[New post] Prepare for National Novel Writing Month with the Post a Day Challenge

New post on WordPress.com News Prepare for National Novel Writing Month with the Post a Day Challenge by Erica Johnson November marks the beginning of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), a project in which thousands of writers around the world work toward completing a 50,000-word novel by November 30th. Sound like something you want to get in on? Whoa. That's 1,667 words per day. I'm not ready for that! We hear you -- writing a whole novel is a pretty big undertaking. So why not gear up for the project by starting the WordPress.com Post a Day Challenge this October? It's a great way to meet others in the WordPress.com community, including writers who have completed NaNoWriMo in the past. At The Daily Post, home of the Post a Day Challenge, we provide creative inspiration each and every day. You can also find tons of writing prompts at Plinky.com, so you never have to worry about running out of ideas. Participating in Post a Day is also a great opportunity to prepare outlines, character sketches, and research before starting your novel in November. How am I supposed to complete a decent novel in a single month? According to the folks at NaNoWriMo, "It's all about quantity, not quality. This approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly. Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down." Think of it this way: Would you rather write an imperfect-but-complete novel, or no novel at all? Besides, if you get in the habit of posting daily throughout October, you'll be well-equipped to start chipping away at a novel in November. Bring it on! How do I sign up? To join the WordPress.com Post a Day Challenge, visit The Daily Post. (The challenge began back in January but you can start any time.) NaNoWriMo 2011 begins on November 1. Visit NaNoWrimMo.org for information on how to register (the initiative is not run by WordPress.com). If you decide to write your novel on your blog and want to make it easy for others to check out your writing, tag your posts with nanowrimo2011. What else should I do to prepare? To create a brand new (and optionally private) blog for the writing challenge, make sure you're logged in to WordPress.com, then start a new blog. If you don't have a WordPress.com account yet, get started here. If you'd like to make your blog look more like a book, you might be interested in purchasing the Chapters theme. Remember that you also have the option to set up a static front page (in place of your posts page) on your blog's home page, if you'd like to use it to display a table of contents, for example. So what do you think, are you up for the challenge? Erica Johnson | September 30, 2011 at 4:23 pm | Tags: NaNoWriMo, writing | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-2bc Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2011/09/30/prepare-for-national-novel-writing-month-with-the-post-a-day-challenge/

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[New post] New Themes: Eight, Bold Life, and Elemin

New post on WordPress.com News New Themes: Eight, Bold Life, and Elemin by Ian Stewart If you score three goals in one hockey game you've made what's called a hat trick. I think that should totally count for themes too. If you're reading this post you've just scored a chance to check out three brand new themes for your blog. Hat trick! The first up is Eight by renowned designer, Elliot Jay Stocks. Its unique layout means your blog will be almost completely transformed just by activating it. Thanks to the custom background feature and its custom highlight color feature, transforming the look of your blog even further takes only a few clicks. Eight is a premium upgrade for your blog at $75 for a lifetime subscription. We have another brand new free theme for you too. It's called Bold Life by Jay Hafling and just like Eight it has its own unique grunge-elegant look. Finally, we have another premium theme for you and there's nothing grungy about this one. The beautiful and elegant Elemin, designed by Themify, is just packed with features so make sure you check it out on the theme showcase. You can upgrade your blog to Elemin with a lifetime subscription for $75. Enjoy! Ian Stewart | September 29, 2011 at 3:23 pm | Categories: Themes | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-2bw Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/new-themes-eight-bold-life-and-elemin/

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[New post] New Domains for You and .me

New Domains for You and .me Evan | September 23, 2011 at 4:22 pm | Tags: .me, Store, upgrades | Categories: Domains | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-26Y

Today we are adding .me (to .com, .org and .net) as a new option for upgrading to your own, custom domain name on WordPress.com. All of our domain mapping options cost just a couple dollars per month for your domain name and hosting. You don't have to deal with web servers or configuration, we take care of everything for you.

Get your own .me domain on WordPress.com.

As Sara mentioned a couple months ago, one of the most common questions we get is whether you can use your own domain for WordPress.com blogs. Incidentally, Add a Domain is our most popular upgrade, so we know you love customizing your digital address and we are always looking for ways to make it better and easier.

Rather than adding numbers or dropping vowels for a .com you don't really want, check out .me and find the perfect fit for your business, your name, or just a pun you can't stop laughing at. We've seen lots of creative domain-names-as-sentences using .me, like about.me and connect.me. And we love our wp.me URL shortener, available to all WordPress.com users.

How to get a .me domain
If you want to upgrade to a .me domain for a new WordPress.com site, head over to wordpress.com/signup. If you want to add a .me domain to an existing WordPress.com site, you can follow our step-by-step instructions. It's only $2/month, so what are you waiting for?!

Leave a comment and let us know what other domain mapping features you want us to add.

