Why I’m taking a VP role (now President!) at Content at Scale. Time to learn and adapt, or slowly die.

Picture of Julia McCoy

Julia McCoy

Creator and Co-founder

career announcement at content hacker

FYI: Since writing this blog, I’ve had the complete honor to go from VP at Content at Scale to President, working within our leadership team to run the company, deploy the most effective content and sales strategies, manage the team and processes, and show up on big stages and places representing this amazing brand. It’s a total honor! Hear a little from me about my journey on my pod.

Well.

We’re officially there with AI, friends.

We’re at a crossroads where my 11-year full-time career in content marketing, what I do, what I teach, and what I myself learn will be permanently impacted by AI.

It’s touched me, and millions of others. It’s adapt or die.

AI is exploding into every industry; the AI market itself is projected to rocket from $387.45 billion in 2022 to $1,394.30 billion in 2029 at a CAGR of 20.1%.

We’re talking 20% growth, in billions of dollars. 🤯

When I consider that content marketing itself is set to be worth $600 billion in 2024, and I see the AI market almost double that size (again, in billions!)–I know that this growth will permanently affect what I do.

But if you know anything about me, you also know that I’ve been the biggest skeptic of AI in writing authority-building content.

As a writer that believes in the old-fashioned, hard-knocks craft of creating content so good, you “bleed on your typewriter” – I believe Ernest himself would be horrified at the butchering of writing that’s happening in AI content.

hemingway on content

Source: beyondtheflow.files.wordpress.com

From factual inaccuracy to a complete lack of structure, style, and depth; none of the content most of the AI tools I tested gave me a real solution for true long-form, which is the content type I teach, preach, study, and practice – to the tune of 1,000s of blogs written, and over $5M in sales generated for my businesses from the content I write.

For long-form, especially, GPT-3 and its family hasn’t been a solution in my expert opinion. While ChatGPT writes nice short-form, titles, recipes, and can even help a non-native writer become adapt, it’s lacking severely when you try to ask it to produce a 2,000-word blog.

Just look at ChatGPT’s output following my prompt to write a 2,000-word blog to rank for the informational keyword “pillar content strategy”–

ai written content about pillar page

Compare that to my writer, Alyssa, who wrote this fabulous, thought-leadership piece on the topic:

humanly written content about pillar page

Well, I’m here to share both a huge career change and a simple fact.

This January 2023, I finally found an AI content tool that writes long-form content that is simply put, quality.

Update: June 1, 2023. Look how well it captures my voice!! 

content at scale unique voice for content hacker

Beware, general SEO writers.

It’s here.

This tool will replace hours of time, suggests keywords to include (that are ACCURATE!), creates a linked table of contents, does the research to show you how to further make it better, and in short – generates a ton of work and content for you that is almost ready-to-go, minus a few checks and editing on your end.

We’re talking 2,500-word blogs produced in minutes. Yes! You simply need to add story and your expertise to it (or your client’s). Even the tone of voice is a usable, flowing style. 🤯

This tool is the first one I’ve found that also connects directly to Copyscape, the paid plagiarism tool we used in my agency to scan hundreds of articles every week, to help you stay authentic and original. The creator and founder is actively working on it to make it better and better so that the core of the tool truly gives you content you can use on your blog.

The content also passes AI detection, which is important since Google says content automatically generated with AI writing tools is considered spam.

We’re not done yet. It even has a WordPress plugin so you can import the whole thing straight to WordPress without leaving the tool.

This replaces:

  • The Word Doc (their interface feels like an old-fashioned Word Doc, which I love!)
  • SEO optimization writing assistants (it does this for you, suggesting keywords for you to add in or add more of)
  • Copyscape plagarism checker (you no longer need to pay Copyscape, you can run it through Copyscape without leaving the tool)
  • Connects directly to WordPress

I’m probably forgetting something, because this tool is incredible.

Oh, and

…All for $20 per blog! 🤯

Use our affiliate link to get 20% extra post credits. Learn more about Content at Scale with a full breakdown and review.

I first found it recommended by Adam Enfroy, a blogger I respect and follow that earns $400,000/month doing affiliate content at scale.

As soon as I saw it, I knew I was looking at the Holy Grail of solutions for long-form content.

The Story of Meeting Justin at Content at Scale

Something that appealed to me after browsing the company site was how well-written  the content on Content at Scale’s own site is.

It blew me away, in fact – their guides and blog, like this one on a simple but mind-blowingly good keyword research strategy, approach an Ahrefs-level of quality.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that, because I hadn’t till now seen great inbound content on any AI content brand site.

However, a total skeptic still – I emailed Justin and asked, “What are you doing for factual accuracy in AI content? This is the main problem I haven’t seen anyone solve.”

