My Process for Polishing AI-Generated Templates

So let's look again at creating some templates. And this time for ClickUp. Here I use a doc to save some of my prompts that worked well for me. And we're going to set it up for this campaign, Freelancer platforms. And I'll show you a couple of different ways that I do it. So let's name this ClickUp and then Freelancer 1. And I click the AI template assistant, choose pitch templates, and then guest post based on topic. I'm going to show you first one way where I don't actually give the topic and Pitchbox will come up with the topic itself. So I do want to say how many topics I want and for which audience this is and maybe around what kind of angle.

So this is for pain points, which is always a good starting point for topics because it resonates with the audience. So here Pitch topic is for highly specialized topics, which will give me a little bit more interesting topics than just basic topics. I'm going to choose a voice. I really like Samantha Irby, but it's up to you. Why I like her is because she has a lot of personality. If I use another voice, so let's say Tim Ferriss, it still has a lot of personality, but with AI it always gets watered down. So I prefer choosing somebody who's really out there because it gives me just a little bit more flavor.

And I add additional instructions, open with the interesting shower thoughts, so that is a great beginning of an email, pitch four different topics relevant to an audience of freelance business owners. I don't know why I repeat that, but I just feel like I want to say that again, keep short and concise and avoid any typical link builder phrases and paste it in here. I could add a little bit more, but it is limited to how many characters you can put in. So I'm just going to stick with that and generate. Here is the template. Subject line, shower thoughts and freelance woes, a fresh spin on solopreneur struggles.

Hi, first name. Ever wondered if your shower is the only space where the temperature is as unpredictable as a freelance client's mood? Speaking of the freelance life, I've been marinating some ideas of my resonate with your audience of freelance business owners, not just your run of the mill tips that deep dives into the real pain points, these solo dynamo's face. Cash flow conundrums: navigating the ebb and flow and freelance finances. The balancing act: managing client expectations. Solopreneur alone: supportive network beyond burnout. These topics aren't just pulled from a hat, they're crafted from conversation and experience in the freelance community.

I'd love to flesh these out and provide your readers with some hearty food for thought, paired with actionable advice. If any of these topics tickle your fancy, let's join forces to create a piece that will engage and resonate with your audience, eagerly awaiting your thoughts. So I'm reading this out loud because I think it's really important to read your emails out loud, although I did skip some parts of the pitches. So there are some things that AI does repeat, for instance, struggles, you know, it's a word that it loves using. So I would probably change that fresh, I would probably change that as well.

But once you start creating these templates with AI, you'll be able to recognize them. You can also ask AI not to use specific words, but it doesn't always work well, but you can use it in a prompt. So here, ever wondered, ever, I would not use that. I would shorten this introduction, probably a little bit. But there are a lot of creative ways that the AI did come up with saying the usual stuff that I would say in a pitch, but in a different way. And that's really refreshing. So it did a really good job. I would say you're like 80% there, it just needs a little bit of a cleanup.

So let's do another round of templates generation. And this time I'm going to try to come up with topics that are a little bit more relevant to the target page. So as a target page, I chose this 10 free content calendar templates for social media and blogs. I think that that's a really interesting thing. And I could see that there's a room for growth there for ClickUp. So I'm just going to say, I'm just going to copy this, right? And I'm going to go back to the AI template assistant and I'm going to put in four highly specialized topics. And I'm going to say that are tangentially related to four small business owners.

It's a little bit different than freelancers, but they are, in fact, small business owners, a little bit broader. Let me see. And just for shits and giggles, I'm also going to change this here. I'm going to say avoid any typical link builder phrase, but I also want to get rid of a little bit of the AI cheese. So let's see what I can put in there. OK, so what I'm going to say is I'm going to ask kids to do not use ever. Was the other thing struggles, navigating? Those are all kinds of AI cheesy things. Struggles, navigating the art of beyond. And I could put in more, but it's already over the limit.

So open with an interesting shower thoughts, pitch four topics for an audience. Well, maybe if I remove this, because it's already in the top, keep short and concise, avoid beyond. OK, so crafting. What's the other thing that it uses a lot from to from X to Y? Yeah, so here we go. Let's hit generate and start cooking. So here we go. It didn't listen exactly to what I prompted, but it's OK. I would probably copy some stuff of this template and use it with the other generated templates and that way I can come, I can get the template exactly the way I want it.

