technology News, Entwicklungen, Updates, HowTos

Since its debut last December, we’ve been improving WordPress.com Newsletter to meet the needs of writers and creators everywhere. Now we’re introducing a big update — the ability to add paid subscriptions and premium content, whatever plan you’re on. Including the Free plan.

Here’s the deal — you can now kickstart your newsletter without spending a penny, build your audience, and then add paid subscriptions into the mix at any point. It’s a great way to explore the shape of your newsletter without paying upfront while giving your readers a way to support your work at any point along the way. If you want to keep on growing, our paid plans provide lower transaction fees and all the features you need to manage and scale your newsletter and website.

Let your readers fuel your creativity

Paid subscriptions let your fans support your art, writing, or project directly. Once your creativity has captivated your audience, there’s a good chance some of them will gladly give something back by supporting your work financially.

And it’s not an all-or-nothing game. You can still put out free posts to grow your readership, enable one-time tips and donations, or keep some of your content exclusive to subscribers.

Take more creative control

We’re all about giving writers and creators the power and flexibility to do things their own way.

From selecting beautiful visual themes, customizing them to make everything feel more like you, or turning your newsletter into a full-fledged website or store, you’ll save time, cut costs, and have a bunch fewer logins and browser tabs to navigate by keeping everything under one roof.

Then, as your newsletter flourishes, you can tap into a universe of plugins, themes, and design patterns with affordable upgrades, whenever the time’s right. That means you can scale smoothly from a free newsletter to one that starts helping you earn, without feeling penned in by a rigid plan or restricted features.

Kickstart your newsletter

Whether you’re thinking of starting up a paid newsletter from scratch or ready to take your existing one up a notch, there’s no better time than now.

Signing up for Newsletter is the quickest route to writing, publishing, and expanding your audience from scratch. And if you’re switching from another platform? No worries, you can bring existing subscribers along for the ride during the setup process.

Amplify an existing site with newsletter features

But you don’t need to start from zero. At WordPress.com, any site can add or become a newsletter. If you’ve been thinking about growing your audience, you’ve got the Subscribe Block and Newsletter Patterns at your disposal to get up and running quickly. They’re the perfect duo to transform a fleeting visit into a lasting bond.

Getting started

Once you’re all set up, introducing paid subscriptions or content gating to your newsletter is simple stuff. Whenever you publish a post, just tick a box to make any post available to everyone, subscribers-only, or just the paying ones.

Here’s how to get started:

Click on “Earn” in the Tools section.

Set up a Stripe account to start receiving payments (or connect your existing account).

Configure your payment plan to establish your subscription fee and cadence.

Your readers will be able to pay for subscriptions directly from your site, with transaction fees as low as 10% of revenue on the Free plan, decreasing as you level up to our paid plans, down to a 0% fee on the Commerce plan. Payments are processed through Stripe and are available in the countries where Stripe is currently supported.

You’re in great company

With over 20 million emails sent out every day by WordPress.com to pretty much every country in the world, rest assured that your newsletter will land in your audience’s inbox reliably and securely. And as your audience grows, you can sit back comfortably knowing that WordPress.com is finely tuned to scale with your ambitions. However far you want to take things.

What’s next?

Newsletter is ever-evolving, and we’re always on the case refining the design, experience, and offerings for writers, creators, and publishers like you. We’re all ears for your ideas for our next steps in making it easier for more people to publish and earn from their work, without barriers to getting started.

Get started today

Quelle: RedHat Stack

31. Mai 2023

da Agency

Concept to Creation: Custom Theme Designs Just Got Easier

Whether you want a simple blog that highlights recent posts, a visually stunning portfolio, or an online home for your small business, your website should be just as unique as you are. That’s why we’re excited to introduce a new site design tool that guides you through the process of creating a memorable custom homepage.

Our designers have put together a library of hundreds of patterns, colors, and fonts that you can mix and match for whichever distinctive vibe you’re going for.

Try it out today by clicking the button below:

Get started!

