Trial Task: Publish a Blog Post in WordPress

Welcome. This is a paid trial task. Complete it well and you’ll be considered for ongoing VA work with our agent network. You should be able to finish in under 60 minutes. Your deadline is 48 hours from when you received your credentials email.

What You’re Doing

We’re going to give you a finished blog post (HTML). Your job is to log in to this WordPress site and create a new draft post using the WordPress editor — exactly the way our real subscribers’ VAs do it every week.

This is the actual production workflow: agents pay us to generate AI blog content (Blog Writer 4.0), and they need a reliable VA to log in to their WordPress site, paste the content into the editor, format it cleanly, and save it as a draft for the agent to review and publish.

Your Credentials

Your credentials were sent to you in the welcome email (subject: “Your AgentSpotlight Trial Task — credentials inside”). You’ll need:

• Your username (looks like va-yourname)
• Your password (the long auto-generated string in the email)
• The Login URL (also in the email)

If you can’t find that email, check spam, then write to support@agentspotlight.ai with your full name. Do not share these credentials with anyone.

Step 1: Get the Blog Content

This is the post you’ll publish. It’s a real Blog Writer 4.0 output for a fictional San Diego real estate agent (Scott Cheng). Use the HTML exactly — don’t edit, rewrite, or reformat the words. We’re testing your delivery, not your editorial judgment.

⬇ Download trial-task-sample.html

The post title to use:

Walkable San Diego Neighborhoods for First-Time Buyers Priced Out of North Park

Step 2: Log In to WordPress

1. Open the Login URL from your email (it ends in /wp-login.php).
2. Enter your username and password.
3. You should land on the WordPress dashboard. If you see a “Howdy, va-yourname” greeting in the top-right corner, you’re in.

Step 3: Create a New Post

1. In the left sidebar, click Posts → Add New Post.
2. You’ll see the WordPress editor. The exact look depends on which editor is enabled (Block Editor / Gutenberg, or Classic).
3. In the title field at the top, paste the title from Step 1.

Step 4: Paste the HTML Body

You need to paste the HTML as code, not as visual content, or WordPress will scramble the formatting. Use one of the methods below depending on your editor:

If you see the Block Editor (Gutenberg)

1. Click the three-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the editor.
2. Select Code editor (or press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+M / Cmd+Shift+Alt+M).
3. You’ll now see a plain text box. Open the downloaded trial-task-sample.html in a text editor (Notepad, TextEdit, VS Code), select all (Ctrl+A / Cmd+A), copy it, and paste it into the WordPress Code editor.
4. Switch back to the Visual editor (same three-dot menu → “Visual editor”) to confirm the headings, paragraphs, and links rendered correctly.

If you see the Classic Editor

1. In the editor toolbar, click the Text tab (top-right of the editor, next to “Visual”).
2. Open the downloaded trial-task-sample.html in a text editor, select all, copy, and paste it into the Text tab.
3. Click the Visual tab to confirm the formatting rendered correctly.

⚠️ Important: Do NOT paste the HTML directly into the Visual editor. It’ll strip tags, mangle the structure, and you’ll lose points on the rubric. Always paste in the Code/Text view first, then switch to Visual to verify.

Step 5: Save as Draft

1. Click Save Draft in the top-right corner of the editor.
2. You should see “Draft saved” or a similar confirmation.
3. Do not click Publish. Your account is a Contributor — it cannot publish anyway. If WordPress shows a “Submit for Review” button instead of Publish, that’s normal — but still use Save Draft.

Step 6: Submit Your Result

Once the draft is saved, reply to your welcome email with:

1. The URL of your draft (you’ll see it in the browser address bar after saving — looks like .../wp-admin/post.php?post=NN&action=edit).
2. A screenshot of the WordPress editor showing your draft with the content visible.
3. How long the task took you (rough is fine).
4. Any issues you hit and how you solved them.

Scoring Rubric — How We Evaluate Your Submission

Your draft is scored on six points:

1. Title accuracy — Did you use the exact title from the sample? (1 pt)
2. Heading structure preserved — All H1, H2, H3 tags intact and in order? (1 pt)
3. Links preserved — All hyperlinks present and pointing to the right URLs? (1 pt)
4. Body word count — Within 5% of the original (~1,800 words)? (1 pt)
5. Status is Draft — Not published, not pending, draft? (1 pt)
6. Speed of completion — Saved within 48 hours of credential issuance? (1 pt)

Pass threshold: 5 of 6. Below that, we’ll thank you for your time. At or above, we’ll be in touch about paid work.

Common Issues

• “Sorry, you are not allowed to publish posts” — Expected. Use Save Draft instead of Publish. Contributors can save drafts but cannot publish.
• Headings look like plain text after paste — You pasted in Visual mode. Undo (Ctrl+Z / Cmd+Z) and re-paste in the Code/Text view.
• Links got removed — Same fix. Always paste HTML in Code/Text view, then switch to Visual to verify.
• Image-related fields are blank — That’s fine. The sample post is text + links only, no featured image required.

Questions?

Write to support@agentspotlight.ai with your full name in the subject line. We typically reply within one business day.

This is a fictional training environment. The agent profile referenced is not a real person. The site is set to noindex,nofollow and disallowed in robots.txt. Drafts may be deleted between candidate cohorts.