ChatGPT Hacks for Beginners (With Prompts + Examples)

As of August 29, 2024, ChatGPT has over 200 million weekly active users — double the number it had in November 2023.

Unless you’re living in a cave, you’ve probably used ChatGPT for something. Perhaps to write an email? Solve a math problem? Translate a foreign word?

In this ChatGPT tutorial, I’m going to share with you some of my favorite ChatGPT hacks. These are specific techniques that I’ve been using for a while now, and I’m going to demonstrate each one to you with examples.

Whether you consider yourself a complete beginner or even a pro, I think you’ll find something in this guide for you.

Table Of Contents:

• ChatGPT Tutorial Tips for Beginners
  • 1. Business Strategy: Prompt Sequences & The GCA formula
  • 2. Analogy Creator: Teach Tough Topics
  • 3. Kids & ChatGPT: Have Your kid Use ChatGPT
  • 4. Explainer: Explain Something to Me Like I’m a Child
  • 5. Legal Assistant: Break Down Contracts and Agreements
  • 6. Coder: Debug Code
  • 7. Object Identification
  • 8. Follow-Up Prompts
  • 9. Creation: Graphs, Charts, CSV files, and Other Output Formats
  • 10. Custom Recipe Creator
• A Warning on ChatGPT’s Retention: Keep Private Data Private
• Conclusion

ChatGPT Tutorial Tips for Beginners

Here are some useful ChatGPT tutorial tips that highlight just how capable this generative AI model can be:

1. Business Strategy: Prompt Sequences & The GCA formula

First, I use ChatGPT for anything related to business strategy. When I want to create a game plan for my business, for example, to hit a million in revenue by a certain time point, I will use the same formula to describe problems, situations, and goals to ChatGPT.

It’s a great starting point.

Here’s the prompt I used:

“I want to grow my YouTube channel to 100,000 subscribers by the end of this year. I currently have 25,636 subscribers and it is July 21. My YouTube channel is based in the artificial intelligence niche. I’ve been running this channel solely focused on this topic since January of 2024. My best videos were regarding AGI, UBI, and AI news. Generate me a content strategy, subscriber milestones and goals, and tips for hitting my subscriber goal.”

This prompt was inspired by AI Foundations and his GCA formula, which stands for Goal, Context, and Action.

Here’s what ChatGPT gave me:

To reach 100,000 subscribers by the end of the year, you’ll need a clear content strategy, subscriber growth milestones, and focused execution. Here’s a detailed plan for your AI-focused YouTube channel:

Content Strategy

1. Focus Areas:

   • AI Hot Topics: Continue creating content around trending topics such as AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), UBI (Universal Basic Income), and AI news. These topics have shown to engage your audience, so lean into them.
   • Deep Dives: Offer in-depth analyses on specific AI breakthroughs, ethical debates, or use cases. People love comprehensive insights from experts.
   • AI Predictions: Create engaging prediction videos about where AI is heading in the next 5-10 years. Speculative content can generate discussions and shares.
   • AI Tool Reviews: Review AI tools, platforms, or software that are trending. Providing value-driven content (what’s worth investing in, what’s hype) can attract a more tech-savvy audience.
   • Live Discussions/Interviews: Host interviews or panel discussions with AI experts. Livestreams can increase engagement and create buzz.

2. Video Format & Frequency:

   • 2-3 videos per week: Given your niche and goal, upload consistently—2-3 high-quality videos per week will keep your audience engaged and the algorithm in your favor.
   • Short-form Content: Mix in YouTube Shorts to capture attention from people browsing for quick content. Shorts can generate quick bursts of traffic, bringing in new subscribers.
   • Community Engagement: Respond to comments, ask your audience questions in your videos, and run polls on your community tab to keep them involved.

3. SEO & Thumbnails:

   • Optimize your video titles and descriptions with AI-related keywords. Use tools like TubeBuddy or vidIQ to find trending keywords.
   • Use bold, eye-catching thumbnails with concise text overlay. A/B test thumbnails to see which resonate more with your audience.

4. Cross-Promotion:

   • Share videos across your social platforms (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn) and Reddit’s AI subreddits.
   • Consider collaborating with other AI YouTubers for cross-promotional efforts. Guest appearances can expose you to their audience.

