Tim McGiven's Blog, page 32

5 Ways to Become a “Pro” with Professional Email

Small business professionals and owners spend a lot of time on email. Each email is an important piece of communication and could contribute to your business in many ways, like building relationships, selling your products, giving a great customer experience, building your brand, growing revenue, and much more. 

Speaking with Professional Email users, we’ve found 5 ways that help them to achieve their goals on a daily basis:

Find if people read your message: If you’re sending an important email to someone, find out when they’ve opened it by setting up a read receipt. This also helps keep people accountable reading and replying to your email to move your business forward. Save time with email templates: Sending lots of emails can get quite tedious. No wonder email templates are one of the most used features. This helps you set up an effective template that you can tailor to the recipient and save on your precious time.Set up reminders and forget the rest: It’s easy to forget to reply to an email or follow up on an answered one. Our memory is already loaded with too many to-do list items so follow-up reminders help you make sure nothing slips through the cracks.Stamp with your signature: Maintaining a professional image is important for keeping your customers’ trust and appearing credible online. Signature builder helps you have that image every time you send the email and preloads all the information people need to reach out to you.

Create rules for your inbox: If you’re wearing many hats or working on multiple projects at once, staying organized is crucial for your success. Set custom rules with predefined conditions to automatically organize and filter your emails into folders. Simply create a rule, define the criteria for the rule, and your emails will be auto-sorted into the folders of your choice.

Are you ready to take your email experience to the next level? Try Professional Email free for 3 months and see how these features help you.

Start my Professional Email Trial

SSH Now Available for Business and eCommerce Sites

Are you a WordPress.com power user? For ultimate security, you can now enable SSH and access your Business or eCommerce-powered WordPress.com site from the command line. Use WP-CLI to install and activate a series of plugins, manage users, or handle search-and-replace functions across your site.

Enable SSH on WordPress.com

To enable SSH on your WordPress.com site, you’ll need to have an active Business or eCommerce plan.

Head to My Site > Settings > Hosting Configuration to enable SSH access on your site under SFTP/SSH Credentials. You may need to activate hosting access to create SFTP credentials. Once you’ve generated an SFTP user and password, you can toggle on SSH access for your site.

With SSH, you have the power of the command line at your fingertips. You can:

Manage your site’s users and content using WP-CLI commandsImport and export your site’s contentConnect your favorite IDE over SSHAutomate repetitive tasks using simple scriptsTroubleshoot errors using the PHP error logAnd more!

Detailed instructions are available on how to enable SSH for your Business and eCommerce WordPress.com websites.

Use WP-CLI on WordPress.com

WP-CLI is WordPress’ command line interface. Once you SSH into your WordPress.com site, the included commands let you install plugins, add users, or run a search-and-replace against the database. If you are comfortable writing PHP, you can even create your own custom commands for special operations.

For example, the command to delete a comment is `wp comment delete`. Deleting a comment using WP-CLI can look like this:

$ wp comment delete 1337 --forceSuccess: Deleted comment 1337.

Similarly, `wp export` is a command to export your site’s content to a WXR file. Exporting your site content at the command line might look like this:

$ wp exportStarting export process...Writing to file /tmp/staging.wordpress.2016-05-24.000.xmlSuccess: All done with export.

Ready to dive in? Check out our support documentation about how to use WP-CLI on WordPress.com.

Build Your Next Site on WordPress.com

SSH access is one of a series of new tools we’re releasing for those building sites on WordPress.com. Our goal is to make WordPress.com an enjoyable, indispensable part of your workflow.

What else would you like to see in your terminal? How could we make WordPress.com an even more powerful place to build a website? Feel free to leave a comment, or submit your ideas using our short feature request form.

Introducing a New Way to Access All Your Sites

If you’ve been looking for a simple way to access and quickly navigate between your multiple WordPress.com websites, we have an exciting announcement for you today. We’ve launched a new dashboard to help you manage all your WordPress.com and Jetpack-connected websites.

You can access this new Sites page at wordpress.com/sites.

From here, you can locate a site and jump into its dashboard, launch a site to the public, or view your site’s Hosting Configuration to grab its SFTP details.

