How to Create an AI Automation for Fresh Content Ideas in One Click

Learn how to build an AI-powered content idea generator using Bardeen
Discover a step-by-step process to scrape news sites and generate content ideas
Explore how to integrate web scraping, AI processing, and Google Sheets for efficient content ideation

As a content creator, I’m always on the lookout for fresh ideas to keep my audience engaged. Recently, I stumbled upon a game-changing AI automation that’s revolutionized my content ideation process. In this post, I’ll walk you through how I created an AI automation that scrapes dozens of websites and generates tons of fresh content ideas right on my spreadsheet – all in less than a minute.

The best part? You can build this AI automation yourself in just a couple of minutes. We’ll be using a tool called Bardeen, which in some ways outperforms Make.com or Zapier, particularly because it has a built-in web scraper and ChatGPT integration. This means you don’t have to pay for OpenAI API separately.

Whether you’re looking to generate ideas for your blog, YouTube channel, or social media accounts, this automation will be a game-changer. Let’s dive in and build this content ideas generator together.

Setting Up Bardeen

To get started, you’ll need to set up Bardeen on your browser:

Visit the Bardeen website and click “Get Started for Free”
Install the Bardeen extension for your Chromium-based browser (Chrome, Edge, Brave, etc.)
Pin the extension to your toolbar for easy access

Creating the Web Scraper

Now that we have Bardeen set up, let’s create our web scraper:

Open Google News and search for a topic (e.g., “Mistral AI”)
Click the Bardeen extension icon and select “Create Automation”
Choose “Blank Canvas” to start from scratch
Add a “Scrape data on active tab” action
Create a new scraper template named “Google News Scraper”
Select the elements you want to extract (article titles and links)
Choose “No pagination” for simplicity
Save the template and set the number of links to extract (e.g., 5)

Processing the Scraped Data

With our scraper in place, we’ll now process the data:

Add a “Get page as HTML” action
Add a “Convert HTML to text” action
Add a “Get custom prompt to OpenAI” action
Craft your prompt for content idea generation

Here’s an example prompt I use:

This is an article from a website. Please clean it up from anything that is not the main part of the article.

[Insert converted HTML here]

Your task is to read through that article, understand the main points, and then suggest five YouTube video ideas based on that. Be direct, don't use subtitles, don't use dash or colon. Use a personal tone on the title. Just give me the titles in a numbered bullet point format, nothing more.

Sending Data to Google Sheets

To organize our generated ideas, we’ll send them to Google Sheets:

Create a new Google Sheet named “Google News Content Ideas Generator”
Set up columns for Article Title, Article Link, and Content Ideas
Add an “Add rows to Google Sheet” action in Bardeen
Connect your Google account and select the sheet you created
Map the scraped and generated data to the appropriate columns

Setting Up the Trigger

To make our automation easy to use, we’ll set up a right-click trigger:

Add a “When I right-click on a website” trigger
Name it “Start Content Ideas Research”
Enable the trigger in Bardeen settings

Using the Automation

Now that our automation is set up, here’s how to use it:

Go to Google News and search for a topic
Right-click anywhere on the page
Select “Bardeen” and choose “Start Content Ideas Research”
Wait for the automation to run (it may open new tabs briefly)
Check your Google Sheet for the generated content ideas

This automation works for any keyword on Google News. You can easily switch topics by changing your search query and running the automation again.

Enhancing Your Content Creation Process

This AI automation is just the beginning of what’s possible for streamlining your content creation process. Here are some ways you can take it further:

Expand to multiple sources: Modify the scraper to pull from various news sites or industry-specific blogs for a wider range of ideas.
Customize for different content types: Adjust the prompt to generate ideas for different formats like blog posts, podcasts, or social media content.
Integrate with your content calendar: Use Zapier or Make.com to automatically add generated ideas to your content planning tool.
Analyze trends: Add a step to analyze common themes or trending topics across multiple articles.

How to create reusable blocks in WordPress can be a great way to streamline your content creation process even further once you have your ideas generated.

Overcoming Potential Challenges

While this automation is powerful, there are a few things to keep in mind:

Rate limits: Be mindful of API rate limits, especially if you’re using the free tier of OpenAI’s API.
Content quality: Always review and refine the generated ideas. AI is a tool to assist, not replace, your creative process.
Ethical considerations: Ensure you’re not scraping copyrighted content or violating any website’s terms of service.

How to really humanize AI content is crucial when working with AI-generated ideas to ensure your content remains authentic and engaging.

Conclusion

This AI automation has been a game-changer for my content creation process. It’s not just about saving time; it’s about consistently tapping into fresh, relevant ideas that resonate with my audience. By combining web scraping, AI processing, and spreadsheet integration, we’ve created a powerful tool that can spark creativity and keep our content pipeline flowing.

Remember, the key to successful content creation isn’t just having ideas – it’s about executing them well. Use this automation as a springboard for your creativity, and always add your unique perspective and expertise to the content you create.

How to craft the perfect AI prompt for blog post can help you refine your prompts and get even better results from this automation.

Happy creating!