0130
Introducing Yourself to a Global Audience
An introductory post or an About Me page. Introduce who you are, say what the blog will be about, and give a stranger a reason to come back.
In the book Your Digital Home
What you are building
One professional WordPress blog, maintained from Week 2 to Week 15, answering nine prompts in public.
The part most people get wrong
Nine essays uploaded to a website is not a blog. A blog is a body of work with a point of view, read by someone who did not have to click. Ninety percent of web pages get no organic traffic from Google (Ahrefs, 2020). The ones that do get read are not always the best written. They all obey the same structural rules.
Learn the rules. Then write better than everyone who did not bother.
The nine standards
Every post is held against these. Parts 1a, 1b and 1c, made checkable.
- 01One niche, held all semesterA niche is not a limitation. It is the reason someone subscribes. "Lifestyle" is not a niche. "Fashion, travel AND food" is not a niche. Nobody subscribes to everything.
- 02Three pillars, and everything sits under oneYour niche splits into three recurring themes. A post that belongs to none of them belongs to a different blog.
- 03Written for the scan, then the read79% scan before they read. Short paragraphs, real subheadings, bold on the load-bearing sentence. Write for the scan, then reward the read. The 9 C's are the standard, not a suggestion.
- 04Blog voice, not academic voiceAcademic voice explains. Blog voice addresses. If a sentence would survive unchanged in a term paper, rewrite it.
- 05E-E-A-T, and the first E is yoursExperience is the one thing a model cannot fake and a classmate cannot borrow. Name what you have actually done, seen, eaten, played, failed at. Claims are cheap. Proof travels.
- 06Five on-page elements, every postTitle tag, meta description, one H1, descriptive slug, alt text on every image. No exceptions. This is the part of your grade that is simply checkable, so there is no excuse for losing it.
- 07A headline that earns the clickEight of ten read the headline. Two read the rest (Copyblogger). It is the most leveraged sentence you will write this semester and the least practised. Write ten. Keep one.
- 08A story, not a list of factsBefore–After–Bridge, or another structure you can name out loud. High-arousal content gets shared far more (Berger). Facts inform. Stories travel.
- 09Published, on time, in publicAn unpublished draft scores zero. A post published the night before I mark scores what it is worth, and loses the readers it was written for.
How the prompts work
The prompt gives you the subject. This page gives you the standard. Both apply. Full briefs and rubrics are on the LMS.
Weeks 2 to 15 · Nine posts
Where to find each week's prompt
Open the LMS at the week you are in, or use the nine cards below. Each prompt gives you the subject, the length, and what it is marked on. They are released in sequence, not all at once. The sequence is the point: each one assumes you did the one before it.
One post per week
Published live
Weeks 2–15
Non-negotiable
What every submission must include
The live URL. The five on-page elements in place. At least one image, infographic or meme you made yourself, with alt text. A named pillar. And one sentence only you could have written: something you did, saw, or got wrong.
Live URL required
Original image
Alt text
The nine posts
What each one asks for, and what it is actually marked on. The full brief and rubric for every post live on the LMS.
0250
Review Post
A book, a film, or a restaurant — something inside your niche. Not just thorough: a review that stops the scroll and gets finished. A review no one reads is a review that does not exist.
In the book Write a Review People Finish
0370
The "E-A-T" Post
Build authority in your niche. The reader should finish it believing you actually know this subject. Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness are each marked separately.
In the book Why Should Anyone Believe You?
0470
The Listicle
A list post that earns its length. Every item worth its own line — a numbered list of obvious things is a listicle nobody shares.
In the book A List Is a Promise About Time
0550
Infographic Post
Turn simple data into a clear visual, then tell the story around it. The infographic is a storytelling tool, not decoration. Designed, captioned and cited in Canva.
In the book A Chart Is Not a Story
0650
Meme / GIF Post
Make people feel something. Laughter, nostalgia, frustration, pride, quiet recognition. Reach for the moments everyone knows — exam stress, missing home, not fitting in.
In the book Make Us Feel Something
0750
Podcast Review
Compare two podcasters in the same field, head to head. Steal what works, avoid what does not. This is market research for the episode you record two weeks later.
In the book Podcasts. Writing for the Ear
0850
Podcast Premiere Post
You planned it and recorded it. Now publish it. The audio file is not the deliverable — the post is. A good episode buried in a sloppy post loses listeners in ten seconds.
In the book Record, Cut, Publish
0950
Vlog Post
The post that frames your finished video series. Preview it without spoiling it, embed the series properly, and reflect honestly on what making it taught you.
In the book Premiere, Then Prove It
The full briefs
The complete instructions for every post, exactly as they appear in the LMS. Click any one to open it.
01Introducing Yourself to a Global AudienceWeek 2 · 30 ptsFull brief
Welcome to your first WordPress blog assignment.
This is your chance to introduce yourself, your ideas, and the direction of your blog to a real audience. Think of this as your first impression. You are not just telling people who you are. You are showing them what kind of writer, thinker, and creator you want to be.
Your first post should help readers understand you, your interests, and the purpose of your blog. It should also give them a reason to keep reading.
What You Need to Do
Two things to open before you write. The step by step guide shows this exact post being written on a real blog, weak first draft and all. The finished example shows the standard you are aiming at.