A Simple, Centralized Starting Point

Once you’re managing more than a few sites, it can be difficult to keep track of where everything is. The Sites page organizes all of your websites in one place.

For public sites, you’ll see a preview of each site’s homepage, making it easier for you to find the site you’re looking for.

Use the dropdown filter to find the “Private” or “Coming Soon” sites you’re currently working on. Our “Coming Soon” feature gives you a safe space to build and edit your site until you’re ready to launch it to the world.

Switch to the “List View” and navigate all of your sites with a more compact presentation:

Switch back to “Grid View” to see larger previews for all of your sites. This display mode is saved for the next time you come back to the page.

Build Your Next Site on WordPress.com

This is the first version of the Sites page, and we plan to continue improving it in the future. It’s also the first in a series of new tools for those building multiple sites. Our goal is to make WordPress.com an enjoyable, indispensable part of your workflow.

What else would you like to see in the Sites page? How could we make WordPress.com an even more powerful place to build a website? Feel free to leave a comment or submit your ideas in our short feature request form.

Visit Your New Sites Dashboard

Need a Website Fast? Let Us Do It For You

We get it. Life’s to-do list seems bottomless, and maybe building your own website isn’t anywhere near the top of it. And yet your business needs it. Yesterday, if possible. Your audience, your customers, are waiting. 

If you’re in need of a professionally designed, budget-friendly, mobile-optimized website to showcase your business, product, or service, consider Built By WordPress.com Express. 

Click here to get started.Tell us a little bit about your business.Select a design from our catalog of themes (or let us choose the right one for you!).Provide your content, including your logo and any images. Sit back and relax!

Our in-house experts will build the site for you, all in four business days or less. The cost is $499, plus an additional purchase of the WordPress.com Premium plan. 

We’ve built sites for professional bloggers, local service professionals such as roofers, a surfing school, consultants, attorneys, nonprofits, churches, restaurants, even an online sports streaming network. If your primary goal is to tell the world about your project or business, or maybe you have a long wish list of things you’d like your website to do and just need a head start, Built By WordPress.com Express was created just for you. 

We can’t wait to delight you.

Yes! Build my site for me!

Here’s a Look at Our Favorite New Patterns

Since we launched Patterns in 2020, we’ve been steadily adding to our library of prebuilt Block templates for you to easily make your site stand out even more. There are now over 260 Patterns that can be inserted into your pages and posts in just seconds.

If you’ve never used Patterns before, you can access them by hitting the “+” button at the top left of any page or post you’re working on. From there, you can do a few things:

Use the search box to search for a term like “Header,” “Subscription,” or “Link in Bio” and select from the results Or click on the “Patterns” tab and use the drop down menu to explore the top results across various categories Or click on the “Explore” button to bring up our entire library of Patterns, organized by category

Here’s a quick demo that shows how to add an image gallery using the new Pattern explorer:

We’re always adding more Patterns, month by month — we’ve added over 45 new ones since July! — and we can’t wait for you to see some of the fun designs coming up. Think of them as an ever-growing library of sophisticated slices of web design you can customize and add to your posts, pages, and Block themes.

Below is a quick look at some of our favorites from the year so far.

If you use a lot of images in your posts, we have numerous options for you. There are some great Patterns for galleries, portfolios, and even product listings.

You can find these in the “Gallery” category.

The adage “good things come in small packages” holds true with some of our smaller Patterns that take up less real estate. It all depends on the nature of your website, but a Pattern for donations on a non-profit site or call to subscribe on almost any blog can make a great end for a post or page.

Find these in the “Subscribe” and “Earn” categories, respectively.

And finally, simply exploring some of our bolder Patterns can provide inspiration on working with color, type, and images on your site!

Patterns are an incredibly useful resource in your website design toolbox. Customize, experiment, and take advantage of them whenever you can.

If you need help with Patterns, click here for a more detailed guide.

And be sure to let us know in the comments how you’ve used Patterns on your site and any ideas you have for new ones. We’re always working on more!

Grow Your Audience with Microsoft Start

We’re all looking for ways to grow our audiences for our sites. Sometimes, we change our content to optimize it for search engines (here’s a shameless plug for our new SEO course). Other times, we find ways to reach new people, such as using tags so our blog posts show up in the Reader. 

