introducing-the-simple-payment-widget

Introducing the Simple Payment Widget

Since the introduction of the Simple Payment Button, we’ve been looking for more ways to streamline payments on WordPress.com and Jetpack-enabled sites. Today, we’re introducing a new variant of the Simple Payment Button, available to WordPress.com Premium and Business plan subscribers and to Jetpack sites on Premium and Professional plans. Take payments anywhere on your…

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a-refreshed-reader-for-2017

A Refreshed Reader for 2017

Reader is WordPress.com’s town square, where you can follow your favorite sites and read them in a distraction-free environment. We’ve been working on a refresh for months, and we’re thrilled to share it with you today. For readers, we hope these changes will surprise and delight you, adding more diversity to your stream and exposing you to posts you’ll…

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your-site-now-in-other-languages-introducing-the-google-translate-widget

Your Site, Now in Other Languages: Introducing the Google Translate Widget

Internationalization is very important to us, and we’re striving to make sites across WordPress.com accessible to all, such as your international followers and multilingual readers. Today, we’re thrilled to introduce the Google Translate Widget, which allows you and your site visitors to instantly translate your content into 103 languages currently supported by Google Translate. Languages…

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five-ways-to-boost-your-site-with-social-media

Five Ways to Boost your Site with Social Media

Looking for more traffic? Social media is your best friend. Every Facebook like and retweet helps you grow your audience and attract more customers. To ace your online strategy, optimize your website for social media. From widgets to share buttons, here are five ways to integrate social media into your WordPress.com site. Social Media Icons Your website…

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versatile-themes-for-online-magazines

Versatile Themes for Online Magazines

Launching a magazine? At WordPress.com, you can choose from an ever-growing collection of themes. Here are four free and four premium themes to promote a wide variety of content. Canard Launched earlier this year, Canard showcases writing and photography in a nicely balanced layout. You can display up to five posts in a grid on your homepage, and if you publish…

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new-themes-colinear-and-franklin

New Themes: Colinear and Franklin

On this Theme Thursday, we have two new free themes for you: Colinear and Franklin. Colinear Colinear — our update to the older Coraline — is a squeaky-clean theme featuring a custom menu, header, background, and layout. Colinear supports featured images and six widget areas — up to three in the sidebar and three in…

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jenny-diski-on-writing-love-and-cancer

Jenny Diski on Writing, Love, and Cancer

Photo by Suki Dhanda We’ve been following writer Jenny Diski for many years at the London Review of Books, and more recently on her WordPress.com blog. Just this past weekend Diski was featured in a profile by Giles Harvey for the New York Times Magazine, about a subject she revealed in her own 2014 essays:…

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social-media-icons-widget

Social Media Icons Widget

Now available in a widget dashboard near you, we present the Social Media Icons Widget! No longer do you have to fiddle around with complicated HTML code to add beautiful social media icons to your blog or website. With this new widget, you can add icons for the most popular social networks in no time. The icons are…

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new-themes-resonar-and-scrawl

New Themes: Resonar and Scrawl

Happy Theme Thursday, all! Today I’m pleased to present two new free themes designed especially for longform writing. Resonar Designed by yours truly, Resonar is an elegant blog theme with full-screen Featured Images. It’s perfect for blogs about fashion, food, or design, and the layout works especially well for longform features with large images. The…

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five-themes-for-poets-and-other-text-loving-bloggers

Five Themes for Poets (and Other Text-Loving Bloggers)

Over at The Daily Post, our first poetry-focused Blogging U. course, Writing 201: Poetry, has just entered its second week. It’s been a blast, with hundreds of poets sharing their work, experimenting with new forms, and commenting on their peers’ poems. After working hard on polishing their elegies, haiku, and ballads, most writers want to make sure their readers can enjoy their…

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