So it says shake up your content calendar, fresh angles for small business owners. I don't like the fresh, fresh here. Hi, first name ever ponder under the steam of a morning shower about how the right content can catapult a small business from anonymity to the talk of the town as a fellow brainstormer and reaching out with a twist on a usual content calendar narrative. I like that. I didn't like the ever because I've seen it a couple of times now, but you know, I would probably still send this out and see how it does because the person getting it might not have seen that construction before.

But what I really like is how how the wording is different from the usual guest post pitch. And that's a really great way to break the expectations of somebody expecting a typical link builder, right? So I would definitely use a lot of these elements of this email. So I want to show you one other thing and that's using specific pitches. So if you already know what you want to pitch, you can copy that. So here are four or three topics, right? So let me fix this. So it's client ghosting, time management and staying relevant. And because AI is a thing, that might be something to shake this up.

So I'm going to say client ghosting, three topics. So I'm going to put a comma here, time management, scheduling, comma there. Okay. In one of them include a include or mention, mention AI. Client ghosting, time management. Okay. So I'm going to remove this. Yeah. So now we have three specific topics. And with one of them, I want to use AI or have a talk about AI as well. I like opening with the interesting shower thought, but let's say not a shower thought, but an interesting observation about freelancing. Let's see what happens then. Pitch four topics.

I don't think we need to say that because it's already on the top. Avoid any typical link build phrase. I do want to keep that in. Do not ever, do not use ever struggles. Okay. I don't know how well the AI is going to listen to this. So let's see what it does with these specific topics. All right. So here we go. Subject line, fresh perspectives on freelancing, ghosting, time mastery and market agility. I don't really like the fresh perspectives, but we could easily change that with asking for different subject line in maybe in additional instructions.

Hi, first name, freelancing is a bit like baking bread. It seems simple until you're elbow deep in wondering where the time went. That's a really interesting observation. And I like baking and maybe other people will like it too, because ever since the pandemic, baking is kind of a thing. So I would keep that in. I'd like to offer your readers or slice of fresh insight with a guest post that tackles three crucial topics. I don't really like, I like to offer because that's typical link builder, but combined with the other outputs that we got with the other prompts, I could definitely use slice of fresh insight and stuff.

I think that's really cool. The vanishing act handling client ghosting and here goes a little bit into an outline, mastering minutes. Okay. Staying ahead. Yeah, this is, this is very AI cheesy. But yeah, I would probably switch it up with one of the other topics. So here you can see that you have to generate different templates a couple of times and then kind of combine them into the template that you want eventually. One thing that's really important to stay mindful of is your subject line, because even if the email is really great, like the body is great and the value proposition is great.

If your subject line isn't great, then none of that matters because people won't open your email because the subject line is the only thing they see. So it's really important to keep notice of how strong your subject line is. And I want to show you a really strong subject line that the AI came up with. So here's an example of a really nice subject line just because it piques the curiosity of the person receiving it. The subject line says, ever argued with a shampoo bottle? Let's talk freelancer roles. Hi, picture this. You're in the shower rehearsing your pitch to a potential client, and even the shampoo bottle seems intimidating.

Freelancing can sometimes feel like you're negotiating for the extra five minutes of hot water. Necessary, but oddly challenging. On that note, I'm reaching out with an idea for a guest post that will give your readers the lowdown on the quirks and snags that snag beginner freelancers, especially when it comes to hammering out a deal that doesn't scream, I'm new here. Here's the scoop I'm offering for your blog. So here you can see that this subject line is very creative, and it's also very relatable. And that's also why I like using a copywriter as a voice that is very relatable and funny.

The email isn't perfect. I mean, I like to picture this, but I think that this should be those extra five minutes of hot water. And there's a little bit of repetitiveness in there. And that's something, there's a little bit of repetitiveness in there. For instance, I think quirks and snags, that snag sounds a little bit weird to me. So I would definitely go in and tighten it up. Also, on that note, I'm reaching out with an idea for a guest post that's very link buildery. But like I said, just keep generating and keep using the prompt that gives you a result that's as close as possible to a grade template, and then combine all the elements that you like into something that really flows.