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[New post] Enjoy A Shiny New, Simplified Admin Bar

Enjoy A Shiny New, Simplified Admin Bar Erica Johnson | September 23, 2011 at 1:42 am | Categories: Admin Bar | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-2ac

Remember your old admin bar (displayed at the top of your screen while you're logged in to WordPress.com)? Up until today, it's looked something like this while viewing an individual post:

But we wanted to make it easier for your visitors to interact with you via Likes and Follows, so we've cleaned it up a bit. Now it looks like this:

Better, right!? Now on the right hand side of the admin bar where your Gravatar is displayed, you have easy access to your user profile, all the blogs you can contribute to, and all the comments you've made across WordPress.com:

In the blog menu on the left side of the admin bar, you'll see all the stuff related to the blog you're currently viewing. If you're looking at a post on your own blog, the menu will display links to your dashboard, post editor, comment moderation panel, custom menus, and widgets. Next to the blog menu are the Follow and Like buttons, along with a sparkline, which reflects the last 48 hours of page views on the blog:

When viewing posts on other blogs on WordPress.com, the blog menu on the left side of the admin bar will display the following options, as well as the shortlink and theme information:

If you hover over the WordPress.com logo in the left corner, you'll see the following quick links:

Lastly, you may have noticed that you're no longer able to reblog a post after clicking the Like button. Don't worry -- we're cooking up some reblogging improvements that you'll have access to very soon. Stay tuned!

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[New post] New Themes: Magazine and Parament

New Themes: Magazine and Parament Lance Willett | September 22, 2011 at 3:05 pm | Categories: Themes | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-29F

Isn't it nice to have a brand new theme, or two, on a Thursday? Maybe you'll remember, this day in September—because today it's double the fun with Magazine and Parament now available in your WordPress.com dashboard.

Magazine is a sleek and stylish theme from StudioPress that's perfect for showcasing your carefully crafted content. Choose from ten color schemes and six layout options and customize it to your taste. Make it yours for a lifetime subscription of $75, and discover all its features on the Theme Showcase.

Parament is a beautiful, all-purpose theme featuring a dark color scheme with bright orange highlights and a textured background. Its clean, colorful, and curved lines will help your content stand out from the crowd. Learn all about it on the Theme Showcase.

Enjoy.

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[New post] More traffic for your blog with the follow button

More traffic for your blog with the follow button Scott Berkun | September 21, 2011 at 1:26 pm | Categories: Features | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-29e

We've written before about our efforts at WordPress.com to help you get more attention for your work. And we're here again with a new feature: follow.

After weeks of experimentation with different designs, locations and names, we've determined the addition of a small, cute, little button at the bottom of your blog will dramatically help pageviews and retention.

Starting today, on all blogs, whenever someone who is not logged into WordPress.com visits, they'll see this small little button in the bottom right corner. The button is mostly out of the way, but just noticeable enough before people leave.

And when a visitor clicks on the button, it smoothly slides open, revealing a simple way to follow the blog without having the burden of checking back on their own to see if there's anything new. They can put their email address in, and will be notified whenever your blog has a new post.

Questions we expect to be frequently asked:

1. Why is it called Follow and not Subscribe?  Good question, as many designers here at WordPress.com debated this, including me. Although the functionality is similiar to the Email subscription widget, after testing various prototypes, we learned more people clicked on the button and signed up if it were called Follow rather than Subscribe. We also know subscribe suggests to some its something you pay for, whereas follow has no such connotation.

2. I don't like it. How can I turn it off on my blog? Easy. Go to your Dashboard. Click on Settings, then Reading, then Email.  Sorry you don't like it - but we understand. If you change your mind, this is also the place to go to customize the message new followers (subscribers) will see.

3. Will other subscription features also have their name changed? We are carefully studying the impact of different names on existing features. We only change names when we have evidence it helps our bloggers and the benefits outweigh the annoyance of the change. We don't change feature names to be fashionable or to emulate other services that might rhyme with "critter" or "shmacebook".

4. Why don't I see the button? The follow button only appears for users not logged in to WordPress.com. If you want to follow a WordPress.com blog, and are already logged in, simply use the follow button that already appears in your admin bar at the top of the screen. If you want to see the new hotness, log out of WordPress.com and go to any blog, including your own, to see it. To log out, go to your admin bar at top of the screen. Click on "Me", then click on "Log Out".

5. Why did you put something on my blog that changes how it looks? We know you want complete control over your blog's appearance, and that's why we've built so many themes, widgets and customizations for you to use. But here the data was strong enough for the positive effect of this small little button to turn it on.  We're making sure you know about it and know how to turn it off if you don't want to use it. In the future we expect to add more ways for visitors to follow your blog, which will give visitors and bloggers more of what they want.

