List Generating in the Custom GPT Store

OpenAI has begun allowing paid ChatGPT users to create custom GPTs for their own use or to share. GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer. They’ve even built a store where these custom GPTs can be used by others, similar to how Apple has their App store. Let’s discuss list generating in the custom GPT store.

One thing many marketers are looking at is how to build a list or lead generate using this new technology. The process of list building in the custom GPT store is a simple one, and there are a few strategic things you can do to help your brand and following grow.

Keep in mind that in order to build a custom GPT currently, you have to have the paid version of ChatGPT, which is about $20 a month for the basic ChatGPT Plus. Once you’re signed up for that, you can create unlimited custom GPTs to help with your own business tasks or to allow others to use based on your expertise and guidance.

The great thing about customizing a GPT is that you get the chance to train it any way you’d like. That means your personal insight can be paired with the technology AI (artificial intelligence) has to offer, providing the best of both worlds to your customers – leadership and anytime access.

Each custom GPT that you create for the marketplace can be branded with a hyperlink that goes to your own website, allowing you to get people on
your list where you can cater to their needs with products and services that they’re seeking.

List Generating in the Custom GPT Store is Worthwhile!

Step 1: Understanding the Requirements of Custom ChatGPT Store Creations

For now, OpenAI requires you to have a ChatGPT Plus account in order to create your own custom GPTs. With a subscription plan to ChatGPT Plus,
which costs $20 a month, you not only get to access the technology ahead of non-paying users during peak times, but the system responds faster.

Whenever they have new features and improvements in beta mode, you’ll get access to those before the general public, too. Basically, you’re paying to be a priority and to use features others can’t.

You can also consider the ChatGPT Enterprise level of subscription if you want to go even higher, and with this you not only get to create custom GPTs, but you get unlimited high-speed access to GPT-4 along with four times the output length.

However, this is not a necessity. After you sign up for ChatGPT Plus, you’ll want to go over the usage policies and brand guidelines. If your custom GPT is not in compliance with those, your GPT likely won’t be included in the GPT store, which is where you need it to be in order to generate leads.

In addition to not allowing anything illegal, unsavory or scammy, you also have to include disclaimers if you’re using it in certain niches like medical, financial or legal. You’ll want to read through the guidelines carefully if you plan to use developer plugins, too.

For branding, they do give you access to an OpenAI badge you can use that says Powered by OpenAI. They’re also very specific on how you can brand your GPT using their name. List generating in the custom GPT store is worth your time for branding.

For example, you can say: [GPT Name] powered by OpenAI but you can’t say [GPT Name by OpenAI]. Those have two very different meanings, so go over the details of usage and branding before beginning so that you understand what could prevent your custom GPT from being in the marketplace.

Step 2: Basic Custom GPT Creation Tasks

The initial process of getting your custom GPT up and running are simple, and the system is one of the most user-friendly tools in existence. It has a conversation with you to figure out what you want, how you want it done, and it asks for your approval or revision instructions.

Start by logging into ChatGPT Plus and clicking on the Explore option in the left sidebar. This opens up My GPTs and in this section, you’ll see a + sign and Create a GPT. Below this, you’ll see an area called Made by OpenAI and these are the GPTs OpenAI has created that are already in their marketplace and free to the public.

When you click on Create a GPT, a new dashboard opens up where the left-hand side is your creation area and the right-hand side is the preview area so that you can see what you are creating and how it is being brought to fruition.

The first thing you’ll notice is that the GPT builder is asking what you would like it to make. It even gives you a sample of what you might say. For the purposes of this report, we are going to use affiliate marketing as our topic for what we want to create as a GPT.

If you are in a niche and you don’t know what kinds of custom GPTs might be beneficial to your audience, you can always use ChatGPT and simply ask it for ideas. For example, instead of making a broad custom GPT about affiliate marketing, we can ask for specific and unique or innovative ideas and it will return a list of options.

One thing I found interesting when going through this process is ChatGPT’s suggestion that we create a custom GPT that helps users plan complementary product promotions. For instance, if you have a site that reviews gardening supplies, you might be able to segue into organic cooking or sustainable living topics. List generating in the custom GPT store allows for flexible marketing.

