Friday, July 29, 2011

=?windows-1252?Q?Yahoo! Mail is upgrading: What it means for you.?=

SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Dear jong forbes,

We appreciate that you have been with Yahoo! Mail for the past year. We are looking forward to bringing you an even faster, safer, easier-to-use Yahoo! Mail very soon.

If you've already upgraded to the latest Yahoo! Mail, thank you.

If not, in about a month from the date of this email, when you sign in to your Yahoo! Mail account, we will ask you to upgrade to the newest version of Yahoo! Mail. At that time, your current version of Yahoo! Mail will no longer be available. But you don't have to wait. You can have the newest Yahoo! Mail today.

You can upgrade now to the newest Yahoo! Mail if your browser is Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3, Safari 4, or Chrome 5, or newer.

Upgrade Now

If you do not have one of these browsers, update your browser (it's fast and free) and then return to this email and click the Upgrade Now button.

If you only access Yahoo! Mail on your mobile device, tablet or via POP, it is critical that you visit uk.overview.mail.yahoo.com on your computer to see important information about the upgrade, then review and agree to the new Communication Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

What You Can Look Forward To When You Upgrade

Faster email
The latest Yahoo! Mail spam-protection technology
Easier-to-use design
Unlimited email storage so that you can keep everything you want

When you upgrade to the newest version of Yahoo! Mail, your content (messages, folders, contacts, etc.) will be there.

Learn more about the newest version of Yahoo! Mail.

Your Alternatives

If you're not ready to upgrade now, we recommend that you upgrade soon. In about 30 days from the date of this email, your current version of Yahoo! Mail will no longer be available.
You may use Yahoo! Mail Classic instead, but we strongly encourage you to either upgrade to the newest version of Yahoo! Mail or review Yahoo! Mail Help for other options.

Thank You for Being A Loyal Yahoo! Mail User

We hope you enjoy the newest version of Yahoo! Mail.

Yahoo! Mail Team

The newest version of Yahoo! Mail is governed by these new Terms of Service, Communication Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

Please do not reply to this message. This is a service email related to your use of Yahoo! Mail. To learn more about Yahoo!'s use of personal information, including the use of Web beacons in HTML-based email, please read our Privacy Policy.
Yahoo! Europe Ltd, 125 Shaftesbury Ave, London, WC2H 8AD, United Kingdom

Thursday, July 28, 2011

[New post] New Theme: Blogum

New Theme: Blogum

Takashi Irie | July 28, 2011 at 6:04 pm | Categories: Themes | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-1Za

Today we are introducing a clean and minimalist theme, Blogum.

The Blogum Theme

Designed by WPShower, Blogum has a grid-based layout and is designed in a modern style. This very clean style allows your reader to precisely focus on your content.

Blogum has a widget area in the right sidebar. It also includes a full-width template to hide the sidebar. You are able to customize even more with a header image, background, and custom menu.

Blogum also supports three post formats, Aside, Image and Gallery. Read all about Blogum's features on the Theme Showcase.

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[New post] How to Get More Traffic

How to Get More Traffic

Scott Berkun | July 28, 2011 at 5:03 pm | Categories: General | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-1Oz

As soon as a blogger publishes their first post, their first question is: Where's all my traffic? Everyone assumes they're the only one seeking attention, when in truth nearly everyone is. It takes time to build an audience and no one gets much traffic without putting in the effort.

Here at WordPress.com we want you to get more traffic, and we build features and services to help. It's been awhile since we've told you about them, so here are our top recommendations:

