The custom outline feature can be found in both the Bulk Writer and Penny Arcade.
Use the custom outline feature when you need to write many blog posts that share a common outline structure.
While there are a million use cases, let’s study an example using the custom outline feature for recipe blog posts. Usually a recipe blog post can follow a similar subheading structure regardless of the recipe itself.
Introduction to Custom Outlines
Here is an example of a custom outline:
History
Common Ingredients
Recipe
Cooking Tips
Final Thoughts
Whether the blog post is titled “Ultimate Guide to Tacos” or “Ultimate Guide to Barbeque Ribs”, that outline structure could work.
Here’s how it plays out…
In the Bulk Writer, for the article “Ultimate Guide to Tacos”, the AI will then write about the history of tacos. It will then write about some common ingredients in tacos, list a taco recipe, provide some tips when cooking tacos, and end with a section called final thoughts.
The article will finish writing, then ZimmWriter will move onto the next article in the queue: Ultimate Guide to Barbeque Ribs.
It will write about the history of barbeque ribs. It will then write about some common ingredients in barbeque ribs, list a barbeque rib recipe, provide some tips when cooking barbeque ribs, and end with a section called final thoughts.
The article will finish writing, then ZimmWriter will move onto the next article in the queue… (imagine 998 more article titles)!
Pretty cool, huh?
Using H2s, H3s, and H4s with Custom Outlines
In the custom outline input box, any text you place on a single line turns into a H2 subheading by default.
But in some situations you might want one or more H3s, or even one or more H4s.
In that situation, just include a single dash “-” before each item you want to make into a H3 and a double dash “–” before each item you want to make into an H4.
Here is the recipe example again, but now with three H3s.
History
Ingredients
Popular Recipes
- Recipe #1
- Recipe #2
- Recipe #3
Cooking Tips
Final Thoughts
Can you spot the H3s? If you said: Recipe #1, Recipe #2, and Recipe #3 then you’d be correct!
History
Ingredients
Popular Recipes
- Recipe #1
-- Ingredients
- Recipe #2
-- Ingredients
- Recipe #3
-- Ingredients
Cooking Tips
Final Thoughts
Do you see the H4s? The three ingredients subheadings are all H4s.
Now just a few itsy bitsy things to keep in mind:
- H3s must have followed an H2
- H4s must have followed an H3
- Double dashes should not have a space in between. Just press the minus key on your keyboard twice and you’ll have made an H4.
Basics of Custom Outline Variables
Everything you just read was the blue pill. Want to live in happy land with no worries? Stop reading now.
But if rocket fuel flows through your veins and you live for excitement, then let me give you the red pill and open your eyes to the world of custom variables.
Let’s start simple…
History
Common Ingredients
Popular Recipes
- Recipe #1{list}
- Recipe #2{list}
- Recipe #3{list}
Cooking Tips
Final Thoughts
Notice how we added {list} at the end of each H3 recipe in the outline? The {list} is a variable. When we add it to a subheading, ZimmWriter prompts the AI to create a list for that subheading.
Here is another version of the same outline, but with more custom variables added:
History{optimize_title}{auto_h3_3}
Common Ingredients{optimize_title}{list}
Popular Recipes{optimize_title}
- Recipe #1{optimize_title}{list}{yt}
- Recipe #2{optimize_title}{list}{yt}
- Recipe #3{optimize_title}{list}{yt}
Cooking Tips{optimize_title}{auto_h3_3}
Final Thoughts
Available Custom Outline Variables
{list}
- Prompts the AI to add a list to the subheading
- You might not get a list 5% of the time when using a lower powered model such as GPT 3.5 Turbo. You can correct this by either choosing a more powerful model (e.g., Davinci or GPT-4) or editing the article manually or with a magic command.
- Table and lists will not appear within the same subheading.
- Using the {list} variable will override the list checkbox insertion behavior on the backend for the entire article.
- Note: Works in the Custom Outline, SEO Writer subheading titles, and Bulk SEO CSV outline subheading titles.
{table}
- Prompts the AI to add a table to the subheading
- You might not get a table 5% of the time when using a lower powered model such as GPT 3.5 Turbo. You can correct this by either choosing a more powerful model (e.g., Davinci or GPT-4) or editing the article manually or with a magic command.