5. Monetary Incentives:

   • Offer exclusive content to early subscribers (e.g., behind-the-scenes or a mini AI course). Consider running giveaways when you hit milestones (e.g., tech gadgets, AI books, etc.).

Subscriber Growth Milestones

To reach 100,000 by the end of the year (approx. 6 months left), you’ll need to grow by about 12,700 subscribers per month.

• July: 25,636 → 30,000
• August: 30,000 → 42,700
• September: 42,700 → 55,400
• October: 55,400 → 68,100
• November: 68,100 → 80,800
• December: 80,800 → 100,000

To meet these milestones, aim for:

• +4,400 subscribers in July
• +12,700 subscribers each month thereafter.

Tips for Hitting the Subscriber Goal

1. Consistency is Key: Stick to a consistent schedule of 2-3 videos a week. Consistency is a major factor in YouTube’s algorithm.
2. Create Viral Content: Double down on what’s working (AGI, UBI, AI news). Capitalize on AI trends and breaking news for maximum reach.
3. Community Engagement: Engage with your community through comments, YouTube polls, and video requests. This builds loyalty and encourages more shares.
4. Collaborate with Influencers: Partner with bigger YouTubers in your niche. Being a guest or collaborating on content can help expose you to their audience.
5. Leverage YouTube Shorts: Shorts can be a quick way to generate attention and boost subscriber counts rapidly. Keep them under 60 seconds and focused on key AI insights or news.
6. Promote on Other Platforms: Share your videos on LinkedIn, Twitter (X), and other AI/tech communities like Reddit. Also, consider email newsletters.
7. Run a Subscriber Contest: Set up a giveaway for reaching subscriber milestones. For example, at 50,000 subs, offer a tech giveaway, creating excitement and shareability.

By implementing this strategy and staying focused on growth-driven content, you’ll be well-positioned to reach your 100,000 subscriber goal by the end of the year!

2. Analogy Creator: Teach Tough Topics

Next, you can ask ChatGPT to create analogies to help you teach something that is otherwise hard to explain. I’ve used these analogies as scripts for my YouTube Shorts.

Sample prompt:

“Create 3 analogies to help me teach the importance of AI adaption to mass and broad audiences (adapt to AI or die).”

ChatGPT’s response:

Here are three analogies that highlight the importance of AI adaptation for broad audiences:

1. The Internet Revolution Analogy: Adapting to AI is like embracing the internet in the ’90s.When the internet first became widespread, businesses that adapted quickly thrived, while those who ignored it faded into irrelevance. AI is the next revolution. Just as companies couldn’t survive without an online presence, those who don’t leverage AI will be left behind in a world that’s rapidly becoming more efficient and automated.

2. The Electric Car Analogy: AI adaptation is like switching from gasoline to electric cars.Gas-powered cars worked well for over a century, but as technology advances and the world demands sustainability, electric cars are the future. Those who refuse to make the switch are stuck with outdated technology that harms the environment and costs more to maintain. Similarly, businesses or individuals who ignore AI will be stuck using outdated tools, while competitors run faster, cheaper, and smarter with AI-driven technology.

3. The Evolution Analogy: Adapting to AI is like survival in nature.In the wild, species that don’t adapt to their environment eventually become extinct. AI is like a new ecosystem in business, and only those who learn to work with it will thrive. Just as animals evolve over time to survive, we must evolve our skills and embrace AI to stay competitive, or we risk becoming obsolete in a world that’s moving faster than ever.

3. Kids & ChatGPT: Have Your kid Use ChatGPT

Another way that I’d like to use ChatGPT is to hand it over to my 10-year-old kid and let her have a voice conversation with the chatbot.

To do this, install ChatGPT on your smartphone, open the app, tap the headphone icon, and start speaking.

“Hey ChatGPT, I’ve got my ten-year-old here and she wants to explore job opportunities in the future, around the year 2035. Could she potentially still get a job as a gymnast or a coach in the fitness industry if AGI is automating most work?”

Try this prompt on your phone and find out the answer! 

You can do this in any situation, especially homework. If your kids are having a tough time understanding a subject or concept from their teacher, just pull up ChatGPT and allow your kid to use it.

