If you haven't tried Midjourney yet, or have been using it for a while but every time the output looks like it was "drawn with your eyes closed" — this article is for you.

We've put together a guide on how to work with the neural network so you get decent images. Plus we shared useful life hacks and interesting marketing case studies.

A quick refresher on Midjourney, in case you forgot what it is

It's a neural network that generates images based on a text description. The project was founded in February 2022, and became available to users in August of that same year. But the hype around this AI only took off in early 2023 — the internet filled up with generated art that resembled the work of gifted artists and designers.

Midjourney runs on algorithms capable of recognizing speech and creating images. It's these algorithms that understand written text and turn it into pictures. The neural network only understands text in English.

A key advantage of Midjourney is its huge range of settings: you can change the illustration's aspect ratio, generate images from scratch or based on an existing photo, change the size, improve image quality, and much more.

Since April 2023, the neural network has become fully paid. The developers temporarily closed free access due to the many fake photos created with the bot. Some of them: the arrest of Donald Trump and a stylish look for Pope Francis.

How to get access

It's quite simple, and you won't even need to turn on a VPN.

The neural network doesn't have its own app. It runs through Discord. So the first thing you need to do is install Discord on your computer or laptop. If you already have it — great.

Now you need to follow the invite link — it will take you to Discord. And click the "Join" button.

Done.

How to generate images

Connecting to Midjourney is half the battle. Next you need to figure out where and how to generate content. Here's how.The server has three main information channels: announcements with news from the developers, status with notifications about technical issues, rules with usage rules. Plus several additional ones.All the magic happens in the newcomer rooms channels — specifically in the chats of the newbies channel

To generate an illustration, you need to:

Go into any newbies chat.

Type the /imagine command.

Choose the promt setting — it appears automatically after you type /imagine.

Write a prompt in English and press Enter.

The bot will notify you that you first need to get a subscription. It starts at $8, and, by the way, you can only pay with a foreign card.

And if you have a subscription — the bot will give you the generated art.

Now let's go into more detail on how to write a good prompt.

How to build the right prompts

The first thing you should know is: don't try to talk to the AI like it's a person. It's smart, but not smart enough to understand ordinary human speech. If you write a huge, complicated sentence: "Draw a black raccoon in the style of Van Gogh's paintings, sitting on the grass and eating sausage" — the AI won't understand you and will draw something completely different.

The ideal prompt follows the formula /imagine promt A+B+C, whereA — a description of what you want to see in the image, and its details.B — the style of the future image.C — the size and quality of the content.

Example prompt

tiny cute adorable ginger tabby kitten studio light —ar 16:9 —q 2

A few tips

  • Avoid negations: "without", "not", "except", and the like.
  • Write simply.
  • Experiment with the structure. We told you about the basic A+B+C formula, but maybe you'll discover an even better formula for prompt success.

Life hack

Delegate writing prompts to specialized services. There are now plenty of programs that help you write good prompts. Noonshot is one of them.

How to use Midjourney in email marketing

You can not only play around and create funny pictures with Midjourney, but also bring it into your work processes.

  • The neural network can replace stock photo sites. Instead of spending an hour searching for a suitable picture across stock photo sites, give Midjourney the right prompt, and in a minute it will produce a great, and most importantly, relevant illustration.
  • The bot can be a "muse" for new ideas. If you need top-notch creative featuring instant noodles, and you're completely out of ideas — turn to the AI. Define the content's "main character", style, and additional details — a table, nature, or space. Then see what the neural network comes up with. A couple of tries, and you'll land on an interesting reference.
  • You can also save money with the neural network. If you've already gotten good at creating cool illustrations, you can put that skill to genuinely useful work. Midjourney generates content quite cheaply — giving it the task will definitely be cheaper than outsourcing the illustration to a graphic designer.

Another life hack

If you've hit a dead end and don't know how to phrase the right prompt, and the service isn't helping anymore — there's another solution. Find a picture online that's similar to the one you want to generate. Download it. Then go into the newbies chat and type the /describe command. You'll be able to attach a file — add your reference there and click "Send". Midjourney will give you the prompt it would use to create such a picture. Copy the prompt, paste it, and send it to the bot. Or tweak it to fit your request. Done.

Conclusions

Generating good content in Midjourney isn't that hard. The main thing is to know the basics and not be afraid to experiment with your prompts, their structure, and content.It's just a shame the neural network became paid. And when free access will return — nobody knows. We're waiting.