I thought I’d create three separate cartoons, to illustrate how my life has changed, from childhood to grandparenthood, in terms of discipline.
I was a nerdy child. Then a modern-ish tech mum. Now a nerdy grandma. Always with poor eyesight. Two boys, and now one granddaughter.
At the bottom I will put the exact prompts that I used.

Yup. I was a nerd. Books were sacred. I loved vegemite. Mum had cats-eye glasses and I had little gold wire-framed glasses.

Then I had kids. They loved Runescape. And yes, router control was king. (I had contacts, then lasik to briefly fix my eyes).

And now we all have phones, smart speakers, and instant answers. Is this how we’ll discipline?

Here are the exact prompts I entered into Gemini. The only tweak was to change the clothing (Gemini liked showing nudie echidnas with breasts….).

The Prompts

I’ve been enjoying the graphics being produced by Gemini/Nano Banana.
So I’d like to create three 3-panel cartoon to illustrate the graphic capabilities.
The story behind the cartoons is how discipline has changed over the years, for me (a geek)
The three cartoon periods are: me as a child, me as a mum, me as a new grandma.
I’d like to use three different art styles, illustrating the improving drawing capabilities over the years.
I’d like to use echidnas for the characters. No clothes, but using body shape/attitude and accessories to indicate age.
Target audience is smart parents, IT-savvy.

Cartoon 1:

Art style: slightly whimsical, thin outlines, moderately cheerful colours, watercolour wash
Mum echidna is slightly chubby, old-fashioned, cat-eyed glasses.
Child echidna (me, a quiet nerd, little round gold-rimmed wire glasses, always books nearby).

Title: When I was a kid, discipline was:
(panel 1) Go to your room (showing mum echidna pointing to the bedroom, 1 girl echidna hanging head in shame, walking towards bedroom, holding book)
(panel 2) No vegemite for you! (showing mum echidna in kitchen with arms folded, 1 girl echidna sitting at kitchen table with sad faces and a plate with plain bread on it)
(panel 3) NO BOOKS (showing mum echidna with arms on hips, 1 girl echidna with absolutely distraught face)

Cartoon 2:

Art style: modern, thin outlines, moderately-cheerful full colours (not watercolour wash)
Mum echidna (now me), fit, modern, no glasses but still a geek
Child echidnas – two young boy echidnas, always a laptop nearby, blond hair

Title: When I was a mum, discipline was:
(panel 1) Go to your room (showing mum echidna pointing to the bedroom, 2 boy echidnas handing heads in shame, walking towards bedroom, holding laptops)
(panel 2) No runescape (showing two boy echidnas sitting at desks with laptops showing runescape scenes, boys have shock look on faces)
(panel 3) I’LL DELETE YOU FROM THE ROUTER (showing mum echidna with arms on hips, 2 boy echidnas with absolute horror facial and body expressions)

Cartoon 3:

Art style: stylised 3D, moderately cheerful colours, modern tech home
Grandma echidna (me, with granny glasses sliding down nose, older body stance but still trim – can you show my hair in a granny chignon?, wearing black shorts and gray singlet top, smart watch)
Child echidna – little granddaughter echidna with pink ribbon

Title: Now I’m a grandma, I think I’ll use:
(panel 1) Go to your room (showing grandma echidna pointing to the bedroom, little granddaughter hanging head in shame, walking towards bedroom, holding smart phone)
(panel 2) I’m turning off Alexa/Siri/Gemini (showing grandma standing using her phone to change settings, with granddaughter trying to talk to smart tablet on table, looking in shock at no response)
(panel 3) I’ve set AI to “extra slow thinking mode” (showing granddaughter lying on ground in shock, arms out, with night sky and stars visible outside)

I hope you enjoy it. If you do, feel welcome to:

The post Geek Nan – creating cartoons with Gemini appeared first on GeekMum.

But Claude has the reputation as the best code-building tool, particularly for enterprise. I’ve met people who loved it. I still have a free account, but today I wanted to see just how easy it was to create an app. Without code. We do pub trivia, and there are certain types of questions that come up again and again. Capital cities. Collective nouns. James Bond movies. Shakespeare plays. So my prompt/requirements for Claude were:

• I want an app that can run on my phone, offline
• I want to be able to study facts on specific topics
• I also want it to run like a quiz
• Can you build this with one click?

Claude replied by saying that I really just needed an HTML page. Easy to download as a file, and easy to setup as a shortcut on my phone.
Claude built the app – just a single HTML file with embedded CSS and JS. Beautifully. I tweaked it a bit. – added another category, and asked it to increase the number of questions – eg all of the countries of the world instead of just 50.
It downloaded, and just worked.