- Table and lists will not appear within the same subheading.
- Using the {table} variable will override the table checkbox insertion behavior on the backend for the entire article.
- Note: Works in the Custom Outline, SEO Writer subheading titles, and Bulk SEO CSV outline subheading titles.
{auto_h3_#}
- Add this (but first replace the # with a digit between 1-10) to a H2 and ZimmWriter will generate that many H3s under the H2.
- Examples:
- {auto_h3_5} will generate 5 H3s
- {auto_h3_3} will generate 3 H3s
- It’s not recommended to apply {list} and {table} to the H2 that you also apply {auto_h3_#}
- Incompatible with the auto-h3 checkbox in the bulk writer.
- Note: Works in the Custom Outline only.
{yt}
- Add this to have ZimmWriter try to find a relevant YouTube video for the subheading.
- Requires ScrapeOwl (you can get a secret discounted plan by clicking the button in the ZimmWriter options menu).
- Using the {yt} variable will override the YouTube Videos button insertion behavior which normally causes auto-insertion of videos in the first, third, and fifth H2.
- Notes:
- Each {yt} usage costs 5 ScrapeOwl credits, even if a video was not found.
- It will be easier for ZimmWriter to find related videos if you use {yt} along with {optimize_title}. While it’s not required, it can improve finding a relevant video.
- No need to “enable” the YouTube Videos button in addition to {yt} as the button will also force a YouTube video after the 1st, 3rd, and 5th H2. However, the {yt} variable will obey the other YouTube Video button settings even when it’s not enabled.
- Works in the Custom Outline, SEO Writer subheading titles, and Bulk SEO CSV outline subheading titles.
{optimize_title}
- Prompts the AI with the article title + up to 1,500 words of global background information + supplied subheading to contextually rewrite the subheading to give you a more topic-specific subheading, helping with SEO. But as with anything, YMMV.
- For example…
- For an article titled “Ultimate Guide to Tacos”, using History{optimize_title} may cause ZimmWriter to rewrite the “History” subheading to something like “History of Tacos”.
- For an article titled “Ultimate Guide to BBQ Ribs”, using History{optimize_title} may cause ZimmWriter to rewrite the “History” subheading to something like “History of BBQ Ribs”.
- Now what’s really cool is this also works when you think outside the box… For an article titled “Ultimate Guide to Pizza”, using Recipe #1{optimize_title} may cause ZimmWriter to rewrite the “Recipe #1” subheading to something like “Recipe #1: Margherita Pizza”.
- You could even use this for a listicle… such as “How to Get into College with Bad Grades” and “Tip #1{optimize_title}”, “Tip #2{optimize_title}”, “Tip #3{optimize_title}”, etc. Just be aware that you will be limited by the AI’s knowledge (unless you’re doing this with background information). So you might end up with repetition in your list.
- The {optimize_title} uses whatever AI model you select to write your article. So the combination of Davinci or GPT-4 combined with URL background information in the Penny Arcade can start to get a little expensive if you’re not careful.
- Note: Works in the Custom Outline only.
{voice_1ps}, {voice_1pp}, {voice_2p}, {voice_3p}, {voice_pro}
- Overrides the article voice and applies this voice to the particular subsection
- {voice_1ps} is first person singular
- {voice_1pp} is first person plural
- {voice_2p} is second person
- {voice_3p} is third person
- {voice_pro} is professional
- Use case? Imagine an article where your website reviews five companies using scraped data. The article itself may be written in first person plural (we, us, our) but when the AI discusses the five companies, it might write as if it (your website) was the company. You don’t want that obviously. So you’d append {voice_3p} to each subheading title to avoid this effect.
- Note: Works in the Custom Outline, SEO Writer subheading titles, and Bulk SEO CSV outline subheading titles.
Additional Tips & Information
- The custom outline overrides the # of H2 setting in the Bulk Writer and Penny Arcade
- The custom outline also overrides the “only use the # of H2 as a recommendation” in the Penny Arcade
- For a subheading, the order of the custom variables does not matter when combining them for one subheading so… “Recipe #3{optimize_title}{list}{yt}” will have the same outcome as “Recipe #3{yt}{list}{optimize_title}”
- Using auto-keywords is NOT recommended when the outline element is very ambiguous. However, it’s better when using {optimize_title}.
