Automatic Content AI Agent Build Guide – 5th Grade Level

This is the 5th grade level AI agent build guide for automatic content creation.

Core Software & Tools

n8n (Workflow Automation)

  • Purpose: Orchestrate APIs, data processing, and triggers.
  • Cost: Free (self-hosted) or $20/month (n8n.cloud Starter Plan).
  • Link: n8n.io

OpenAI API (GPT-4 or GPT-3.5)

  • Purpose: Generate human-like text from scraped data.
  • Cost: 0.006–0.006–0.12 per 1k tokens (~750 words).
  • Link: OpenAI

Web Scraping Tool (Apify/ScrapingBee)

  • Purpose: Extract data from websites.
  • Cost:
    • Apify: Free tier (10k page credits/month), paid plans from $49/month.
    • ScrapingBee: $49/month (50k API calls).
  • Links: Apify | ScrapingBee

Data Storage (Airtable/Google Sheets)

  • Purpose: Store scraped data and final content.
  • Cost:
    • Airtable: Free (1k records), $12/month (Unlimited).
    • Google Sheets: Free.

CMS (WordPress/Contentful)

  • Purpose: Auto-publish generated content.
  • Cost:
    • WordPress: Free (self-hosted), $25/month (Managed Hosting).
    • Contentful: Free tier (5k records), paid from $489/month.

Server (Optional for Self-Hosting)

  • Purpose: Host n8n and databases.
  • Cost:
    • DigitalOcean: $5/month (Basic Droplet).
    • AWS EC2: $3.50/month (t4g.nano).

Step-by-Step Implementation

Set Up n8n

  1. Installation:
    • Self-Hosted:
      bash
      Copy
      npm install n8n -g   n8n start
    • Cloud: Sign up at n8n.cloud.
  2. Configure Credentials:
    • Add API keys for OpenAI, Apify, and CMS platforms under Credentials in the n8n UI.

Build the Workflow

Workflow Structure:

  1. Trigger:
    • Use a Schedule Trigger (e.g., daily) or Webhook to start the workflow.
  2. Web Research:
    • Apify/ScrapingBee Node:
      • Configure to scrape target URLs (e.g., news sites, blogs).
      • Example Parameters:
        json
        Copy
        {     "url": "https://example.com",     "extract_rules": { "content": "div.article-body" }  
        }
  3. Data Processing:
    • Code Node (Optional): Clean HTML/CSS from scraped text.
    • OpenAI Node:
      • Feed cleaned data to GPT-4 with a prompt like:
        Copy
        "Write a 500-word blog post summarizing this data: {scraped_text}"
  4. CMS Integration:
    • WordPress Node: Auto-publish the generated content.
      • Map OpenAI’s output to WordPress fields (title, body, tags).
  5. Error Handling:
    • Add IF Nodes to catch failures (e.g., API limits, empty data).
    • Use Telegram Node to send alerts to your phone.

Example Workflow

  1. Trigger → Apify → OpenAI → WordPress.
  2. Backup Path: Failed tasks → Google Sheets (for manual review).

Cost Breakdown

Tool
Monthly Cost
Notes
n8n.cloud
$20
Starter Plan (20 workflows).
OpenAI API
~$15
25k tokens/day (750k/month).
Apify
$49
100k page credits.
Airtable
$12
Unlimited records.
DigitalOcean
$5
Basic server.
Total
$101

Best Practices

  • Rate Limiting: Add delays between API calls to avoid bans.
  • Data Validation: Use Function Nodes to filter low-quality content.
  • Backups: Export workflows to JSON for version control.
  • Ethical Scraping: Respect robots.txt and avoid copyrighted content.

Advanced Features

  • Multi-Language Support: Use OpenAI’s language parameter.
  • SEO Optimization: Integrate SurferSEO API ($99/month) for keyword analysis.
  • Social Media Auto-Posting: Add Twitter/LinkedIn Nodes ($10/month via Zapier).

This setup lets you generate 10–20 articles/day with minimal manual input. Adjust based on your budget and scale!

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