Generative AI is a technology you can’t escape in today’s world. Midjourney is an AI generator used to create images based on text prompts.
As AI continues to shape content creation, debates persist over whether search engines like Google and Bing will penalize websites utilizing AI-generated content. AI generated written content produced with tools such as ChatGPT can provide text responses to prompts so many people use it for written content. With the use of tools like Midjourney – this can now be applied to your blog images. I am against the use of AI content WITHOUT any human edits, but these tools can be a tremendous help to speed up your content production.
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Should you use AI images for your blog?
Incorporating images into your blog post not only enhances engagement but also allows readers to visually connect with the written content. Several websites offer a wealth of free and paid commercial images for use on your blog. However, the downside to this approach is the lack of originality; stock photos are often recycled and used across numerous websites. Therefore, if your goal is to present wholly original content, including images, stock pictures may not be your best option.
Considering the use of AI-generated images, such as those produced by Midjourney, could lead us to question their appropriateness in blog posts. These AI images offer an unprecedented level of originality, in stark contrast to overused stock photos. However, it’s essential to consider the potential implications, given the evolving attitudes towards AI-generated content.
While there is no definitive answer from major search engines yet, early indications suggest that AI-generated images are treated the same as other images. This means that, as long as the AI images are relevant, provide value, and improve the user experience, they should be acceptable for use in blog posts.
Nonetheless, it’s always prudent to keep an eye on guidelines provided by search engines, as they evolve with the rapidly changing technology landscape.
Midjourney prompts for blog post featured images
To start generating an image in Midjourney, type /imagine and prompt the system to generate an image based on written text. If you’ve never used Midjourney before, it’s a simple creation of an account and connecting to their Discord server. This article will assume you have an account, there are many other blogs and youtube channels showing how to sign up for Midjourney which we won’t cover here.
Generate photo realistic images in landscape 16:9 ratio
Creating featured images for your blog posts using Midjourney is a fantastic way to add a personalized touch to your content. If you pay for Midjourney, you will have access to use the generated images commercially.
The process is straightforward and user-friendly. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do it:
Step 1 – Generate regular image
Begin with the /image prompt. This tells Midjourney’s AI that you want to generate an image.
Next, provide a description of the image you wish to create. Be as specific as possible to guide the AI in the right direction. Let’s say you’re writing an article about “Dog beaches in California”. For a blog feature image, you might input /image A dog playing in the ocean
Step 2 – Generate photo realistic image
If you are looking for a photo realistic image which doesn’t look like a cartoon or something abstract, you can add the prompts photo, 4k.
Step 3 – Generate landscape image for blog or Youtube thumbnail.
To ensure that your image fits the landscape format typically used for blog posts and YouTube thumbnails, end your description with --ar 16:9. This tells the AI to generate your image with an aspect ratio of 16:9, which is the standard for landscape images.
Step 4: Final image
Your complete input should look something like this: /image A dog playing in the ocean, photo, 4k --ar 16:9
Midjourney generates 4 images you can choose to upscale, or you can make additional edits to your prompt and generate more images.
Once you have the final image, you can upscale the version you like and save it for a blog feature image.
Pro tip: You can also paste the image into an application like Photoshop or Canva to add additional formatting into a thumbnail for your blog post or youtube video.
Here is an example of the image we put into Canva to remove the background and used a thumbnail templates in Canva for this feature image post:
