#i checked their socials so i could block them across multiple platforms

[batshaped]

twitter stop fucking up for one second challenge (impossible)

well,

here’s the thing. it feels like social media is changing lately. every social media site seems to be fucking up or getting worse in its own special little way. i recently read and thought a lot about this article which coins the term “enshittification” and describes the process by which every social media platform eventually becomes so greedy as to become unusable. it makes me wonder if the social internet is due for a big shift in the near future. 

for a long time, twitter was the best place for me. for all its issues, it had the audience that i could reach the easiest, that was the most invested in my art. i got (still get) a lot of awesome replies and really great analysis of my work on twitter, which i didn’t receive on any other platform. i was able to encourage those readers by retweeting their comments and theories to show that i liked hearing their thoughts. i could use the Moments feature to organize my art and make my comic easily readable in order. and anyone could look at my twitter, account or no.

ever since the site was bought out, twitter is getting worse. i can’t use the app on mobile anymore because every reply section is drowned out by blue checks and choked with ads. the Moments feature was disabled and people couldn’t easily read my comics in order anymore. and this is without even touching on the bigger/more serious issues the buyout has brought to the app. these are just the ways it has made my personal experience of being an artist on there worse. and now, apparently, you can’t even look at my work unless you have an account.

it’s been pretty common in the past year for the new management to implement a bad feature and then undo it after backlash, and maybe this too will be reversed. but even if it is unimplemented, the platform will continue to get worse. all platforms are getting worse right now. all of them are becoming untenable to use without 7 bespoke browser extensions to block ads, hide specific unwanted content, force chronological order, and so on. on mobile i don’t even bother. apps are unusable. 

on top of that, i have the personal issue of not being the type of creator who is particularly good at staying on top of more than one or two platforms daily. twitter has been my main for years now, so i’m pretty good about updating it very regularly. instagram is trailing behind, i usually remember to post there daily (especially as i’m remaking mine right now and posting my entire backlog) but sometimes i forget. and that’s kind of my limit. every other site falls by the wayside because i just don’t want to spend my whole day or life updating platforms. i know there are tools that can do it automatically for you but i don’t want to do it that way and then i’d have to figure out a new tool and get yet another account on yet another app and install yet another extension to use it.

i just want to draw. i don’t know how we arrived at this place where we need to be 700 other things when we are just artists. i draw and write, isn’t that enough? if i wanted a presence on tiktok i’d also have to be a video editor who pays close attention to trends and makes sure to transform my artwork into something people on that app are interested in. even if i just wanted to have a strong presence on say, twitter/instagram/tumblr/tapas/webtoon i’d have to take on another (unpaid) job as my own social media manager, meticulously managing my uploads across 5+ apps and making sure everything is up to date and tailored to what “works” on each particular platform. i already have a day job—i’m a storyboard artist. the art i post online is supposed to be made and given freely for my own enrichment first and foremost, and for the joy of sharing with others as a close second.

i wonder if we’re due for a mass rejection of this increasingly draining cable-wars-style model of spreading ourselves thin across multiple platforms just to reach the exclusive audience each one provides. i’m starting to feel done with that concept, but i still want to share my art. i want to hear my readers’ thoughts. i want to create things that connect with others. i want to do it without these ever-mounting obstacles.

what i’m doing about it is creating my own website at my own domain that belongs to me. i doubt i’ll be quitting social media when it’s done. social media is still where the audience i cherish lives. but you can bet that when that website is ready to be shared, i’ll be talking about it on every social media account i own. i’ll be telling everyone there’s a place to look at my art where you don’t need an account, you don’t have to struggle through a morass of ads, and you don’t have to line the pockets of a billionaire who bought a social media app on a whim. it’ll just be you and my art. alone together.

by the way, to @whatthehelljake​ i apologize for writing a fucking SAT essay on a screenshot of your reply. any exasperated tone here is not directed at you at all. it’s directed at this sea of obstacles that disrupt the simple concept of “i made art and i want to share it with you.” your reply is how i found out today that twitter made this change. i cherish the fact that you want to connect with my art so much that you alerted me to this. i wish that wasn’t necessary. i want to make my work on my own terms—and want you to be able to experience it on YOUR own terms.

all that to say, i think the website is going to be the main answer to this issue. i don’t see myself having the energy to update tumblr that much more often than i already do, though maybe i’ll try to pick up the pace a little now. we’ll see. holy shit if you read all this go drink a glass of water or something get up and stretch. ok thank you bye <3

[arcadialedger]

Please note that I am most likely leaving this platform. I am done being abused. But first? We need to have a discussion. A discussion about hate and bullying in fandom.

All online-- I encourage you to read my story below. Reblog and spread awareness. The Dragon Prince fandom especially -- I implore you read my words, every single one of them. The short of it is that I am done. 

This all began with losing and being blocked by a friend because I shared something they disagreed with. I don’t care what you feel about my initial reaction to this (which I’ll explain below) -- I’ve apologized for not handling the situation correctly. But I will not be shamed for speaking my mind and standing up for myself.

Because no human being deserves to go through what I have endured since last summer.

Following the “callout” post made about me by one of, if not the largest blogs in this fandom, I received hundreds of threats, harassment messages, and death threats. Messages and posts telling me to kill myself were also prominent, on a multiple times a week basis for awhile.

Messages from people who were well aware I have struggled with being suicidal. Due to one of their favorite Dragon Prince blogs speaking out against me, they thought it was okay to suicide bait me.

And it worked. I already struggle with hating myself, am already insecure, and being flooded with these comments which, while I made mistakes, did nothing to deserve, drove me to try and take my own life after years of progress in my mental health.  

Mind you, this is like a 200 follower to 4k follower power dynamic. Which yes, plays a role-- because when you have a large following and influence, you have power. Yet the person behind this had the gall to claim Tumblr clout isn’t real.

People blocking and condemning others instantly at your word? Is power. If people read your words and are influenced, or have their minds changed, or buy or don’t buy something, etc.-- you are an influencer. You have power. And when you’re one of the largest blogs in a fandom, you have a LOT of power.

So take responsibility. 

I was hurt because I lost a friend who I had chatted with for months, did a podcast with, and was generally not only one of my favorite blogs but the center of my experience in the Dragon Prince. I may not have been perfect in my words, but when I was asked why I was quiet/ inactive, I explained how I was hurting, anonymously. I was understandably in pain and upset. I had been cut off for just having a different opinion on a matter, for thinking differently. Even though it was within their rights to block and do so, it felt wrong and it weighed on me.

Is that such a crime?

The callout post and previously described abuse followed, lasting for months until later in the year (this began in June, or around then). It also included screenshots of tweets, when this user does not have Tumblr, and they have stated to have screenshots stored up on their computer of my various posts and interactions. This is creepy behavior, and freaked me out. I felt like I was being stalked, “evidence” being filed away for the very purpose of being used against me. 

I eventually talked things out with the blog per recommendation of my therapist, and thought all would be fine. For a little while, it was. I largely stayed off of Tumblr to heal. Once in awhile I would have a rough, tearful night because something reminded me of what I lost, but I would make it through. Overall, I was making progress.

Then? My Twitter got hacked by one of the people sending me hate. For what had turned out to be much. And after they tweeted some purposefully incriminating and bigoted things to make me look bad, I came home from a weekend in the mountains to a shitstorm.

Twitter has a love hate relationship for me and I barely opened the app unless actively chatting with a friend. So when I saw 700+ notifications, I was surprised. It had never happened before.

I began to scroll through, and when I saw what had happened, I ran to the bathroom and threw up.

I had lost over half of my followers and a solid 60% of previous Twitter mutuals had blocked me. But worst of all, I had hundreds of hate tweets directed at me replying to the hackers tweets. Messages had been sent in DMs and accounts blocked, followed, and unfollowed as well.

If you have never felt that loss of agency-- that sickening feeling of words you never said next to your profile-- be glad. Because it is traumatic. I value my words. I value what I have to say. And having that taken from me was worse than anything I had been through here on Tumblr, outside of the suicide baiting (the most direct attack to me and my emotions/ insecurities throughout this entire ordeal). Further, this hacker had clearly stalked my tweets based on some of their comments. 

Hundreds of tweets bashing me, calling me aphobic slurs (knowing I am asexual mind you, as it was in my bio), making fun of my appearance and targeting all of the insecurities which lead to my first suicide attempt in high school, and taking/ editing images of my face and mocking them. This all culminated in a doxing threat-- a doxing threat which made me feel unsafe on a campus I had already been sexually assaulted on. I was once again, after starting the healing process, thrusted back into the darkest time of my life and spiraled into anxiety and depression. I cried a lot overwhelmed by it all, had difficulty sleeping, and felt sick. I started fall semester and couldn’t concentrate on school. I was a mess.

I had once again been condemned, this time for something I had no part in. I tried to example what happened but nobody listened. I had been hung without trial. People were understandably confused, and my entire reputation on the platform, and my page, became a mess of lies, misunderstandings, and more.

If you don’t know the feeling of already hating yourself and being insecure, and having these beliefs reinforced and spread by hundreds publicly across the internet? Of already feeling lonely and unwanted and having the one space you thought you had taken from you? Consider yourself lucky. 

I had a lot of voice actors and creators following me-- accounts I interacted and greatly cherished my mutual with. A handful of them unfollowed, understandably. This online hate mob was sending messages to people demanding they unfollow me, including some of these creators. They had no idea what to make of this mess or what was real and true and just didn’t want to deal with it. Most of the others just stopped interacting with me. @aaronwaltke (tagging so those who don’t follow already click and do so, because he is absolutely fantastic-- he’s a writer for ToA)  who had followed me on the platform, graciously wished me peace with the entire situation after I checked to make sure he had not been subjected to messages or hate, either from my hacker or other accounts. His was the greatest compassion I got on Twitter, before I ultimately ended up just having to delete.

I lost podcast deals because of this with Adrian Petriw, Aaron Ehasz, and Justin Richmond. I do not blame them one bit and would have done the same in the confusion not wanting to get dragged into anything. 

Only to have one of the friends I lost who helped start this interview these very people on their own podcasts. A slap in the face. A zine I had bought to support them came to my door, with the front page proclaiming to “spread a narrative of love.”

I was never granted that chance. That compassion. I had the vultures sent after me with no mercy. And anyone who has been through online abuse and systemic harassment knows just how much it feels like they’re slowly but surely picking at your flesh ( a metaphor I used in one of my old, since deleted posts discussing the situation, and still find accurate), wearing you down until you have no strength left.

Make no mistake, my story is not a one off situation. Many share the same tale of abuse and being driven off of platforms that once gave them great joy. These attacks are coordinated, systemic, and common hobby for these people-- who largely claim to be loving and accepting of all. They are a cyberbullying phenomenon which has risen with the presence of fandom on the internet. And I want to make clear, with current discussions of “cancel culture”, I mean nothing political in that statement. Some might call my experience cancel culture, but I don’t.

It’s just bullying. It’s just hate. These people get off on ruining people’s lives.

And my life was greatly set back and ruined. I had a stain on my past in fandom I could never be rid of. I had to shut down my podcast, took time off of all social media, and most of what I had built, most of my growth, was taken from me while those who incited and/ or spread hate thrived and continued to grow and find success. That was the greatest sting of all. 

I asked the one previous friend who hadn’t blocked me, but had just stopped interacting with me (which I understood and respected, and also greatly respected her perspective, help, and support though this situation in which she largely unfortunately ended up in the middle) for help after explaining everything, and got nothing. They didn’t seem to care, and just blocked me on all platforms. Once in awhile, I would find I was cut off from yet another old friend, or a blog that I had never interacted with before but clicked into, interested. It hurt being cut off, unable to fully interact with the fandom, but I could move on.

That pain would never go away, but I made clear I did not blame them for the actions of those who abused, harassed, and threatened me. I also made it clear they did not owe me anything, including unblocking. 

I just wanted to move on peacefully, but those with the power to enable that did not wish to help. I slowly, when I felt ready, began to be more active on Tumblr again, and once again the hate started up. 

Sometimes when I was hurting, I expressed my pain and loss to my followers just to reach out, because I was sad. I had no idea how to rebuild from all that had happened. This got me more hate an accusations of emotional manipulation and gaslighting. I had no idea what to do, and got trapped in a cycle of needing to talk about it, and getting hate and backlash, but not knowing where else I could turn. 

My doxer came back into my asks, ultimately making me switch schools, and refueled the drama. Speaking up about this got me more backlash-- mostly accounts reblogging (one with tags saying “fuck you”, despite not knowing the full story, and commenting and then blocking me so I could do nothing to respond or get it off of my page. I deleted all posts of the matter, as requested by these people (who validly pointed out they were in the main fandom tags, which I hadn’t thought of and understood), and hoped to move on.

But it hasn’t stopped. I have been beaten down and emotionally bruised for months. I have had my life and safety threatened, my education and by extension life path altered, and lost work (podcast) opportunities due to this-- alongside the irreversible emotional damage from trauma and abuse. My mental health issues and insecurities-- which I have been very open about to destigmatize the subjects and encourage conversation-- were actively targeted to inflict the most pain possible. 

And I can’t even talk about it, without enduring more hate and accusations of “playing the victim”.

Death threats, suicide baiting, doxing, months of bullying and harassment to the most vile degree, which a lot of these people don’t know about because they don’t even bother to read my words. Yet I’m playing the victim. 

And the accusations of bigotry and being hateful hurt, because it couldn’t be further from what is in my heart. I believing in love and acceptance of all. I don’t know how many are religious here, but I found God after my first suicide attempt and that is what his word has taught me. 

I’ve been through too much in life to tolerate this, for lack of a more eloquent term, bullshit. I know what abuse and victim blaming looks like when I see it. And in my 20 years of life, I have gone through too much: constant ridicule and bullying, suicide attempts, sexual assault, major spinal surgery, to just be stomped over and not stand up for my right to basis human decency. 

I refuse to put up with this, so unless I get an apology and some semblance of justice for everything I have been through, I am leaving. I will not participate in a space run by hate and toxicity. I will never claim to be perfect, and I have apologized for my mistakes and wrongdoings. Now, hold those who did this accountable. If you’re reading this you know very well who it was, and I am not naming them for those who don’t. Because at the end of the day I still send nothing but love and wish no ill will towards them.

But I’ll be damned if I don’t expect accountability of one of the greatest influencers in the fandom for their complacency in abuse, threats, suicide baiting, and and absolute ruining of my life and online experience. They enabled this and were well aware they had the power to stop it-- to ask their followers to stop-- and did nothing. They didn’t care-- about a human’s life and well being. 

@dragonprinceofficial, are you aware that this is what many of the fans of your show, which preaches love and an end to the cycle of vengeance, do to others? That this is happening in your space? If you stand at all by the values you preach, condemn it. @staffTumblr/ @supportTumblr-- shame on you for allowing this abuse to happen and ignoring my reports. Shame on you for permitting these people to operate in your platform and for being okay with hosting hate. People have been driven to suicide on your website-- I am one of the lucky ones. 

If you care at all about humanity and stand against this behavior, reblog and spread awareness. Share my story so I may not happen to anyone else. Tag @dragonprinceofficial until they notice and speak out. 

This is my story, and so many others. Make sure it doesn’t happen ever again. No human being deserves to be treated how I was. Everyone deserves compassion, decency, and respect. And everyone deserves a place in fandom. Do better. If you want to reach out to me DMs are open, as well as my email, which is attached to my account. Until this change happens and I am given the support/ help needed to safely function on this platform, this blog will not be active outside of that. 

Thank you all of the many accounts who have supported me, and I am working on getting back to all who have reached out! Your love means the world. You know who you are, and I don’t want to tag in case people come after you for showing me kindness. I am sorry if this is goodbye, to all that have enjoyed my blog. I enjoyed it for a long time  too. I loved sharing my passion for stories, culture, having a space where I could analyze and discuss my favorite things.  I loved getting to share what I had to offer with the world, having fun and posting jokes with my unique sense of humor. I loved interacting with intelligent people/ fellow fans and discussing my favorite stories, offering each other new insights and growing together. I loved the many, many kind and wonderful people who reached out to me in a variety of ways and provided support and friendship.

In the end, it just isn’t worth all of this pain and trauma, and I know when to put my foot down. I don’t want pity, I don’t want apologizes, and I’m not a martyr. I just want my story to make a difference-- to spur positive change in fandom culture/ spaces.  I will be tagging all fandoms in which I have seen this kind of abuse present as well, to reach as many as possible. 

Be safe, and be kind.

- The Arcadia Ledger/ Ryn/ Katie, signing off.

[eberles]

After He Cheats

Mat Barzal

Request: ummmm can you write something angst for mat barzal??? love you!!

