Why I’m Changing My Website Direction and Using AI as a Creative Tool

This website started as a teaching tool for blogging and social media, but I’m changing direction and using AI as a creative tool to help me create the stories, images, comics, and projects I actually enjoy making.

In the early days, my main focus was blogging, meeting new bloggers, learning social media, and making new friends online. That was fun for a while, and I learned a lot from it.

But that focus is not really what I want to do anymore.

So, I’m changing my website direction.

I want to focus more on how I use AI to create the stuff I actually enjoy making.

That means more writing, more images, more stories, more Dan & Sami, and more behind-the-scenes looks at the creative process.

More content creation from a content creator over 50.

Well, actually, over 60.

Man, am I getting old.

Why I Started This Site

Thirteen years ago, I started this site because I wanted to start a blog, but I did not really know anything about it.

Back then, blogging was supposed to be a way to build your empire and turn it into a passive income stream. The dream was big, but reality set in pretty fast.

This site became a place where I could learn and share what I was figuring out along the way.

I started learning about things like:

• keywords
• long-tail keywords
• SEO
• social media
• posting schedules
• blog posts
• backlinks
• and all the other stuff that goes along with blogging

There was a ton to learn.

As I was learning all this new stuff, I thought, “I can’t be the only one in the blogosphere trying to figure this out.”

So I started trying new things, learning new things, and writing about how to do them. What worked and what did not.

What I’ve Learned So Far

One thing I’ve learned is that blogging is a very competitive space.

I’m going up against sites like WordPress, Squarespace, Forbes, and all the other heavy hitters. That is not exactly an easy hill to climb.

But I kept going.

I kept writing about creating engaging content, SEO, social media, and everything else I was learning. I always figured that if one person read one of my posts and it helped them, then it was worth it.

But I’ve also learned something else.

I enjoy the creative side of content much more than I enjoy chasing rankings.

I’ve had a lot of fun creating the Dan & Sami featured images for my posts. In fact, I think I may have enjoyed creating those images more than writing some of the posts themselves.

That probably tells me something.

The more I worked with AI, the more I realized that this is the part I want to explore.

Not just using AI to write faster.

Not just using AI to crank out blog posts.

I’m more interested in using AI as a creative tool.

A way to create images, shape stories, build characters, test ideas, and bring projects to life that might have stayed stuck in a notebook or buried on my hard drive.

Why I’m Making a Change

Now I want to focus on creating the stuff I enjoy.

I want to write.

I want to create Dan & Sami comics.

I want to work on stories, images, and whatever other creative ideas come my way.

Some of you may know that I was published in Go World Travel Magazine. I wrote an article about my visit to Robbie’s Marina in the Florida Keys.

That was a different kind of writing for me, and I enjoyed it.

I think that is the direction I want this site to move toward.

Not just blogging tips.

Not just SEO.

Not just chasing keywords.

More writing.

More stories.

More creative work.

And now, more of how I use AI to help create those things.

What Will Happen to the Blog?

Nothing bad.

I’m not abandoning the blog.

I’m not shutting down the site.

I’m not walking away from everything I’ve built.

I’m just changing the direction again.

I’ll still post here. I’ll still write about the journey. But instead of focusing only on blogging and SEO, I want this site to become more about the things I’m creating and how I’m creating them.

That includes the good, the bad, and the frustrating parts of working with AI.

Because let me tell you, using AI is not always as easy as people make it sound.

Using AI Is Not a Piece of Cake

Before anyone says using AI is a piece of cake, let me just say this:

It’s not.

AI has a tendency to wander off and create what it thinks you want, not always what you actually asked for.

There is a lot of prompt writing, directing, editing, correcting, and starting over involved. Sometimes I feel like it trying to herd cats.

Getting AI to create one image you like is one thing.

Getting it to create the same character over and over again is another thing entirely.

And consistency is the key.

That has been one of the biggest challenges with Dan & Sami.

I want Dan to look like Dan.

I want Sami to look like Sami.

I want the style to stay consistent.

I want the images to feel like they belong together.

Sometimes AI gets close.

Sometimes it misses by a mile.

That process is frustrating, but it is also interesting. And honestly, I think that is part of what I want to share more of on this site.

Not just the finished image.

The process.

The prompts.

The mistakes.

The fixes.

The lessons learned along the way.

What’s Coming Next

I have a few things sitting on my hard drive that I’ve written over the years. Some of them may become stories. Some may become blog posts. Some may turn into something else entirely.

I also have Dan & Sami comic cover pages, featured images, and story ideas I’ve created with AI that I want to share.

Some of those projects may work.

Some may not.

But I would rather build a site around the creative work I actually enjoy than keep forcing myself to write about topics just because they might be good for SEO.

I still care about traffic.

I still care about people finding the site.

But I do not want the entire site to be built around chasing search terms.

I want it to be built around creating something worth sharing.

Building Something I Actually Enjoy

Going forward, danswords.com will become a place where I can show what I’ve created and explain how I created it.

That may be a story.

It may be a comic.

It may be another Dan & Sami image.

It may be a prompt experiment.

It may be a behind-the-scenes look at using AI to create something that did not exist before.

Or it may be something I haven’t even thought of yet.

But this is where I want to showcase my work.

For a long time, I was trying to build a site around what I thought I should be doing.

Now I want to build one around what I actually enjoy doing.

And honestly, that feels like the right direction.

What Do You Think?

This is the new direction for danswords.com.

More stories. More images. More Dan & Sami. More behind-the-scenes looks at using AI as a creative tool.

What do you think of the change?

Leave a comment below and let me know. I’d really like to hear your thoughts.