For this assignment, create one of the following on your WordPress blog:
- Option 1: An introductory blog post
- Option 2: An "About Me" page
Whichever option you choose, your writing should introduce you clearly and professionally while also explaining what your blog will focus on this semester.
Your Post Should Include
- introduce who you are
- explain what your blog will be about
- identify your main interests, themes, or topics
- explain why you decided to start this blog
- show what readers can expect from you
- make clear who your audience is
- explain what value your blog will offer readers
This is not just a personal diary entry. Your audience is public and global, so your writing should be meaningful, purposeful, and interesting to others.
Requirements
- at least 15 meaningful sentences
- about 300 to 500 words
- at least 3 images that represent you, your interests, or your blog topics
- a blog layout or design that matches your topic, tone, and audience
- a published post or page on WordPress
Questions to Help You Think
You do not need to answer every question directly, but these can help you build your post:
- Why are you blogging publicly?
- What is the purpose of your blog?
- What topics or niches do you want to explore?
- Who is your target audience?
- What do you hope to achieve this semester?
- What excites you about blogging, storytelling, or sharing ideas online?
- What background, experiences, or perspectives do you bring to this space?
Important Guidelines
Be yourself, but be purposeful. Your post should feel natural, warm, and professional. Let your personality come through, but do not be too casual or careless. This is your first step in building your digital presence.
A few important reminders:
- Write for a global audience. Avoid local references without explanation. For example, instead of saying, "I live near Wangsimni," explain it more clearly: "I live in Seoul, South Korea, and study at Hanyang University in the Wangsimni area."
- Make your content useful. This post should not be only about you. It should also help readers understand what they may gain from following your blog.
- Everything should have a purpose. Do not add random details. Think about why each sentence is there and how it helps introduce your blog.
- Invite engagement. Ask a question, encourage comments, or give readers a reason to respond.
Writing Advice
Do not wait for the perfect sentence. Start writing.
Your first draft does not need to be brilliant. It needs to exist. Once your ideas are on the page, you can revise, improve, and shape them into something stronger.
Good bloggers do not just write. They rewrite.
Submission Instructions
- Publish your post or page on WordPress.
- Submit the direct URL link to the blog post or page in the LMS submission area. Do not submit the WordPress login page.
- Copy and paste the same link into the Group Blog Post for Week 1, or add it to the shared class signup sheet.
- Make sure your link works and takes me directly to the correct page.
Grading Overview
This assignment is worth 30 points and will be graded on: audience and purpose, use of images, length and development, invitation for comments and engagement, correct submission of the URL, and writing quality. Check the rubric in the LMS before submitting so you know exactly what is expected.
Final Note
This is your opportunity to make a strong start. Show some personality. Show some direction. Show that you understand who you are writing for and why your blog deserves attention.
Make it thoughtful. Make it clear. Make it worth reading.
Happy blogging.
Open in the LMS to submit →Pre-publish checklist
Four minutes, every week. It is the difference between a 70 and an 85.
- ✓Read it out loudEvery sentence you stumble on is a sentence your reader stumbles on. Fix those first.
- ✓Check the headline against the postA headline that promises what the post does not deliver is a lie with good SEO.
- ✓Scan it yourselfRead only the headline, subheadings and bold text. Does the argument still hold? That is all most readers will see.
- ✓Confirm the five SEO elementsTitle tag, meta description, single H1, clean slug, alt text on every image.
- ✓Find your experiencePoint at the sentence that proves a person wrote this. If you cannot find it, it is not there.
- ✓Preview on a phoneMost of your readers are on one. A wall of text on a laptop is a brick wall on a phone.
How the 40% is awarded
470 points across nine posts. Every post carries its own rubric on the LMS — these are the point values.
| Post | Week | Points |
|---|---|---|
| #1 Introducing Yourself to a Global Audience | Week 2 | 30 |
| #2 Review Post | Week 3 | 50 |
| #3 The "E-A-T" Post | Week 4 | 70 |
| #4 The Listicle | Week 4 | 70 |
| #5 Infographic Post | Week 5 | 50 |
| #6 Meme / GIF Post | Week 6 | 50 |
| #7 Podcast Review | Week 7 | 50 |
| #8 Podcast Premiere Post | Week 9 | 50 |
| #9 Vlog Post | Week 15 | 50 |
| Total | 40% of the course | 470 |
Read the rubrics and you find one pattern
Voice is the largest single criterion in five of the nine posts. Authenticity and Voice is worth 20 of 70 on the Listicle, 20 of 50 on the Meme post, 20 of 50 on the Vlog post. Across the whole project it outweighs formatting, images and links combined.
That is deliberate. Structure is checkable and you should simply get it right. Voice is the part that is actually hard, so it is the part that carries the marks.
On AI, plainly
The criterion worth 20% here is the one a model cannot produce for you. A model writes a competent post about your niche in nine seconds. It cannot tell a reader what happened to you last Tuesday. That is the part that earns marks, and the part that earns readers.
Use it to check grammar, test a headline, argue with your outline. Say so when you do. Handing in generated prose as your own is plagiarism under university policy, and it reads, to anyone who has marked a hundred of these, exactly like what it is.