A/N: hiii, i hope you like this!! there’s no happy ending i’m sorry in advance! 

Warnings: cheating relationship, angst, swearing

The pictures were everywhere, on every social media platform you were a part of and you felt like you couldn't escape them. But you also couldn't stop looking at them as much as it hurt, you wanted to memorize every single detail on these pictures to try and understand why. All you friends were texting him and even a few of his friends too, but you ignored all of them and only after what felt like hours of looking at these pictures, he called you.

“Hello?” you answered with a shaky voice and immediately regretted your choice when you heard him on the other end. You could picture his broken, sad face on the other end of the phone and it only made you more angry.

“Y/N, it’s not what it looks like.” Mat whispered into the phone and you shook your head before scoffing and hanging up the phone, letting the tears finally flow down your face. You opened up instagram again looking at the multiple pictures of Mat and a beautiful blonde kissing in the hotel lobby, in the parking lot, on what looks like a dinner date. This wasn’t the first time Mat had cheated on you, but he promised it was a one time thing and that you had nothing to worry about. You felt pathetic for believing him and staying with him especially when your friends and family warned you about him.

please answer me

i love you

it was an accident

she doesn't mean anything to me

The repetitive texts came rolling in and you were stuck in your position sitting on your living room floor, switching your phone screen between your boyfriends texts and the pictures of him. You declined the rest of his phone calls for the remainder of the night knowing that he would be home tomorrow to “explain himself.” You weren’t going to let him manipulate you this time, it was his fault and he did do it on purpose. He did.

**********************************************************

just landed, i’ll be home in 30

i love you

By the time Mat texted you telling you he was on his way home, you had most of your clothes and a few other things you had around the apartment packed. You stopped crying hours ago and your whole body felt numb at this point, you were just exhausted. Exhausted of being lied to, exhausted of letting your boyfriend walk all over you. You heard the front door open and close bracing yourself as you heard Mat’s footsteps running up the stairs.

“Hi.” Mat spoke hesitantly walking into your bedroom and you looked over, forcing yourself to smile at him.

“Hi.” you said before walking into your bathroom with a small bag to put away your toiletries, Mat following closely behind you.

“What are you doing? Don’t do this.” Mat begged, eyes wide watching you move around the bathroom grabbing all your shower stuff.

“You did this, Mat. Why are you surprised? Isn’t this what you wanted?” you asked, turning around to look at him, a spiteful smile on your face. “What did you think would happen?”

“It got out of hand, I swear. You have to believe me. This is not what I wanted.” Mat defended himself and you rolled your eyes, leaning against the sink in the bathroom to look at him.

“It doesn’t even matter anymore, Mat. We’re done. I’m done.”

“What can I do?” Mat grabbed your hands, pulling them to his chest. You didn’t move them away, letting yourself touch him one last time.

“Did you have sex with her?” You already knew the answer, but you wanted him to say it. Mat didn't though, instead he put his head down and kissed the tops of your hands multiple times while repeatedly saying “sorry.” “You know, I could understand meeting up with an old friend and having dinner and I could even understand an accidental kiss, but I cannot understand how you can try to call sleeping with someone else an accident?”

“I’m sorry, I wish I could take it back but I can’t. We can move past this though, together.”

“No, we can’t.” you said, ripping your hands from Mat’s grasp and walking past him.

“You don’t even care, do you?” Mat followed you back into the bedroom and you laughed at his question.

“Of course I do, but i’m done fucking crying over you.” you zipped up your last bag, throwing them both over your shoulder and walking towards the door and turning around to look back at him. “Goodbye, Mat.”

The following weeks were hard for you and a few times you wondered how Mat was doing and if you should check on him. You forced him out of your thoughts and it took everything in you, blocking his phone number helped because his multiple attempts at contacting you were a little too much for you to handle. You didn’t want Mat to be in pain, but after coming across newer pictures of him and his blonde you couldn’t help but wish she would do the same to him just so he would know how it feels.

**********************************************************

A year has passed since your break up with Mat and you couldn’t be more happy. Mat didn’t randomly appear in your thoughts anymore and when you came across a picture of him your heart didn’t ache anymore. You never moved out of the city, but seeing him in the grocery store exactly a year after you left him was not what you expected.

“Y/N, hey.” Mat said, his carriage bumping into yours in the pasta aisle. You looked up at him in complete shock, but with a genuine smile on your face.

“Oh my god! Mat hi, how are you?” the two of you stepped out of the way of other customers in the store and continued your small talk.

“Honestly, i’m really happy. I’m gonna propose soon, I think i’m finally ready for that step ya know?” Mat spoke, and his face showed the biggest, happiest smile you may have ever seen on him.

“That’s great! I’m happy for you.” The two of you said your goodbye’s and you watched as Mat walked away, not being able to help the slight anger bubbling up inside of you. You just hoped he spends his last dime to put a rock on her hand.

**********************************************************

Another year has passed since your break up with Mat and since you had last seen him that day in the grocery store. You could confidently say that seeing Mat a year ago had not affected you one bit, and you hadn’t thought about him since that day. At first you were angry that Mat was able to propose to the blonde after only a year, but it just reminded you of how lucky you were to be rid of him. After leaving the grocery store a year ago, you stopped into your favorite coffee shop and met your now boyfriend, Tyler.

The two of you were currently celebrating your one year anniversary of meeting, even though your actual anniversary was still 2 months away. You were sitting at a corner table in the coffee shop, laughing and enjoying each other’s presence when you saw Mat walk through the front door with Tito. After they ordered their coffee and found a table to sit at, Mat spotted you and waved you over to him.

“This is going to be an every year occurrence isn't it?” you joked, saying hi to Mat and Tito.

“I guess so, how are you?” Mat asked, looking over at your boyfriend at the table behind you.

“I’m great! That’s Tyler, my boyfriend. How are you?” you asked, smiling down at Mat from your standing position.

“I could be better. She um, she cheated on me so.” Mat shrugged, a small frown on his face and you forced your happy attitude down for the sake of his feelings.

“Oh i’m sorry.” you said awkwardly, continuing small talk before saying bye to Mat and making your way back to Tyler, knowing that Mat’s eyes were following your every move and watching as you greeted your boyfriend with a kiss.

“I love you.” you said to Tyler, after sitting down earning a cheeky smile from him, as he leaned in to kiss your cheek.

“I love you more.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

taglist: @sortagaysortahigh @sweeterthansammy @butgilinsky @kiedhara @taiter-tots @jjmaybanksbaby @jamiedrysdales @ana-maa @iamtheblondestblonde @elitebarzal @bestestbenn

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Privacy Without Monopoly, EU edition

Tech monopoly apologists insist that there’s something exceptional about tech that makes it so concentrated: “network effects” (when a product gets better because more people use it, like a social media service).

They’re wrong.

Tech is concentrated because the Big Tech companies buy up or crush their nascent competitors — think of Facebook’s predatory acquisition of Instagram, which Zuckerberg admitted (in writing!) was driven by a desire to recapture the users who were leaving FB in droves.

Google’s scale is driven by acquisitions — Search and Gmail are Google’s only successful in-house products. Everything else, from Android to Youtube to their entire ad-tech stack, was once a standalone business that Google captured.

Monopolies extract monopoly rents — like those delivered by Googbook’s crooked ad-tech marketplaces, or Apple/Google’s 30% app shakedown — and use them to maintain their monopolies. Google gives Apple billions every year so it will be the default Ios and Safari search.

These are the same tactics that every monopolist uses — high-stakes moneyball that creates a “kill-zone” around the monopolist’s line of business that only a fool would try to enter. Tech DOES have network effects, but that’s not what’s behind tech monopolies.

We see monopolies in industries from bookselling to eyeglasses, accounting to cheerleading uniforms, pro wrestling to energy, beer to health insurance. These monopolies all follow Big Tech’s template of mobilizing monopoly rents to buy or crush all competition.

The differences between the anticompetitive tactics that monopolized these industries are largely cosmetic — swap out a few details and you might well be describing how John D Rockefeller and Standard Oil monopolized the oil markets in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Big Tech does have network effects, but these are actually a tool that can be used to dismantle monopolies, as well as maintaining them. Network effects are double-edged swords: if a service gets more valuable as users join, it also gets less valuable as users leave.

If you want to understand the anticompetitive structure of the tech industry, you’d be better off analyzing switching costs, not network effects. Switching costs are the things you have to give up when you leave a service behind.

If your customers, community, family members or annotated photos and other memories are locked up in Facebook’s walled garden (or if you’ve got money sunk in proprietary media or apps on Apple’s, etc), then the switching cost is losing access to all of that.

Here’s where tech really is different: tech has intrinsically low switching costs. Latent in all digital technology is the capacity to interoperate, to plug a new service into an old one, to run an old app inside a simulator (“runtime”).

There’s no good technical reason you can’t leave Facebook but take your treasured photos with you — and continue to exchange messages with the people you left behind.

True, Facebook has gone to extraordinary lengths to keep its switching costs high, deploying technical countermeasures to block interoperability. But these aren’t particularly effective. Lots of people have figured out how to reverse-engineer FB and plug new things into it.

Power Ventures created an app that aggregated your FB feed with feeds from rival services, giving you a single dashboard. NYU’s Ad Observer scraps the political ads FB shows you for analysis to check whether FB is enforcing its own paid political disinformation rules.

And there’s a whole constellation of third-party Whatsapp clients that add features FB has decided Whatsapp users don’t deserve, like the ability to block read-receipts or run multiple accounts on the same device.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/03/african-whatsapp-modders-are-masters-worldwide-adversarial-interoperability

Most of these are technical successes, but they’re often legal failures. FB has used the monopoly rents it extracted to secure radical new laws and new interpretations of existing laws to make these tactics illegal.

Power Ventures was sued into oblivion. Ad Observer is fighting for its life. The Whatsapp mods are still going strong, but that may be down to the jurisdictions where they thrive — sub-Saharan Africa — where FB has less legal muscle.

With low switching costs, much of FB’s monopoly protection evaporates. Lots of people hate FB, and FB knows it. You’re on FB because your friends are there. Your friends are there because you’re there. You’ve taken each other hostage, and FB benefits.

With low switching costs, you could leave FB — but not your friends. The kill zone disappears. All we need is interoperability.

Enter the EU’s Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act, proposed regulations to force interop on the biggest Big Tech players.

The EU has recognized that mandating interop can reduce switching costs, and reducing switching costs can weaken monopoly power.

Some critics (like me!) of the EU proposals say they don’t go far enough, asking for “full interop” for rival services.

Against these calls for broader interop come warnings about the privacy implications of forcing FB to open up its servers to rivals. It’s hard enough to keep FB from abusing its users’ privacy, how will we keep track of a constellation of services that can access user data?

Last Feb, Bennett Cyphers and I published “Privacy Without Monopoly,” for EFF, describing how interoperability can enhance privacy.

Interop means that users can choose services that have better privacy policies than Facebook or other incumbent platforms.

https://www.eff.org/wp/interoperability-and-privacy

But in theory, it means that users could choose worse services — services that have worse privacy policies, services that might be able to grab your friends’ data along with your own (say, the pictures you took of them and brought with you, or their private messages to you).

That’s why, in our paper, we say that interop mandates have to be backstopped by privacy rules — democratically accountable rules from lawmakers or regulators, not self-serving “privacy” limitations set by the Big Tech companies themselves.

For example, Facebook aggressively imports your address books when you sign up, to connect you to the people you know (this isn’t always a good experience — say, if your stalker has you in their address book and automatically gets “friended” with you).

If you try to take your address book with you when you quit, FB claims your contact list isn’t “yours” — it belongs to your contacts. To protect their privacy, FB has to block you from exporting the data — making it it much harder to establish social ties on a new service.

It’s not obvious who that contact info “belongs to” (if “belong to” is even the right way to talk about private information that implicates multiple people!).

But what is obvious is that Facebook can’t be trusted to make that call.

Not only has Facebook repeatedly disqualified itself from being trusted to defend its users’ privacy, but it also has a hopeless conflict of interest, because privacy claims can be used to raise switching costs and shore up its monopoly.

In our paper, Bennett and I say that these thorny questions should be resolved democratically, not in a corporate boardroom.

Now, as it happens, there’s a region where 500M people are protected by a broad, democratically enacted privacy law: Europe, home of the GDPR.

Today, in a new appendix to “Privacy Without Monopoly,” EFF has published “The GDPR, Privacy and Monopoly,” my analysis of how the GDPR makes interoperability safer from a privacy perspective.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/06/gdpr-privacy-and-monopoly

Working with EFF’s Christoph Schmon and Bennett Cyphers, we develop a detailed analysis of the GDPR, and describe how the GDPR provides a lawful framework for resolving thorny questions about consent and blended title to data.

The GDPR itself seeks to promote interoperability; it’s right there in Recital 68: “data controllers should be encouraged to develop interoperable formats that enable data portability.” But loopholes in the rules have allowed dominant companies to stymie interop.

For years, Europeans have had the “right” to port their data, but nowhere to port that data to. The DMA closes the loopholes and dismantles the hurdles that kept switching costs high.

The GDPR’s consent/security/minimization framework sets out the parameters for any interoperability, meaning we don’t have to trust Facebook (or Google, or Amazon, or Apple) to decide when interop must be blocked “to defend users’ privacy” (and also shareholders’ profits).

Big Tech platforms already have consent mechanisms (and must continue to build them) to create the legal basis for processing user data. An interoperable FB could be a consent conduit, letting your friends decide when and whether you can take their data to a new service.

And the GDPR (not a tech executive) also determines when a new service meets the privacy standards needed for interop. It governs how that new service must handle user data, and it gives users a way to punish companies that break the rules.

Today, if you leave Facebook, your friends might not even notice. But in a world where FB is a consent conduit to manage your departure and resettlement, all your friends get signals about your departure — perhaps prompting them to consider whether they should go, too.

Far from prohibiting interop, the GDPR enables it, by creating an explicit privacy framework that is consistent across all services, both the old monopolies and the new co-ops, startups, public utilities, and other alternatives that interop would make possible.

Monopolies distort the world in two ways. The most obvious harm is to competition, choking out or buying out every alternative, so you have to live by whatever rules the monopolist sets.

But the other kind of harm is even worse: monopolists can use their political power to get away with terrible abuses.

Ad-tech concentration produced monopoly rents that blocked or weakened privacy law for decades, allowing for a grotesque degree of commercial surveillance.

We don’t want competition in surveillance.

Opening space for interop poses a legitimate risk of creating a contest to see who can violate your human rights most efficiently.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/08/leona-helmsley-was-a-pioneer/#monkeys-paw

Yet, it’s obvious that monopolists themselves shouldn’t get to decide where they should be subjected to competition and where they should be subjected to regulation. That’s a job for democratic institutions, not autocratic board-rooms.

Adding privacy regulation (strong privacy regulation, with a private right of action allowing users to sue companies for breaking the rules) to interop is how we resolve this conundrum, how we make sure we’re banning surveillance, rather than “democratizing” it.

[parrotvoid]

Wood Island – The Military Testing Site I Found on Google Earth

  Google Earth and Wikipedia are my absolute favorite digital spaces. It has to do with how they act as platforms for crowd sourced projects, how personal they feel when you’re using them, and how their only mission is providing information to the public. There’s something impersonal about being one of the million people reading an article because it’s in the top news stories of some digital magazine. And it’s stressful to have to filter through the bullshit when listening to or reading a story from a for-profit news source. Especially today, when the news and social media algorithms have an incentive to weave together information into stories which incite negative emotions and bolster specific political ideologies. When I feel like I’m trapped in a tornado of lies, misdirection, and misinformation, I find it grounding to dive into a wholesome Wikipedia rabbit hole or exploring some distant land through the eyes of Google Earth. It’s inevitable, whenever I do this, that I will find some interesting gem of a fact that brings me some personal awe and satisfaction. 

So, as I mentioned in a previous post, the family went down to Emerald Isle for a week back in July. Shortly afterward we came back, I checked out the area using Google Earth and found one of these hidden gemlike factoids. Emerald Isle is the town located on the Bogue Banks Island. Bogue Banks is a barrier island that is about three to four blocks wide and runs parallel to the coast of NC. Our house was on the South facing, ocean / beach front side of the island. Google Earth revealed that the North side of the island faced into the Bogue Sound and was lined with private boat docks. The Bogue Sound had quite a few small islands scattered within it. I noticed that the closest of the Bogue Sound islands, Wood Island, is only about 400 yards for our former location. Little islands have always been an interest of mine so I zoomed in. (I took a screenshot of Wood Island and have it pictured above) Getting a closer look revealed a curiosity. 

It doesn’t take a trained eye to notice that Wood Island is covered with some strange circular marks. At first, I wondered if these were sinkholes and caves formed by limestone erosion, but I decided to google search it to make sure and I found that those marks have an even cooler explanation that odd erosion. Multiple articles popped up stating that Wood Island (and in fact most of Emerald Isle) was a bomb target practicing spot from 1943 to 1955. Apparently, the island is off limits due to there still being the very real presence of live munitions scattered across it! 

Here’s some clips I copied from an article I’ll link below:

According to a report provided to the town, in spring 2009 the military prepared a digital geophysical map, using a commercial helicopter flying over the part of Bogue Sound that surrounds the island.

“The purpose was to detect and accurately map metallic items (referred to as magnetic anomalies). In addition, samples of soil, surface water, and sediment were collected and analyzed for munitions-related chemicals, such as metals and explosives residues,” the report states.

The Navy and Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point conducted the potential impact study of the past training operations as part of a nationwide evaluation of historic military training sites. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command led the investigation, in partnership with MCAS Cherry Point and the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other federal and state agencies provided technical support. According to the report, a site inspection of Wood Island found remnants of old munitions and fragments on the surface, along the shoreline and partly buried on the island.

In the aerial DGM survey of Bogue Sound, magnetometers were mounted on booms attached to the helicopter. Magnetometers measure the strength or direction of the earth’s magnetic field. A mass of metal creates a detectable disturbance in the magnetic field. The helicopter flew back-and-forth passes at four to five feet above the water to locate and create the digital map of magnetic anomalies, essentially metallic objects. These anomalies could be munitions submerged under water or buried under the surface of the ground, or they could be unrelated metallic objects related to recreational or commercial use of Bogue Sound, such as crab pots or anchors or tools.

According to the report, the survey identified approximately 10,400 magnetic anomalies.

“There are several clusters of concentrated anomalies near Wood Island,” the report states. “The rest are irregularly distributed throughout the 10-square-mile investigation area. The highest concentration of metallic objects is clustered within approximately 650 feet of Wood Island. Three much smaller clusters of metallic objects were found in the investigation area, further away from Wood Island in Bogue Sound.

“One cluster is located approximately 2,500 feet southwest of Wood Island. The second cluster is located about 2.5 miles east (of the range), directly off the northern shoreline between 1st and 2nd streets in Emerald Isle, near some docks and piers that extend into Bogue Sound. The third cluster is located near Dog Island, about 3,000 feet north of the shoreline near the Emerald Isle/ Indian Beach town boundary.

“Except for these small clusters, the density of metallic objects decreases as you move from Wood Island toward Emerald Isle,” the report continues. “Many munitions remnants and fragments were observed on the surface of the island during site visits.”

The report says that the site inspection also considered potential environmental risks, but “little or no risk was identified. For a health risk to occur, people or wildlife have to be exposed to chemicals. This is called a complete exposure pathway. A human health risk screening, considering the sampling data and potential exposure pathways, did not identify unacceptable short-term or long-term human health risks from exposure to surface soil, sediment, or surface water …

“Similarly,” the report continues, “an ecological risk screening found that no significant risks are expected for wildlife … exposed to surface soil, sediment, or surface water… Based on the results of the preliminary human health and ecological risk screening, no further evaluation of chemicals in the surface soil, surface water, and sediment is recommended …

“Unexploded ordnance, however, is a potential risk to human safety. The old munitions visible on the surface of Wood Island and the high concentration of magnetic anomalies in the waters around the island show that further munitions investigation is needed.

“After a site inspection, the next phase in a munitions investigation is to determine the nature (types and physical condition) and extent (affected areas, including depths) of the magnetic anomalies that are likely to be munitions and explosives of concern.

“The Navy will evaluate alternative methods that would allow such an investigation to be safely carried out. The suspected munitions are mainly underwater or underground and are expected to be in poor condition, weathered or corroded, like the munitions observed on the surface. Those factors make this identification process complicated, as well as potentially dangerous for the investigation team. Because of this, considerable time will be required to plan and carry out the investigation.

“Meanwhile, MCAS Cherry Point and the Navy are considering how best to protect the public. Protective measures could include removing potentially hazardous munitions and fragments from the surface of Wood Island … installing additional warning signs or restricting bottom-disturbing activities in the waters adjacent to the island…

SO FREAKING COOL! Now I have a burning desire to explore the island, or at the very least use it as a setting for a horror story. 

https://www.carolinacoastonline.com/tideland_news/news/article_f6ed079f-4713-5956-b831-862308e820e4.html

[berlynn-wohl]

Hey! Sorry to bother, but could I ask you a question about Pillowfort? I have been thinking about making an account, but since I haven't seen any reviews or screenshots of the site, I have been putting it off. Since you have an account, would you mind telling your own opinions and how the site works for you? Pros and cons, is it difficult to get into, reliable, that sort of thing. Thank you beforehand!

Getting Asks is no bother at all! I like answering questions. :) 

You can visit Pillowfort and look at people’s blogs without having an account yourself, if you’d like to check it out before making the commitment. That’s what I did. But here are some of my opinions on the site. Other people can reblog and chime in if they like.

What I appreciate about Pillowfort is that it has been specifically designed by people who were unhappy with other social media platforms (those that were adapted for fandom use, not made for fandom use). Pillowfort has built-in features to reduce fandom wank, a thing that will always exist but particularly thrives on Tumblr and Twitter. Some of these features harken back to the LiveJournal days, where fandom was more siloed and it was more difficult for wank to proliferate across multiple fandoms.

So, for example: when you post something, another user can comment on your post, and they can reblog your post…but they cannot reblog your post to their own blog and add something to it (“um, friendly reminder that OP once made a joke at the expense of people who are lactose intolerant, here’s the receipts from 2011”). If they like your post and want it to be on their own blog as well, they can do that. And if they want to have a discussion, they can leave a comment, which you and no one else will be notified of, and you can have a discussion with them if you wish. Wank can’t travel as far and as fast with a format like that. 

You can also simply make it so that your posts are not commentable or rebloggable, if you just want to get your thoughts out there and are not looking for interaction. There’s also lots of ways to filter/blacklist/block, to help curate your experience.

Pillowfort also has Communities, where people can post their works/thoughts and also have threaded discussions, like in the LiveJournal days. Dreamwidth still exists for that, of course, but Pillowfort is a more multimedia-friendly platform, so you can have both threaded discussions and gifsets, etc more easily than you can on LJ/DW.

I am still on Tumblr and Twitter just because, well, most everyone’s still there. I’ve been in online fandom since the mid-90′s, and I have seen many examples of fans having a difficult time extricating themselves en masse from an imperfect platform or way of doing things until the old system just collapses. But I hope that Pillowfort is the future of fandom, because it is a superior platform, it just needs that critical mass of people using it. Big things have small beginnings!

[incarnateirony]

An apology, but a story.

Okay guys, sorry for uh, talking so much about Pillowfort lately. I do mean it when I say I’m still here to stay until Tumblr totally dies, and I know I’ve been posting a LOT of PF content, but I’m also trying to help tailor an environment over there where this fandom can thrive. Add in momma’s heart attack and coma and my dash has been a hot mess and bare bones of my usual content, and I apologize.

But at the same time I’d like to sort of tell a bit of a flashback story of social media, fandom, and why I really do hope the best for Pillowfort. Some people are too young to remember the slow death of Livejournal, and I’m having like, flashbacks from that. I wasn’t in SPN fandom itself at the time but I was on LJ, so if you’re 

worried about your friends leaving

intent on sticking to tumblr hell or high water

kind of upset at some friends trying to manage both

Let me give a little bit of history to explain what people are doing right now and why.

Long long ago, in a digital world far away when the internet still screamed at you when you connected to it, fandom wasn’t really globalized like it is. Twitter didn’t exist. Eventually Facebook was a hot new commodity not everybody adopted immediately. Tumblr wasn’t a sparkle in anybody’s eye. 

Fandom was mostly relegated to php forums and places like Livejournal. Livejournal proved to be -- at the time -- one of the best methods to engage in fandom. You could have your own journal, but you could also join communities with your account and comment on long discussions. 

There were weaknesses of this to be sure. Notifications were pretty raw to nonexistent compared to how we know of them modernly. You had to basically manually check the comm to stay on top of things, and what was said in that comm was choked to that comm. Now, that had its strengths: you could control the community and posts, ergo minimizing flame wars, but it made fandom a bunch of pigeonhole wings and, to be honest, echo chambers. Lots of things got missed, overlooked, and what have you. And god help you if you pissed off a big name fan in your wing that owned one or most of the communities you went to. Replies and the ilk were pretty limited on what you could do, too. But it was something. It was more than just a standard forum. You could still try to cross-engage.

Then came the LJ Purge, which... is pretty much identical to the Tumblr purge. New rules banishing NSFW to the depths of the internet, some out of control censorship, targeting all LGBT content no matter how pure as NSFW and explicit -- you name it. They didn’t really have wildly out of control filterbots, that’s a new modern invention just to shit in our bin a little better, but you get the idea. What happened -- and is still, more quietly, now that the shock has passed -- to Tumblr is what happened to LJ. People lost mountains of work. 

Now, LJ didn’t die overnight. It died over the course of a few years. Some people left fairly quickly, others tried to stay aboard. For example, Destiel fandom was fairly young at the point the LJ Purge kicked off, and were already sort of outsiders among the fandom newsletters that were more Gen or Wincest doused at that point because -- well, duh -- they had a several year running start on that platform. The communities, as above, were really regulated. There just wasn’t room to breathe. Sure, they had their own comms, but once material started vanishing, they were much more eager to, en masse, migrate to a new platform. And yes, some stayed behind longer, because people, even in shipland, aren’t a borg.

Other communities, like gen or Wincest, stayed behind longer. They had years of built up work and huge communities they were attached to there and it was a lot harder for them to let that all go. But it didn’t get better. More quietly, once the hysteria ended, people just lost their will to continue to use livejournal and they more dribbled across.

Some went to Dreamwidth back then. Some went to tumblr. Long term, tumblr worked for everybody until now. Dreamwidth was pretty much Livejournal, minus censorship, plus a few bells and whistles but it worked for a few people, but let’s face it -- that’s not where central fandom ended up.

Now, people are talking alternatives. Some are saying to go back to Dreamwidth. I refuse. 

Because there’s a reason it wasn’t the most successful platform in the past and we’ll go back to completely segregated fandom like before and 

because certain aspects of fandom that DID go to Dreamwidth and stay there, have still been there, and are a huge thorn in the side to almost anyone with their head screwed on straight, Destiel fandom or not. J2 tinhats are the eternal asscramps of the fandom and they’ve squatted on dreamwidth for their crazy ass tinhat page for years, god knows they probably went to adjacent communities, god knows how ingrained they are into it, and I am NOT willing to deal with that level of horse shit again.

Pornhub tried a grab, that didn’t work, as it shouldn’t, for a list of reasons as long as my arm; Mastodon was suggested, but has a huge issue in some of its other channels that people don’t want to float in the vicinity of. 

And then there’s Pillowfort.

So look, Pillowfort is young, it is a smolbabe. In a few months it went from 4K users to 25K users and is growing innumerably by the day. Its servers are struggling. That turns some people off. I get that. But that isn’t permanent.

So first of all, early pioneers are what make migrations work. Just like LJ had its initial members, and then tumblr had its early migrators, places like Pillowfort can be the same. Dreamwidth already has its foundations. That’s redundant, and foundations I’m not even going to touch, much less the regressive, divisive form of communities that will segregate all of us again. It’s fine if you aren’t one of the first people to take up the platform. The people ahead of you will start laying down content and communities and, if it works out, you can join in when you’re ready.

So what makes Pillowfort so fucking special?

Okay, so check it out. On tumblr, we’re used to reblogging shit into the bowels of the internet. As Pillowfort grows it, too, has that capability with some differences.

The boldest difference is that when you reblog, your opinion doesn’t get attached to the end of the post. It just reblogs the base post. Some people initially complained and thought that was the loss of a feature but came to realize it’s a blessing.

You see, that means someone can’t kidnap your post with a shitty opinion to reblog it to their friends with a shitty opinion that all attach their heckling shitty opinions. Like, let’s say it’s someone that’s Destiel fandom reading this. Ever had an anti shit reblog your post and it run wild? Well, now, if they try to reblog it, all they reblog is... your Destiel post. Thanks for that.

So how do we actually say what we need to?

Well, fam, it incorporated elements from LJ/DW, in having threaded replies. Multiple threads if so needed. The threaded replies are capable of housing just about anything an OP has. So a blog post has, alongside Like/Reblog notifications, comments. Open the post, read the comments, start an actual conversation with some merit. Did some douchebag come to spam your comments since they can’t reblog? No problem, delete their shitty comments and block them, problem solved.

But it doesn’t end there.

See, like LJ, PF has communities. While your post can reblog just about anywhere just like on tumblr, you can blog or reblog them into the communities you follow. Anyone following that community, whether they follow you directly or not, gets that turning up in their feed, maximizing your spread. So sure, it’s a young platform and you only have 20 followers or whatever, but if you make a general Supernatural style post and blog it to the SPN com, 300 people (at current) see it. If you post something to the Destiel comm, over 200 people see it. It’s a way to even find new accounts and friends.

If you don’t like something that’s turning up in a community, you can blacklist shit. And/or find a more appropriate community if it gets out of hand to you.

When you make your own communities you can have internal discussions or blog in/out posts, you can set rules, promote moderators, remove or ban problem users, and generally control the flow of your community to keep out shitlords. But, if for example, you subscribed to a community that turns out to be secretly run BY a shitlord because, IDK, maybe they don’t like that you think Sam is bi or something, most of these communities are large and blog in/out/engageable enough that you won’t lose your contacts, you WILL find your people over time, and you won’t be completely choked off to a singular abyss.

So the base beat is

PF treats every single post like any root post on an LJ/DW comm, but is able to be reblogged from/to communities or your own blog page as freely as tumblr.  PF takes the best concepts of current and previous fandom platforms in its base application and lays a groundwork that literally all of us can prosper on if it survives and continues. 

But that’s the catch.

And it’s cool if you aren’t ready to completely take that leap yet. I get that.

“I kinda like PF but it doesn’t have X feature-”

Okay look, PF is a smolbabe, like I said. It’s in beta. The thing is, they’re adding things every day. They have a dev list like 2 pages long for goals and things are getting crossed off and added like, biweekly. It might already be on their list to add. And if it’s not, guess what?

The staff actually give a shit and react to questions and concerns. There’s entire beta groups to talk about features with bugs, and/or features that should be added or adjusted. There’s a comm to talk directly to the staff about things.

A small, young platform needs people willing to be out there saying what would improve the experience. So if you go there, you’re not just fandom pioneers, you’re social media pioneers if you so choose to be. It’s not mandatory. You can just fan in your space how you want. Or you can go to the beta groups and staff groups and tell them what you think would improve the experience. 

And again, it’s okay if you aren’t willing to move right now.

I’m not moving entirely. I’m double blogging, and will return to my regularly scheduled blogging on tumblr here soon, now that my life is calming down and I got most of my PF heavy lifting out of the way. But I want to make a nest in case this does pan out to be the next forward horizon, rather than taking a step back to something like Dreamwidth that segregates us all again. I want to help them build that platform. 

But I’ll still be here with you guys.

But if you’ve felt like friends are abandoning you

Please try to understand the history, please understand what they’re doing and why they’re doing it, and just try to encourage them to cross blog where you can/will engage. And if you’re feeling daring one day? Try to poke your head into PF.

I have one remaining key that I’m willing to give a really good fandom creator. I gave one to a meta-mind and I’d like this to go to a heavy, inclusive gif creator, because that’s still a sparse art on PF. You’d be the belle of the ball just for crossposting your work, in a place that DOESN’T have a threat of it getting deleted when tumblr throws a hissyfit. Just post on both. Tada. Suddenly you’re the popular kid.

If you’re interested, if you poke your head in, check my recent post listing communities that are growing rapidly and the ilk to know where to get your feet wet. Or send me a DM. I’ll help.

We good? Cool.

[kingofthewilderwest]

I am being ignored by people in this fandom what should I do? I send people asks and they ignore me. Please help

Hey there, buddy! I’m sorry to hear you’ve been having difficulties communicating with other people. Communication can be a difficult and complicated thing! I don’t know your particular situation communicating with other people in the fandom, so I’m going to go through a variety of things, and hope that some of my comments may help below.