There was one thing I didn’t like – the “Next” button, for the next quiz button, required scrolling. So I pretended to be a coder, and tweaked the CSS terribly, so that it would fit on my screen. It’s no longer elegant, but avoids scrolling. (I’ve used the original version with nicer padding and margins on this page).
Claude gave me instructions on how to add it as an app – but it didn’t work. So I went to Gemini (given that I have a Google phone), and followed the instructions there.

So here it is – but embedded onto my web page as an iframe.

Here are the instructions from Gemini on how to install this as an “app” on your phone. I had tried simply opening it from Google Drive, but the Pixel blocked local Javascript from working properly. But if I downloaded the HTML file to my Downloads folder, and opened with Chrome browser, it was perfect. So I just needed a shortcut for that.

1. Download the free app Shortcut Maker (by Rushikesh Kamewar) from the Google Play Store.
2. Open the app and tap Files.
3. It will open your Pixel’s system file picker. Tap your HTML quiz file from your Downloads folder.
4. On the next screen, you will see a preview of your shortcut. Tap Shortcut Launcher (under the “Advanced” settings section if it doesn’t show automatically) and ensure it is set to open with Chrome.
5. Tap Change Label to type in the name of your quiz.
6. Tap the big blue Create Shortcut button.

This puts an icon on your home screen that forces Chrome to open your local file perfectly, keeping all the quiz functionality intact.

I hope you enjoy it. If you do, feel welcome to:

The post Building a trivia app with Claude appeared first on GeekMum.

This post contains two comics about GeekMum. One was a completely automated 4 panel comic – using a standard single prompt that lots of people were using.

The second comic was more planned. A 6 panel comic where I wrote the script and style myself. Again, it was a single draft – I didn’t make any revisions. But it was more about discovering the correct process, to make it repeatable for future comics, if I chose to use ChatGPT. I’m in two minds – I will test Canva next time, to see if I like the output.
Either way, I hope this post helps you.

Why Comics?

They’re a powerful medium – fun, expressive, and capable of blending humour and insight in just a few panels. More fun than your average blog post.

I’ve always loved art. Despite being a maths nerd for years, art ended up being my best subject in the HSC – and got me into my IT degree. (Alongside chemistry, French, English etc).
30 years ago I wrote a book for my kids – but wasn’t happy with my illustrations and didn’t publish it. And there’s an adventure story lurking, waiting to be released.

But like many projects, the barrier wasn’t ideas. It was time. Patience. Drawing skills.

So instead of putting pen to paper, I decided to experiment with AI to shortcut the visual process, focus on storytelling, and see just how fast I could go from idea to finished strip.

The bandwagon comic

I jumped on the bandwagon last month, where everyone was asking ChatGPT to create a comic based on what it knew about you.
The prompt really was simply “create a four panel comic that you think I’d enjoy based on what you know about me”.
And ChatGPT seems to know a fair bit.

I thought this was pretty cool. Scary how accurate it was – I had spent the week updating my GeekMum plugins, doing AI courses, comparing ChatGPT, Google and Perplexity, talking about coffee, talking about a friend’s dog called Moose. And I liked that it thought I was an AEO queen. But wasn’t fond of the drab colouring, and how the coffee cup changed in the third panel.

The custom comic. Step 1: Research

For my next comic, I started by researching how other creators were combining artificial intelligence with cartooning. These were some useful posts/articles:

• How to Create Comic Pages Using ChatGPT
• Create Comic Strips with AI
• Top Animated Art Styles for ChatGPT
• Canva Comic Strip Maker
• https://muddyum.net/i-asked-chatgpt-to-write-me-a-comic-storyboard-which-i-then-illustrated-3b983b8a7826

Ultimately, I chose to start with ChatGPT for speed and ease of scripting.

Step 2: Analysing style and tone

To establish a consistent look and feel, I used ChatGPT to analyse a few comics I admired.
The objective was to identify the terminology (aka prompt) to describe my cartoon skill – in a repeatable way.

I asked ChatGPT to break each example down by:

• Colour palette
• Panel layout
• Styling and linework
• Characters and expressions
• Narrative transitions

This helped me define my own style before generating anything.

Step 3: Planning the Comic Strip

Once I had the style and tone of voice, I moved onto the content.
I brainstormed ideas for the next few comics, potentially a day-in-the-life series, eg:

• geekmum
• my garden
• the magpies
• the pool
• a snake
• the hamlet
• the hippie town
• the influencer town

Then for the first comic, I planned each panel as follows:

• visual setting eg rainforest in distant background
• character positions eg at laptop
• dialogue eg hi, I’m GeekMum
• any effects eg unused pencils on desk
• any captions

Step 4: Generating the Comic with ChatGPT

With my script ready, I fed it into ChatGPT’s image generation tool (GPT-4o with image capabilities), including the detailed instructions for layout, mood, and tone. The result is below:

Is it what I wanted? No. But it’s done.
ChatGPT got a little confused about my soprano sax – it isn’t curved like an alto sax, and it’s actually purple.
One hobby was supposed to be growing bush foods. Another was learning Swedish. I don’t like the line breaks. And this was the first draft – I didn’t make any revisions.