If you have an affiliate site reviewing make money online products, your complementary niches might be something about living a nomad lifestyle, self-help and success for entrepreneurs, or investing.

Someone who is in the weight loss niche as an affiliate could cross over into health topics rather easily, but also promote cooking and even stress management. Basically, if it can be tied into the original niche and connected in some way, it offers a myriad of expansion opportunities on what the affiliate can promote and profit from.

So, our initial response to the custom GPT builder is: “I want to create a complementary product promotion planner for niche affiliate marketers that helps them plan reviews and promotions for products somehow related to their main niche.”

As we wait mere seconds, the system goes to work and comes back with an idea that doesn’t quite fit – Niche Promo Planner. We want it to convey crossover niches. So we can easily redirect the custom GPT builder and say it like this:

“I’d like the name to convey that it’s a crossover or related niche, because a niche promo planner makes it sound like it’s about their exact niche.”

The new name is a perfect fit – Crossover Niche Strategist but let’s have it add the word affiliate to the mix. Keep in mind you may also want to brand your business or personal name in the custom GPT so that people visit your site to see what else you offer for their needs.

So it might end up being John Doe’s Affiliate Crossover Niche Strategist or something to that effect. It all depends on how you market your business.
Travis Sago created Bum Marketing for affiliates, so that would have been a great name for a custom GPT, like: Bum Marketing Crossover Niche
Planner.

Now at this point, the custom builder has fixed the name, but it’s also come up with an image for us. We will prompt it like this: “Before we move on, can you add the word Affiliate to Crossover Niche Strategist? And yes, the image is good.”

The image is a high-tech computer workplace with symbols showing connectivity on the screens, but if you don’t like the image you can ask for a revision or even upload one with your brand logo if you prefer.

Custom GPT is now going to ask: “What specific types of products or industries should the Affiliate Crossover Niche Strategist focus on, or should it be versatile across various niches?”

We are going to make it a versatile tool, so we’ll reply: “The Affiliate Crossover Niche Strategist should be highly versatile so it can accommodate a wide range of industries and products.”

It confirms the request and then asks: “Next, let’s discuss how detailed you’d like the promotional strategies to be. Should the Affiliate Crossover Niche Strategist offer broad concepts or detailed step-by-step plans?”

Ideally, we want users to have both options. So, we’re going to respond like this: “The GPT should be equipped to provide both broad and detailed concepts, depending on the needs and preferences of users who may be experienced and only need general guidance or newer users who need a comprehensive plan.”

As you go through this process, you’ll see the preview on the right keeps changing with new readymade prompts made available to users. As you tweak your custom GPT, these will change – but you have the final say when tailoring the GPT over what they will say, so don’t worry about them for now.

Lastly, the custom GPT builder asks: “Finally, how would you like the GPT to interact with users? Should it be more formal and professional, or casual and friendly? This will help define its communication style.”

We kind of need a mix here because our audience of marketers are both professional entrepreneurs, but used to a casual tone in blogs and on social media. Let’s prompt AI like this: “I’d like a hybrid communication style that is professional, with a friendly tone. The audience will be online entrepreneurial professionals, but they are used to slightly more casual language on blogs, in emails and on social media. Don’t be too casual to the point it appears unprofessional.”

At this point, the custom GPT builder will tell you that it’s set up and ready to refine anything or add features you feel are pertinent to its ability to perform properly for you and your prospective users.

Step 3: Tailoring a GPT for Your Target Audience with Your Expertise

Instead of working on this area, we’re now going to click on Configure (next to Create on the left side of the dashboard) and tailor the GPT to our preferences. Clicking on Configure is like going behind the scenes where you get to manually override whatever the custom GPT builder has created.

It starts with the Name (so you can tweak that here if you get a sudden burst of inspiration and want to manually fix it). Then the description. Right now, it says: “I assist affiliate marketers in planning niche-complementary product promotions.”

We can alter that to say anything we’d like, such as: “Empowering affiliate marketers to create profitable promos for crossover niche topics.” Below this is the Instructions area. This is where the details we’ve prompted the system with are going to appear.