Sometimes if people don’t respond, it’s not because you did anything wrong. Sometimes all it will take is a little more waiting. The people we’re talking to on the other end can’t always answer in a timely manner. Some people might not be online often and respond to asks slowly. Some people might be going through irl circumstances that keep them away from the computer. Other people might have a LOT of asks in their inbox and can only respond so fast - what looks like them talking to other people “instead of” you might just be them trying to get through lots of messages and not getting to yours yet. Some people might have accidentally forgotten about your ask in their inbox. Some people might have accidentally lost your ask in the midst of other things in their inbox. Waiting with patience for someone to respond in their appropriate time can sometimes be the solution.

I know one reason people might not respond fast is because they don’t have social energy at the time (if you’re familiar with spoon theory, what I mean is moments when people lack “spoons”). If a person feels socially exhausted - even if they’re online and reblogging things - they won’t have the energy to talk to someone. I have this happen to me a lot and I have to wait to respond at a later time. Sometimes responding to different people event takes a different amount of energy - for some people, it’s less energy to talk to other introverts, or to other people they know, or about certain topics than others. It might look like ignoring on the outside, but once you find out the person’s lack of energy, it turns out that they would like to respond but can’t. I always like to take people with the healthy benefit of the doubt, understanding that there could be many reasons why I haven’t heard from them - not jumping to conclusions it’s because they’re against me in particular. That’s usually not the case. Usually they’re not ignoring me, usually they don’t find anything wrong with me, and usually there’s something going on with their life that means they can’t respond yet.

Other times people might not respond on social media if they’re not familiar with you and/or aren’t comfortable talking to strangers online. Some people may be socially awkward and not know how to respond. Others might not feel gripped with a started conversation online and decide not to respond to your greeting. Some people just might not be interested talking with you. It’s not that they’re necessarily ignoring you, so much as enjoying social media in their own way, and picking-choosing conversations they think might go well. It’s okay not to interact and engage with everyone you come across online. We can’t be forced into every conversation with every person every day every time something happens… we do have the right to be selective in our responses. Not everyone can handle everything thrown at them (it’d be an overwhelming inundation). And no one should be FORCED into a social interaction. Sometimes messaging another person is a hit-or-miss about whether or not they’ll respond - not because they’re ignoring you, but because of what type of interactions that person prefers on social media.

All of this is to say you might not be doing anything wrong and they might not be doing anything wrong! yet. There may (I hope!) be nothing wrong.

Another thing that may be worth considering is analyzing how you come across. Again, I don’t know your situation, but this is something that happens a lot on social media platforms: we mean well when we talk to someone but it “comes out wrong.” If it comes out wrong, we can accidentally make a bad impression that makes people less likely to respond to us. Given that online we’re only talking through text, we lack body language cues and voice cues to let people know how we feel - which means that our words are all the more likely to be misinterpreted or unintentionally “rub wrong” or raise “red flags” to someone else.

Things that might make people uncomfortable with an ask or PM (and thus, they won’t respond) include:

Overly emotional messages. This is especially so for negative emotions, though positive emotions (like being over-the-top sappy) can sound creepy or uncomfortable if written wrong, too. 

Sending too many messages in a short time span and sounding clingy. If someone doesn’t respond and you keep sending more stuff to get them to pay attention to you, that’s stifling and can give some red flag warnings for bad social interactions. That’ll drive them away and they’ll become wary of who you are as a person.

Sharing uncomfortable information that might be TMI. Not everyone is comfortable with all information. Check to see what types of conversations the blogger tends to have before sending messages that might be hard to handle.

Saying something that sounds drama-inducing. People know trolls want to incite others, cause drama, etc. If an ask sounds like it’s poking at sensitive topics or pointing fingers at the community, trying to sew discord in a fandom, people may steer clear of responding to these asks, or may respond to them negatively.

Sending messages from obvious throw-away side blogs you created just for the sake of being anonymous.

Sounding pedantic, cold, or unfeeling. What you might intend as straightforward fact-telling can sometimes sound like talking down. I’ve noticed sentences starting with “Actually,” for instance, tend to come off… wrong. It’s the issue of only having text to work with, not tone of voice.

Sending messages boldly disagreeing with someone else or speaking poorly of something that person loves. That’s ill will to the conversation recipient. It’s hurtful because it’s a conversation insulting what a person enjoys, spoken specifically to the person who likes that thing. They’re not going to want to make conversation with that. (I’m not talking about conversational sharing different opinions or viewpoints, I’m talking about stuff that’s more blunt-on-the-head “I don’t like this”).

This shouldn’t sound like a scary list. I’m not saying that anything you say could be construed wrong. Most messages are going to sound fine, but there are people who may unknowingly write things that fall into these categories and make their recipients uncomfortable. Their messages may be called “troll” messages because they come off so wrong. This is hopefully informative - for people who need it - about what sorts of messages can commonly come off sounding “wrong” in the inbox. We all need a learning curve when it comes with interacting with others, and sometimes how we send asks is part of the learning curve. I had to learn how to interact online myself - I think we’ve all been there at some point in time! And for some people, it’s easier for us to sense how we come off, than it is for others.

If it helps anyone: One way to sense if you’re falling into one or more of these “uncomfortable” categories I listed… is if LOTS of people respond to you in the same non-ideal ways (negatively, hostilely, angrily, not answering you, blocking you, warning others about trolls, etc.). It’s normal to have bad interactions here and there. It’s normal for not-everyone to like you. That’s okay and you’re not a horrible, hated, unloved person - not in the least! You’re beautiful.

One thing I do encourage you, whatever your situation may be, friend, is to not “push it.” As you may already understand, you can’t force people to interact with you. Trying multiple times to the same people to talk to you will dig a deeper hole and make things worse. I encourage a good sense of moderation and consideration for what the other side may feel.

I also encourage you and others to do your best not to worry and not to act on that worry! Sometimes it’s easy to be scared that things are going bad - and then imagination, depression, or anxiety get hold and make you think everything’s much more awful than the situation may actually be. It’s easy to fear a situation is crashing and burning when it’s not that bad in truth. It’s easy for us to think we’re unloved and hated - when in truth, others around us find something to treasure.

And even if things are hard now, that doesn’t mean they’ll always be hard. What might feel like isolation or being ignored now doesn’t mean it’ll always be this way. We can all find ways to interact healthily with the tumblr community. We can make positive connections with others in the fandom! It may take time, but we can all find a happy place in the community. The fandom is full of really cool and friendly people. I bet you’ve got some awesome and cool things about you, too!

Sending you the best of wishes! Take care, friend!

Another post that may be helpful for people going through social media struggles: [here].

[elizabethcariasa]

Scam attempts to obtain taxpayers' personal info remain part of IRS' Dirty Dozen

The COVID-19 pandemic presented new opportunities for crooks, as noted in yesterday's post on the first group of 2021's Dirty Dozen Tax Scams.

Today, however, we're back with the golden oldies, as in trying to steal your gold. And your identity.

These Personal Information Cons use a variety of techniques that have been around for years. There's phishing, its cousin voice phishing or vishing, Internal Revenue Service impersonators, social media trolling and tricks, and ransomware.

Regardless of which illegal method is used, the goal is the same. Criminals try to get as much of your personal information as possible, including but not limited to Social Security numbers, bank account or credit card information, and passwords. They then take that data and steal not only any tax-related payments you're due, but your whole persona.

These scams use tax hooks promising faster or larger refunds, as well as schemes threaten penalties or worse from what the crooks say are unpaid taxes.

Here's a closer look at these personal information tax scams and how to avoid falling for them.

Phishing at all the possible personal info pools: The Internal Revenue Service continues to see surges of fake emails, text messages, websites, and social media attempts to steal personal information. Although these attacks tend to increase during tax season, the IRS says they remain a major cause of identity theft throughout the year.

Phishing scams tend to be mainly via email, but also are used in text messages and social media posts where crooks post as family or friends to engage their victims.

More often, though, phishing attempts try to convince targets that the message is from an official source, even the IRS. After years of practice, the schemes can be tricky and cleverly disguised to look legitimate.

So be careful. Watch out for emails and other scams posing as the IRS. Be particularly skeptical of unsolicited messages promising a big tax refund, missing stimulus payment, or even issuing a threat. And never open attachments or click on links in those emails or text messages.

Phishers also look to catch tax pros: Phishing scams are productive. That's why they're still around. But it takes time to go from one taxpayer target to another.

So crooks looking for a better return on their illegal efforts target tax professionals. If they can get into tax preparers' databases, they'll get a wealth of information on all their clients.

The IRS and its Security Summit partners in the states and tax industry have renewed their warning to tax professionals about phishing scams involving verification of Electronic Filing Identification Numbers (EFIN) and Centralized Authorization File (CAF) numbers. The agency has seen an increase in these kinds of scams, along with offers to buy and sell EFINs and CAFs.

Tax professionals have reported receiving scam e-mails from the fictitious "IRS Tax E-Filing" group. Don't open any of these e-mails' attachments; don't click any links. Rather, report the scam to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).

Fake "new client" phishing bait: Most tax and accounting offices look to expand their services. Crooks try to take advantage of this basic business goal by posing as potential tax clients.

The IRS offers the following email new client scam example: "I just moved here from Michigan. I have an urgent tax issue and I was hoping you could help. I hope you are taking on new clients."

The email from the fake potential client also includes two attachments. One is said to be an IRS notice. The other is the fake prospective client's prior-year tax return that's being questions by the IRS.

In another fake new client scam, an image of which is shown below, the masquerading phishers says he/she/they were recommended by their former tax preparer who is retiring.

As these two examples show, the new client scam is easy to tweak. So be on the lookout for variations and be wary of emails from unknown senders.

IRS impersonator phone calls and vishing: In additional to email outreach, crooks still use phones to try to gather personal financial information. One of the most prevalent forms of voice-related phishing, known as vishing, was the call from an IRS employee impersonator.

The good news from the IRS and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is that both agencies report a decline in these fake tax agent calls. The IRS has seen a 43 percent decrease in the number of reports of calls from callers claiming to be from the IRS, down to 20,500 in 2020 compared to 36,000 in 2019. The FTC saw a 67 percent decline from 7,694 reports in 2019 to 2,571 in 2020.

But the IRS says it now is seeing an increase in tax lien themed vishing scams. A quarter of these telephone phishing scams in 2020 were by crooks using fake tax lien information.

Remember, the IRS generally first contacts people by mail, not by phone, about unpaid taxes. When the IRS occasionally does call taxpayers, it will not demand immediate tax payment using an iTunes card, gift card, prepaid debit card, money order, or wire transfer.

If you receive any tax related call out of the blue, security experts recommend asking questions of the caller, but being careful not providing any personal information. If in doubt, hang up immediately. Then report the call to, you got it, TIGTA.

Social media's open scams book: The popularity of social media outlets has made them prime avenues to obtain information that can be used in identity theft. The easiest option for unscrupulous individuals is to lurk on accounts and discover personal information their victims reveal that can be used against them.

Sometimes, though, the cons get proactive, sending emails impersonating victims' family, friends, or co-workers to wheedle out a bit more data. So beware of that text message from Cousin Jane, whom you haven't talked to in ages, suddenly wanting to update her calendar with your birthday, including the year.

More often, though, phishing attempts try to convince targets that the message is from an official source, even the IRS. After years of practice, the schemes can be tricky and cleverly disguised to look legitimate.

The personal information you post also can be used by scammers who share, for example, a link to say your favorite charity you lauded on Facebook. But it's not the charity. It's a fake website or malware that gathers more data to steal your identity, tax and otherwise.

To prevent personal information you share on social media platforms from being collected and used against you, review your accounts' privacy settings and limit data that is publicly shared.

You also might want to also simply rethink how much you share online.

Ransomware on the rise: Already this year, multiple ransomware attacks have disrupted companies and consumer supply chains. With ransomware, the legitimate owners of data or programs are blocked by hackers who won't release access to it until they are paid.

These data hostage situations tend to be a problem for larger companies and industries, but the tactic is spreading. The U.S. Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) has noted that ransomware attacks continue to rise across various sectors, particularly across governmental entities as well as financial, educational and healthcare institutions.

Any company, including relatively small tax and accounting firms should take cyber security precautions. As evidenced by scammers' attempts to get into tax professionals' databases via phishing schemes, ransomware is another route to sensitive tax data.

Official earnings statements (like W-2, 1099 and other tax-related forms) and year-end statements (from our checking, savings, retirement and investments accounts) all contain our names, addresses, account numbers and, of course, our Social Security numbers.

Uncle Sam already requires, under the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 and administered by the Federal Trade Commission, that tax professionals have a written security plan in place to safeguard all their clients' tax data. Ways to prevent and/or deal with ransomware attacks should be part of that plan.

Two down, three to come: As noted at the beginning of this post, this is part 2 of this year's special rollout of its annual Dirty Dozen Tax Scams. Instead of delivering them all at once in list form, the IRS is doing so based on four categories of scams.

The scam quartet is listed below, with the published categories linked to the posts here on the ol' blog discussing them:

Pandemic related scams, with a focus on attempts steal COVID-19 Economic Impact Payments (EIPs) and other tax-related coronavirus relief distributed by the IRS, on Monday, June 28;

Personal information cons, such as phishing, its cousin voice phishing or vishing, and ransomware, on Tuesday, June 29;

Ruses that focus on unsuspecting victims, including fake charities and fraudulent schemes targeting senior citizens or immigrants, on Wednesday, June 30; and

Questionable schemes that promote abusive structures, such as syndicated conservation easements, on Thursday, July 1.

After the IRS completes its list, I'll wrap up things here with a consolidated look on Friday, July 2, of the 2021 Dirty Dozen Tax Scams and a review of ways to avoid falling for any and all of them.

You also might find these items of interest:

6 tax security tips for pros and taxpayers alike

Ways to stymie tax identity theft attempts and scams

Be ready for the worst: Create a tax data theft recovery plan

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[sarcasminho]

5 AI Copywriting Tools to Make Writing Content Easier

Copywriting is hard. Whether you’re writing product descriptions or PPC ads , there’s a huge volume of work involved, and the repetitive nature of the tasks can drain your creativity.

Could you give a machine a few instructions and let it generate engaging copy while you focused on more pressing tasks?

Well, now it’s possible, thanks to AI copywriting tools powered by machine learning. Let me introduce you to how it works and how it could transform your marketing strategy .

What Is AI Copywriting and How Does It Work?

AI copywriting is essentially computer-generated writing created using natural language processing tools.

First, you decide what you want to write about and the type of content you need. This could be anything from a blog post to a short ad. Then, you set certain parameters for the AI tool to follow. For example, maybe you decide you want a social media post advertising a new yoga class.

Once the machine receives the instructions, it generates content based on these parameters by analyzing similar preexisting content from around the web and processing it into something new and plagiarism-free.

How are companies using AI copywriting? I’ll give you an example.

JPMorgan Chase used an AI copywriting tool to improve its CTAs and online ad copy for home equity lines of credit. They asked human copywriters to perform a similar task, and then they compared the results.

The findings? While the “human” copy generated 25 home equity applications, the AI copy generated 47. With the help of AI, JPMorgan Chase generated more potential customers than before. Impressive, right?

Why Should You Use an AI Copywriting Tool?

There are a few reasons why marketers and copywriters might check out AI copywriting tools.

First, AI copywriting saves you time. These tools can analyze data much quicker than humans can, so they can instantly generate full articles. They work 24/7, too, so you can literally craft content in your sleep!

Also, just think about how convenient AI copywriting is. If you need bulk content, such as product descriptions , AI copywriting handles these jobs for you, so you’re free to focus on more demanding marketing tasks like lead generation and KPI tracking.

Finally, AI copywriting tools can save you from the dreaded “writer’s block” that every writer experiences at some point. Whether you need help brainstorming ideas or generating some content, an AI tool can help you get going again.

If you’re a busy content creator with multiple deadlines or dreams of scaling your content production, it’s worth exploring how AI copywriting may help you.

AI Copywriting Limitations

Like any digital marketing tool, AI copywriting has its limitations.

First, although AI tech is impressive, AI copywriting tools don’t write anything truly original. Remember, we’re talking about a machine. They’re “fed” articles and content written by human copywriters and essentially mix them up to create something new.

AI tools produce great copy, but just because it’s “new” copy doesn’t mean it’s original.

What’s more, AI tools can’t replicate human emotion. Why is this a drawback? Well, emotion matters in marketing. In fact, when it comes to consumer buying behavior, feelings are more influential than any other variable, so you should try to invoke emotion through your content.

In short, while it’s great for bulk projects, you might not find AI copywriting helpful for crafting those more emotive posts that need a personal touch and true creative thought.

Finally, the AI tools we have right now aren’t great at picking up “awkward” phrasing. Although the writing (usually) makes grammatical sense, you’ll still need to proofread the copy to identify any incorrect phrases and awkward wording.

