AI Automation Tools and Our New Referral Program

AI Automation Tools, So Many Choices…

It really seems like every piece of software whether they are cloud-based or not is integrating AI into their workflow one way or another. Today, we are going to dive into a lot of different options we have, and where I have decided to focus my efforts currently.

Granted, these things change over time, but I’ll share what I have decided to use and invest in currently.

Process Automation

Make: Make is where I am spending most of my energy on process automation. My social media content creation automation is all done within Make. I am now in the process of helping set up something similar with the team at Cyberdogz Marketing for their internal use to start and then some of the clients they are working with. Make seems to be less expensive than Zapier based on what activities you are charged for. I also prefer the horizontal layout of Make over Zapier’s vertical and the ability to zoom-in/zoom-out and drag the scenario around.

Zapier: Zapier was one the first automation tools I used back in the day, and still have an account, mainly because they have some modules that I want that Make does not. Zapier’s teams plan is more than 3X the cost of Make and the lower level plans don’t even compare when you look at costs. Zapier also includes OpenAI’s Whisper Transcription API where Make does not. We are currently looking at replacing Whisper with Deepgram for faster/better transcriptions at a fraction of the cost.

Pabbly: Pabbly is one of these all-in-one solutions from email marketing to billing software to form builder, and now automation as well. I have seen lifetime deals on the site frequently and they always seem to be running some kind of promotion. With Pabbly, I am reluctant to try because of the all-in-one functionality instead of being a company focused on automation, and I worry about the support and reliability.

n8n: n8n is a new one I found this year through Twitter. I have not spent any time in it, but Spencer Shaw said it did look promising to him. Spencer has most of his Podcast Production Agency managed through automation to track the production process from raw audio/video from the client to end results. Besides Pabbly, n8n appears to be one of the most inexpensive options. They do have an OpenAI module but like Make it doesn’t include Whisper. However you bring your own code into a custom module in n8n and the other benefit is you can download the source code and host it yourself if you wanted.

Shipyard: Shipyard in some ways is a hosted automation system for developers. It does have some modules built-in like a Youtube video/audio downloader and OpenAI including Whisper, but the strong point here is you can build your own modules using Python, Javascript, JSON requests to tie into anything that has an api. The pricing is different that other systems as well because you are being billed by server execution time.

Video Repurposing Tools

Opus: Of all the tools I have tested, Opus seems to be the one that pics the best clips for shorter videos. They are still working on some improvements to multispeaker videos to identify the active speaker for the clips. Those enhancements are scheduled to be completed by the end of May 2023.

Vidyo: Vidyo is probably my second favorite. It does a decent job with one or two speakers but the clips selected are not as good as Opus. If you are having two speakers side by side, the square format videos are going to be best.

2Short: 2Short is a unique and inexpensive option that has some strong benefits for videos with more than one speaker. It is partially monetized through ads, so the costs are less. Within the editor, you have the option to draw a box around multiple speakers and then arrange those speakers in the video frame. It lacks an interface for previous videos you have already worked with. In order to go back to get the clips of a video you already did, you need to put in the URL again and then it will pull up the clips it has already made.

Munch: Munch does an OK job with single-speaker videos. The clips it selects are usually not near as good as Opus, but you can adjust the start and end marker for the clip to improve the overall clip before exporting it.

Content Fries: Content Fries is a much more manual process, similar to working with videos in Descript. The basic process is to select passages yourself within the transcript to create the clips. You then also add an intro or outro to the clips.

WiseCut: Wisecut like Opus is one of the new options out there and shows some promise. For shorter clips from long-form videos, it’s kind of hybrid. For long-form video, there are a lot of editing options like; removing silence, improving levels, jumpcuts, etc. Then once you have it edited, you can search the video transcript for specific keywords to build a shorter clip that is themed on that keyword throughout the long video. Be sure to check out their demos on the home page.

Our New Referral Program

How would you like 3 editorial avatars and 7 tech reporter avatars to be used for writing email newsletters, blog posts, or articles for social media?

Well, now all you have to do is refer a single new subscriber through our referral program. Next, we are going to be adding all 8 copywriter avatars for three new subscriber referrals. Those should be ready Monday, but if you get three referrals before Monday I’ll send them out as well when they are finished.

Here is a couple of example columns written with these avatars:

The Hiroshima AI Process

Beyond The Billion-Dollar Decision

That’s all for this week…

Until Monday,
Kevin Davis