watch real player one, right? Right. Justin, it's been great to to chat with you. And man, I just I'm I'm my one another consistent thing that happens every time I start talking about AI is my mind is constantly blown. So congrats on all the growth you guys have made. And like this just feels like overnight growth in the world of business on here because even though it's not been overnight, uh it's been a very, very small short of time, but that's because you leverage technology and your existing expertise and said, Hey, hold on a second, we've got something here. So congrats on that. Wish you nothing but ongoing success. I look forward to getting in the mix with you guys and starting to add to that conversation of what you guys uh are doing over there. Any final thoughts for our listeners?

SPEAKER_00 22:04

No, like I said, I think it's adapt or die. Uh, I think you need to incorporate this sort of technology, you know, regardless uh of your stance towards AI as a whole. Uh just see it for the opportunity that it is. And um, you know, doesn't have to be obviously our tool, right? I mean, just incorporate it. I think you'll find that um, you know, you'll be much more productive and and efficient that way.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

Adapt or die. Incredible final thoughts, nothing to be terrified about whatsoever. Thanks again for your time, Justin. I appreciate it, man. You bet. Thanks again for your time, Justin. Appreciate it. Until next time, friends. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Beyond the Story Podcast. We're sure to appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. Be sure to appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast, launch lab.com studios. We'll talk to you next time.