The takeaway? AI copywriting tools can support your marketing efforts, sure, but they’re not a complete substitute for human content creation. Just think of them as another highly useful tool in your toolbox.

5 AI Copywriting Tools for Content Creation

Ready to try out some AI copywriting tools? There are plenty out there, but here are the five I suggest you try first.

1. CopyAI

Got writer’s block? CopyAI is here to help. From brainstorming topics to crafting social media posts, CopyAI can help you go from stuck to inspired within minutes.

How does it work? It’s a simple enough concept. CopyAI uses a highly advanced machine language model, GPT-3, to produce authentic, human-like copy almost instantly. You just select a copy type, provide some words, phrases, and descriptions to base content around, and watch CopyAI do the rest.

Key Features

One thing that’s great about CopyAI is how simple it is to get going. You only need to provide a few words to generate copy including Instagram captions, product descriptions, and even product value propositions in seconds.

What makes CopyAI stand out, though, is its suite of idea generation tools. Whether you need a viral post idea or you’re just stuck on what to write about next, CopyAI gets you moving again.

Pricing

You can choose from two packages . The “Solo” package costs $420 a year (billed monthly at $35) or $49 for rolling monthly subscriptions, and it gives you access to all CopyAI tools, unlimited runs, and around-the-clock support.

The “Multiple Seats” package is better for larger businesses because it includes collaboration tools to support multiple teams. Prices are on request.

Not sure if CopyAI is right for you? You can try it free for seven days.

2. Wordtune

Do you have trouble saying exactly what you mean? Wordtune can help you get the words right. This AI copywriting companion works alongside you in real-time, helping you rephrase and reword your content without sacrificing flow, tone, or meaning.

Since it’s not a fully-fledged article generator like CopyAI, it’s best for marketers who want to write copy and need help shaping it. It could save you time spent agonizing over word choice and sentence structure while giving you the creative freedom to write your content.

Key Features

Designed with the discerning content writer in mind, Wordtune can assist with everything from sentence length to full-length article rewrites. This could be great for marketers looking to repurpose content across different platforms who want help condensing and rewording their copy.

Once you add the Chrome extension, you can instantly use it across popular websites such as Twitter, Grammarly, and LinkedIn, making it one of the most efficient AI copywriting and grammar-assistance tools out there.

Pricing

If you just want help rewording a sentence or two, there’s a free plan.

However, if you want access to features like sentence length controllers, tone controllers, and word searches, sign up for Premium. You can either pay $24.99 a month or save money and pay $119 for the year. You’ll get access to all features other than team billing.

Do you have a larger business or multiple teams working together? Check out the Premium for Teams tier. The prices vary depending on the scope of the services you require.

3. Copysmith

Need help scaling your marketing and driving growth through copy? Check out Copysmith .

Whether you’re a freelancer or you’re managing an in-house marketing team, Copysmith gives you the tools you need to actually accelerate your growth through tailored marketing, not just create great copy.

Key Features

Copysmith boasts a really impressive range of tools for busy marketing teams and copywriters.

For example, if you run an online store, Copysmith can generate a whole FAQ section for you plus unlimited product descriptions. Need taglines to boost your brand profile? Copysmith can turn your brand vision into engaging, memorable ad copy, and you can store all your client copy in one place.

Pricing

Unfortunately, there’s no free option, but if you’re happy paying for AI copywriting support, you have three choices .

First, we’ve got the Starter package. For an annual subscription, it’s $192 which works out at $16 per month. However, you can instead opt for a monthly subscription, which is $19 per month. For your money, you’ll get 20 plagiarism checks per month, Google Ad integrations and Chrome extensions so you can access copywriting support within your browser.

Next, there’s the Professional tier, which costs $600 per year (working out at $50 per month) or $59 for a monthly subscription. You’ll get everything in the Starter package, plus extra plagiarism checks and 100 generated blog posts to get your creative juices flowing.

Finally, there’s the Enterprise package, which comes in at $5,088 annually or $499 if you pay monthly instead. It comes with unlimited plagiarism checks and blog ideas, plus a suite of integrations including Shopify, so you’ll never be stuck for a product description again!

4. Wordsmith

Do you rely heavily on data for your day-to-day decision-making? If so, check out Wordsmith . This platform generates natural-sounding content based on analyzing large data sets, so you can use it for everything from journalism to financial reporting.

Key Features

Like Copysmith, Wordsmith is all about scale. All you need to do is create one template, set up a few variables, and Wordsmith will generate multiple alternative scripts. For example, you can write chatbot scripts for responding to various complex customer requests or write a video game script.

Wordsmith is also great for presenting financial data in understandable English to help you with your financial reporting and tracking needs: The AP uses it to publish more than 3,000 financial reports every quarter!

Pricing

The pricing structure isn’t public, so you’ll need to request a free demo and tell Wordsmith a little more about your business and content needs to get a quote.

5. Writesonic

Looking for an AI tool you can scale as your business grows? Writesonic might be for you.

“Trained” on successful copy from popular brands, Writesonic can help you generate everything from landing pages to Facebook ads, and it’s designed to maximize your chances of ranking well on search engines. Simply select a template and supply a few lines of description, and Writesonic will provide multiple copy samples for you to choose from.

Key Features

Writesonic is great for marketers who want to automate their more mundane writing tasks like welcome emails and SEO meta descriptions. The billing structure is really flexible, too, so you can scale your package to suit your evolving business needs.

However, one of the standout features is the landing page generator. By supplying just a few key details, you can instantly generate an optimized, engaging landing page. Check out an example of a landing page for Monday.com.

Pricing

There are three pricing tiers .

Starter: It’s $29 per month (or $25 per month if you pay for an annual subscription) to get 75 credits and access to basic features like SEO tags and the content rephraser.

Professional: You can pay $99 for monthly rolling subscriptions, but it’s cheaper to buy an annual subscription and pay $89 per month. However, you’re capped at 150 credits per month for features such as blog outlines.

Business: Coming in at $449 per month for annual subscriptions or $499 for a single month, you get everything in the Professional package plus 1200 credits for advanced features like full article writing.

Writesonic offers 10 free credits so you can check out the functionality before committing to a paid package. You can also pay-as-you-go rather than buy a monthly subscription if your content needs vary from month to month.

Conclusion

Whether you’re a digital marketer or a busy copywriter, AI copywriting tools can help you scale your content creation and achieve your business goals. They’re easy to learn and fun to use, and best of all, they produce natural, engaging copy to support your content needs.

Since every AI copywriting tool is slightly different, it’s best to check out a free trial or two before you commit to a purchase. This way, you’ll get a sense of how the tools work and which one best supports your business strategy .

Have you tried AI copywriting tools yet?

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Go to Source Author: Neil Patel

This post 5 AI Copywriting Tools to Make Writing Content Easier first appeared on WalrusVideo

[speechlanguage]

5 AI Copywriting Tools to Make Writing Content Easier

Copywriting is hard. Whether you’re writing product descriptions or PPC ads , there’s a huge volume of work involved, and the repetitive nature of the tasks can drain your creativity.

Could you give a machine a few instructions and let it generate engaging copy while you focused on more pressing tasks?

Well, now it’s possible, thanks to AI copywriting tools powered by machine learning. Let me introduce you to how it works and how it could transform your marketing strategy .

What Is AI Copywriting and How Does It Work?

AI copywriting is essentially computer-generated writing created using natural language processing tools.

First, you decide what you want to write about and the type of content you need. This could be anything from a blog post to a short ad. Then, you set certain parameters for the AI tool to follow. For example, maybe you decide you want a social media post advertising a new yoga class.

Once the machine receives the instructions, it generates content based on these parameters by analyzing similar preexisting content from around the web and processing it into something new and plagiarism-free.

How are companies using AI copywriting? I’ll give you an example.

JPMorgan Chase used an AI copywriting tool to improve its CTAs and online ad copy for home equity lines of credit. They asked human copywriters to perform a similar task, and then they compared the results.

The findings? While the “human” copy generated 25 home equity applications, the AI copy generated 47. With the help of AI, JPMorgan Chase generated more potential customers than before. Impressive, right?

Why Should You Use an AI Copywriting Tool?

There are a few reasons why marketers and copywriters might check out AI copywriting tools.

First, AI copywriting saves you time. These tools can analyze data much quicker than humans can, so they can instantly generate full articles. They work 24/7, too, so you can literally craft content in your sleep!

Also, just think about how convenient AI copywriting is. If you need bulk content, such as product descriptions , AI copywriting handles these jobs for you, so you’re free to focus on more demanding marketing tasks like lead generation and KPI tracking.

Finally, AI copywriting tools can save you from the dreaded “writer’s block” that every writer experiences at some point. Whether you need help brainstorming ideas or generating some content, an AI tool can help you get going again.

If you’re a busy content creator with multiple deadlines or dreams of scaling your content production, it’s worth exploring how AI copywriting may help you.

AI Copywriting Limitations

Like any digital marketing tool, AI copywriting has its limitations.

First, although AI tech is impressive, AI copywriting tools don’t write anything truly original. Remember, we’re talking about a machine. They’re “fed” articles and content written by human copywriters and essentially mix them up to create something new.

AI tools produce great copy, but just because it’s “new” copy doesn’t mean it’s original.

What’s more, AI tools can’t replicate human emotion. Why is this a drawback? Well, emotion matters in marketing. In fact, when it comes to consumer buying behavior, feelings are more influential than any other variable, so you should try to invoke emotion through your content.

In short, while it’s great for bulk projects, you might not find AI copywriting helpful for crafting those more emotive posts that need a personal touch and true creative thought.

Finally, the AI tools we have right now aren’t great at picking up “awkward” phrasing. Although the writing (usually) makes grammatical sense, you’ll still need to proofread the copy to identify any incorrect phrases and awkward wording.

The takeaway? AI copywriting tools can support your marketing efforts, sure, but they’re not a complete substitute for human content creation. Just think of them as another highly useful tool in your toolbox.

5 AI Copywriting Tools for Content Creation

Ready to try out some AI copywriting tools? There are plenty out there, but here are the five I suggest you try first.

1. CopyAI

Got writer’s block? CopyAI is here to help. From brainstorming topics to crafting social media posts, CopyAI can help you go from stuck to inspired within minutes.

How does it work? It’s a simple enough concept. CopyAI uses a highly advanced machine language model, GPT-3, to produce authentic, human-like copy almost instantly. You just select a copy type, provide some words, phrases, and descriptions to base content around, and watch CopyAI do the rest.

Key Features

One thing that’s great about CopyAI is how simple it is to get going. You only need to provide a few words to generate copy including Instagram captions, product descriptions, and even product value propositions in seconds.

What makes CopyAI stand out, though, is its suite of idea generation tools. Whether you need a viral post idea or you’re just stuck on what to write about next, CopyAI gets you moving again.

Pricing

You can choose from two packages . The “Solo” package costs $420 a year (billed monthly at $35) or $49 for rolling monthly subscriptions, and it gives you access to all CopyAI tools, unlimited runs, and around-the-clock support.

The “Multiple Seats” package is better for larger businesses because it includes collaboration tools to support multiple teams. Prices are on request.

Not sure if CopyAI is right for you? You can try it free for seven days.

2. Wordtune

Do you have trouble saying exactly what you mean? Wordtune can help you get the words right. This AI copywriting companion works alongside you in real-time, helping you rephrase and reword your content without sacrificing flow, tone, or meaning.

Since it’s not a fully-fledged article generator like CopyAI, it’s best for marketers who want to write copy and need help shaping it. It could save you time spent agonizing over word choice and sentence structure while giving you the creative freedom to write your content.

Key Features

Designed with the discerning content writer in mind, Wordtune can assist with everything from sentence length to full-length article rewrites. This could be great for marketers looking to repurpose content across different platforms who want help condensing and rewording their copy.

Once you add the Chrome extension, you can instantly use it across popular websites such as Twitter, Grammarly, and LinkedIn, making it one of the most efficient AI copywriting and grammar-assistance tools out there.

Pricing

If you just want help rewording a sentence or two, there’s a free plan.

However, if you want access to features like sentence length controllers, tone controllers, and word searches, sign up for Premium. You can either pay $24.99 a month or save money and pay $119 for the year. You’ll get access to all features other than team billing.

Do you have a larger business or multiple teams working together? Check out the Premium for Teams tier. The prices vary depending on the scope of the services you require.

3. Copysmith

Need help scaling your marketing and driving growth through copy? Check out Copysmith .

Whether you’re a freelancer or you’re managing an in-house marketing team, Copysmith gives you the tools you need to actually accelerate your growth through tailored marketing, not just create great copy.

Key Features

Copysmith boasts a really impressive range of tools for busy marketing teams and copywriters.

For example, if you run an online store, Copysmith can generate a whole FAQ section for you plus unlimited product descriptions. Need taglines to boost your brand profile? Copysmith can turn your brand vision into engaging, memorable ad copy, and you can store all your client copy in one place.

Pricing

Unfortunately, there’s no free option, but if you’re happy paying for AI copywriting support, you have three choices .

First, we’ve got the Starter package. For an annual subscription, it’s $192 which works out at $16 per month. However, you can instead opt for a monthly subscription, which is $19 per month. For your money, you’ll get 20 plagiarism checks per month, Google Ad integrations and Chrome extensions so you can access copywriting support within your browser.

Next, there’s the Professional tier, which costs $600 per year (working out at $50 per month) or $59 for a monthly subscription. You’ll get everything in the Starter package, plus extra plagiarism checks and 100 generated blog posts to get your creative juices flowing.

Finally, there’s the Enterprise package, which comes in at $5,088 annually or $499 if you pay monthly instead. It comes with unlimited plagiarism checks and blog ideas, plus a suite of integrations including Shopify, so you’ll never be stuck for a product description again!

4. Wordsmith

Do you rely heavily on data for your day-to-day decision-making? If so, check out Wordsmith . This platform generates natural-sounding content based on analyzing large data sets, so you can use it for everything from journalism to financial reporting.

Key Features

Like Copysmith, Wordsmith is all about scale. All you need to do is create one template, set up a few variables, and Wordsmith will generate multiple alternative scripts. For example, you can write chatbot scripts for responding to various complex customer requests or write a video game script.

Wordsmith is also great for presenting financial data in understandable English to help you with your financial reporting and tracking needs: The AP uses it to publish more than 3,000 financial reports every quarter!

Pricing

The pricing structure isn’t public, so you’ll need to request a free demo and tell Wordsmith a little more about your business and content needs to get a quote.

5. Writesonic

Looking for an AI tool you can scale as your business grows? Writesonic might be for you.

“Trained” on successful copy from popular brands, Writesonic can help you generate everything from landing pages to Facebook ads, and it’s designed to maximize your chances of ranking well on search engines. Simply select a template and supply a few lines of description, and Writesonic will provide multiple copy samples for you to choose from.

Key Features

Writesonic is great for marketers who want to automate their more mundane writing tasks like welcome emails and SEO meta descriptions. The billing structure is really flexible, too, so you can scale your package to suit your evolving business needs.

However, one of the standout features is the landing page generator. By supplying just a few key details, you can instantly generate an optimized, engaging landing page. Check out an example of a landing page for Monday.com.

Pricing

There are three pricing tiers .

Starter: It’s $29 per month (or $25 per month if you pay for an annual subscription) to get 75 credits and access to basic features like SEO tags and the content rephraser.

Professional: You can pay $99 for monthly rolling subscriptions, but it’s cheaper to buy an annual subscription and pay $89 per month. However, you’re capped at 150 credits per month for features such as blog outlines.

Business: Coming in at $449 per month for annual subscriptions or $499 for a single month, you get everything in the Professional package plus 1200 credits for advanced features like full article writing.

Writesonic offers 10 free credits so you can check out the functionality before committing to a paid package. You can also pay-as-you-go rather than buy a monthly subscription if your content needs vary from month to month.

Conclusion

Whether you’re a digital marketer or a busy copywriter, AI copywriting tools can help you scale your content creation and achieve your business goals. They’re easy to learn and fun to use, and best of all, they produce natural, engaging copy to support your content needs.

Since every AI copywriting tool is slightly different, it’s best to check out a free trial or two before you commit to a purchase. This way, you’ll get a sense of how the tools work and which one best supports your business strategy .

Have you tried AI copywriting tools yet?

See How My Agency Can Drive Massive Amounts of Traffic to Your Website

SEO – unlock massive amounts of SEO traffic. See real results.

Content Marketing – our team creates epic content that will get shared, get links, and attract traffic.

Paid Media – effective paid strategies with clear ROI.

