Write your first post (free)

Your first post is free: one researched, fact-checked post in your voice, worth 3 credits. Blog AI picks the search it's most likely to win you clicks for, or you can name your own topic. This guide walks through it from the button to your site.

Before you start

The free post appears on Home, as the first item under How to get more clicks, once:

• your site is added
• Google Search Console is connected and has finished its first sync
• your writing voice is set (learned or described)

If something's missing, the card on Home tells you what, with a button to do it: Connect Google, Set your voice, or "Your Search Console data is syncing". The full conditions are in What's included free.

Write it

1. Open Home. Go to Home. The card Write this one free shows your top opportunity: a search people already use to find you, with an estimate of the extra clicks a post could bring each month.
2. Choose the topic. Click Write this one free to write about that opportunity. To write about something else, click Or write about your own topic, type it and click Write mine free.
3. Wait about 5 minutes. The card shows each step as it happens: researching, writing, then checking facts. It keeps going if you leave the page or close your browser.
4. Open the draft. When it's ready, the card says "Your free post is ready". Click Review and publish.
5. Review it. Read the post. Open the Fact check panel to see each claim and the source it was checked against. Edit anything you like; your changes save automatically.
6. Publish. Click Publish now, or pick a date and time under Schedule for. The post goes to your WordPress or Strapi site.

If Search Console doesn't show a clear opportunity yet, which is common on a new or small site, the card says so and asks you to name a topic instead.

What happens while it's written

Your post is written in two stages, each shown on the progress card:

• Research and writing. Blog AI searches the live web and reads the pages it finds. It looks at your own posts and your Search Console searches, so it can link to your real posts and answer what people actually search for. Then it writes the post in your voice, in the shape and length that suit what people search for (a cost guide, a step-by-step guide, a comparison and so on; about 1,500 words when there's nothing to go on), with each fact cited inline to the page it came from.
• Checking facts. A separate check, using a different AI model from the writer, opens each cited source and compares it with what the post says. See Reading fact-check flags.

A draft includes the title, the body with headings, an excerpt, and a suggested Google title and description. You can change all of them before publishing.

If the draft says "Needs review"

If a statistic in the draft doesn't match its source, or has no source at all, the post is marked Needs review and the Publish now and Schedule for buttons stay off until you deal with it. Each flagged item has three ways out:

• Remove this sentence: Blog AI deletes the sentence from the post. You see the paragraph before and after, and nothing changes until you confirm.
• Rewrite it: you change the sentence so it no longer states the figure. Blog AI can suggest a version for you to edit.
• I've checked the source: you read the source yourself and the figure is right.

A flag only counts as removed or rewritten once its text is no longer in the post.

This isn't Blog AI being fussy. It's the one rule it never bends: an unsupported number doesn't go out under your name.

If writing fails

Occasionally a post fails part-way, for example when the research budget runs out on a very broad topic. The card says "Your free post didn't finish" and the 3 credits go back to your balance. You can spend them on anything, including writing the same post again from Ideas. Failed work is never charged.

After your free post

The card on Home suggests your next step:

• Choose a plan for a monthly allowance of credits, new posts, refreshes and weekly AI-visibility checks. Plans start at $49 a month.
• Use your credits if you already have enough for another post (from a top-up or a referral).

Either way, the audit, your Actions list and the performance report stay free. Once the post has been live for a couple of weeks, open its page to see its first Google numbers.

Common questions

Can I choose how long the post is?

The free post uses the default length, about 1,500 words. Edit it down in the editor if you want it shorter.

Can I use the free post for a page, not a blog post?

No. It writes a blog post for your blog.

The topic it picked isn't right for my business

Use Or write about your own topic instead. The suggestion is based only on searches, and it can't know which topics you don't want to write about.