Hey ,

After what seems like a turbulent 2023 and a lack-luster start to 2024, it looks like the tide is finally turning for me. Yippiee!!! 😁

My new LinkedIn training workshop is in the works and details will be released later this week.

We're working on a new product that is going to help bootstrapped startups, newly minted founders and small businesses grow their marketing.

(And, finally - Cody Rhodes got to finish his story - you won't get this reference unless you're a pro-wrestling fan.)

On the flip side, it looks like I was right about something I referenced in my talk at the Tech Jobs Fair - London last month. That AI would slowly take way the need for developers. More about that down below.

No Excuses For NOT Making Content Anymore!

I am constantly bombarded with questions in my emails and DMs on LinkedIn about the tools I use to create content, my thought process etc.

While it used to be a bit difficult in the past, the advent of AI has made it relatively easier to become a content creator. Ok, so I'm not saying you can use AI to generate content in 5 minutes flat. But I am saying it is easier to identify, ideate and create content using AI.

So here are the top tools I think you can use to become a content creator in the next 24 hours!

First you can use Generative AI to help you find a trending or high value niche to create content. Simply tell it to ask you a series of questions to find out about the things you're passionate about and which one of those things is a great idea to create content on, based on industry trends.

For this, you can use the usual suspects - ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.

Next you might want to go with the most basic form of content - a blog post. For this, I'd go with ChatGPT or Perplexity. The trick here is to know how to prompt the LLM of choice to help you come up with a stellar article that is unique AND full of value to prospective readers.

If you'd rather avoid the hassle of learning how to prompt and want something that will do the job for you (kind of), you can use tools like Rytr or Texta.

Ok, so you have a great article. But if you want people to keep reading (and for the search engine gods to rank your article), you need quality images.

You could go the traditional route and buy them from ShutterStock or Getty Images.

Or if you're looking for something unique, you could simply go to Dall-E 3 , Midjourney or Leonardo to generate unique images. If you're new to generative AI imagery, you might want to stay away from Midjourney. The tool is great but you'll need to prompt it using Discord.

If you're thinking of video content for B-roll footage etc., no worries - I've got you covered. Again, you can go the traditional route and get your footage from Storyblocks or Mixkit (they have a free version).

If you want unique video content for your B-roll, you could try using Leonardo which also does 4 second video clips. RunwayML and Pika Labs are good choices for video footage as well.

Next, you need some good music and the best AI music generator has got to be Suno right now. Simply give it a prompt and tell it what kind of music you're looking for (mention genre, mood, type of vocals etc.) and you'll be amazed at the output.

Next, assuming you're shy and don't want to record your own voice, you might want a voiceover. One of the best AI voice software out there has got to be ElevenLabs. Not only do they have a great collection of free and premium voices but you can essentially clone your own voice to use in your videos or audio podcasts.

Now, let's say you want to edit your videos but don't want to go through the steep learning curve of Adobe Premier, Final Cut Pro or DaVinci Resolve, one of the easiest ways to edit video simply by editing the video text - is Descript.

What's great is since Descript can also do your video transcripts, you can use it for captioning your videos too. But if you want a tool that captions your videos without anything else - you could go with Submagic which (unlike Descript which has a desktop software to download), does everything in the cloud.

Now you've got your long form content. But perhaps your target audience is global and speaks different languages. Enter HeyGen, a tool that does AI generated voices at scale. You can use it to clone your voice, translate it and lip-sync it so that it sounds like you're speaking a completely different language.

Finally, if you want to use your long form content into short clips for lets say - Instagram Reels, TikTok or LinkedIn, you can use OpusClip or ContentFries to do this.

OpusClip uses AI to identify chunks of your long form video content (maybe a webinar or podcast interview) that have the potential to go viral. It then cuts up those chunks and you can now use them as YouTube Shorts or Reels.

So there you have it. Some absolutely fantastic tools to help you get started on your content creation journey. You now have no excuses - go create!

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How Devin, the world's first AI Software Engineer will change the world  

In my talk at Tech Jobs Fair UK last month, I spoke about how AI is coming for the specialized jobs like content writers and software developers.

One of the attendees later told me it was a bit farfetched but it looks like I was right. Well me and Jensen Huang, one of the co-founders of Nvidia.

Turns out the folks at Cognition were hard at work and have launched Devin, the world's first autonomous AI software engineer.

Devin has its own browser, access to developer tools and the ability to actively collaborate with users. You can read more about this HERE

All the more reason why developers and engineers need to work on upskilling themselves.

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The best online face swap tool?

FakeFace is an online tool that uses AI to help you make personalized face swap videos, tutorials, photos and GIFs. The process of uploading and creating the face swaps is fairly straightforward and their pricing is reasonable.

They say their tool is regulated and all uploaded images are protected.

I'd advise you to use this (an other similar tools) wisely and with utmost caution but it does make marketing a whole lot of fun! Check it out HERE.

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Watch out for a New Product Launch

If you're still reading this, I want to let you know that I will be launching something new in the coming weeks.

If you're a small business owner, a startup founder or simply someone who wants to fast-track their marketing efforts so that you start seeing results, you'll definitely not want to miss out on the product.

In the meanwhile, I suggest you go ahead and try out some of the tools in this edition. Some of them are just a lot of fun! 😁

Stay safe, stay awesome...

Barry

Growth Marketer,

AI Enthusiast and

Head Honcho at NexGen Digital

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