Book a Call

Go to Source Author: Neil Patel

This post 5 AI Copywriting Tools to Make Writing Content Easier first appeared on WalrusVideo

[jrhayesart]

5 AI Copywriting Tools to Make Writing Content Easier

Copywriting is hard. Whether you’re writing product descriptions or PPC ads , there’s a huge volume of work involved, and the repetitive nature of the tasks can drain your creativity.

Could you give a machine a few instructions and let it generate engaging copy while you focused on more pressing tasks?

Well, now it’s possible, thanks to AI copywriting tools powered by machine learning. Let me introduce you to how it works and how it could transform your marketing strategy .

What Is AI Copywriting and How Does It Work?

AI copywriting is essentially computer-generated writing created using natural language processing tools.

First, you decide what you want to write about and the type of content you need. This could be anything from a blog post to a short ad. Then, you set certain parameters for the AI tool to follow. For example, maybe you decide you want a social media post advertising a new yoga class.

Once the machine receives the instructions, it generates content based on these parameters by analyzing similar preexisting content from around the web and processing it into something new and plagiarism-free.

How are companies using AI copywriting? I’ll give you an example.

JPMorgan Chase used an AI copywriting tool to improve its CTAs and online ad copy for home equity lines of credit. They asked human copywriters to perform a similar task, and then they compared the results.

The findings? While the “human” copy generated 25 home equity applications, the AI copy generated 47. With the help of AI, JPMorgan Chase generated more potential customers than before. Impressive, right?

Why Should You Use an AI Copywriting Tool?

There are a few reasons why marketers and copywriters might check out AI copywriting tools.

First, AI copywriting saves you time. These tools can analyze data much quicker than humans can, so they can instantly generate full articles. They work 24/7, too, so you can literally craft content in your sleep!

Also, just think about how convenient AI copywriting is. If you need bulk content, such as product descriptions , AI copywriting handles these jobs for you, so you’re free to focus on more demanding marketing tasks like lead generation and KPI tracking.

Finally, AI copywriting tools can save you from the dreaded “writer’s block” that every writer experiences at some point. Whether you need help brainstorming ideas or generating some content, an AI tool can help you get going again.

If you’re a busy content creator with multiple deadlines or dreams of scaling your content production, it’s worth exploring how AI copywriting may help you.

AI Copywriting Limitations

Like any digital marketing tool, AI copywriting has its limitations.

First, although AI tech is impressive, AI copywriting tools don’t write anything truly original. Remember, we’re talking about a machine. They’re “fed” articles and content written by human copywriters and essentially mix them up to create something new.

AI tools produce great copy, but just because it’s “new” copy doesn’t mean it’s original.

What’s more, AI tools can’t replicate human emotion. Why is this a drawback? Well, emotion matters in marketing. In fact, when it comes to consumer buying behavior, feelings are more influential than any other variable, so you should try to invoke emotion through your content.

In short, while it’s great for bulk projects, you might not find AI copywriting helpful for crafting those more emotive posts that need a personal touch and true creative thought.

Finally, the AI tools we have right now aren’t great at picking up “awkward” phrasing. Although the writing (usually) makes grammatical sense, you’ll still need to proofread the copy to identify any incorrect phrases and awkward wording.

The takeaway? AI copywriting tools can support your marketing efforts, sure, but they’re not a complete substitute for human content creation. Just think of them as another highly useful tool in your toolbox.

5 AI Copywriting Tools for Content Creation

Ready to try out some AI copywriting tools? There are plenty out there, but here are the five I suggest you try first.

1. CopyAI

Got writer’s block? CopyAI is here to help. From brainstorming topics to crafting social media posts, CopyAI can help you go from stuck to inspired within minutes.

How does it work? It’s a simple enough concept. CopyAI uses a highly advanced machine language model, GPT-3, to produce authentic, human-like copy almost instantly. You just select a copy type, provide some words, phrases, and descriptions to base content around, and watch CopyAI do the rest.

Key Features

One thing that’s great about CopyAI is how simple it is to get going. You only need to provide a few words to generate copy including Instagram captions, product descriptions, and even product value propositions in seconds.

What makes CopyAI stand out, though, is its suite of idea generation tools. Whether you need a viral post idea or you’re just stuck on what to write about next, CopyAI gets you moving again.

Pricing

You can choose from two packages . The “Solo” package costs $420 a year (billed monthly at $35) or $49 for rolling monthly subscriptions, and it gives you access to all CopyAI tools, unlimited runs, and around-the-clock support.

The “Multiple Seats” package is better for larger businesses because it includes collaboration tools to support multiple teams. Prices are on request.

Not sure if CopyAI is right for you? You can try it free for seven days.

2. Wordtune

Do you have trouble saying exactly what you mean? Wordtune can help you get the words right. This AI copywriting companion works alongside you in real-time, helping you rephrase and reword your content without sacrificing flow, tone, or meaning.

Since it’s not a fully-fledged article generator like CopyAI, it’s best for marketers who want to write copy and need help shaping it. It could save you time spent agonizing over word choice and sentence structure while giving you the creative freedom to write your content.

Key Features

Designed with the discerning content writer in mind, Wordtune can assist with everything from sentence length to full-length article rewrites. This could be great for marketers looking to repurpose content across different platforms who want help condensing and rewording their copy.

Once you add the Chrome extension, you can instantly use it across popular websites such as Twitter, Grammarly, and LinkedIn, making it one of the most efficient AI copywriting and grammar-assistance tools out there.

Pricing

If you just want help rewording a sentence or two, there’s a free plan.

However, if you want access to features like sentence length controllers, tone controllers, and word searches, sign up for Premium. You can either pay $24.99 a month or save money and pay $119 for the year. You’ll get access to all features other than team billing.

Do you have a larger business or multiple teams working together? Check out the Premium for Teams tier. The prices vary depending on the scope of the services you require.

3. Copysmith

Need help scaling your marketing and driving growth through copy? Check out Copysmith .

Whether you’re a freelancer or you’re managing an in-house marketing team, Copysmith gives you the tools you need to actually accelerate your growth through tailored marketing, not just create great copy.

Key Features

Copysmith boasts a really impressive range of tools for busy marketing teams and copywriters.

For example, if you run an online store, Copysmith can generate a whole FAQ section for you plus unlimited product descriptions. Need taglines to boost your brand profile? Copysmith can turn your brand vision into engaging, memorable ad copy, and you can store all your client copy in one place.

Pricing

Unfortunately, there’s no free option, but if you’re happy paying for AI copywriting support, you have three choices .

First, we’ve got the Starter package. For an annual subscription, it’s $192 which works out at $16 per month. However, you can instead opt for a monthly subscription, which is $19 per month. For your money, you’ll get 20 plagiarism checks per month, Google Ad integrations and Chrome extensions so you can access copywriting support within your browser.

Next, there’s the Professional tier, which costs $600 per year (working out at $50 per month) or $59 for a monthly subscription. You’ll get everything in the Starter package, plus extra plagiarism checks and 100 generated blog posts to get your creative juices flowing.

Finally, there’s the Enterprise package, which comes in at $5,088 annually or $499 if you pay monthly instead. It comes with unlimited plagiarism checks and blog ideas, plus a suite of integrations including Shopify, so you’ll never be stuck for a product description again!

4. Wordsmith

Do you rely heavily on data for your day-to-day decision-making? If so, check out Wordsmith . This platform generates natural-sounding content based on analyzing large data sets, so you can use it for everything from journalism to financial reporting.

Key Features

Like Copysmith, Wordsmith is all about scale. All you need to do is create one template, set up a few variables, and Wordsmith will generate multiple alternative scripts. For example, you can write chatbot scripts for responding to various complex customer requests or write a video game script.

Wordsmith is also great for presenting financial data in understandable English to help you with your financial reporting and tracking needs: The AP uses it to publish more than 3,000 financial reports every quarter!

Pricing

The pricing structure isn’t public, so you’ll need to request a free demo and tell Wordsmith a little more about your business and content needs to get a quote.

5. Writesonic

Looking for an AI tool you can scale as your business grows? Writesonic might be for you.

“Trained” on successful copy from popular brands, Writesonic can help you generate everything from landing pages to Facebook ads, and it’s designed to maximize your chances of ranking well on search engines. Simply select a template and supply a few lines of description, and Writesonic will provide multiple copy samples for you to choose from.

Key Features

Writesonic is great for marketers who want to automate their more mundane writing tasks like welcome emails and SEO meta descriptions. The billing structure is really flexible, too, so you can scale your package to suit your evolving business needs.

However, one of the standout features is the landing page generator. By supplying just a few key details, you can instantly generate an optimized, engaging landing page. Check out an example of a landing page for Monday.com.

Pricing

There are three pricing tiers .

Starter: It’s $29 per month (or $25 per month if you pay for an annual subscription) to get 75 credits and access to basic features like SEO tags and the content rephraser.

Professional: You can pay $99 for monthly rolling subscriptions, but it’s cheaper to buy an annual subscription and pay $89 per month. However, you’re capped at 150 credits per month for features such as blog outlines.

Business: Coming in at $449 per month for annual subscriptions or $499 for a single month, you get everything in the Professional package plus 1200 credits for advanced features like full article writing.

Writesonic offers 10 free credits so you can check out the functionality before committing to a paid package. You can also pay-as-you-go rather than buy a monthly subscription if your content needs vary from month to month.

Conclusion

Whether you’re a digital marketer or a busy copywriter, AI copywriting tools can help you scale your content creation and achieve your business goals. They’re easy to learn and fun to use, and best of all, they produce natural, engaging copy to support your content needs.

Since every AI copywriting tool is slightly different, it’s best to check out a free trial or two before you commit to a purchase. This way, you’ll get a sense of how the tools work and which one best supports your business strategy .

Have you tried AI copywriting tools yet?

See How My Agency Can Drive Massive Amounts of Traffic to Your Website

SEO – unlock massive amounts of SEO traffic. See real results.

Content Marketing – our team creates epic content that will get shared, get links, and attract traffic.

Paid Media – effective paid strategies with clear ROI.

Book a Call

Go to Source Author: Neil Patel

This post 5 AI Copywriting Tools to Make Writing Content Easier first appeared on WalrusVideo

[simanarchy]

5 AI Copywriting Tools to Make Writing Content Easier

Copywriting is hard. Whether you’re writing product descriptions or PPC ads , there’s a huge volume of work involved, and the repetitive nature of the tasks can drain your creativity.

Could you give a machine a few instructions and let it generate engaging copy while you focused on more pressing tasks?

Well, now it’s possible, thanks to AI copywriting tools powered by machine learning. Let me introduce you to how it works and how it could transform your marketing strategy .

What Is AI Copywriting and How Does It Work?

AI copywriting is essentially computer-generated writing created using natural language processing tools.

First, you decide what you want to write about and the type of content you need. This could be anything from a blog post to a short ad. Then, you set certain parameters for the AI tool to follow. For example, maybe you decide you want a social media post advertising a new yoga class.

Once the machine receives the instructions, it generates content based on these parameters by analyzing similar preexisting content from around the web and processing it into something new and plagiarism-free.

How are companies using AI copywriting? I’ll give you an example.

JPMorgan Chase used an AI copywriting tool to improve its CTAs and online ad copy for home equity lines of credit. They asked human copywriters to perform a similar task, and then they compared the results.

The findings? While the “human” copy generated 25 home equity applications, the AI copy generated 47. With the help of AI, JPMorgan Chase generated more potential customers than before. Impressive, right?

Why Should You Use an AI Copywriting Tool?

There are a few reasons why marketers and copywriters might check out AI copywriting tools.

First, AI copywriting saves you time. These tools can analyze data much quicker than humans can, so they can instantly generate full articles. They work 24/7, too, so you can literally craft content in your sleep!

Also, just think about how convenient AI copywriting is. If you need bulk content, such as product descriptions , AI copywriting handles these jobs for you, so you’re free to focus on more demanding marketing tasks like lead generation and KPI tracking.

Finally, AI copywriting tools can save you from the dreaded “writer’s block” that every writer experiences at some point. Whether you need help brainstorming ideas or generating some content, an AI tool can help you get going again.

If you’re a busy content creator with multiple deadlines or dreams of scaling your content production, it’s worth exploring how AI copywriting may help you.

AI Copywriting Limitations

Like any digital marketing tool, AI copywriting has its limitations.

First, although AI tech is impressive, AI copywriting tools don’t write anything truly original. Remember, we’re talking about a machine. They’re “fed” articles and content written by human copywriters and essentially mix them up to create something new.

AI tools produce great copy, but just because it’s “new” copy doesn’t mean it’s original.

What’s more, AI tools can’t replicate human emotion. Why is this a drawback? Well, emotion matters in marketing. In fact, when it comes to consumer buying behavior, feelings are more influential than any other variable, so you should try to invoke emotion through your content.

In short, while it’s great for bulk projects, you might not find AI copywriting helpful for crafting those more emotive posts that need a personal touch and true creative thought.

Finally, the AI tools we have right now aren’t great at picking up “awkward” phrasing. Although the writing (usually) makes grammatical sense, you’ll still need to proofread the copy to identify any incorrect phrases and awkward wording.

The takeaway? AI copywriting tools can support your marketing efforts, sure, but they’re not a complete substitute for human content creation. Just think of them as another highly useful tool in your toolbox.

5 AI Copywriting Tools for Content Creation

Ready to try out some AI copywriting tools? There are plenty out there, but here are the five I suggest you try first.

1. CopyAI

Got writer’s block? CopyAI is here to help. From brainstorming topics to crafting social media posts, CopyAI can help you go from stuck to inspired within minutes.

How does it work? It’s a simple enough concept. CopyAI uses a highly advanced machine language model, GPT-3, to produce authentic, human-like copy almost instantly. You just select a copy type, provide some words, phrases, and descriptions to base content around, and watch CopyAI do the rest.

Key Features

One thing that’s great about CopyAI is how simple it is to get going. You only need to provide a few words to generate copy including Instagram captions, product descriptions, and even product value propositions in seconds.

What makes CopyAI stand out, though, is its suite of idea generation tools. Whether you need a viral post idea or you’re just stuck on what to write about next, CopyAI gets you moving again.

Pricing

You can choose from two packages . The “Solo” package costs $420 a year (billed monthly at $35) or $49 for rolling monthly subscriptions, and it gives you access to all CopyAI tools, unlimited runs, and around-the-clock support.

The “Multiple Seats” package is better for larger businesses because it includes collaboration tools to support multiple teams. Prices are on request.

Not sure if CopyAI is right for you? You can try it free for seven days.

2. Wordtune

Do you have trouble saying exactly what you mean? Wordtune can help you get the words right. This AI copywriting companion works alongside you in real-time, helping you rephrase and reword your content without sacrificing flow, tone, or meaning.

Since it’s not a fully-fledged article generator like CopyAI, it’s best for marketers who want to write copy and need help shaping it. It could save you time spent agonizing over word choice and sentence structure while giving you the creative freedom to write your content.

Key Features

Designed with the discerning content writer in mind, Wordtune can assist with everything from sentence length to full-length article rewrites. This could be great for marketers looking to repurpose content across different platforms who want help condensing and rewording their copy.

Once you add the Chrome extension, you can instantly use it across popular websites such as Twitter, Grammarly, and LinkedIn, making it one of the most efficient AI copywriting and grammar-assistance tools out there.

Pricing

If you just want help rewording a sentence or two, there’s a free plan.

However, if you want access to features like sentence length controllers, tone controllers, and word searches, sign up for Premium. You can either pay $24.99 a month or save money and pay $119 for the year. You’ll get access to all features other than team billing.

Do you have a larger business or multiple teams working together? Check out the Premium for Teams tier. The prices vary depending on the scope of the services you require.

3. Copysmith

Need help scaling your marketing and driving growth through copy? Check out Copysmith .

Whether you’re a freelancer or you’re managing an in-house marketing team, Copysmith gives you the tools you need to actually accelerate your growth through tailored marketing, not just create great copy.

Key Features

Copysmith boasts a really impressive range of tools for busy marketing teams and copywriters.

For example, if you run an online store, Copysmith can generate a whole FAQ section for you plus unlimited product descriptions. Need taglines to boost your brand profile? Copysmith can turn your brand vision into engaging, memorable ad copy, and you can store all your client copy in one place.

Pricing

Unfortunately, there’s no free option, but if you’re happy paying for AI copywriting support, you have three choices .

First, we’ve got the Starter package. For an annual subscription, it’s $192 which works out at $16 per month. However, you can instead opt for a monthly subscription, which is $19 per month. For your money, you’ll get 20 plagiarism checks per month, Google Ad integrations and Chrome extensions so you can access copywriting support within your browser.