(For context, I’ve been emailing and talking to the founders of tools, including some of the ones leading the market – I’ve even been offered contract work helping them grow! – but I stepped away from all of them after seeing no plan of action for addressing what matters the most in great content: being accurate and integrity-filled in the actual content itself. (Non-shat, in other words.))

Not expecting much, I hit send on the email.

The response blew me away –

justins response on content at scale

Not only was Justin transparent and told me, “you’d better check the content in a plagarism tool” – but he said they actually had a plan for something coming, and the plan was exactly what I would want to see – to link to credible sources automatically.

That alone made my jaw drop. Gamechanger!

(Come to find out, their tool actually directly ties into the tool I used daily to proof-check our writers’ originality – Copyscape! You simply hit the button, and it Copyscapes the content for you.)

content at scale and copyscape

I was instantly intrigued and excited. I booked a call with Justin for January 9, and sent him a quick gameplan on how to grow Content at Scale with an inbound plan. I wanted to work for and with this tool immediately after seeing the big picture on what they were doing, and what they were capable of.

We hopped on a call – jived right away – and I was offered the role of VP of Marketing on the spot.

Here’s why I took it.

Taking this Role Means I’ll Be a Better, Smarter Content Hacker

The reason I said yes was because of the 1,000s of use cases working in their company will put me in. I get to create tutorials. I get to lead their own quality content process. I get to think of new growth initiatives as I see the product used and loved by 1,000s of businesses, marketers, and corporations.

As a practitioner, not just a “coach” in name only: I believe I need this experience before I pivot Content Hacker to teach more AI-focused content courses.

I’m allowed to keep Content Hacker going on the side, as I put full-time energy into growing Content at Scale through quality content. (Meta, much?)

This thrills, delights, and excites me with a new energy I haven’t had in months. Full story: I’ve been praying over my path for a year, because I believe everything will change with AI coming on the market in content production – millions will be out of a job if they don’t adapt – and I needed a way to immerse myself in the new picture.

The immersion opportunity fell in my lap. After I reached out and heard Justin’s plan of action for a real solution to the obstacle of long-form content creation: quality and accuracy!

Shortly after I said yes to Justin’s offer, I decided to learn how to use Content at Scale thoroughly and create a free tutorial on my YouTube channel, as well as a full feature page on our site. This meant double-time in content creation!

I teased my list to see if I could gauge interest. 5,000+ people got an email that said “I finally found an AI writer for long-form content.” 

And guess what?! I had the most responses I’ve ever had to ANY email on this email!

It confirmed the direction I was going in, hugely. Compare that to the response on my high-ticket human content services, like Content Engine (which we are phasing out) – crickets when we launched that one.

Sharing Content at Scale will start a fire. 🔥

 

What Will Stay for Me at Content Hacker?

I will continue writing for leading publications, lending my voice, expertise, and guidance to top firms and resources.

I will also continue 1:1 coaching and leading private, custom training and workshops.

My big pivot in all of this?

Content Hacker now helps marketers navigate the new world of AI-assisted content production without losing integrity, accuracy, tone or voice.

My upcoming courses, workshops, and private training for corporations and firms will focus completely on this.

Being in the mix of 1,000s of use cases at Content at Scale in my day job will be a complete honor and joy, so I become a better teacher and coach for you.

What’s leaving? I will not be offering done-for-you content services in any way. Goodbye, Content Engine.

Additionally, we’re moving our website design and development services, which have been a grand slam success, into a new brand. That will launch in a few weeks, and my husband is leading that up. I’ve also replaced myself there with a copywriter that has been training under me for years, Sara. It’s an honor to assemble a great team so we can actually continue to scale up and serve great websites (a critical piece of the AI content production success).

Adapt or Die (Yes, It’s That Serious)

Content marketers, strategists, firms, creators, and writers:

Will your job be in jeopardy?

I know that’s your big question here.

I’ll answer you.

Two things for you:

1. Adapt or die. Literally, we’re there.

Use Content at Scale. Seriously. Sign up to the plan. Give it to your writer. Give my tutorial to your writer. Make them better.

Don’t delay. Get with the times – now. Stop being a skeptic. I used to be, and now I fully believe in Content at Scale because I see what it can do. It’s the best tool out there for long-form content creation. It encourages and helps you to check for plagiarism and integrity of facts. It gives you structure. It gives you quality. We are here, friends. There is an AI tool that finally does it.

2. Be the BEST at what you do. Use AI to support that.

Listen to E42 of my podcast, where I talk about being the best in your work, and striving for excellence.

AI can’t replace you if you’re excellent. It can never replace a bada$$ human.

But it can replace a human that settles for average.

AI just leveled the playing field. Average won’t cut it anymore.

If you’re in content and you’re not constantly learning, if you’re not using these tools yourself and finding ways to adapt, speed up your process, and get better – you will get left out.

So – don’t.

Join us in the revolution, will ya?

content at scale

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