TrendForge AI — Implementation Blueprint

0 | Quick Project Recap

Product Name: TrendForge AI
Main Flow: Scrape trends → Generate content via GPT‑4o → Render video & thumbnail → Publish to YouTube & WordPress → Social blast → Collect stats → Daily WhatsApp digest.
Value Prop: “Zero‑touch” content engine for small creators — cheaper & private vs. SaaS alternatives.
Pricing Strategy: $29/mo self‑host licence or $199 setup + $79/mo hosted plan.

1 | Infrastructure & Accounts

Core Stack
Component	Details / Rationale
DigitalOcean Droplet	Ubuntu 22.04, 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM (≈ $18/mo).
Docker + docker‑compose	Single‑file deployment of n8n, Caddy & Postgres.
Domain e.g. `trendforge.ai`	Points to droplet; Caddy auto‑issues Let’s Encrypt cert.
n8n (latest)	Automation engine, password‑protected.
PostgreSQL 15	Stores workflow + analytics data.
OpenAI API Key	GPT‑4o for text, DALL·E 3 for thumbnails.
Google Cloud project	Enable YouTube Data API v3 for uploads.
SerpApi (or pytrends)	Google Trends scraping without TOS headache.
WordPress blog	Author account + Application Password for REST calls.
Pictory / Runway API	Turns script → auto‑edited Short video.
Twilio WhatsApp	Daily performance digest.
Stripe	Recurring billing (Starter, Pro, Agency tiers).

2 | docker‑compose.yml (core services)

# ./docker-compose.yml
version: "3.8"
services:
  n8n:
    image: n8nio/n8n:latest
    restart: always
    environment:
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_ACTIVE=true
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_USER=${N8N_USER}
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=${N8N_PASS}
      - DB_TYPE=postgresdb
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_HOST=postgres
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_DATABASE=n8n
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_USER=n8n
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_PASSWORD=${PG_PASS}
      - N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY=${N8N_KEY}
      - WEBHOOK_URL=https://trendforge.ai/
    depends_on:
      - postgres
    volumes:
      - n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n
  postgres:
    image: postgres:15
    restart: always
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=${PG_PASS}
    volumes:
      - pg_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
  caddy:
    image: caddy:latest
    restart: always
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
    volumes:
      - caddy_data:/data
      - ./Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile
    depends_on:
      - n8n
volumes: { n8n_data: {}, pg_data: {}, caddy_data: {} }

3 | n8n Workflow — Node Map

3.1 Trigger Lane

Cron — every 60 min.
Set — inject Flow‑ID & timestamp.

3.2 Discover Lane

HTTP (SerpApi) — Google Trends: geo=PAK&date=today 1-d.
HTML Extract — pull rising topics.
IF — keep if matches niche keywords Sheet.
YouTube Search — resultCount for competition.
Set — compute score = trending_score / resultCount.

3.3 Content Generation Lane

OpenAI (“Blog Post”) — 300‑400 words, 3 emoji title.
OpenAI (“Short Script”) — 60‑sec storyboard.
OpenAI (“Thumbnail Prompt”) — minimalist style prompt.

3.4 Video + Thumbnail Lane

Pictory API — POST /render with script.
DALL·E 3 — 512×512 thumbnail.
Download — save to /tmp.

3.5 Publishing Lane

YouTube Upload — resumable upload + custom thumbnail.
WordPress REST — create & publish post.
Twitter/X — tweet video link + hashtags.

3.6 Analytics Lane

Cron 12 h — pull stats.
YouTube videos.list — views/likes.
Google Sheets — append row.
Twilio WhatsApp — send digest.

Important: For manual tests, pair Webhook (Respond → “Using Respond to Webhook node”) with a downstream Respond to Webhook node to avoid configuration errors.

4 | Testing Checklist

Unit: Execute each lane with sample input.
Quota Guard: IF → skip upload when YouTube quotaRemaining < 2000.
Sandbox Publish: Upload unlisted videos first.
Error Workflow: Global catch → Slack/WhatsApp alert.
Load Test: Cron every 5 min for 1 h → ensure CPU < 70 %.

5 | Packaging & Distribution

Export workflow → trendforge.json.
Create README.md (env vars, docker‑compose, 1‑click import).
Zip & upload to Gumroad.
Record 5‑min Loom onboarding video.
Stripe pricing page: Starter $29 → Pro $49 → Agency $99.
Licence webhook: n8n pings your licence API before each run.

6 | Go‑to‑Market Timeline (Day 0 → Day 30)

Day	Action
0 – 3	Finish MVP (script → draft blog).
4 – 6	Add Pictory render & YouTube upload.
7	WhatsApp digest + error handling polish.
8	Deploy docs + landing page (Framer).
9	Release free community edition in n8n forum.
10 – 14	Onboard 3 beta YouTubers via Discord.
15	Publish case study blog.
16	Launch on Product Hunt + X thread.
20	TikTok ads: $10/day → “beginner youtuber”.
25	Hit 20 paid seats → ~$580 MRR.
30	User survey → plan A/B title test (v1.1).

Metric	Starter Tier
Price	$29 / month
Hosting cost (self‑host)	$0
Your support time	≈ 1 h onboarding
Gross margin	≈ 100 %
Break‑even	34 seats → $1 000 MRR (covers your own infra & API bills)

9 | Maintenance & Scaling

Daily: Check YouTube quota remaining.
Weekly: Review OpenAI spend; switch heavy prompts to GPT‑4o‑mini if needed.
Monthly: Rotate API keys, update images (docker pull n8n:latest).
Scaling: Move n8n to worker ✚ queue mode; add Redis & node pool.

10 | Résumé Snippet

Copy–paste after launch:

Founder & Engineer — TrendForge AI (05/2025 – Present)
• Designed and commercialised a self‑hosted n8n + OpenAI automation that scrapes live trends, auto‑generates Shorts, blog posts and social teasers, boosting content output 4× for >40 micro‑creators.
• Implemented quota‑aware YouTube upload pipeline and WhatsApp analytics bot; achieved $X 000 MRR within 2 months.

TrendForge AI v1.0 Blueprint

0 | Quick Project Recap

1 | Infrastructure & Accounts

2 | docker‑compose.yml (core services)

3 | n8n Workflow — Node Map

3.1 Trigger Lane

3.2 Discover Lane

3.3 Content Generation Lane

3.4 Video + Thumbnail Lane

3.5 Publishing Lane

3.6 Analytics Lane

4 | Testing Checklist

5 | Packaging & Distribution

6 | Go‑to‑Market Timeline (Day 0 → Day 30)

7 | Revenue Model & Maths

8 | Legal & Compliance Snapshot

9 | Maintenance & Scaling

10 | Résumé Snippet