Installing AI Content Generator on a fresh WordPress site takes about five minutes and follows the same path as any premium WordPress plugin: download the ZIP, upload it through Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, activate, paste the license key, and configure the AI provider. The steps are simple but the order matters — get the license activated before you try to save your first campaign and everything works. Get it wrong and you spend an hour wondering why the “Generate content for selected titles” button is greyed out.
This tutorial walks through the entire install workflow end-to-end: where to download the ZIP, how to upload it via the WordPress admin, the activation flow, where to enter the license key, and the sanity checks after activation. It also covers the three server requirements the plugin verifies (PHP 7.4+, WordPress 6.0+, cURL/HTTPS outbound) and what to do when one of them is missing.
By the end you’ll have AI Content Generator installed, activated, licensed and ready to configure. The plugin will appear in the left sidebar of the WordPress admin as its own top-level menu with sub-pages for Dashboard, Campaigns, Calendar, Settings, License and Logs.
Before you start — server prerequisites
The plugin runs on any modern WordPress hosting stack but there are three hard requirements. PHP 7.4 or newer — the plugin uses namespaced classes and typed properties that older PHP versions don’t support. WordPress 6.0 or newer — required for the block editor integration the plugin uses on the campaign editor. Outbound HTTPS to api.openai.com, api.anthropic.com and generativelanguage.googleapis.com — required to call the AI providers.
Check PHP and WordPress versions in Tools → Site Health → Info. If either is below the minimum, upgrade before installing the plugin. To check outbound HTTPS, ask your host or run a quick wp eval "echo wp_remote_get('https://api.openai.com')['response']['code'];" over WP-CLI — a 200 response means outbound calls work.
Step 1 — Download the ZIP from your account area
Log in to your account at ai-contentgenerator.com/my-account/. Under Downloads you’ll find the latest version of the plugin as a ZIP file. Click Download to save it locally. The filename follows the pattern ai-content-generator-vX.Y.Z.zip — the version is embedded in the filename so you can always tell which version you’re installing.
The same page shows your license key. Copy it now and paste it into a password manager alongside the download. You’ll need it in step 4 to activate the plugin after installation. Losing the key is not catastrophic — you can always regenerate it from the account area — but keeping it handy saves a trip.
Step 2 — Upload and install via WordPress admin
Open your WordPress admin. Go to Plugins → Add New. At the top of the page click the Upload Plugin button. A file input appears — click Choose File and pick the ai-content-generator-vX.Y.Z.zip you downloaded at step 1. Click Install Now.
WordPress extracts the ZIP into /wp-content/plugins/ai-content-generator/ and shows a success page after 5–10 seconds (depending on server speed). If you see a “Destination folder already exists” error, an older version is installed — deactivate and delete the old copy first, then repeat this step with the new ZIP.
Step 3 — Activate the plugin
On the success page after upload, click Activate Plugin. Alternatively, go to Plugins → Installed Plugins and find AI Content Generator in the list. Click the Activate link below the plugin name.
Activation triggers three actions: the plugin creates its custom post type as_snella_campaign, adds its top-level menu to the WordPress admin sidebar, and prompts you to enter a license key. A yellow banner at the top of the page usually reads “Please activate your AI Content Generator license” with a link straight to the License page.
Step 4 — Enter your license key
Click the banner or navigate manually to AI Content Generator → License. The license page has a single text field labelled License key. Paste the key you copied at step 1 and click Activate license.
The plugin contacts our license server to validate the key. Within a few seconds the page reloads with a green status: License active, together with the plan name (Single / Pro / Agency) and the expiration date. If you see a red error, the key is wrong (check for extra spaces) or the plan is expired (renew from your account area).
Step 5 — Configure your first AI provider
With the license active, go to AI Content Generator → Settings. Scroll to the OpenAI (GPT) section, paste your OpenAI API key, pick a model (GPT-4o Mini is a good default), leave the temperature at 0.3 and click Save settings. The Connection status row turns green with “OpenAI: configured”.
You can (and should) also configure Anthropic Claude and Google Gemini in the same page — they’re all optional but having multiple providers configured means you can override per campaign or fall back when one hits a rate limit. Each provider has its own API key field and model selector.
Step 6 — Verify the install with a smoke test
Create a test campaign to confirm everything works end-to-end. Go to AI Content Generator → Campaigns → Add New. Give it a name like “Install smoke test”, pick a category, type one test title in the Manual titles textarea (e.g. “Test article — install verification”), leave everything else default, click Generate content for selected titles.
Within 20–40 seconds a draft post appears in Posts → Drafts. Open it: you should see a full-length article with H2 sections and paragraphs. If you do, the install is verified. Delete the test campaign and the test draft; you’re ready to build your real editorial pipeline.
Troubleshooting the most common install issues
- “Destination folder already exists” — an old copy is installed. Deactivate, delete via Plugins page, retry upload.
- Upload fails with “The link you followed has expired” — the ZIP is larger than your PHP
upload_max_filesize. Ask your host to raise it to at least 16 MB, or use FTP/SFTP to drop the extracted folder directly into/wp-content/plugins/. - Activation shows a PHP error — your PHP version is below 7.4. Upgrade PHP in your hosting panel.
- License activation returns “License server unreachable” — outbound HTTPS is blocked. Ask your host to allow
ai-contentgenerator.com. - Menu doesn’t appear after activation — a plugin conflict. Deactivate other custom plugins one by one and re-check.
You’re done
That’s the full install: download ZIP from your account, upload via Plugins → Add New, activate, paste license key, configure an AI provider, run a smoke test campaign. Total time: 5–10 minutes on a healthy hosting environment.
From here every subsequent article is about configuring the plugin the way your editorial calendar needs — providers, tone presets, scheduling, categories, Live News Mode. The install itself is a one-time step and never needs to be repeated unless you migrate the site to new hosting.