Update your About Page. One of the first things visitors to your site will want to know is something about who you are. If you don't update your About page to include a short bio, and they find a generic page instead, they'll be disappointed. But if you briefly explain (two paragraphs is plenty) what the blog is about, and who you are, they'll be more likely to come back.
Turn on Publicize. You can easily set up your WordPress.com blog to automatically share new posts out to your Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo or LinkedIn accounts. This increases your reach every time you publish a post.
Turn on Sharing. With a few clicks, you can make it so any visitor can share a link to your post out to their social networks, their blog, or through email.
Let readers subscribe by email. Email is often forgotten as a source of traffic. If you turn on the Subscriptions widget, people can choose to get notified of new posts on your blog, automatically, via email. It's a great way to keep them connected to your blog without any extra work for you, or for them.
Post regularly. Pick a schedule that works for you - once a day, once a week, once every two weeks, and stick to it. Mention that frequency in your About page, and put reminders on your personal calendar. It's only when people can expect regular posts that they'll be compelled to come back to see what you've written next. If you need ideas for posts, read and subscribe to DailyPost, where we give topic ideas and blogging advice every day. You can also use PressThis to quickly generate new posts while you are browsing the web.
Write Well. It's often unsaid, but better posts get more traffic. There's no sense in posting every day, if every post is boring or poorly written. It takes time to develop interesting ideas, and to edit posts to be concise and typo free. If people find a careless writer at work, they won't be back. What good is more traffic if the content they see isn't good enough for them to choose to return?
Pick good titles. Blog post titles are like newspaper headlines. They need to be short and interesting to get people to want to see what's inside. It takes some thinking to get a title down to a short sentence, but it's time well spent. On Facebook and Twitter, all people will often see is the title and your link.
Link to bloggers like you. When you link to another blog, they'll typically get notified (via a pingback) that someone has mentioned them. This will encourage them to visit your blog and, if they like what they find, link to you as well in their posts. But do it sparingly; too many links and we call it SPAM. If you find a post you like, excerpt a paragraph and link to the rest. Also check out Freshly Pressed and our Global Tags to find blogs with similar interests, and subscribe to their blog. You can use tags in your own posts so your work will surface there as well.
Comment on other blogs like yours. Every comment is an opportunity to show how well you write and think. When people read a great comment, they'll see your name, and the link to your blog, encouraging them to see what else you have to say. Identify good blogs on topics similar to your own, read and contribute sincerely.
Respond to every comment you get. When people comment on your blog, they've invested a lot of their time. Reward them by answering questions and taking their feedback, and they'll come back again.
Take requests. Write a post requesting your readers (or your friends) to suggest topics to write about. Reach out to Facebook, twitter, or friends, for suggestions. Then let them know you've written about what they asked for. It's a great way to make sure everything you write will have at least one reader.
Pay for traffic. Web applications like StumbleUpon can bring visitors to your posts with rates starting at $.05 per visit. If you've just published a great post and you really want some feedback from visitors, this can be a good way to get started. Companies looking for broader distribution, including getting content seen by journalists, should try services like PR Newswire.

Often you'll hear about get traffic fast schemes, but we don't believe in those sorts of things. There's not much magic or secrets necessary. The advice above, used thoughtfully, is more that sufficient to increase visitors to your blog.

Have other suggestions for what we can do to help you build traffic? Let us know.

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Wednesday, July 27, 2011

[New post] New Theme: React

New Theme: React

Michelle Langston | July 27, 2011 at 2:04 pm | Categories: Themes | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-1Z4

Today, we're happy to launch React, a simple and elegant theme designed especially for business websites. In fact, React is for anyone who would like a clean design to showcase their work and inspire visitors to -- well -- react. If this describes you, React is yours for the lifetime of your blog for only $68.

The React Theme

Designed by The Theme Foundry, React packs an impressive array of features. In the theme options panel, you can turn the sidebar on or off, depending on your preferences. You can also choose to display a recent projects footer, a latest news footer, and a widgets footer. Add a personal touch with your own logo, a custom background, your choice from one of 7 primary fonts, and links to your Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr profiles. Finally (but certainly not least), load your site on a mobile device or tablet and enjoy the view -- React's responsive layout adapts beautifully to smaller screen sizes.

Read more about React's features on the Theme Showcase or preview it live on your blog from Appearance → Themes.

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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

[New post] New Theme: Piano Black

New Theme: Piano Black

Lance Willett | July 20, 2011 at 5:09 pm | Categories: Themes | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-1YL

Say hello to Piano Black, the newest theme to launch on WordPress.com. This dark and elegant theme showcases your content with a design that feels sophisticated yet techy and modern.

Piano Black front-page detail.

Make it yours with a header image, background, and custom menu, and optional RSS and Search areas in the header. Piano Black also includes a full-width-template for dropping the sidebar on pages. See more information on the Theme Showcase.

Designed by mono-lab — and a long-time popular theme for self-hosted WordPress blogs — Piano Black is available now in your dashboard under Appearance → Themes.

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Thursday, July 14, 2011

[New post] WordPress.com oEmbed Provider API Now Available

WordPress.com oEmbed Provider API Now Available

Stephane Daury | July 14, 2011 at 8:29 pm | Categories: New Features | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-1rv

Last week, we introduced support for OAuth2 and launched develop.wordpress.com, as we're eager to empower the developer community to extend WordPress.com in new and meaningful ways.

Today, we're excited to announce the availability of our new oEmbed Provider API, yet another way to make it easy for third-party services and their respective audiences to share and consume content.

oEmbed is a format for allowing an embedded representation of a URL on third-party sites. The simple API allows a website to display embedded content (such as photos or videos) when a user posts a link to that resource, without having to parse the resource directly.

