In December 2022, a few weeks after ChatGPT came out, I wanted to measure what the tool actually made possible. The goal was simple: generate, publish and promote a piece of content that could make money, fast. In four hours I wrote an ebook, created an author profile, put the book on sale on a marketplace, planned a week of promotion and wrote 35 tweets.
An ebook in four hours with ChatGPT, and zero sales
AI2 min read
Finding a topic
I first asked ChatGPT which book categories were the most popular, then which sub-categories of self-help. I picked stress management techniques.
Writing the ebook
I asked it for a table of contents, then for a detailed chapter for each part. I pasted the content into a Google Doc as it came. Contents, preface, chapters: once proofread and formatted, the book was ready to sell.
Creating an author
The book needed an author. I generated a face on thispersondoesnotexist.com, turned it black and white, and gave it a name: Hugo Cavani, self-help coach. ChatGPT wrote his biography, placed at the end of the book. I also made a logo and a tagline for a fictional publisher, Better Editions. The whole profile was invented for the test.
Publishing and selling
I designed the cover and banners in several formats for the promotion. I opened an account on Gumroad, which lets you sell digital products for free, and ChatGPT wrote all the copy of the product page. The book went on sale at $19.
Promoting on Twitter
I created a Twitter account for Hugo Cavani, with a short bio written by ChatGPT. I then asked for promotional tweets about the ebook and inspiring tweets to attract followers, with the link to the book every third tweet. From 29 December 2022 to 6 January 2023, 35 tweets went out automatically, scheduled with Buffer, each with a visual.
The results
The second day was the best one, with 96 organic impressions. Two people followed the account. On Gumroad, the product was viewed twice. No sales.
What the experiment showed
Production became almost free. In a few steps, ChatGPT made it possible to create a complete ebook, an author profile and a promotion campaign. The time went into formatting and publishing more than into writing.
Attention did not get generated. Despite regular posts and tweets written around the theme, the community did not react and nothing sold. The promotion went through Twitter only, with no other channel: no sponsored post, no presence in forums. Content made in four hours is still content nobody was waiting for.
