I thought I would bring you a review of an AI tool I’ve been using for a while, that is not basic ChatGPT. It’s called FirstDraft AI. It stands out from the pack because it is a tool that is SEO-first. You feed it all the information that you want it to write about, and then it gives you a draft back. 

Should you use an AI tool to write your blog content? It’s a burning question, and it’s a question a lot of people are asking. I’ve actually gotten this question quite often in my private membership calls, and with clients as well. 

Full transparency with my thoughts on FirstDraft AI

Now, much like every other AI writing tool, it does give you some fluff occasionally. It does give you over-excited sentences and lots of adjectives that are, quite frankly, unnecessary. But I do find it to be really freaking close to what I would write myself, and what would come out of my brain. 

That’s why I want to show you this tool; I love it personally. I think it is a little pricey for what you get, but I think it’s worth it. Especially if you are making money from your blog, and you are constantly writing and need to get more content out.

I would definitely recommend this for people who have the budget, and just want to speed the process up. Without further ado, let’s actually just dive right into the features of FirstDraft AI and how I use it. 

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Features of FirstDraft AI for blog writing

Let’s start at the top for the feature set available with FirstDraft AI. If you look at their web page, this is what you would see before you sign up. You can see it says “Try For Free” and states “FirstDraft is a writing sidekick for bloggers who want to write higher-quality, SEO-optimized content that ranks on Google.”

The main features of this tool are:

• Article generation
• SEO optimization
• Using your writing style and voice
• Customized background input
• Fully customizable outlines
• Bulk publishing to WordPress

So let’s talk a little bit about each of these and what they mean.

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Features explained and which ones I use or not

The main thing that it can do is, obviously, one-click article generation. What that means is you put all your content in, and you click a button to get a blog article output. That’s one click. Remember, if you do this right, there’s a lot of work leading up to getting to that one click. 

Then it is SEO-optimized from the start. You can have it write content in your voice, a custom voice, or a trained voice. You can train it to write in your voice, or you can input a custom voice each time.

I write content for a lot of clients, and that content gets a custom voice per client. You can give it custom background information, which I think is really, really good. If you want specific things included in your article that are specifically unique to you, then this is the spot for that. 

You can do fully customizable outlines, and then you can actually publish directly to WordPress. I don’t actually use that last feature because I edit everything in Google Docs after I write the content, but that is also something else that may work great for you. “

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Pricing plan options

Now, something else that you’re going to notice if you sign up for FirstDraft AI is your word count with your plan. Is this 40,000 words lifetime, monthly, yearly—what is this? It’s per month.

What you should know as well is that this is connected to ChatGPT. So you could obviously take the frameworks from this and put it into ChatGPT and you’d probably get something similar for cheaper. I have not found that to be true just yet, so I’m going to continue using this tool because it’s great for me and I keep recommending it.

What to prepare before using FirstDraft AI 

I always do a couple of things before I get started to ensure the best use of this tool and have things optimized from the start as much as possible. 

• Keyword research
• Prepared outline

Number one, I do keyword research. Then from that I do content outlining. I get any custom background information that I want included, and then I write that outline. I’m going to actually input an outline in here for you today and show you how this works. But I do all of that before I ever put it in here to write.

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Why it’s important to do research beforehand

I always do all of my research before I put a blog post in here to write because I don’t want it to sound like pure AI content. I want it to sound like my client’s voice or my voice. So I will take my original research, my competitor research, and the industry research, and use it to all be represented in the outline that I put together.

You might be asking yourself, “Why go through all of this trouble to do that? Why not just go ahead and write the blog post while you’re at it?” Well, I could write on those topics just shooting in the dark, but I want it to come off like I actually own this product, like I am the owner writing this blog post. As the hired writer, I’m not likely the expert, so I need to do the research in order to deliver a quality piece of content for my client. I suggest the same for you with the actionable tips I’ve included below on how to do so.

The AI tool allows me to do all of that when I provide it with the best keywords, structure, and information from my research. and present it in that way. The better information you provide an AI, the better output you’ll receive. 

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Pros about FirstDraft AI that I like

A few reasons why I like this tool… I want to go through that before I actually take you through how to use this tool. 

Number one, it speeds up the writing process. Obviously, it does the first draft writing for you. It’s designed with SEO in mind. 

You give it your target keyword, and you give it custom keywords that you want to include. So that’s awesome because your SEO optimization is built in from the start. 

I really, really, really love the tone-of-voice feature. It is so good that I once sent a writing sample to my client, and she thought it was content she wrote that I was just editing. It wasn’t–it was from the FirstDraft AI tool. 

You can choose from a variety of tones, like professional, conversational, or even humorous. I’ve found this to be super helpful when writing for different clients. For instance, if I’m writing for a coaching client, I might use a friendly and motivational tone. If I’m writing for an eCommerce business, I might go with a more professional tone.

Now, here’s something that’s really cool about this tool: it lets you fully customize your outline before you write. That’s awesome, no going back later to pull our headers and section topics from a blog you didn’t indicate. 

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Cons about FirstDraft AI that I don’t like

One of the downsides to this tool is the word limit. If you’re writing long-form content regularly, you might hit that limit pretty quickly, depending on your plan you select. 

There’s also the price to consider. it’s not the cheapest tool out there. But for me, the time it saves is worth the investment for the amount of blogs posts I use it for. 

Another thing to keep in mind is that the AI won’t always get it right. Sometimes, it might repeat the same information or include unnecessary fluff and filler sentences. That’s why editing is so important. You need to go through the draft and make sure it aligns with your voice, your brand, and your goals.

How to use FirstDraft AI

Now I’m going to show you specifically how to use this step by step. Number one, you need your target keyword and your word count you want. I am always putting an outline into this tool too, along with the target keyword. 

Enter the target keywords and word count

In this example, I’m going to show you “Pinterest Marketing Tips.” That’s our target keyword, and the word count we’re aiming for is 1,500 words.

I always start with that because I want it to have a clear focus, and I want it to know what I’m trying to achieve in a simple way. I’ll also give it any secondary keywords that I’ve done research on and that I want to include in the content.

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Highly recommend adding an outline too

I copy and paste my outline into the tool. The outline might look something like this:

1. Introduction to Pinterest marketing.
2. Why Pinterest is a powerful platform for businesses.
3. Five key Pinterest marketing tips for beginners.
4. Advanced strategies for experienced marketers.
5. Common mistakes to avoid on Pinterest.
6. Conclusion and a call to action.

This is just an example of what an outline might look like. When I paste it into the tool, I can customize it even further by adding specific details or background information under each section.

For example, under “Why Pinterest is a powerful platform for businesses,” I might include statistics or specific benefits like “XX% of Pinterest users say the platform helps them decide what to buy,” etc. based on the research that I’ve done prior. These details guide the AI to write content that’s more specific and relevant to the topic.

Generate the first draft

Once I’ve done all of this, I click “Submit.” Within a few minutes, the tool gives me a full blog post draft based on my outline. It’s not perfect, but it’s a solid starting point. I always go through and edit the content to make it sound more like me or my client.

Final thoughts on using FirstDraft AI

Overall, I would recommend FirstDraft AI for anyone who writes a lot of content and wants to save time. It’s especially great for bloggers, small business owners, and marketers who are focused on SEO. If you’re not writing much content or you’re on a tight budget, it might not be the best fit for you.

I hope you found this helpful! If you have any questions about the tool or want to share your own experiences, leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you.

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