Now, WordPress.com creators are getting access to an all-new tool to increase their audience. 

Originally released as Microsoft News, the revamped Microsoft Start is a global news and information feed that currently syndicates content from over 4,500 premium publishers to about a billion people! In an effort to expand and diversify this network, Microsoft has started an exclusive pilot program — and is looking for 500 highly qualified, independent creators in the U.S. to apply. 

Yes, this means you.

Using the Microsoft Start plugin to connect your site to the platform, you’ll be able to build your brand and gain exposure by delivering your content throughout Microsoft Start’s ecosystem, which includes MSN, Bing, and Microsoft Edge. Additionally, you’ll be able to earn ad-sharing revenue via the platform, as well as 100% direct support through readers and your affinity links. Creators on the Microsoft Start platform act as their own syndicator and will maintain 100% ownership of their content. Even better, previously published posts can be repurposed as evergreen content using the built-in WordPress.com feed functionality. 

Do you qualify?

Desired applicants are reputable topic specialists publishing content at least 5 times per month. Priority will be given to the following genres: food and drink; travel; health and wellness (which includes nutrition and fitness); relationships; parenting; demystifying science and tech; career and personal finance; the craft of writing; and DIY how-tos. Ideally, you also have an archive of at least 25 blog posts.

If you’re interested in applying, Microsoft will sweeten the deal by paying 500 accepted candidates a $100 bonus upon publishing regularly for 60 days. (To qualify, candidates must submit their application by 11:59pm PDT on Sunday August 28, 2022 and enter “WordPress” as your referral.) Please note that there are terms and conditions all participating publishers must agree to in order to work directly with Microsoft Start. This opportunity is not an affiliate program between Microsoft Start and WordPress.com; it’s simply a special, limited-time opportunity we’ve helped to leverage for WordPress.com creators.

Apply Now

New Design Superpowers for You to Leverage

One of the most exciting things about WordPress is that it’s constantly improving. In fact, did you know that Gutenberg releases new functionality and improvements every two weeks?! There have been a number of really cool and powerful capabilities rolled out over the last few months that give you even more control over the design of your site and your content. We wanted to take a minute to highlight some that we’re especially excited about.

Note: These updates are most relevant to those of you who have a block theme activated.

Use Your Featured Image in the Cover Block Borders in Layout BlocksSee What Margin vs Padding Actually DoesPatterns Are Easier to Find and More Convenient to UseLeveling Up the Query Block Notable Mentions Use Your Featured Image in the Cover Block

Over the last few months the Gutenberg team has really powered up the cover block and its ability to leverage the featured image set in your post/page. Not only can you do that when creating new content, you can use it in your templates too, making it easier than ever to make your featured image a bigger part of every post.

Borders in Layout Blocks

You now have the ability to add and customize borders in the columns, row, stack, and group blocks. Use them for subtle dividers or go nuts to create some fun retro drop-shadows. This is a great way to make different sections on your site stand out!

See What Margin vs Padding Actually Does

I’ve been working in the web space for a long time and I still get confused with how padding and margin will impact my layout — especially when there are multiple layers of blocks involved! You will now see exactly where the change is being applied as you adjust your settings.

Patterns Are Easier to Find and More Convenient to Use

Gutenberg 12.7 brings patterns front and center to help save you time and energy. Why recreate a layout block by block when you can start with something more complete? Take advantage of all of the great patterns the WordPress.com designers put together for our customers or maybe consider adding a pattern of your own to the WordPress.org pattern directory.

Leveling Up the Query Block

The Query Loop has grown a lot over the past few months. Not only can you filter by different authors or taxonomies, but you can now filter to show all content under a parent category. This is perfect for creators who create different types of content or jump between drastically different subject matters. It’s really the ultimate block for displaying a collection of posts and it just keeps getting better.

Notable Mentions You can now customize and display text on your social icons. We’ve made it easier to transform your content into different blocks without losing the work you’ve already done. Your new buttons will keep the design settings you already applied, preventing you from having to re-apply the settings for every button you add.