But it took less than 2 hours from idea to image, so that’s a win in my book.

What Worked – and What I’ll Do Differently

This was a proof of concept – whether I could go from idea to visual story quickly using AI tools.

The answer was yes – but not without tradeoffs.

• Speed: Excellent. Once the setup was in place, it was fast.
• Creative control: Limited. I couldn’t tweak individual panels the way I wanted.
• Polish: It’s OK – but I missed the design control of tools like Canva.

For the next strip, I plan to prototype in ChatGPT but build the final version in Canva for more visual refinement.

Final Thoughts: How Long Should It Take?

This whole experiment was driven by impatience. If you know what you want to say, how long should it take to write a blog post – or draw a cartoon?
My last blog post took around 3 hours to write, and I was champing at the bit to finish.
If I was drawing by hand, it would take me at least 4 hours to get semi-close, and I probably still wouldn’t be happy.

With AI, once I’m into a rhythm, with brand colours and style saved, it should be a lot faster.

The post Creating a comic strip with ChatGPT appeared first on GeekMum.

Just build user-focused, high-quality creative content that genuinely answers questions and provides value.    

That’s always been the goal of good SEO on a good website. Now it just needs packaging in a way that LLMs and answer engines can understand.

So What Is AEO?

AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimisation. It’s the process of making your content easier for AI-powered platforms – like Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Bing Copilot, and Perplexity – to understand, extract, and present your site as a trusted source when responding to a user’s question.

Unlike traditional SEO, which aims to rank your website for a specific keyword in a list of ten blue links, AEO is about helping your content be the answer. It’s what allows a paragraph from your blog post, a bullet list from your how-to guide, or a definition from your FAQ to appear inside the AI’s response – without the user necessarily clicking through to your site.

Search is evolving into a more conversational, answer-driven experience. These answer engines rely on:

• Clear structure
• Accurate, user-focused information
• Recognisable topical authority

If your content is written and formatted to directly address common user questions – using proper headings, FAQs, summaries, and list formats – it stands a much better chance of being surfaced in these AI-generated responses.

Think of AEO as the next evolution of SEO: moving beyond ranking to being referenced. Luckily, many of the foundational SEO practices already implemented can set you up for success in this new environment.

Personally I’m enjoying AI – it saves me time reading through 10 sites of varying quality to find the real gems. And helps me clarify my thoughts into a simple written response (although I already thought that was one of my super powers).

But it means your content needs to be not only good, but also structured and visible in the ways that AI models understand.

How to optimise pages for AI

Step 1: You need a content strategy

First ask yourself why are you creating this piece of content. Who are you trying to help? What problem are you solving? What is the call-to-action? Is there enough detail to demonstrate your expertise? Is this a pillar page or supporting page? How often can you write about this topic?

The benefits of a content strategy are:

• It builds topical depth: Search engines and LLMs favour sites that cover a subject comprehensively, not just superficially.
• It aids consistent publishing: A content calendar helps you stay on track, rather than posting reactively or sporadically.
• It reinforces expertise: Clustering content around sub-themes builds authority in your niche.
• It improves discoverability: Interlinking between articles shows search engines and visitors how your topics relate and creates a web of relevance.
• It sets you up for repurposing: Once you have structured hubs, it’s easier to turn blog content into videos, newsletters, or social posts. Consistency in your niche builds topical authority.

Step 2: Structure your content for AI visibility

A well-structured page is key. Not just for SEO crawlers, but also for LLMs trying to make sense of your site in milliseconds.
Here’s a sample structure for an AI-Friendly blog post:

• H1: Your main headline (clearly stating the topic)
• Opening summary paragraph: What this post is about and why it matters
  • H2: What is [your topic]?
  • H2: Key benefits or advantages
  • H2: Step-by-step guide or how-to
    • H3: Individual step details
    • H3: Next step details
  • H2: Deep dive or real-world application
  • H2: Common questions (FAQ style)
  • H2: Summary takeaways (dot points)

This format helps LLMs extract structured, clean information for users. Even if a user never clicks through, AI may quote your content—which builds authority and trust.

Step 3: Use Schema Markup (Structured Data)

Go beyond the basics. You’ll need your developer involved here (or a good plugin). Use schema markup to help AI engines understand your different types of content:

• FAQ schema for Q&As
• How To tags for step-by-step guides
• Article/BlogPosting schema for regular posts
• Product/Merchant schema for products to appear in shopping engines
• LocalBusiness schema for individual store locations
• Organisation schema for businesses
• Video schema for video search

Step 4: Focus on user experience

Congratulations. You appeared in an AI answer and they clicked through to your site.
Now make the website experience SO good, it makes them want to come back, read more articles, signup for your newsletter, buy your product.