As you use (and get feedback on) your custom GPT, you may want to revisit this area and optimize it so that the GPT operates even better than you originally had hoped. Below this, you’ll see the Conversation Starters.

This is an area that shows off the ready-made prompts that users will see on their dashboard. You can either leave the prompts as is, alter them to benefit users in ways you can think of, or even add one that includes a bit of branding for your business.

For example, one prompt might say, “Name 10 tips [Your Name] recommends about cross promotions.” This brands your name and showcases the fact that you’re an expert in the field. Some of the others include things like:

• How can I integrate a new product into my niche?
• What are some creative ways to promote a complementary product?
• Can you help me plan a review for a niche product?
• I need ideas for promoting a related product, any suggestions?

Besides the last one, the others don’t signify that it’s something about a different niche, so let’s fix that. We can open up ChatGPT and ask for new ideas like this: “I need short prompts someone might ask AI if they wanted plans to include crossover niche products in their promotions – something closely related, but not the exact niche. Give me a long list of ideas.” This gives us MUCH better ideas including:

• Suggest related niches for my original niche topic.
• Identify complementary products in crossover niches I can promote.
• Generate ideas for a crossover niche campaign on social media.

You can also add more of these prompts or even delete them (or just some of them) if you want to. As you make the tweaks, you’ll see the preview change. At any time, you can play around with it to see how it answers.

For example, if we click on the first one: “Suggest related niches for my original niche,” it asks the user for details it needs, including the main topic, target audience, and specific products or services they currently focus on.

We can test it and reply: “I promote container gardening supplies on myniche to people who like to grow their own organic produce. These include gardening towers, gardening tools, seeds and more.”

When we give it that information, it comes back with a variety of options, including kitchen herb kits, health products like supplements and juicers, food preservation products, cooking for health, outdoor apparel, and sustainable living products like rain barrels, solar outdoor lighting, etc.

If there’s anything about the output you dislike in the way it replies, head back to custom instructions and redirect it to operate better for you. You can test out a few unique prompts, too – things you ask that aren’t in the readymade prompt dashboard.

At this point, you can also add your expertise by uploading files to the Knowledge section. So, if you have specific methods or insight you’d like your custom GPT to use when replying to people who access it, this is where you’ll include it.

Step 4: Verify Your Builder Profile

I hope you are beginning to get excited about list generating in the Custom GPT Store! Let’s keep going… It’s important to understand that you can’t simply create a junky custom GPT and expect it to help you build a list or generate for your brand effectively. The cream will rise to the top, so your custom GPT needs to be a heavy hitter and actually help people.

If someone tries using it and it isn’t beneficial, they’ll be able to see your brand name associated with it and it can actually be more harmful than beneficial to your online reputation.

The next step in creating a custom GPT that will generate leads for you is to verify your builder profile. If you do not take this step, you cannot have a custom GPT in the store. To do this go back to your ChatGPT login and on the left bottom sidebar, click your name.

Then click on Settings & Beta. You’ll see an option that says Builder profile. Click on that to continue. Now you have some options. You can verify your name and/or your website.

Your name will be verified from the billing details you signed up with. You can turn either of these on or off at any time, but doing so may remove it from the marketplace. You’ll see an option that says Website: Select a domain.

When you click on that, it opens up an area that says +Verify new domain. Click on that and it will ask you to add a new domain, like yourdomain.com. When you click Submit, a new window opens that says:

“Manage Domain: To verify ownership of [domain], navigate to your DNS provider and add a TXT record with this value: [it gives a code that you copy]. Then, check the record to complete the verification.”

You have the option to Cancel or Check at that point and once it’s verified, the hyperlink to your URL will appear before the name of your custom GPT on the dashboard. If you don’t know how to add the TXT record to your domain registrar, Google: “how to add a TXT record to [domain company].”

GoDaddy, for example, has a page walking you through the process that’s very simple. You just log in and go to your domain portfolio, select the domain and click on DNS to view the DNS records. Then click Add New Record and select TXT from the type menu.