Create your own design

When you create a new site at WordPress.com, you’ll now find the option to start from a Blank Canvas. This is where you become the designer (with a little help from us): We’ll guide you through decisions on layout, colors, fonts, and more. No matter your goals for your site, we have the building blocks to help you turn your creative vision into reality.

Pick the perfect palette

Paint your patterns with the click of a button, applying custom color palettes to your entire page via our global styles feature. Our simple tools allow you to take the artistic lead on your site. Are you Blueberry Sorbet? Midnight Citrus? Perhaps a moody Charcoal? We have dozens of colorful options to set a mood that works for you and your audience.

Find a fitting font

Whether something stately and classic or sleek and modern, the typeface you use sets the tone for everything you’re trying to do with your site. Our thoughtful and engaging one-click font pairings will have you feeling like an expert typographer in no time.

Edit with ease

Patterns? Check. Colors? Check. Fonts? Check. You’ve got the basics of your site set up. Now it’s time to harness the power of the Site Editor. Bring your page to life by adding images, content, products to sell, and more. As you get comfortable, continue to experiment by adding or removing patterns, playing with colors and fonts, and making your site look and feel exactly the way you want it to.

Click below to get started with our DIY site assembler:

Get started!

Learn more

Need some extra help? Our new Quick Launch course will guide you through what to include on a compelling homepage, and how to tie it together with our new DIY design assembler. Additionally, here’s a few more resources to get you started with designing on WordPress.com:

Create additional pages with Page Layouts

Using block patterns

Global styles

Using the Site Editor

Quelle: RedHat Stack

27. Mai 2023

da Agency

Happy 20th Anniversary, WordPress! We Wouldn’t Be Here Without You

Above: Watch Matt Mullenweg, Mike Little, and Dries Buytaert — in conversation for the first time ever — discuss 20 years of WordPress as well as the future of open source.

On May 27, 2003, co-founders Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little announced that WordPress was available to the public. Their vision, as you can still read in their original post on WordPress.org, was to foster a means by which anyone could easily share and discuss their ideas with the world.

What started as a humble open-source blogging platform is now the driving force behind over one-third of the internet’s most popular websites, including The New York Times, Salesforce, and Disney. But the non-profit WordPress project continues to further its mission of democratizing publishing for the entire world. Just as Version 0.7 was available as a free download under the General Public License (GPL) 20 years ago, WordPress remains free today — at Version 6.2 and counting.

The original comment from WordPress co-founder Mike Little, which kickstarted the creation of a platform that would change the internet forever.

Automattic — the parent company of WordPress.com, Jetpack, Tumblr, and other web platforms and services — didn’t yet exist when Mike and Matt launched WordPress. But since its birth in 2005, the two organizations have worked hand in hand. Through the Five for the Future initiative, Automattic commits 5% of our company’s resources — including over 4,000 employee hours per week — to the open source WordPress project. In turn, we benefit from the amazing work they do in improving WordPress and ensuring the best possible experience for building and maintaining your website, no matter how small or large.

It’s a symbiotic relationship for which we have a deep appreciation. The WordPress community often uses a saying that we love: “A rising tide lifts all boats.” A healthy and thriving WordPress project benefits all of us.

So, to our friends in the WordPress open source community, we extend a heartfelt congratulations and thank you. Happy 20th anniversary! We can’t wait to see what the next two decades — and beyond — will bring.
Quelle: RedHat Stack

24. Mai 2023

da Agency

Hot Off the Press: New WordPress.com Themes for May 2023

The WordPress.com team is always working on new design ideas to bring your website to life. Check out the latest themes in our library, featuring fresh options for startups, visual creators, minimalist bloggers, and more.

All WordPress.com Themes

Iotix

Looking for a great starting point for creating a business or startup website? Try lotix. It offers tailored templates and patterns, including a business landing page, blog, and pricing sections, to help you present yourself and your business more quickly and easily.

With Iotix, you can create a professional and polished website that reflects your brand to help you reach your target audience.