This is just a small subset of new features released over the last few months. Let us know what you think in the comments and feel free to share your favorites!

New Tools for More Successful Editing Adventures

Spacing in Galleries Lock Those BlocksDid You Notice the Table of Contents on This Post?Spacing in Galleries

You now have the power to control how much space lives between your images at the horizontal and vertical level. This allows you to create a variety ways to present a collection of photos. You can even eliminate all of the space to give it a collage effect.

Lock Those Blocks

Have you ever accidentally messed up a block or pattern? While there’s always some comfort in knowing you can “undo” most accidents, there’s a new/better way to prevent them from happening in the first place.

You can now lock blocks from within the editor or the list view. This makes it easier than ever to protect components, sections, or even full layouts.

Within locking you can choose to prevent them from being moved or to prevent them from being removed. You can also look forward to the ability to lock “inner blocks” which would make it easier to lock any number of blocks you have set up within a layout block like the group, row, or stack blocks.

Did You Notice the Table of Contents on This Post?

That’s right, it’s finally here. The table of contents block automatically updates as you edit your content, giving your users a direct path to the content they are most interested in.

What other features have you discovered that make creating and editing content easier for you? Share your tips and tricks in the comments.

Hot Off the Press: New WordPress.com Themes for August 2022

The WordPress.com team is always working on new design ideas to bring your website to life. Below you’ll find the six newest themes that we’ve added to our library, giving you beautiful options for a product showcase, photography portfolio, travel blog, or whatever else you can dream up.

To install any of the below themes, click the the name of the theme you like, which brings you right to the installation page. Then simply click the “Activate this design” button. You can also click “Open live demo,” which brings up a clickable, scrollable version of the theme for you to preview.

You can explore all of our themes by navigating to the “Themes” page, which is found under “Appearance” in the left-side menu of your WordPress.com dashboard. Or, just click here:

All WordPress.com ThemesPendant

Pendant is an elegant product-focused theme. The default styles feature serif headings and a dark background, contributing to a sophisticated style. It features a set of sleek block patterns such as a hero section with a large image, a styled grid to display information about your team, and multi-column layouts to display products.

Heiwa

Heiwa is a clean and elegant theme. Its sophisticated typography and clean look make it a perfect match for a business producing visual products.

Vivre

Vivre is a bold, opinionated blogging theme, heavily inspired by fashion and lifestyle magazines and websites. With large heavy sans-serif paired with a light elegant serif font, it sets the tone to a refined, content-focused reading experience.

Antonia

Antonia is a theme for selling products with the help of payments block. With its clean, modern, and elegant layout, Antonia is a brilliant choice to showcase your products and sell them.

Appleton

Appleton is a portfolio theme with a clean layout, designed to help you showcase your images with minimal distractions. Whether you’re an amateur or a professional photographer looking for a canvas on which to display your work, Appleton is an excellent choice.

Meraki

Meraki is a light and elegant travel blog theme designed to document your adventures. Whether you’re a seasoned globetrotter or an aspiring explorer, Meraki will make a perfect destination for sharing your stories and photography.

Stay tuned for more updates about new themes, patterns, blocks, and other exciting product updates! And be sure to click below to take a look at the entire showcase of themes we offer:

All WordPress.com Themes

Changes to Our Pricing Plans

Our philosophy has always been one of experimenting, learning, and adjusting. As we began to roll out our new pricing plans a couple of months back, we took note of the feedback you shared. What we heard is that some of you missed the more granular flexibility of our previous plans. Additionally, the features you needed and pricing of the new plans didn’t always align for you. This led us to a decision that we believe is the right call.

Returning to Our Familiar Plans

Starting today, we’re bringing back our Personal, Premium, Business, and eCommerce plans – in addition to the free plan. Here’s what that looks like: 

For more details, view plan information here.What This Means for You

For many of you, this doesn’t change anything. If you’re on a WordPress Pro or Starter plan, rest assured that you’ll remain on that plan. Your feedback matters more now than ever. We’ll continue listening. Our broader goals of simplifying website building and managed WordPress hosting will continue behind the scenes,  and we’ll be sure to communicate any future updates as they become finalized. In the meantime, and as always, we welcome your thoughts and feedback.