Category: WordPress
Connect to Your Fans and Followers with the New Social Icons Widget
We’re excited to introduce the new Social Icons Widget, which allows you to connect with visitors on your favorite social media networks. The new widget supports over 40 popular social platforms, from the ubiquitous Facebook and Twitter, to crafter haven Etsy, to artsy enclaves like DeviantArt and Dribbble. Highlight music or podcasts through SoundCloud or…
How to Ask Customers for Feedback The Right Way
There’s no doubt that you “know” your product the best. You work with it day in and day out. And that depth of knowledge makes you the expert on your offerings. But it also puts up blinders… So, unless you want to live in an echo chamber, you need outside feedback to address existing shortcomings…
Blogging Made Easier: Five Tricks You Should Know
Writing interesting blog posts, creating attractive pages, and interacting with your visitors — these are essential ways to help you build a body of work, a successful business, or a growing audience online. I’m part of a team focused on design and research at WordPress.com — I like to find ways to improve your experience,…
How to Write Frequently Asked Questions
The key to meaningful FAQs lies in framing its questions just as the users ask them. So, here are 3 practical question writing hacks to stop poor questions from stealing the effectiveness of your FAQs. #1. Use ‘I’s when framing the questions If you’ve noticed some of the best FAQs, you’ll see that they have…
An All-New Media Library for the WordPress iOS App
We recently launched an all-new media picker for WordPress for Android. Now, iOS users, you’re next! The new 7.8 release of WordPress for iOS includes a top-level Media Library section for each site you manage — making it even easier to share your images, video, and other media with the world. With just one tap…
How to Audit Your Knowledge Base to Keep it Running Smoothly
If you’re like most business people, you’re probably constantly improving your product or service, right? I mean, that’s how you stay ahead of the competition and keep your customers happy. It’s a good thing. It keeps the lights on. But you know where that can cause trouble? With your knowledge base. Because every time you…
4 Steps to Create Your Knowledge Base Content Plan
If you’ve landed on this post, you’re probably convinced of the fact that you need a knowledge base to help support your customers. Great! You made the first step. Now, in addition to trying to find a quality knowledge base tool, you’re faced with the big fat question of: What do I actually write about…
New Theme: AltoFocus
Today we’re happy to announce the latest addition to our collection of free themes: AltoFocus! AltoFocus is a spinoff of the original AutoFocus theme from a few years ago. Its elegant tiled layout helps artists, photobloggers, and other creatives showcase their talents. Read moreHow To Create a Multilingual Online Store with WordPressDesigned by Allan Cole, it highlights featured…
The Best of WordPress.com in May
Hi everyone! Check out some of the new updates, designs, and insights that helped make May a great month for the WordPress.com community. What’s new How a Detroit Hackathon Turned into WordPress.com’s First-Ever TV Spots A team of developers launched new sites for small businesses in Detroit during a 48-hour Hackathon in February, an event…
Launching: All New Media Picker for Android
There’s this… thing… in the Android WordPress app that we refer to as the “seven-item menu.” It would show up when trying to add a photo to confront you with a list of choices and we confess, we couldn’t always remember what option we wanted, either. As of the 7.3 release, the seven-item menu is…
5 Quality Knowledge Base Examples To Inspire Your Help Center
You need a great knowledge base to help your customers utilize your product and cut down on the need for human support. To help with that goal, we share tons of tips on how to improve your knowledge base’s effectiveness. But here’s the thing: Sometimes it’s easier to learn by example than to follow tips….
How to Create the Perfect Contact Us Page
No matter how great your knowledge base is, the cold hard truth is this: Your customers are probably going to need human help at some point. Maybe not right away. Maybe not in the first month. But eventually… And when they hit your “Contact Us” page, the stakes are high. Why’s that? Because there’s an…
Inclusive Illustrations, By Design
I like to think that designers solve problems, while artists ask questions. And when the two go hand-in-hand, real magic happens. Why? Because the right question gets answered with the right solution — art asks, and design responds. Here at Automattic we were extremely fortunate to recently get to partner with independent artist and designer…
Get Organized! How to Create a Knowledge Base Style Guide
Writing a knowledge base is hard enough already. So I apologize for what I’m about to do in this post. I’m going to tell you that it’s not just about the ideas in your knowledge base, it’s also about how you present them. See, beyond those ideas, you need to ensure that you’re always: Using…
The Best of WordPress.com in April
You’re off to a strong creative start in 2017! Here are a few recent updates and stories from the WordPress.com community in April that we wanted to share with you. What’s new This Year’s WordPress Default Theme, Twenty Seventeen, Is Now Available “Great looking theme!” – Jason Thornberry Independent Publisher 2 Is Here Read moreHow To…
How to Keep Client Feedback in Check (and Protect Your WordPress Business)
Your clients are going to want a say in the work you do. You are creating for them, after all. The problem is, sometimes their feedback isn’t helpful. There are times when feedback is vague: “I don’t know. I just don’t like the way it looks.” There are times when they want you to go…
Independent Publisher 2 Is Here
The popular Independent Publisher design is a WordPress theme that has long been beloved for its simplicity and legibility. So we are happy to announce that it has been improved, ever so slightly, with the design talents of Caroline Moore and Kjell Reigstad. Introducing Independent Publisher 2: Read moreHow To Choose A WordPress Theme –…
Should You Keep Your Domains and WordPress Hosting Separate or Together?
There are several popular providers that offer both domains and hosting for WordPress. Since the beginning of the internet, a quiet storm has been raging under our noses between ‘one-stop’ shop providers and internet experts … domains and hosting together forever, or living apart but still friends? Oct 2020: We tested all the best WordPress…
New Theme: Twenty Seventeen
We’re excited to announce that this year’s WordPress default theme, Twenty Seventeen, is now available on WordPress.com. Designed by Mel Choyce, Twenty Seventeen is a business-oriented theme that allows you to create a stunning front-page layout with multiple sections. The theme can be topped with a large custom header image or atmospheric video of your choosing. Read moreHow To Create a…
Using GIFs in your knowledge base (and how to create them)
I’m going to let you in on a little secret: GIFs are good for more than just humor. Sure, you might know them most from social media or Tumblr, but that doesn’t mean GIFs can’t be a valuable contributor to helping your customers get more from your knowledge base. And to prove it to you,…