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[New post] Coming to a WordCamp Near You

Coming to a WordCamp Near You Jane Wells | September 16, 2011 at 3:06 pm | Categories: Community, Events, WordCamp | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-296

Every now and then I like to remind people about upcoming WordCamps. WordCamps are locally-organized, casual conferences held all over the world that focus on WordPress. Bloggers, developers, and every other kind of WordPress fan get together to show off cool things they've done with WordPress, teach and learn from each other, meet new co-conspirators, and generally have a crazy fun day or weekend with other people who share their love of WordPress. Often, members of the WordPress.com team from Automattic are in attendance, and would love to meet more of you!

There are WordCamps this weekend in Albuquerque and Portland, so if you're anywhere near these cities, you should try to attend (we'll be there!). In Portland, the WordPress Foundation also will be sponsoring some special activities around Software Freedom Day (I'll be at this one, testing and giving a sneak peek to attendees of some new features in the works).

Is there a WordCamp coming up near you? Let's find out!

Sep 15: WordCamp Cape Town Cape Town, South Africa

Sep 16-18: WordCamp Albuquerque Albuquerque, NM

Sep 17-18: WordCamp Portland Portland, OR

Sep 24: WordCamp Lisboa Lisboa, Portugal

Sep 24: WordCamp Germany Koln, Germany

Sep 25: WordCamp Sofia Sofia, Bulgaria

Oct 1: WordCamp Louisville Louisville, Kentucky

Oct 8-9: WordCamp Sevilla Seville, Spain

Oct 15-16: WordCamp Jabalpur Jabalpur, India

Nov 5-6: WordCamp Toronto Toronto, ON

Nov 5-6: WordCamp Gold Coast Gold Coast, Australia

Nov 5-6: WordCamp Philly Philadelphia, PA

Nov 12: WordCamp Caguas Caguas, Puerto Rico

Nov 12-13: WordCamp Kenya Nairobi, Kenya

Nov 12-13: WordCamp Detroit Detroit, MI

Nov 12: WordCamp Richmond Richmond, VA

Nov 12-13: WordCamp Denmark Copenhagen, Denmark

Dec 17: WordCamp Las Vegas Las Vegas, NV

Feb 3-4 WordCamp Atlanta Atlanta, GA

There are also a number of WordCamps still in the early organizing stage that do not yet have dates set. These include: Ft. Wayne, IN; London, UK; Edmonton, Canada; Baku, Azerbaijan; Oslo, Norway; Sacramento, CA;  Birmingham, Alabama; Pittsburgh, PA; Omaha, NE; Orlando, FL; Tokyo, Japan; Paris, France; Zagreb, Croatia; Nashville, TN, Washington DC, Baltimore, MD; Bangkok, Thailand; Istanbul, Turkey.

Hope to see you soon at a WordCamp near you!

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[New post] Looking for tips on better blogging?

Looking for tips on better blogging? Erica Johnson | September 16, 2011 at 2:58 pm | Categories: Better Blogging, Resources | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-28k

Whether you're a WordPress.com veteran or blogging newbie, the updated version of Learn WordPress.com is sure to teach you something that you don't already know.

The tutorial contains ten short sections on popular topics such as:

• Personalizing your site's appearance
• Meeting others in the WordPress.com community
• Blogging from your mobile device
• Getting more readers

We've also added a section called 10 Super Awesome Insider Tips. It contains pointers on how to use some of our coolest (but easily overlooked) features like Distraction Free Writing, which expands the text editor and hides the modules on the publishing screen, to help you stay focused while you create content.

So have a look and tell us what you learned! And if there's anything you want to know more about, be sure to let us know.

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[New post] Embed Wufoo forms and surveys with a simple shortcode

Embed Wufoo forms and surveys with a simple shortcode Evan | September 15, 2011 at 5:13 pm | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-275

Earlier this week we released a new shortcode on WordPress.com to help you embed Wufoo forms in your WordPress.com posts, pages and even sidebars. Our friends over at Wufoo wrote about it on their blog and we wanted to let you know here as well.

Wufoo forms are extremely flexible and enable you to create everything from simple contact forms to event invitations and mailing lists:

On their end, Wufoo integrates with other services as well. For example, a you could build a newsletter signup form, which sends those signups to MailChimp, all starting from your WordPress.com blog. If you or your company is a 37signals fan, you can send your Wufoo form results to Highrise or Basecamp.

Wufoo is a paid service and also offers a free plan that you can use for as long as you like to see if the service works for you. For more details on embedding Wufoo forms on your WordPress.com blogs, check out our new Wufoo support page.

We'd like to thank Chris Coyier over at Wufoo for helping us with the shortcode. Also, if you're using the Custom Design upgrade on WordPress.com, you might be interested in Chris' great talk from WordCamp San Francisco (embedded below) on some creative uses of CSS, and his site on the same topic, CSS Tricks.

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