Next, there’s the Professional tier, which costs $600 per year (working out at $50 per month) or $59 for a monthly subscription. You’ll get everything in the Starter package, plus extra plagiarism checks and 100 generated blog posts to get your creative juices flowing.

Finally, there’s the Enterprise package, which comes in at $5,088 annually or $499 if you pay monthly instead. It comes with unlimited plagiarism checks and blog ideas, plus a suite of integrations including Shopify, so you’ll never be stuck for a product description again!

4. Wordsmith

Do you rely heavily on data for your day-to-day decision-making? If so, check out Wordsmith . This platform generates natural-sounding content based on analyzing large data sets, so you can use it for everything from journalism to financial reporting.

Key Features

Like Copysmith, Wordsmith is all about scale. All you need to do is create one template, set up a few variables, and Wordsmith will generate multiple alternative scripts. For example, you can write chatbot scripts for responding to various complex customer requests or write a video game script.

Wordsmith is also great for presenting financial data in understandable English to help you with your financial reporting and tracking needs: The AP uses it to publish more than 3,000 financial reports every quarter!

Pricing

The pricing structure isn’t public, so you’ll need to request a free demo and tell Wordsmith a little more about your business and content needs to get a quote.

5. Writesonic

Looking for an AI tool you can scale as your business grows? Writesonic might be for you.

“Trained” on successful copy from popular brands, Writesonic can help you generate everything from landing pages to Facebook ads, and it’s designed to maximize your chances of ranking well on search engines. Simply select a template and supply a few lines of description, and Writesonic will provide multiple copy samples for you to choose from.

Key Features

Writesonic is great for marketers who want to automate their more mundane writing tasks like welcome emails and SEO meta descriptions. The billing structure is really flexible, too, so you can scale your package to suit your evolving business needs.

However, one of the standout features is the landing page generator. By supplying just a few key details, you can instantly generate an optimized, engaging landing page. Check out an example of a landing page for Monday.com.

Pricing

There are three pricing tiers .

Starter: It’s $29 per month (or $25 per month if you pay for an annual subscription) to get 75 credits and access to basic features like SEO tags and the content rephraser.

Professional: You can pay $99 for monthly rolling subscriptions, but it’s cheaper to buy an annual subscription and pay $89 per month. However, you’re capped at 150 credits per month for features such as blog outlines.

Business: Coming in at $449 per month for annual subscriptions or $499 for a single month, you get everything in the Professional package plus 1200 credits for advanced features like full article writing.

Writesonic offers 10 free credits so you can check out the functionality before committing to a paid package. You can also pay-as-you-go rather than buy a monthly subscription if your content needs vary from month to month.

Conclusion

Whether you’re a digital marketer or a busy copywriter, AI copywriting tools can help you scale your content creation and achieve your business goals. They’re easy to learn and fun to use, and best of all, they produce natural, engaging copy to support your content needs.

Since every AI copywriting tool is slightly different, it’s best to check out a free trial or two before you commit to a purchase. This way, you’ll get a sense of how the tools work and which one best supports your business strategy .

Have you tried AI copywriting tools yet?

See How My Agency Can Drive Massive Amounts of Traffic to Your Website

SEO – unlock massive amounts of SEO traffic. See real results.

Content Marketing – our team creates epic content that will get shared, get links, and attract traffic.

Paid Media – effective paid strategies with clear ROI.

Book a Call

Go to Source Author: Neil Patel

This post 5 AI Copywriting Tools to Make Writing Content Easier first appeared on WalrusVideo

[thehealthguidethings]

5 AI Copywriting Tools to Make Writing Content Easier

Copywriting is hard. Whether you’re writing product descriptions or PPC ads , there’s a huge volume of work involved, and the repetitive nature of the tasks can drain your creativity.

Could you give a machine a few instructions and let it generate engaging copy while you focused on more pressing tasks?

Well, now it’s possible, thanks to AI copywriting tools powered by machine learning. Let me introduce you to how it works and how it could transform your marketing strategy .

What Is AI Copywriting and How Does It Work?

AI copywriting is essentially computer-generated writing created using natural language processing tools.

First, you decide what you want to write about and the type of content you need. This could be anything from a blog post to a short ad. Then, you set certain parameters for the AI tool to follow. For example, maybe you decide you want a social media post advertising a new yoga class.

Once the machine receives the instructions, it generates content based on these parameters by analyzing similar preexisting content from around the web and processing it into something new and plagiarism-free.

How are companies using AI copywriting? I’ll give you an example.

JPMorgan Chase used an AI copywriting tool to improve its CTAs and online ad copy for home equity lines of credit. They asked human copywriters to perform a similar task, and then they compared the results.

The findings? While the “human” copy generated 25 home equity applications, the AI copy generated 47. With the help of AI, JPMorgan Chase generated more potential customers than before. Impressive, right?

Why Should You Use an AI Copywriting Tool?

There are a few reasons why marketers and copywriters might check out AI copywriting tools.

First, AI copywriting saves you time. These tools can analyze data much quicker than humans can, so they can instantly generate full articles. They work 24/7, too, so you can literally craft content in your sleep!

Also, just think about how convenient AI copywriting is. If you need bulk content, such as product descriptions , AI copywriting handles these jobs for you, so you’re free to focus on more demanding marketing tasks like lead generation and KPI tracking.

Finally, AI copywriting tools can save you from the dreaded “writer’s block” that every writer experiences at some point. Whether you need help brainstorming ideas or generating some content, an AI tool can help you get going again.

If you’re a busy content creator with multiple deadlines or dreams of scaling your content production, it’s worth exploring how AI copywriting may help you.

AI Copywriting Limitations

Like any digital marketing tool, AI copywriting has its limitations.

First, although AI tech is impressive, AI copywriting tools don’t write anything truly original. Remember, we’re talking about a machine. They’re “fed” articles and content written by human copywriters and essentially mix them up to create something new.

AI tools produce great copy, but just because it’s “new” copy doesn’t mean it’s original.

What’s more, AI tools can’t replicate human emotion. Why is this a drawback? Well, emotion matters in marketing. In fact, when it comes to consumer buying behavior, feelings are more influential than any other variable, so you should try to invoke emotion through your content.

In short, while it’s great for bulk projects, you might not find AI copywriting helpful for crafting those more emotive posts that need a personal touch and true creative thought.

Finally, the AI tools we have right now aren’t great at picking up “awkward” phrasing. Although the writing (usually) makes grammatical sense, you’ll still need to proofread the copy to identify any incorrect phrases and awkward wording.

The takeaway? AI copywriting tools can support your marketing efforts, sure, but they’re not a complete substitute for human content creation. Just think of them as another highly useful tool in your toolbox.

5 AI Copywriting Tools for Content Creation

Ready to try out some AI copywriting tools? There are plenty out there, but here are the five I suggest you try first.

1. CopyAI

Got writer’s block? CopyAI is here to help. From brainstorming topics to crafting social media posts, CopyAI can help you go from stuck to inspired within minutes.

How does it work? It’s a simple enough concept. CopyAI uses a highly advanced machine language model, GPT-3, to produce authentic, human-like copy almost instantly. You just select a copy type, provide some words, phrases, and descriptions to base content around, and watch CopyAI do the rest.

Key Features

One thing that’s great about CopyAI is how simple it is to get going. You only need to provide a few words to generate copy including Instagram captions, product descriptions, and even product value propositions in seconds.

What makes CopyAI stand out, though, is its suite of idea generation tools. Whether you need a viral post idea or you’re just stuck on what to write about next, CopyAI gets you moving again.

Pricing

You can choose from two packages . The “Solo” package costs $420 a year (billed monthly at $35) or $49 for rolling monthly subscriptions, and it gives you access to all CopyAI tools, unlimited runs, and around-the-clock support.

The “Multiple Seats” package is better for larger businesses because it includes collaboration tools to support multiple teams. Prices are on request.

Not sure if CopyAI is right for you? You can try it free for seven days.

2. Wordtune

Do you have trouble saying exactly what you mean? Wordtune can help you get the words right. This AI copywriting companion works alongside you in real-time, helping you rephrase and reword your content without sacrificing flow, tone, or meaning.

Since it’s not a fully-fledged article generator like CopyAI, it’s best for marketers who want to write copy and need help shaping it. It could save you time spent agonizing over word choice and sentence structure while giving you the creative freedom to write your content.

Key Features

Designed with the discerning content writer in mind, Wordtune can assist with everything from sentence length to full-length article rewrites. This could be great for marketers looking to repurpose content across different platforms who want help condensing and rewording their copy.

Once you add the Chrome extension, you can instantly use it across popular websites such as Twitter, Grammarly, and LinkedIn, making it one of the most efficient AI copywriting and grammar-assistance tools out there.

Pricing

If you just want help rewording a sentence or two, there’s a free plan.

However, if you want access to features like sentence length controllers, tone controllers, and word searches, sign up for Premium. You can either pay $24.99 a month or save money and pay $119 for the year. You’ll get access to all features other than team billing.

Do you have a larger business or multiple teams working together? Check out the Premium for Teams tier. The prices vary depending on the scope of the services you require.

3. Copysmith

Need help scaling your marketing and driving growth through copy? Check out Copysmith .

Whether you’re a freelancer or you’re managing an in-house marketing team, Copysmith gives you the tools you need to actually accelerate your growth through tailored marketing, not just create great copy.

Key Features

Copysmith boasts a really impressive range of tools for busy marketing teams and copywriters.

For example, if you run an online store, Copysmith can generate a whole FAQ section for you plus unlimited product descriptions. Need taglines to boost your brand profile? Copysmith can turn your brand vision into engaging, memorable ad copy, and you can store all your client copy in one place.

Pricing

Unfortunately, there’s no free option, but if you’re happy paying for AI copywriting support, you have three choices .

First, we’ve got the Starter package. For an annual subscription, it’s $192 which works out at $16 per month. However, you can instead opt for a monthly subscription, which is $19 per month. For your money, you’ll get 20 plagiarism checks per month, Google Ad integrations and Chrome extensions so you can access copywriting support within your browser.

Next, there’s the Professional tier, which costs $600 per year (working out at $50 per month) or $59 for a monthly subscription. You’ll get everything in the Starter package, plus extra plagiarism checks and 100 generated blog posts to get your creative juices flowing.

Finally, there’s the Enterprise package, which comes in at $5,088 annually or $499 if you pay monthly instead. It comes with unlimited plagiarism checks and blog ideas, plus a suite of integrations including Shopify, so you’ll never be stuck for a product description again!

4. Wordsmith

Do you rely heavily on data for your day-to-day decision-making? If so, check out Wordsmith . This platform generates natural-sounding content based on analyzing large data sets, so you can use it for everything from journalism to financial reporting.

Key Features

Like Copysmith, Wordsmith is all about scale. All you need to do is create one template, set up a few variables, and Wordsmith will generate multiple alternative scripts. For example, you can write chatbot scripts for responding to various complex customer requests or write a video game script.

Wordsmith is also great for presenting financial data in understandable English to help you with your financial reporting and tracking needs: The AP uses it to publish more than 3,000 financial reports every quarter!

Pricing

The pricing structure isn’t public, so you’ll need to request a free demo and tell Wordsmith a little more about your business and content needs to get a quote.

5. Writesonic

Looking for an AI tool you can scale as your business grows? Writesonic might be for you.

“Trained” on successful copy from popular brands, Writesonic can help you generate everything from landing pages to Facebook ads, and it’s designed to maximize your chances of ranking well on search engines. Simply select a template and supply a few lines of description, and Writesonic will provide multiple copy samples for you to choose from.

Key Features

Writesonic is great for marketers who want to automate their more mundane writing tasks like welcome emails and SEO meta descriptions. The billing structure is really flexible, too, so you can scale your package to suit your evolving business needs.

However, one of the standout features is the landing page generator. By supplying just a few key details, you can instantly generate an optimized, engaging landing page. Check out an example of a landing page for Monday.com.

Pricing

There are three pricing tiers .

Starter: It’s $29 per month (or $25 per month if you pay for an annual subscription) to get 75 credits and access to basic features like SEO tags and the content rephraser.

Professional: You can pay $99 for monthly rolling subscriptions, but it’s cheaper to buy an annual subscription and pay $89 per month. However, you’re capped at 150 credits per month for features such as blog outlines.

Business: Coming in at $449 per month for annual subscriptions or $499 for a single month, you get everything in the Professional package plus 1200 credits for advanced features like full article writing.

Writesonic offers 10 free credits so you can check out the functionality before committing to a paid package. You can also pay-as-you-go rather than buy a monthly subscription if your content needs vary from month to month.

Conclusion

Whether you’re a digital marketer or a busy copywriter, AI copywriting tools can help you scale your content creation and achieve your business goals. They’re easy to learn and fun to use, and best of all, they produce natural, engaging copy to support your content needs.

Since every AI copywriting tool is slightly different, it’s best to check out a free trial or two before you commit to a purchase. This way, you’ll get a sense of how the tools work and which one best supports your business strategy .

Have you tried AI copywriting tools yet?

See How My Agency Can Drive Massive Amounts of Traffic to Your Website

SEO – unlock massive amounts of SEO traffic. See real results.

Content Marketing – our team creates epic content that will get shared, get links, and attract traffic.

Paid Media – effective paid strategies with clear ROI.

Book a Call

Go to Source Author: Neil Patel

This post 5 AI Copywriting Tools to Make Writing Content Easier first appeared on WalrusVideo

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5 AI Copywriting Tools to Make Writing Content Easier

Copywriting is hard. Whether you’re writing product descriptions or PPC ads , there’s a huge volume of work involved, and the repetitive nature of the tasks can drain your creativity.

Could you give a machine a few instructions and let it generate engaging copy while you focused on more pressing tasks?

Well, now it’s possible, thanks to AI copywriting tools powered by machine learning. Let me introduce you to how it works and how it could transform your marketing strategy .

What Is AI Copywriting and How Does It Work?

AI copywriting is essentially computer-generated writing created using natural language processing tools.

First, you decide what you want to write about and the type of content you need. This could be anything from a blog post to a short ad. Then, you set certain parameters for the AI tool to follow. For example, maybe you decide you want a social media post advertising a new yoga class.

Once the machine receives the instructions, it generates content based on these parameters by analyzing similar preexisting content from around the web and processing it into something new and plagiarism-free.

How are companies using AI copywriting? I’ll give you an example.

JPMorgan Chase used an AI copywriting tool to improve its CTAs and online ad copy for home equity lines of credit. They asked human copywriters to perform a similar task, and then they compared the results.

The findings? While the “human” copy generated 25 home equity applications, the AI copy generated 47. With the help of AI, JPMorgan Chase generated more potential customers than before. Impressive, right?

Why Should You Use an AI Copywriting Tool?

There are a few reasons why marketers and copywriters might check out AI copywriting tools.

First, AI copywriting saves you time. These tools can analyze data much quicker than humans can, so they can instantly generate full articles. They work 24/7, too, so you can literally craft content in your sleep!

Also, just think about how convenient AI copywriting is. If you need bulk content, such as product descriptions , AI copywriting handles these jobs for you, so you’re free to focus on more demanding marketing tasks like lead generation and KPI tracking.

Finally, AI copywriting tools can save you from the dreaded “writer’s block” that every writer experiences at some point. Whether you need help brainstorming ideas or generating some content, an AI tool can help you get going again.

If you’re a busy content creator with multiple deadlines or dreams of scaling your content production, it’s worth exploring how AI copywriting may help you.

AI Copywriting Limitations

Like any digital marketing tool, AI copywriting has its limitations.

First, although AI tech is impressive, AI copywriting tools don’t write anything truly original. Remember, we’re talking about a machine. They’re “fed” articles and content written by human copywriters and essentially mix them up to create something new.

AI tools produce great copy, but just because it’s “new” copy doesn’t mean it’s original.

What’s more, AI tools can’t replicate human emotion. Why is this a drawback? Well, emotion matters in marketing. In fact, when it comes to consumer buying behavior, feelings are more influential than any other variable, so you should try to invoke emotion through your content.

In short, while it’s great for bulk projects, you might not find AI copywriting helpful for crafting those more emotive posts that need a personal touch and true creative thought.

Finally, the AI tools we have right now aren’t great at picking up “awkward” phrasing. Although the writing (usually) makes grammatical sense, you’ll still need to proofread the copy to identify any incorrect phrases and awkward wording.

The takeaway? AI copywriting tools can support your marketing efforts, sure, but they’re not a complete substitute for human content creation. Just think of them as another highly useful tool in your toolbox.

5 AI Copywriting Tools for Content Creation

Ready to try out some AI copywriting tools? There are plenty out there, but here are the five I suggest you try first.

