Archive for the ‘Online Betting’ Category
We are happy to announce our new REST Application Programming Interface (API) that lets developers explore, interact, and create great new content with the vast community of sites on the WordPress.com network and, in the near future, Jetpack-enabled sites.
The API gives developers access to posts and comments, as well as the ability to Follow, Like, or Reblog content for users. Other features from WordPress.com, like the daily handpicked content on Freshly Pressed, are also available through the API.
An excellent example of an application that uses the new API is the Windows 8 WordPress.com app, available now.
Our goal with the new API is to simplify the experience of using and adding to the data available on WordPress.com. To do this, we now use the OAuth2 protocol to authenticate requests for data. To retrieve public data, you can make unauthenticated requests. To perform actions, such as making new posts or comments, you would need to make authenticated requests. When the API returns data, we now return a standardized JSON object for ease-of-use.
The REST API also self-documents itself; as we add new endpoints, the documentation on our Developer Resources blog will auto-update to provide you with the latest information. In addition, you’ll also have access to a Developer Console, which will allow you to run real REST API queries and see real JSON data directly in your web browser. You can read more about the Console here.
Ready to build an app and integrate it with WordPress.com? Great! You can now sign up for and manage your OAuth2 tokens without waiting through an approval cycle. If you have any questions or feedback on the API, please get in touch with us. Make sure to follow the Developer Resources blog for news, updates, and documentation about the REST API and other awesome services we are making available to developers seeking to integrate with WordPress.com.
It wasn’t just a one-time event! The Automattic Worldwide WP 5k is back again in 2012! Set your timers for April 29th!
At Automattic we work from all over the world, and we use internal blogs for socializing and exchanging non-work ideas in addition to making WordPress.com and our other products more awesome. One of the things we’re really concerned about is staying healthy – we even have an entire internal blog dedicated to fitness.
We had a great idea: Get all Automatticians from 79 cities & 24 countries to run/walk a 5k on the same day! This way we can get some exercise together as a company even though we’re apart (though we won’t rule out a softball or Texas scramble at our next meetup).
A year later, and there are now 105 Automatticians we hope will take part in the 5k all around the world in 2012.
We want to invite you to join us, WordPress.com users (and self-hosted WP users, too!), in the Worldwide WP 5k – the 5k blogged around the world! The date is approaching, so read on to find out how to participate.
WHAT IT IS: A 5k run/walk (approximately 3.1 miles). You can run, walk, or skip. It’s up to you. There’s no time limit and there’s just one requirement: that you participate! You can do it inside or outside, on a treadmill or on a track, or even do a swim or a bike ride instead of running/walking – just get moving!
A 5k is roughly equal to:
- 3.1 miles
- 12 laps around a track
- approximately 6000-7500 steps
- approximately 50-60 minutes of brisk walking
If you ran/walked last year’s Worldwide WP 5k, why not try to shave a few minutes off your time and set a personal record (PR)?
WHEN: We’re all busy, but we want you to participate, so we’re giving you some flexibility, too. The WWWP5k is set for Sunday, April 29th, but you can do your run/walk anytime from April 23rd-29th (you’ve got a week to fit it in).
WHO: Anyone who’s ever used or loved WordPress (and your families and friends, too). Heck, the entire Internet is invited!
HOW: Post about it on your site and tag the post “wwwp5k” so we can find you (and for a chance to be Freshly Pressed). 
If you’re not on WordPress.com, link back to this announcement post so others can find it and participate, too.
You’re welcome to blog your entire route and your preparation (videoblog, perhaps?) but above all we’d love to see where you are and how you’re completing your 5k. Give us a picture of you and what you see when you cross the finish line and tell us your location as you complete your 5k with the rest of the world. Some tools & suggestions:
- Get a pedometer
- Use mapmywalk.com or RunKeeper.com to chart your course
- Set your car’s odometer to 0, leave your house and drive along a safe course with sidewalks for walking/running, until you reach 1.55 miles (you can loop back the same way), or chart out a 3.1 mile course
If you’re not up to running this year, never fear, you can get started with the Couch to 5k method which several Automatticians like – 9 weeks from couch potato to running a 5k, and be ready to run for next year. But make sure to walk this year – no excuses!
Will you be joining us for the Automattic Worldwide WP 5k on April 29th?
Heads up, Custom Design users! The Custom CSS feature on WordPress.com now supports all of the new features of CSS3. This means that you can use gradients, animation, multiple backgrounds, @media queries, and many more new features in your custom CSS.
If you want to make your images pop and tilt, give your post titles a polished letterpress embossed look, or add high-dpi graphics for retina displays—you can do that. If you’ve just got to have a Machu Picchu color palette complete with linear gradients to show off your lovely llama, you can do that too. CSS3 opens the doors to all the latest cutting edge things going on in the web design world today. If you can dream it, you can do it.TM
The CSS editor itself has been upgraded too! Now that we’re using Ace, it’s just like having a desktop code editor in the browser: syntax coloring, auto-indentation, and immediate feedback on the validity of the CSS you’re writing are just a few of its features.