Same post, multiple formats

The API supports any WordPress.com URL, any WordPress.com-hosted domain or subdomain (EG: http://techcrunch.com/, http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/) as well as WP.me shortlinks pointing to WordPress.com-hosted sites.

Hop over to develop.wordpress.com and see the oEmbed Provider API documentation for more information. Keep impressing the world with innovative ways to use the wonderful breadth of content created by our millions of talented bloggers!

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[New post] New Theme: Manifest

New Theme: Manifest

Matías | July 14, 2011 at 4:48 pm | Categories: Themes | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-1XZ

When we think about the very basic fundamentals of blogging and expressing ideas we find the clear practice of writing. Today we are launching a new theme which tries to reflect precisely on that. Manifest is a wonderful theme for writers.

This is a theme that presents your creations in an elegant and powerfully clean way, offering your readers an intimate and direct experience with your thoughts.

The Manifest Theme

With content being the clear focus in Manifest, you can create different types of posts by choosing appropriate post formats. You can create image posts, link posts, asides, and Manifest will present them in the same neat, clutter free way it shows your regular text posts. You can even add a subtle header image to bring a personal touch to the design.

The Manifest Theme was designed by Jim Barraud. Go and learn more about it on the theme showcase, or activate it right away at Appearance → Themes. And once you are done, just start posting.

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Wednesday, July 13, 2011

[New post] New Theme: Lifestyle

New Theme: Lifestyle

Matías | July 13, 2011 at 3:04 pm | Categories: Themes | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-1XT

Got lots of magazine-style content and need a stylish frame? Today we are introducing Lifestyle, a new colorful magazine theme that comes with ten content-friendly, soft color schemes.

Lifestyle Theme

As a premium theme, customization is at the core of Lifestyle. Choose from multiple layouts and menus, breadcrumbs, header image, or custom background. This theme is a great fit if you publish magazine or news style content. You can showcase multiple categories on the homepage and use featured images to make your site look stunning.

Developed by StudioPress, Lifestyle is available for the lifetime of your blog for $75. Read more about the theme features or preview it live on your blog from Appearance → Themes.

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Tuesday, July 12, 2011

[New post] New Theme: Matala

New Theme: Matala

Michelle Langston | July 12, 2011 at 12:00 am | Categories: Themes | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-1Xo

Today we're excited to launch Matala, our newest theme. You might recognize this one — it was once the primary theme for ma.tt, Matt Mullenweg's blog. Last year, Matala was released to the WordPress.org Themes Directory, and now we're thrilled to bring it to WordPress.com.

The Matala Theme

Originally designed by Nicolò Volpato, Matala's bright colors and dynamic shapes are suggestive of designs seen in Talavera, a pottery tradition common in Puebla, Mexico. Grungy textures, hand-scribbled icons, and whimsically titling text in the main navigation menu join the colors and shapes to give your blog a bright, playful look.

You can use Matala's fun design as is, or create a look of your own with a custom background image and custom header image.

Matala comes with three widget-ready areas: the right-hand sidebar and two columns at the bottom of your post content column. In addition, there is a full-width page for single-image pages, an option to display a small "Random Photos" gallery on single-image pages, and support for six post formats — aside, status, quote, video, image and gallery.

Learn more about Matala's features on the Theme Showcase.

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Thursday, July 7, 2011

[New post] New Theme: Château

New Theme: Château

Takashi Irie | July 7, 2011 at 6:00 pm | Categories: Themes | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-1W2

Today we are introducing an elegantly designed and typographically pleasing theme, Château.

The Château Theme

Designed by Ignacio Ricci, Château has been crafted with close attention to detail and typography. Its beautiful, minimalist look allows you to make your content the focal point of your blog.

Aside from a brilliant design, this theme offers many cool features that help you to personalize your blog. There are two color schemes, three layout options, custom accent color, Custom Header Image, Custom Background, six widget areas, and three post formats — Aside, Gallery and Image. It's loaded with options that make the theme flexible enough to fit a variety of sites.

Read all about Château's features on the Theme Showcase.

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[New post] Announcing Support for OAuth2 and New Developer Resources

Announcing Support for OAuth2 and New Developer Resources

Justin Shreve | July 7, 2011 at 3:25 pm | Categories: Applications, Technical | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-1Vc

We love developers and the applications they build to help extend WordPress.com in new and meaningful ways. To continue providing support for developers who build applications that integrate with WordPress.com, we're announcing support for OAuth 2, as well as a new developer portal, develop.wordpress.com.