• Refresh your theme – make your site looked modern and cared-for.
• Provide a summary at the top – they may be short of time, and you only have a few seconds to get their attention/interest anyway.
• Demonstrate your topic expertise. Show your visitor they’ve come to the right place.
• Create clear, concise content that’s easy to read
• Break up large blocks of content with images, videos, infographics.
• Publish regularly – at least one blog post per month, and preferably more, to show that you stay up-to-date.

Step 5: Traditional SEO practices still matter

Don’t need to throw out your SEO playbook. But you do need to adjust it for the way AI is now evaluating content. These traditional factors do still matter:

• Domain Authority: Try to get links from trusted domains to feed AI confidence. Make sure you exist on key industry, business and local directories
• Internal Linking: Build topical relationships and clarity
• Keyword Relevance: Focus on topic authority rather than keyword density
• Backlinks: Only helpful if high quality and relevant
• Content Freshness: Timely updates keep content visible
• Page Load & Accessibility: Helps humans and crawlers alike

Add extra content types such as images, videos and PDFs so that you can be found via image search, and video search.
Prepare your images wisely, with meaningful filenames, small filesizes to load quickly, concise image alt tags for discoverability and accessibility.
Prepare your videos wisely, with meaningful video names, descriptions, thumbnails and transcripts.
PDFs do get indexed, so use meaningful filenames and titles, and provide meta tags inside the PDF.

Local SEO is still huge. Claim your local business profile for every location, on Google and Business.
Maximise the content, filling in every possible field, service type and service area.
Upload photos of the outside and inside of your business.
Respond to reviews.
Use updates, promotions and product sections of the local listing.

Step 6: Get people talking and sharing

AI doesn’t just rely on traditional links from authority sites.
Your brand might be gaining visibility even without actual clickable backlinks – as long as it’s being mentioned in the right places – on public, crawlable platforms. Even better when you have a recognisable brand name that doesn’t rely on links to be found.
You don’t have to go viral – although it definitely helps. Historically good SEOs have always recommended creating such awesome content that people voluntarily share it as a quality resource, on:

• Public Facebook and Instagram Pages
• LinkedIn
• Reddit
• Quora
• X (Twitter)
• Medium
• Substack
• Industry blog posts
• Wikipedia

It can be hard when you start out and nobody knows you exist yet.
Consider paid advertising to raise brand awareness and generate those lovely mentions and links on other sites:

• Paid Google Ads (Display and Video Ads for maximum affordable awareness and reach)
• Paid Meta Ads (Use multiple formats (display, carousel, video for relevant audiences)
• LinkedIn Ads (For B2B businesses)

Reviews are more important than ever.
Make sure you claim your website profile on Trustpilot and other review platforms.
Respond to every negative review and offer to resolve their issues. Thank people for positive reviews.

Step 7: Measure and monitor your successes

• Start with a Measurement Plan – documenting your objectives, KPIs, analytics approach, conversion goals, campaign naming standards.
• Implement Analytics tracking – whether it’s Google Analytics, Matomo or other – track your traffic sources, page engagement and conversions
• Build a reporting dashboard – it’s the most efficient way to summarise how your site is performing (traffic, conversions, engagement)
• Focus on conversions rather than keyword rankings. That’s the key thing changing for SEOs. Your Google rankings WILL be dropping as people move to AI.
• Track brand mentions and sentiment. Perform a brand audit – does AI see you the way you intended? Are people saying positive or negative things about you?
• Use a heatmap. When people come to a page, what do they click on? What do they scroll past? Are there any rage clicks?
• Track which pages receive traffic from AI. Analyse what worked, can it be improved further and applied to other pages.
• Monitor page engagement. If people bounce (leave the site after visiting one page), can that page be improved? Or is it not worth saving, and should be redirected to a better page?

Summary

AI in search rewards clarity, structure, and expertise. Focus on human-first content that’s easy for people to read, and for machines to understand.
If you build it (properly), they will come :)

For fun, here’s a terrible diagram I butchered in Canva. It can only get better from here.
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The post AEO: How to Optimise for AI appeared first on GeekMum.

https://farmgatefoodlovers.com.au/

A little site I built during the Christmas holidays of 2020 when covid struck.

When we first moved to Goonengerry we were amazed at the awesome roadside food stalls, particularly on our own road. One day when my garden is finished, we’ll have one too.

So this is meant to be a directory of farm gate food stalls, farm doors and other home-based food producers. One day I may even finish it…

The post Farm Gate Food Lovers appeared first on GeekMum.