If you don’t have the Custom Design upgrade and you want to use these awesome new features, including fabulous Custom Fonts which are included with the upgrade, you can add it to your blog from the Store link in your dashboard.
We have three awesome new themes for you today that I think you’ll love. A news-oriented magazine theme, a theme for just about everybody, and a food-oriented theme. Here they are!
The Mimbo Pro Theme
Mimbo Pro is a sharp-looking, premium magazine theme from Pro Theme Design. It takes your content and formats it in a structured way grouped by category. Using all of the standard WordPress functionality, custom headers, custom backgrounds, post thumbnails, custom navigation and more – Mimbo Pro makes your content look awesome. You can get a better idea of just how awesome on the theme showcase.
Example of Blaskan in action.
Blaskan is a minimal free theme focused on blogging, designed to present your text, photos, and videos in a clean, contemporary interface. Your readers will love that its responsive layout means your content looks attractive—and readable—on devices of all sizes. The classically simple design sports crisp typography, three layout options, and post thumbnails support. Designed by Per Sandström, Blaskan is a perfect fit for a journal or photoblog. Learn more on the Theme Showcase.
Vintage Kitchen Theme
Vintage Kitchen is a food- and kitchen-oriented premium theme designed by Caroline Moore. What’s so special about this theme is, as you can see, the brilliant look of it! It has fun and colorful—yet balanced—illustrations, a script typeface, and subtle textures. Together, all of these design features can set your food blog apart from others. Take a closer look on the Theme Showcase.
Have fun checking out these themes! We’re looking forward to seeing how you use them on your blog.
Another beautiful theme worthy of the red carpet has been added to our ever-expanding cast of premium upgrades.
Designed by Jason Schuller of Press75, On Demand was created to bring videos front and center. Adding them into posts is a snap, and you’re free to use virtually any embeddable video format from any video service. On Demand also works brilliantly with WordPress.com shortcodes.
On Demand: Home Page
Also included in On Demand is a custom Featured Posts widget that allows you to pull in any number of posts from a specified category, as well as several nice Theme Options to help you show off your site content exactly as you’d like it.
There are lots of other goodies offered by On Demand. A custom background color, custom website logo, social media links, four widget areas, and full width page template all come rolled into this video-friendly theme.
On Demand is a premium upgrade for your blog; read more about its features on the Theme Showcase or dive right into previewing it on your blog from Appearance → Themes.
As more and more of you take advantage of our fabulous Upgrades, we’ve been conscious of the increasing need to offer a great way to manage your purchases. What if you could track all of your upgrades, manage them, renew them and *gasp* even cancel them, all in one place?
Well, starting today you’ll see a new page in the Store section of your dashboard: My Upgrades.
On that page you’ll find the list of the upgrades purchased for the site you are managing, followed by a lists of the upgrades you have on your other sites, if any.
Domain registration, mapping, Custom Design, Space upgrade, VideoPress or Premium theme, you will find them all here, along with links allowing you to renew, enable auto renew, update credit card data, or cancel ( and get a refund within the appropriate timeframe ).
As you can see, the status of each upgrade and its expiration date are clearly displayed there, with some handy color-coding:
- One-time purchases (Premium theme in the screenshot above) or upgrades currently set to auto-renew (Domain) are displayed in green
- Upgrades which need to be renewed manually are displayed in orange ( 10GB Space, Custom Design )
- When these upgrades which need to be renewed manually get close to their expiration date, they are displayed in red ( VideoPress )
You’ll also find some handy dandy links to more information about each upgrade, just in case you forget why you bought it! When appropriate, we give you links to the settings page, too.
We’ve got plenty of exciting updates planned, including the ability to visualize, save, and print your own billing reports and purchase receipts – so keep an eye on the page for more!
Never forget a renewal anymore, visit the My Upgrades section of the dashboard.
Today I’m happy to announce two great new additions to our collection of premium themes.
First, we have Standard, a sleek, exacting theme designed by 8BIT for professional blogging with an emphasis on contextual display of your content.
Your content, in each of its various forms, deserves to be presented with unique distinction. Thanks to Standard’s support of post formats, it can. Image, video, quote, status, and link posts all receive a beautiful visual treatment.
If your visitors are browsing on a mobile device or tablet, Standard has got you covered. Its responsive layout adapts gracefully to smaller screens. View it in action on the demo site, or head on over to the Theme Showcase to read more about Standard and its features.
Next, we have Chalk, an innovative theme designed with a strong focus on online educators by The Theme Foundry.
Posts containing to-do lists, chats, links, podcasts, photos, and video are beautifully styled. Chalk comes equipped with a responsive layout allowing your blog to look great on screens both large and small. A custom options screen is also provided enabling you to change colors, add social media links and much more. Want to discover more about Chalk? Head on over to the Theme Showcase and read all about it or take it for a test-spin in the demo site.
Once in a while, it’s important to stop, catch your breath, and look at your accomplishments before you move on to the next thing — to put a stake in the ground that says, “I made it this far!”
