Welcome back to the series on AI-powered blogging.

Last week we wrote Human Like articles.

Today, we're focusing on the visual aspect: crafting images using DALL-E.

Why DALL-E instead of Midjourney?

Midjourney is considered to be the best image generator right now. I 100% agree. However we will be using DALL-E for this example. This is why:

• Accessibility: DALL-E is more widely accessible than Midjourney for most readers.

• API Availability: DALL-E offers an API, making it easier to integrate into your workflow. (We need this for part 4)

• Universal Principles: While we're using DALL-E, the principles discussed apply broadly, so no worries if you prefer Midjourney.

Our goal today? To create visually engaging images for your blog, without the fluff. Here's how:

1. Choosing a Style: We'll pick a consistent visual style for your blog.

2. Extracting Ideas: We'll pull inspiration from your latest blog article for our images.

3. Crafting DALL-E Prompts: We'll create straightforward prompts to translate ideas into images.

4. Working with DALL-E: We'll navigate DALL-E to bring our prompts to life.

5. Recreating for Consistency: Learn how to replicate and refine images for consistent quality.

Step 1: Choosing a Style

The secret to creating striking visuals? It's all about choosing a style that not only complements your blog's theme and audience but also embodies your brand's unique personality.

Choosing Your Style: Based on your blog’s character and audience, select from these styles:

• Atmospheric: Ideal for narrative or experience-driven blogs, creating immersive, emotion-evoking visuals.

• Graphics: Best for modern or abstract themes, these images use sharp, clean lines and a contemporary aesthetic.

When you selected one of the above, make sure you get really specific on what this would actually look like:

• Style and Mood: Indicate if you want a realistic, cartoonish, abstract etc. Determine if should be sad, happy, neutral etc.

• Color Scheme: Mention if you have specific color preferences.

• Characters: Should there be any specific characters in the images?

Once you’ve done this (with the help of ChatGPT) you should get something like this:

Example for a blog for Young Entrepreneurs:

• Style: Semi-realistic with illustrative touches.

• Mood: Optimistic and empowering.

• Color Scheme: Primary - Earth tones (beige, muted green, soft brown); Accent - Vibrant teal, orange, light blue.

• Characters: Diverse young entrepreneurs engaged in activities like brainstorming, networking, overcoming challenges. Depict them as focused yet approachable.

• Visual Focus: Emphasize entrepreneurial themes - innovation, progress, collaboration.

Step 2: Extracting Ideas

When you have your final article you can ask ChatGPT to brainstorm with you for some good ideas for visuals. We will focus on getting a good headline image and one image we can use throughout the article.

Use a prompt like this:

Step 3: Crafting DALL-E Prompts:

The effectiveness of your Dall-E generated images hinges on the quality of your prompts.

Here's how to nail it:

• Subject: Clearly define the focus.

• Environment/Background: Describe where the subject is.

• Style and Mood: Indicate if you want a realistic, cartoonish, or abstract style.

• Color Scheme: Mention if you have specific color preferences.

• Additional Details: Add any extra elements or conditions.

• Seed Number: Add the seed number from your original reference.

Some small tips:

• Use of adjectives. Descriptive adjectives in your prompt can help you better achieve specificity. For example, instead of “A sunset sky over the sea”, you can specify “A fiery red sky over a calm blue sea.”

• Layered descriptions. Adding layers to your prompt can allow DALL-E 3 to combine multiple elements. For example, "A serene blue and pink sky with birds flying in the northeast direction."

• Art styles. If you have a particular art style in mind, add it to your prompt—for example, photo-realistic, illustration, or Van Gogh style.

Translating your image ideas into prompts for Dall-E.

Now you have all the recipes for a good image: a visual style, a basic idea/concept for the image and a good understanding of what a good prompt would look like.

I’ll give you an example of what a prompt would look like for my article “Transform your mornings: a night owl's guide to becoming a morning person” that we created in last weeks newsletter.

Additional resources that might help:

• LearnPrompting.org | Learn Prompting: Prompting for images

• Midjourney Library of Artist Styles

Step 4: Working with DALL-E

You can now put your prompt into a new ChatGPT-4 conversation. Nothing too exciting here.

When you click on the created image you can see the prompt that DALL-E ended up using.

Some things to note:

• You can ask for specific aspect ratio’s that would fit you blog.

• You can ask for specific text to be in the visuals. However, be careful with this, it might get

• Always ask for the seed number, so you can easily recreate the image.

Step 5: Recreating for Consistency

Maintaining a consistent visual theme is crucial for a cohesive and professional-looking blog. Here's how you can recreate specific image styles for future posts:

1. Create your Initial Image: Start by generating an image that perfectly aligns with your blog's style and theme using Dall-E. This image will serve as the template for your future visuals.

2. Capture the Prompt Details: Once you've created an image that you're satisfied with, it's important to note down the specific prompt used. On Dall-E, click on the image you've generated, and you'll usually find the prompt details on the right-hand side. This prompt is your key to replicating the style.

3. Replicate with Precision: When creating a new image, use a prompt that is very similar to your original one and mention the specific seed number. You can also attach your original image and use it as a reference.

Be aware that it’s not yet possible to get this a 100% right. There will (for now) always be issue’s when recreating an exact style or character. In the future this will be less of a problem.

That’s it! Now you can generate images that fit your blog articles!

Next week - Running Your Blog on Autopilot with AI & Automation

Next week we’ll combine all the elements of previous newsletter and get a little more technical on AI and automation. We will use Airtable, Make.com and ChatGPT to run our blog.

Be on the lookout for these newsletters coming weeks in February on Thursdays:

1. Feb 1: Building the Perfect Blog Outline with ChatGPT (Step-by-Step Guide)

2. Feb 8: Writing Human-Like Blogs with ChatGPT (Step-by-Step Guide)

3. Feb 15: Generating Engaging Images with DALL·E 3 (Step-by-Step Guide) (that’s this one)

4. Feb 22: Running Your Blog on Autopilot with AI & Automation (Step-by-Step Guide)

Thanks for reading. My last request: help me make this newsletter better by taking 1 minute to tell me about your struggles with AI. So in the future I can help you even better.

See you next week.

Are you excited about this process but just don't have the time or know-how to get it off the ground?

No worries, I can help you! I’ll build a custom app for you to control your blog with AI. All tailer made for your company, by me.

• A super easy-to-use interface that lets you monitor and control the AI like a breeze.

• You'll be able to turn simple keywords and ideas into full outlines, articles, and images, all with a few mouse clicks. Plus, you can easily tweak and get new versions based on your feedback.

• You can upload new articles to your website in a snap, whenever you feel like it (as long as it works with your platform).

Sound good to you? Fill out this form and I'll be in touch to explore all the possibilities with you.

,par