1. CopyAI

Got writer’s block? CopyAI is here to help. From brainstorming topics to crafting social media posts, CopyAI can help you go from stuck to inspired within minutes.

How does it work? It’s a simple enough concept. CopyAI uses a highly advanced machine language model, GPT-3, to produce authentic, human-like copy almost instantly. You just select a copy type, provide some words, phrases, and descriptions to base content around, and watch CopyAI do the rest.

Key Features

One thing that’s great about CopyAI is how simple it is to get going. You only need to provide a few words to generate copy including Instagram captions, product descriptions, and even product value propositions in seconds.

What makes CopyAI stand out, though, is its suite of idea generation tools. Whether you need a viral post idea or you’re just stuck on what to write about next, CopyAI gets you moving again.

Pricing

You can choose from two packages . The “Solo” package costs $420 a year (billed monthly at $35) or $49 for rolling monthly subscriptions, and it gives you access to all CopyAI tools, unlimited runs, and around-the-clock support.

The “Multiple Seats” package is better for larger businesses because it includes collaboration tools to support multiple teams. Prices are on request.

Not sure if CopyAI is right for you? You can try it free for seven days.

2. Wordtune

Do you have trouble saying exactly what you mean? Wordtune can help you get the words right. This AI copywriting companion works alongside you in real-time, helping you rephrase and reword your content without sacrificing flow, tone, or meaning.

Since it’s not a fully-fledged article generator like CopyAI, it’s best for marketers who want to write copy and need help shaping it. It could save you time spent agonizing over word choice and sentence structure while giving you the creative freedom to write your content.

Key Features

Designed with the discerning content writer in mind, Wordtune can assist with everything from sentence length to full-length article rewrites. This could be great for marketers looking to repurpose content across different platforms who want help condensing and rewording their copy.

Once you add the Chrome extension, you can instantly use it across popular websites such as Twitter, Grammarly, and LinkedIn, making it one of the most efficient AI copywriting and grammar-assistance tools out there.

Pricing

If you just want help rewording a sentence or two, there’s a free plan.

However, if you want access to features like sentence length controllers, tone controllers, and word searches, sign up for Premium. You can either pay $24.99 a month or save money and pay $119 for the year. You’ll get access to all features other than team billing.

Do you have a larger business or multiple teams working together? Check out the Premium for Teams tier. The prices vary depending on the scope of the services you require.

3. Copysmith

Need help scaling your marketing and driving growth through copy? Check out Copysmith .

Whether you’re a freelancer or you’re managing an in-house marketing team, Copysmith gives you the tools you need to actually accelerate your growth through tailored marketing, not just create great copy.

Key Features

Copysmith boasts a really impressive range of tools for busy marketing teams and copywriters.

For example, if you run an online store, Copysmith can generate a whole FAQ section for you plus unlimited product descriptions. Need taglines to boost your brand profile? Copysmith can turn your brand vision into engaging, memorable ad copy, and you can store all your client copy in one place.

Pricing

Unfortunately, there’s no free option, but if you’re happy paying for AI copywriting support, you have three choices .

First, we’ve got the Starter package. For an annual subscription, it’s $192 which works out at $16 per month. However, you can instead opt for a monthly subscription, which is $19 per month. For your money, you’ll get 20 plagiarism checks per month, Google Ad integrations and Chrome extensions so you can access copywriting support within your browser.

Next, there’s the Professional tier, which costs $600 per year (working out at $50 per month) or $59 for a monthly subscription. You’ll get everything in the Starter package, plus extra plagiarism checks and 100 generated blog posts to get your creative juices flowing.

Finally, there’s the Enterprise package, which comes in at $5,088 annually or $499 if you pay monthly instead. It comes with unlimited plagiarism checks and blog ideas, plus a suite of integrations including Shopify, so you’ll never be stuck for a product description again!

4. Wordsmith

Do you rely heavily on data for your day-to-day decision-making? If so, check out Wordsmith . This platform generates natural-sounding content based on analyzing large data sets, so you can use it for everything from journalism to financial reporting.

Key Features

Like Copysmith, Wordsmith is all about scale. All you need to do is create one template, set up a few variables, and Wordsmith will generate multiple alternative scripts. For example, you can write chatbot scripts for responding to various complex customer requests or write a video game script.

Wordsmith is also great for presenting financial data in understandable English to help you with your financial reporting and tracking needs: The AP uses it to publish more than 3,000 financial reports every quarter!

Pricing

The pricing structure isn’t public, so you’ll need to request a free demo and tell Wordsmith a little more about your business and content needs to get a quote.

5. Writesonic

Looking for an AI tool you can scale as your business grows? Writesonic might be for you.

“Trained” on successful copy from popular brands, Writesonic can help you generate everything from landing pages to Facebook ads, and it’s designed to maximize your chances of ranking well on search engines. Simply select a template and supply a few lines of description, and Writesonic will provide multiple copy samples for you to choose from.

Key Features

Writesonic is great for marketers who want to automate their more mundane writing tasks like welcome emails and SEO meta descriptions. The billing structure is really flexible, too, so you can scale your package to suit your evolving business needs.

However, one of the standout features is the landing page generator. By supplying just a few key details, you can instantly generate an optimized, engaging landing page. Check out an example of a landing page for Monday.com.

Pricing

There are three pricing tiers .

Starter: It’s $29 per month (or $25 per month if you pay for an annual subscription) to get 75 credits and access to basic features like SEO tags and the content rephraser.

Professional: You can pay $99 for monthly rolling subscriptions, but it’s cheaper to buy an annual subscription and pay $89 per month. However, you’re capped at 150 credits per month for features such as blog outlines.

Business: Coming in at $449 per month for annual subscriptions or $499 for a single month, you get everything in the Professional package plus 1200 credits for advanced features like full article writing.

Writesonic offers 10 free credits so you can check out the functionality before committing to a paid package. You can also pay-as-you-go rather than buy a monthly subscription if your content needs vary from month to month.

Conclusion

Whether you’re a digital marketer or a busy copywriter, AI copywriting tools can help you scale your content creation and achieve your business goals. They’re easy to learn and fun to use, and best of all, they produce natural, engaging copy to support your content needs.

Since every AI copywriting tool is slightly different, it’s best to check out a free trial or two before you commit to a purchase. This way, you’ll get a sense of how the tools work and which one best supports your business strategy .

Have you tried AI copywriting tools yet?

See How My Agency Can Drive Massive Amounts of Traffic to Your Website

SEO – unlock massive amounts of SEO traffic. See real results.

Content Marketing – our team creates epic content that will get shared, get links, and attract traffic.

Paid Media – effective paid strategies with clear ROI.

Book a Call

Go to Source Author: Neil Patel

This post 5 AI Copywriting Tools to Make Writing Content Easier first appeared on WalrusVideo

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5 AI Copywriting Tools to Make Writing Content Easier

Copywriting is hard. Whether you’re writing product descriptions or PPC ads , there’s a huge volume of work involved, and the repetitive nature of the tasks can drain your creativity.

Could you give a machine a few instructions and let it generate engaging copy while you focused on more pressing tasks?

Well, now it’s possible, thanks to AI copywriting tools powered by machine learning. Let me introduce you to how it works and how it could transform your marketing strategy .

What Is AI Copywriting and How Does It Work?

AI copywriting is essentially computer-generated writing created using natural language processing tools.

First, you decide what you want to write about and the type of content you need. This could be anything from a blog post to a short ad. Then, you set certain parameters for the AI tool to follow. For example, maybe you decide you want a social media post advertising a new yoga class.

Once the machine receives the instructions, it generates content based on these parameters by analyzing similar preexisting content from around the web and processing it into something new and plagiarism-free.

How are companies using AI copywriting? I’ll give you an example.

JPMorgan Chase used an AI copywriting tool to improve its CTAs and online ad copy for home equity lines of credit. They asked human copywriters to perform a similar task, and then they compared the results.

The findings? While the “human” copy generated 25 home equity applications, the AI copy generated 47. With the help of AI, JPMorgan Chase generated more potential customers than before. Impressive, right?

Why Should You Use an AI Copywriting Tool?

There are a few reasons why marketers and copywriters might check out AI copywriting tools.

First, AI copywriting saves you time. These tools can analyze data much quicker than humans can, so they can instantly generate full articles. They work 24/7, too, so you can literally craft content in your sleep!

Also, just think about how convenient AI copywriting is. If you need bulk content, such as product descriptions , AI copywriting handles these jobs for you, so you’re free to focus on more demanding marketing tasks like lead generation and KPI tracking.

Finally, AI copywriting tools can save you from the dreaded “writer’s block” that every writer experiences at some point. Whether you need help brainstorming ideas or generating some content, an AI tool can help you get going again.

If you’re a busy content creator with multiple deadlines or dreams of scaling your content production, it’s worth exploring how AI copywriting may help you.

AI Copywriting Limitations

Like any digital marketing tool, AI copywriting has its limitations.

First, although AI tech is impressive, AI copywriting tools don’t write anything truly original. Remember, we’re talking about a machine. They’re “fed” articles and content written by human copywriters and essentially mix them up to create something new.

AI tools produce great copy, but just because it’s “new” copy doesn’t mean it’s original.

What’s more, AI tools can’t replicate human emotion. Why is this a drawback? Well, emotion matters in marketing. In fact, when it comes to consumer buying behavior, feelings are more influential than any other variable, so you should try to invoke emotion through your content.

In short, while it’s great for bulk projects, you might not find AI copywriting helpful for crafting those more emotive posts that need a personal touch and true creative thought.

Finally, the AI tools we have right now aren’t great at picking up “awkward” phrasing. Although the writing (usually) makes grammatical sense, you’ll still need to proofread the copy to identify any incorrect phrases and awkward wording.

The takeaway? AI copywriting tools can support your marketing efforts, sure, but they’re not a complete substitute for human content creation. Just think of them as another highly useful tool in your toolbox.

5 AI Copywriting Tools for Content Creation

Ready to try out some AI copywriting tools? There are plenty out there, but here are the five I suggest you try first.

1. CopyAI

Got writer’s block? CopyAI is here to help. From brainstorming topics to crafting social media posts, CopyAI can help you go from stuck to inspired within minutes.

How does it work? It’s a simple enough concept. CopyAI uses a highly advanced machine language model, GPT-3, to produce authentic, human-like copy almost instantly. You just select a copy type, provide some words, phrases, and descriptions to base content around, and watch CopyAI do the rest.

Key Features

One thing that’s great about CopyAI is how simple it is to get going. You only need to provide a few words to generate copy including Instagram captions, product descriptions, and even product value propositions in seconds.

What makes CopyAI stand out, though, is its suite of idea generation tools. Whether you need a viral post idea or you’re just stuck on what to write about next, CopyAI gets you moving again.

Pricing

You can choose from two packages . The “Solo” package costs $420 a year (billed monthly at $35) or $49 for rolling monthly subscriptions, and it gives you access to all CopyAI tools, unlimited runs, and around-the-clock support.

The “Multiple Seats” package is better for larger businesses because it includes collaboration tools to support multiple teams. Prices are on request.

Not sure if CopyAI is right for you? You can try it free for seven days.

2. Wordtune

Do you have trouble saying exactly what you mean? Wordtune can help you get the words right. This AI copywriting companion works alongside you in real-time, helping you rephrase and reword your content without sacrificing flow, tone, or meaning.

Since it’s not a fully-fledged article generator like CopyAI, it’s best for marketers who want to write copy and need help shaping it. It could save you time spent agonizing over word choice and sentence structure while giving you the creative freedom to write your content.

Key Features

Designed with the discerning content writer in mind, Wordtune can assist with everything from sentence length to full-length article rewrites. This could be great for marketers looking to repurpose content across different platforms who want help condensing and rewording their copy.

Once you add the Chrome extension, you can instantly use it across popular websites such as Twitter, Grammarly, and LinkedIn, making it one of the most efficient AI copywriting and grammar-assistance tools out there.

Pricing

If you just want help rewording a sentence or two, there’s a free plan.

However, if you want access to features like sentence length controllers, tone controllers, and word searches, sign up for Premium. You can either pay $24.99 a month or save money and pay $119 for the year. You’ll get access to all features other than team billing.

Do you have a larger business or multiple teams working together? Check out the Premium for Teams tier. The prices vary depending on the scope of the services you require.

3. Copysmith

Need help scaling your marketing and driving growth through copy? Check out Copysmith .

Whether you’re a freelancer or you’re managing an in-house marketing team, Copysmith gives you the tools you need to actually accelerate your growth through tailored marketing, not just create great copy.

Key Features

Copysmith boasts a really impressive range of tools for busy marketing teams and copywriters.

For example, if you run an online store, Copysmith can generate a whole FAQ section for you plus unlimited product descriptions. Need taglines to boost your brand profile? Copysmith can turn your brand vision into engaging, memorable ad copy, and you can store all your client copy in one place.

Pricing

Unfortunately, there’s no free option, but if you’re happy paying for AI copywriting support, you have three choices .

First, we’ve got the Starter package. For an annual subscription, it’s $192 which works out at $16 per month. However, you can instead opt for a monthly subscription, which is $19 per month. For your money, you’ll get 20 plagiarism checks per month, Google Ad integrations and Chrome extensions so you can access copywriting support within your browser.

Next, there’s the Professional tier, which costs $600 per year (working out at $50 per month) or $59 for a monthly subscription. You’ll get everything in the Starter package, plus extra plagiarism checks and 100 generated blog posts to get your creative juices flowing.

Finally, there’s the Enterprise package, which comes in at $5,088 annually or $499 if you pay monthly instead. It comes with unlimited plagiarism checks and blog ideas, plus a suite of integrations including Shopify, so you’ll never be stuck for a product description again!

4. Wordsmith

Do you rely heavily on data for your day-to-day decision-making? If so, check out Wordsmith . This platform generates natural-sounding content based on analyzing large data sets, so you can use it for everything from journalism to financial reporting.

Key Features

Like Copysmith, Wordsmith is all about scale. All you need to do is create one template, set up a few variables, and Wordsmith will generate multiple alternative scripts. For example, you can write chatbot scripts for responding to various complex customer requests or write a video game script.

Wordsmith is also great for presenting financial data in understandable English to help you with your financial reporting and tracking needs: The AP uses it to publish more than 3,000 financial reports every quarter!

Pricing

The pricing structure isn’t public, so you’ll need to request a free demo and tell Wordsmith a little more about your business and content needs to get a quote.

5. Writesonic

Looking for an AI tool you can scale as your business grows? Writesonic might be for you.

“Trained” on successful copy from popular brands, Writesonic can help you generate everything from landing pages to Facebook ads, and it’s designed to maximize your chances of ranking well on search engines. Simply select a template and supply a few lines of description, and Writesonic will provide multiple copy samples for you to choose from.

Key Features

Writesonic is great for marketers who want to automate their more mundane writing tasks like welcome emails and SEO meta descriptions. The billing structure is really flexible, too, so you can scale your package to suit your evolving business needs.

However, one of the standout features is the landing page generator. By supplying just a few key details, you can instantly generate an optimized, engaging landing page. Check out an example of a landing page for Monday.com.

Pricing

There are three pricing tiers .

Starter: It’s $29 per month (or $25 per month if you pay for an annual subscription) to get 75 credits and access to basic features like SEO tags and the content rephraser.

Professional: You can pay $99 for monthly rolling subscriptions, but it’s cheaper to buy an annual subscription and pay $89 per month. However, you’re capped at 150 credits per month for features such as blog outlines.

Business: Coming in at $449 per month for annual subscriptions or $499 for a single month, you get everything in the Professional package plus 1200 credits for advanced features like full article writing.

Writesonic offers 10 free credits so you can check out the functionality before committing to a paid package. You can also pay-as-you-go rather than buy a monthly subscription if your content needs vary from month to month.

Conclusion

Whether you’re a digital marketer or a busy copywriter, AI copywriting tools can help you scale your content creation and achieve your business goals. They’re easy to learn and fun to use, and best of all, they produce natural, engaging copy to support your content needs.

Since every AI copywriting tool is slightly different, it’s best to check out a free trial or two before you commit to a purchase. This way, you’ll get a sense of how the tools work and which one best supports your business strategy .

Have you tried AI copywriting tools yet?

See How My Agency Can Drive Massive Amounts of Traffic to Your Website

SEO – unlock massive amounts of SEO traffic. See real results.

Content Marketing – our team creates epic content that will get shared, get links, and attract traffic.

Paid Media – effective paid strategies with clear ROI.

Book a Call

Go to Source Author: Neil Patel

This post 5 AI Copywriting Tools to Make Writing Content Easier first appeared on WalrusVideo