You’ll then enter the details for your new TXT record and save it! Then go back to the ChatGPT builder profile verification process and have it Check for verification. At this point, you’ll be all set up to begin catering to the needs of your target audience and using your expertise through a custom GPT along with a hyperlink to promote your business.

Keep branding in mind whenever you’re verifying the information for your custom GPT. By adding the website, your users will now see: The image of the GPT, followed by its name, a description and a hyperlink that says: By [Your Domain].

Whenever they find a tool that works well, they’ll click on that link, and you can have a lead magnet landing page or link it to your blog or other content that will make people want to get on your list and learn from you.

If you want to be even more strategic, you could register a domain that includes a gift or call to action and verify it because it will urge the user to click on the link. For example, you might register a URL called FreeNicheCrossoverTemplates dot com or ClickForNicheProfits dot com and even though it’s a long name, when people see it, they’ll want to click on it because it’s highly relevant to what they want and need.

Your goal with that URL would be strictly to capture the names and email addresses of the people using your custom GPT. You could then get them on your list and cater to them with links to products, services and information that makes them turn into loyal followers.

For the best results, take time to craft a fine-tuned landing page that is specific to the custom GPT you’re linking it to. You already know their needs, so now is the time to impress them with an opt in gift they won’t want to refuse, followed by emails that showcase your willingness to guide them in their journey to success.

You may even design a free gift about maximizing the use of your GPT that they can download, with hyperlinks to products you promote or sell. This can be in the URL of the domain as well, such as DownloadMyGPTTipsReportHere dot com.

The hyperlink call to action strategy can help you with lead generation. You might even offer a list of GPT prompts for affiliate crossover niche research, or something related to your chosen topic. List generating in the Custom GPT Store makes sense!

Step 5: Publish Your GPT in the Public Marketplace

After your builder profile is verified, you want to go back and save your custom GPT. You may have already saved it where only you could see it, but at any time, you can open it and edit it in any way – including republishing it with new access for the public.

When you’re in custom GPT builder mode, on the upper righthand side, you’ll see a green button that says Save. Click on that and it will say: Publish to:
o Only me
o Anyone with a link
o Everyone

You can always create custom GPTs for your eyes and use only. You can also sell access or build access to a custom GPT that you give access to your subscribers and customers to with a link. List generating in the custom GPT store puts you in charge.

But for the purpose of putting your new creation into the GPT store, you want to choose Everyone. Click Confirm and you’ll see your new GPT creation come to life on the screen, ready for use by yourself and everyone else.

To edit access or make revisions, whenever you log into ChatGPT, click on the custom GPT you want to edit – which is now in your left sidebar. You’ll see the name of the GPT at the top, with a drop-down arrow you can click. Choose Edit GPT. You can make any changes you wish to see and then re- save it. So, if you want to take your time building your GPT and revising it to perfection before it goes live in the marketplace, you can do that.

You’ll go through the exact same process to Save it as before. For example, if I wanted to revise it to Only Me, I could save it again and it would tell me it’s now published and give me a URL to open the GPT, which is in my main ChatGPT dashboard.

Do you need to delete your new GPT? If so, go into edit mode again and up by the Save button, you’ll see three dots in a row. Click that and it will give you the choice to copy the link (if you’re sharing it with someone) or Delete GPT.

List Generating in the Custom GPT Store

If you delete it, it can’t be undone. Creating your own custom GPT is a great way to use the technology of artificial intelligence in a way that is highly tailored to your needs. But you can also use it as a teaching tool to help guide your customers and clients in what they need.

Marketers are always looking for innovative ways to grab the attention of their target audience and especially to get them on their list. There’s no better way to do this than to serve them with a tool that can fast-track their success – whether it’s in the marketing niche targeting affiliates or another niche with everyday consumers. Now you can prosper with list generating in the custom GPT store!

I’m author, publisher, and entrepreneur Connie Ragen Green and would love to connect with you. If you’re new to the world of online entrepreneurship and “inner game” thinking please check out my training on how to sell yourself at Sell Yourself and Your Stuff and learn how to gain an unfair advantage when it comes to building a lucrative online business. I’m here to serve you!