As I began my journey with Midjourney, I experienced a wave of confusion. Despite being tech-savvy, adept at handling complex algorithms and software, the realm of AI left me feeling utterly lost.

The initial struggle stemmed from my typical approach of jumping right in without reading the manual. Those lengthy guides often seem impossible to decipher; if a user has to read one, it usually indicates a flaw in the product. As a product manager with years of experience, I can attest to that.

But moving on...

When I opened Midjourney on my laptop, I was met with an unfamiliar interface that felt like uncharted territory. My gaze wandered aimlessly across the dashboard, and the empty prompt box seemed to challenge me to input something brilliant.

There’s a reason newbies have specific threads—trust me, starting there is essential.

I took the plunge, observing what others were creating. I focused particularly on images that aligned with my needs, which were for professional projects.

Initially, I assumed Midjourney was solely for fun and memes, but I quickly realized its potential for serious applications. As a digital marketer and content creator, I required images for various purposes: product designs, social media posts, and even backgrounds for articles.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the range of professional images generated in the community threads.

I began to study the prompts being used, noticing the appearance of commands prefixed with “--” and descriptions of styles I had never encountered before. This led me back to the manual—boring yet enlightening. To my relief, the relevant section was concise.

Here’s what I discovered:

1. Syntax rules: Start with image links, then the text prompt, followed by parameters with double dashes. Check out their documentation for serious AI usage; I decided to abandon my costly image and video tools to focus on this.
2. Use the “--ar” parameter for aspect ratios; for instance, I use “--ar 8:11” for coloring books.
3. The “--v” parameter allows version switching; I prefer “--v 4” for accuracy and “--v 5” for abstract concepts.
4. Use “--niji” for drawing or cartoon styles.
5. The command “tile” creates repeating background patterns.
6. Upload images to blend and use their links with the command “/blend”.
7. My personal favorite: the “/describe” command provides a textual description of an uploaded image, offering four variations to inspire similar creations. This feature has proven incredibly useful and time-efficient.

However, it’s crucial to note that Midjourney does not replicate uploaded images exactly, even with the describe command. I learned this lesson the hard way and saw others making the same mistake. You cannot overlay one image onto another without some graphic design skills—tools like Photoshop or PlaceIt are still necessary.

For example, I aimed to place this image:

onto this product mockup:

I aimed to design a bottle featuring a printed image of a girl in orange, but ended up with this version 4 result:

This was the closest I could achieve. To illustrate my point, here's what I generated with version 5.1:

Here are some practical examples from my experience:

1. New designs for my phone case shop:

   • Prompt: “plain simple flat, mother of pearl, flat texture, straight texture no waves, impressive photo, 3D, ultra close-up image. 3D hyper-realistic photo background. HD detail, white light photo, front shot, canon, 8k. Flat, background texture style --v 5 --ar 8:11”
   • Result:
   • One of the actual products:

2. An image for an article on Medium:

   • Prompt: “a baby trying to solve a cryptogram puzzle --v 5 --ar 11:8”

   • Result:

   • The actual article:

     title:	ChatGPT, You Are Wrong! Again! And Again…
     url:	https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/chatgpt-you-are-wrong-again-and-again

3. A line art for a coloring book:

   • Prompt: “coloring page for kids, fire breathing dragon in the sky, cartoon style, thick lines, low detail, no shading --ar 9:11 --niji”
   • Result:
   • Another example for an adult coloring book:
   • Prompt: “art mesmerizes with intricate colorful pen illustrations, of a full height body dragon, creating optical illusions and surreal depth through meticulous linework, captivating viewers with his intricate and imaginative creations. white background --ar 8:11”
   • Result:

These projects are still in progress, so no links yet. Feel free to copy my prompts and modify them to suit your needs.

The best part? I realize this is just the beginning. There’s still so much to explore and create with Midjourney, and I’m excited about the potential for monetization—each example I've shared can generate income with the help of AI. What are your thoughts?

P.S. For more insights on Midjourney, check out this article from a fellow writer:

title:	You’re Using Midjourney Wrong! Here’s How to Create Better Images than 99% of Midjourney Users
url:	https://artificialcorner.com/midjourney-prompt-guide

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