4. Explainer: Explain Something to Me Like I’m a Child

Another way that I love to use ChatGPT is to have it explain difficult concepts to me.

Sample prompt:

“Explain calculus to me like I’m an 8-year-old.”

What ChatGPT wrote:

Imagine you’re riding a bike. Sometimes you go fast, and sometimes you slow down, right? Calculus is a special type of math that helps us understand how things change, like how fast or slow you’re going at different times.

There are two big ideas in calculus:

1. Derivatives: This helps us figure out how fast something is changing. So if you’re riding your bike and want to know how quickly you’re speeding up or slowing down at a certain moment, that’s where the derivative comes in. It’s like looking at how fast your speed is changing right now.

2. Integrals: This is the opposite! It helps us figure out how much total change happened over time. So, if you rode your bike for an hour and wanted to know how far you went, the integral helps add up all those changes in speed to give you the total distance.

So, calculus is like a magical tool to measure things that are always moving and changing, like riding a bike, the weather, or even how fast a tree grows!

You can specify a different age, say 7, 5, or even 4 years old, and ChatGPT will dumb it down for you in ways that are so simple and easy to understand.

5. Legal Assistant: Break Down Contracts and Agreements

The next way that I’d like to use ChatGPT is to review documents that I’m about to sign.

What I’ll do is just copy and paste a document, for example, a non-disclosure agreement, and add this prompt:

“Can you summarize this NDA? Anything dangerous or concerning that I should know about?”

ChatGPT will summarize your contract, insurance policy, or scholarship agreement and put in clear terms what your obligations are and what the purpose of the document is, and then give you a list of potential concerns.

I find these insights awesome, and it does save me plenty of hours finding an attorney, booking an appointment, and having them look at the document. I can skip all of that. At the end of the day, I’m still going to use a lawyer if I need to execute something that has massive legal ramifications.

One time I put an agreement through and the insights it gave me made me stop and think and ask more questions. That’s an awesome way to use ChatGPT to benefit you at work.

6. Coder: Debug Code

I have used ChatGPT to figure out why my YouTube video wasn’t showing. I simply pasted the code and it told me right away that one of my tags had an extra dash.

That one teeny little error through the entire code off! ChatGPT not only debugged the code but also rewrote it to give me a better one.

7. Object Identification

You can now upload pictures to ChatGPT and ask it to identify objects.

I once uploaded a photo of my gaming chair with this prompt:

“Explain what kind of chair this is, how much on average it would cost, and where to buy it.”

I’ve seen people upload pictures of trees and ask it to identify that plant and most of the time it’s pretty accurate.

If you’re shopping, you can ask ChatGPT to explain a big purchase. That’s one of the most practical ways to use this powerful chatbot.

8. Follow-Up Prompts

This is an underrated way to use ChatGPT.

I once asked ChatGPT to create a story for my About page based on my trajectory as a content marketer now turned full-time AI influencer.

The first draft was too long for me so I asked it again to summarize and create a more succinct version.

As I gave it some more details, it continued to give me a better summarization.

8. Creation: Graphs, Charts, CSV files, and Other Output Formats

If there’s one thing that makes ChatGPT so incredibly versatile it’s this: It can effortlessly switch back and forth between a wide variety of formats.

Do you need help turning your notes into an engaging blog post? Just copy and paste your text into the chat and prompt it to restructure your ideas.

ChatGPT can handle many types of content such as:

• Emails and newsletters
• Social media posts
• Website copy
• Scripts for podcasts or videos
• Essays, reports, and business plans
• Poetry, music, and creative stories

There are literally endless possibilities here. You could even copy and paste the text from a long email and prompt ChatGPT to pull out the bullet points. Or ask it to rewrite the email in a different tone.

I have used ChatGPT to create a graph for one of my talks on stage using this prompt:

“Create a graph to represent that we’ve broken Moore’s Law, which is compute power 2x’ing every 2 years: Elon Musk says we’re 10x’ing every 6 months.”

Here’s what ChatGPT created:

Impressive, right?

I can download this chart as an image and then upload it straight to my presentation.