Today, we’re rolling out a couple of notifications to help you celebrate your blog activity milestones. From now on, whenever you hit a milestone for how many followers your blog has (5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and beyond), you’ll get a badge:
We also created badges to celebrate when you receive lots of likes from visitors:
In addition to celebrating your achievements, we wanted to notify you when you’ve had a particularly good day for receiving likes or new followers. From now on, we’ll let you know of your best days for such activity:
Keep in mind that we’ve only started counting your best days this March.
We all blog for different reasons. Some might chronicle their travel adventures, others might detail their culinary undertakings. If you find a post or a blog you enjoyed, like it or follow the blog — your action might send them a badge and make them smile. It’s easy to find great new blogs to follow using the Reader.
After moving from New York City to Chicago and getting married, Rachel Bertsche realized that her new life was missing one crucially important thing: a local best friend. So she decided to go on one friend date every week for a year, and she documented her quest on a WordPress.com blog at MWFseekingBFF.com.
But before Rachel even started the blog, the 27-year-old writer put together a book proposal based on her search for a local BFF, and successfully pitched it to agents, and then editors. She says, “After I sold the proposal, I decided to start a blog so that I could have a place to document my journey and some of the research I was finding. I also wanted to start building a community and to engage with readers.”
It’s now been over two years since Rachel first launched MWFseekingBFF.com. So did she accomplish her blogging goals? “Absolutely!” Rachel says, “When my book, MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search for a New Best Friend, came out, I had a whole audience for the memoir that wouldn’t have existed without my blog. And I made new friends through blogging — I’ve met some of my readers, and other bloggers, in real life. My book ended up becoming a National Bestseller and hitting the NY Times Extended Bestseller List. I continue to update the blog because I enjoy it, and also I have a lot of loyal and wonderful readers who seem to enjoy it.”
Rachel says that the discussions generated by her blog posts were a great aid to the book writing process. “Blogging also helped me uncover what issues surrounding friendship were most interesting to my readers, and brought me new ideas. Readers said things in the comments that would switch on a light bulb for me, or they often alerted me to new research on friendship. While my book is very different than my blog (it’s not a compilation of blog posts by any means), writing my posts made me feel like I had a platform to bounce book ideas off of.”
We asked Rachel to share her advice on how to grow your blog audience. Here’s what she had to say:
The first thing I did was to read and comment on other blogs that I thought had a similar audience to mine. Leaving thoughtful comments with a link back to your blog is a great strategy. But you need to actually engage, and respond to the post. Readers are smart. Comments that are clearly only self-promotion will be obvious. Don’t write, “Great post! I think you and your readers might also be interested in my blog [link here].” Instead, get into the discussion. Respond to the issue at hand.
When you go to leave a reply, don’t post your blog link in the comment. Readers understand that they can click on your name and I think leaving the link in the post reeks a bit of self-promotion. (To change the link, go Users → Personal Settings in your dashboard and find the Website field under Account Details.) If you regularly comment on someone’s blog, that person will likely eventually stop by and read your blog, too. I’ve found the blogging community to be one of the most inclusive and generous out there.
Also, don’t be afraid to ask for help. When I started out, I emailed some of the bloggers I most admired. I told them I loved their blog and asked their advice on how to find success. They were people who had clearly cracked the nut and each had their own tips for what worked for them. Then you can pick and choose.
Finally, give credit where credit is due. When I read a blog post that I love or that spurs an idea for my own blog, I always reference the post and link back. Blogging is about community and sharing, and this sets the tone. Just recently, I wrote a blog post inspired by a post on 1000AwesomeThings.com. I linked back, and hopefully turned a bunch of new readers onto the site. Because there was a decent amount of traffic sent to his blog, or maybe because he received a pingback, Neil Pasricha then came and commented on my blog! This is the author of two #1 International Bestselling books! I was so thrilled. I emailed Neil to thank him, and that began a back and forth, where I was able to ask him his blogging tips.
The bottom of line of all these lessons is to engage. Blogging is about community. It’s most successful not as a solitary endeavor but when you enlist the help of others, and in turn help them, too.
Learn more about Rachel and her book at MWFseekingBFF.com.
It’s been just over two years since we first launched our Posterous importer and I never could have predicted how the blogging space would evolve so quickly in that time. As you may have seen in the news today, the Posterous team is joining Twitter, which we know will be exciting for our friends at Twitter and well-earned for Posterous co-founder Sachin Agarwal.
We’ve had an over 250% spike in the number of imports the past few hours, so it seems timely to recap how the importer works:
- Sign up for a new WordPress.com blog.
- In your dashboard, go to Tools → Import and click on “Posterous.”
- Enter your Posterous login details, and we’ll email you when the import completes!
- Take the time while it’s running to have a sarsaparilla, then explore some of the great designs available for WordPress.com, and start following your favorite blogs from your WordPress.com account so that you can read them all in one place.
Once you’re all set up, you can easily create new posts with the New Post button at the top of your screen, and you can also publish posts by email.
If you have any trouble, don’t hesitate to contact our 24/7 support staff for help.