Starting today WordPress.com supports a new method of authentication which makes it extremely easy for third party applications to connect with WordPress.com blogs. This new method uses an open protocol, OAuth2, to allow secure API authorization in a simple and standard way. OAuth2 allows applications to access a WordPress.com blog without ever asking for personal details such as a password or username. Connections from applications can easily be managed within the dashboard and connections won't break when a username or password is changed.

In addition to supporting the new authentication feature, we're also launching develop.wordpress.com. If you're interested in learning more about OAuth2 and other ways to integrate with WordPress.com, then this developer portal is for you.

Develop.wordpress.com contains some handy documents and resources about how you can develop using WordPress.com technologies. The site also houses a channel where you can contact us directly regarding issues such as OAuth2 authentication, client access, and embedding new media types on WordPress.com.

These documents are only the beginning - we'll be adding more resources and tools over time as the developer ecosystem grows.

Memolane is one example of the many possibilities for integration of third party applications with WordPress.com. Memolane allows you to pull posts directly from your WordPress.com blog into a graphical time line with other elements of your online life. You can easily view, add to, and share this timeline online. As of today, you can also embed your personal Memolane on your WordPress.com blog using a new shortcode.

So, developers, what would you like to build with WordPress.com?

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Tuesday, July 5, 2011

[New post] Get more readers by Publicizing on Facebook, Twitter, and now LinkedIn, Too!

Get more readers by Publicizing on Facebook, Twitter, and now LinkedIn, Too!

Tim Moore | July 5, 2011 at 11:17 pm | Tags: Publicize | Categories: Features, Social | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-1Vx

Want to share your WordPress.com posts with your LinkedIn connections? Now you can! Today we are happy to announce that our Publicize feature connects with LinkedIn. To activate Publicize for LinkedIn, head to Settings -> Sharing in your dashboard and click Connect to LinkedIn. Please note that you need to have a LinkedIn account before you can connect it with your WordPress.com site.

After you've approved the connection, you'll see LinkedIn listed in the Publish module next to the post editor. Here you can customize the message for the update you'll send out to LinkedIn and any other sharing services you have connected. You can also opt out of Publicizing a particular post by unchecking the box next to the name of the service. Below is an example of an update shown on LinkedIn.

A LinkedIn sharing button was also recently added to the Sharing feature on WordPress.com, which can be displayed at the bottom of your posts and pages. Visit your Settings -> Sharing panel and you'll see LinkedIn as one of the Available Services.

We're always working hard to give you more opportunities to increase the traffic to your blog. If you have questions, read more about how Publicize works. For more information on boosting your readership, check out Getting More Views and Traffic.

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[New post] New Theme: Fruit Shake

New Theme: Fruit Shake

Ian Stewart | July 5, 2011 at 5:56 pm | Categories: Themes | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-1V6

Over five years ago, when WordPress.com was just getting started, we launched a theme that has become near and dear to many of us. A theme that even then stood out from all the others with its, well, its banana-smoothie-ness. It's about time to shake up the Banana Smoothie, isn't it? Maybe even give some other fruit a shake? We think so. Let's take a look at its delicious successor, Fruit Shake.

: Banana Shake

: Blueberry Shake

: Dragon Fruit Shake

The goal of Fruit Shake was to capture Banana Smoothie's essence and serve it up to everyone with a refreshed design — and even more fruity flavor. Hence, your choice of three fruit-flavored color schemes: Banana, Blueberry, and my favorite, Dragon Fruit. And just like, Banana Smoothie did, Fruit Shake comes with its own fruit shake recipe widget — courtesy of the incomparable Jane Wells — that lets you share your love of bananas, blueberries, and dragon fruit with your blog readers. Also, there may or may not be a secret, unlockable, fruit in Fruit Shake. Or not. I can't say much more than that except, well, it might be a secret. If it even exists.

Of course, if you just like the basic colors of Fruit Shake you can also personalize the design with your own custom header and custom background image. You can even remove all the widgets from the sidebar in Appearance → Widgets and create a sleek tumblelog look for your blog. In other words, you don't have to be obsessed with fruit to enjoy Fruit Shake. It doesn't hurt though. :)

If you want to know more about the cool features in Fruit Shake we've made a page that outlines them all on the Theme Showcase. You can read up on Fruit Shake there and check out a live demo or just activate it on your blog and start experimenting! And if you have a self-hosted installation of WordPress you haven't been left out of the fun. Fruit Shake will be making its way to the official WordPress Theme directory where you can download it and install it on your blog.

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