10. Custom Recipe Creator

Creating recipes is one of the first use cases that I had with ChatGPT back in November 2022 when it first became public.

One way I like to use ChatGPT is to just tell it what’s in my fridge or pantry and ask it to create something.

Sample prompt:

“I want to make something yummy for dinner with quinoa. What are some recipes you could help me with?”

ChatGPT’s recommendations:

Quinoa is a great ingredient for healthy and tasty meals! Here are a few dinner ideas featuring quinoa:

1. Quinoa-Stuffed Bell Peppers:

   • Ingredients: Bell peppers, cooked quinoa, black beans, corn, diced tomatoes, onions, garlic, spices (cumin, paprika, chili powder), and shredded cheese.
   • Instructions: Sauté onions and garlic, then mix in black beans, corn, diced tomatoes, cooked quinoa, and spices. Cut the tops off bell peppers, stuff them with the quinoa mixture, and bake at 375°F (190°C) for about 30 minutes. Top with cheese and bake until melted.

2. Quinoa and Veggie Stir-Fry:

   • Ingredients: Cooked quinoa, broccoli, carrots, bell peppers, snap peas, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, and green onions.
   • Instructions: Stir-fry vegetables with garlic and ginger in sesame oil. Add cooked quinoa and soy sauce, then mix everything together. Garnish with green onions or sesame seeds.

3. Quinoa Salad with Lemon-Tahini Dressing:

   • Ingredients: Cooked quinoa, chickpeas, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, red onion, parsley, olive oil, tahini, lemon juice, and garlic.
   • Instructions: Mix quinoa with chopped vegetables and chickpeas. Make a dressing by whisking together olive oil, tahini, lemon juice, and minced garlic. Toss the salad with the dressing and serve chilled or at room temperature.

4. Quinoa and Sweet Potato Bowl:

   • Ingredients: Cooked quinoa, roasted sweet potatoes, avocado, kale, black beans, tahini, olive oil, lime juice, and spices (cumin, chili powder).
   • Instructions: Roast cubed sweet potatoes with olive oil and spices. Toss cooked quinoa with kale, black beans, and roasted sweet potatoes. Drizzle with a tahini-lime dressing and top with avocado slices.

5. Quinoa Chili:

   • Ingredients: Cooked quinoa, diced tomatoes, kidney beans, black beans, corn, onions, garlic, vegetable broth, chili powder, cumin, paprika, and cayenne pepper.
   • Instructions: Sauté onions and garlic, then add tomatoes, beans, corn, vegetable broth, and spices. Stir in cooked quinoa and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Serve with avocado, cilantro, or sour cream.

Let me know which one sounds good, and I can provide more detailed instructions!

ChatGPT usually comes up with some pretty amazing recipes, and the ones I’ve tried are really delicious!

If you want to tweak the recipe, say add some protein like eggs or chicken to quinoa, you can add follow-up prompts and have the chatbot create more recipe variations.

Throughout all of the ChatGPT iterations, recipes have always been an awesome use case for it. Now you don’t have to scroll through all those ads on Pinterest whenever you try to find recipes on Google!

Want to see all of these ChatGPT hacks in action? Head over to my YouTube Channel for an on-screen demo.

A Warning on ChatGPT’s Retention: Keep Private Data Private

Whenever you are prompting ChatGPT, it will store your prompt in its memory. It will remember everything you entered into the chatbox.

So if you have proprietary or sensitive data that you don’t want on the Web, best that you don’t type it in.

If I have book content that hasn’t been published yet, I don’t want it out there, so I don’t feed ChatGPT with information from a new book that I’m writing.

Conclusion

These ChatGPT tutorial tips highlight the immense possibilities of generative AI. This groundbreaking technology levels the playing field and empowers people like you with the ability to simplify complex workflows. It also helps automate tasks in ways we’ve never seen before.

Think outside of the box, refine those prompts, and keep testing these ChatGPT tutorial tips at home and at work.

Book your strategy session with First Movers to architect your AI-driven future today.

Want to dive deeper into AI adaptation strategies? My new book “Fluid: The Adaptability Code” is now available for pre-order on Amazon. Learn how to break free from fear and own your future in the age of AI. Pre-order now.