We’re celebrating the New Year with two free themes: Boardwalk and Sela.

Boardwalk

Designed by yours truly, Boardwalk is a clean, simple, and responsive theme.

Powered with horizontal scrolling and built around large featured images, Boardwalk is the perfect choice for photobloggers and those of you looking for an unconventional — yet elegant and creative — theme.

Learn more about Boardwalk at the Theme Showcase, or preview it by going to Appearance → Themes.

Sela

Sela isn’t your typical business theme. It’s a vibrant, bold, clean theme with lots of space for large images, designed by WordPress.com’s own Ola Laczek.

Sela puts the focus on your business with a bold front page template, a grid page template to showcase your products or services, and integrated testimonials. To make your website truly unique, you can upload a logo, customize the background, and choose a color scheme from default color palettes. Sela is the perfect canvas to tell your company’s story and looks great on all devices, from desktop to mobile.

Take Sela for a spin – visit the Theme Showcase to learn more, or activate it on your site by going to Appearance → Themes.

Millions of new sites created and posts published later, 2014 is in the books. We could regale you with big numbers, like these…

Total New Blogs

18,300,771

That’s 49,997 new blogs per day!

Total Posts

555,782,547

Or more than 1.5 million per day — not too shabby. 47 million were published from mobile devices, because you’re on the go.

Bytes of Data per Hour

24.5 Trillion

(Thanks for keeping us so busy!)

… but the most important part of Automattic is what you make with the tools we offer. This year, we thought we’d look back at some of your successes, and how we were able to support the incredible things you created and shared.

To Publish a Mockingbird

With beautifully detailed portraits finished with bodies out of a toddler’s dream, the drawings illustrator Mica creates with her four-year-old daughter are captivating — the post of images she published on Busy Mockingbird has been viewed over 1.1 millions times. After over 10,000 readers shared the post to Facebook, few were feeds without the link, and big names soon came calling: Yahoo. Buzzfeed. NBC.

Spurred by the post’s popularity, Mica launched a Kickstarter campaign to self-publish a book that handily met its fundraising goal. They now have a second volume of animal drawings along with the book based on the original collaboration, and the latest post on Busy Mockingbird reports on her recent trip to New York City for a showing of their otherworldly creations.

We love that we were able to help Mica’s many new fans see her beautiful work without a hitch!

Viral volume? No problem. The top five most popular posts from WordPress.com bloggers racked up 15,849,804 views without a hitch — and our VIP services handled over 28 billion views. When millions clicked on posts from bloggers on the ground in crisis situations in West Africa, Venezuela, or Egypt, our systems helped their voices be heard around the world. 

How we do keep things running smoothly? In 2014, WordPress.com engineers deployed 64,056 improvements and fixes to make sure WordPress.com websites can handle whatever traffic spikes the internet throws at them.

The Birth of an Author

Meaghan O’Connell’s touching, raw account of the her labor and first child’s birth has been viewed over 100,000 times. At 14,000+ words, A Birth Story is a reading investment — but one with an excellent return, for the reader and Meaghan.

Meaghan began telling her story in emails to friends, and Longreads editor Mike Dang encouraged her to adapt it into an essay. When it was published, the internet floodgates opened. A Birth Story was picked up by Dave Pell’s Next Draft, The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post, and Hacker News, and made it to the 2014 best-of lists on Gawker and Digg.

Luckily for those of us who love great writing, we’ll be seeing a lot more of Meaghan: New York magazine offered her a weekly column, and she’s in talks with three different publishers to turn A Birth Story into a full-length book.

We’re thrilled for the successes of Meaghan, Longreads, and all the WordPress.com bloggers who made the leap from pixel to page this year.

Longreads became part of the Automattic family in April 2014. Since joining, we’ve published 45 exclusives and originals — A Birth Story was the most popular among many great reads.

2014 saw quite a few members of the WordPress.com community publishing books, like

• Food blogger Josey Baker’s Josey Baker Bread.
• Mommy Man, by Jerry Mahoney, who writes a blog of the same name.
• The Princess Problem, by children’s media critic Rebecca Hains.

Blogging is Not the Hardest Part

Emily Austin started The Waiting (at the clever URL “notthehardestpart.com“) in 2011 to chronicle her experience of parenthood. Her openness and empathy drew in parents and non-parents alike, helping her build a community 13,000 strong.

Her incisive but relatable writing made Emily one of a handful of bloggers nominated as a BlogHer Voice of the Year, and we got to meet her when she participated on a WordPress.com panel at BlogHer’s annual conference.

During our chat, we celebrated another 2014 milestone: her new job as an online communications specialist for a local non-profit. The work she put into creating and nurturing The Waiting — design, writing, community outreach — sparked a new passion and helped her develop a new set of skills that she now gets to use every day.

Think writing a blog is just like keeping a journal? It can be, but Emily knows it can be much more.

Posts at The Waiting often inspire hundreds of comments — an enviable position for any blogger. Her 3000+ comments in 2014 were a respectable contribution to the 670,561,423 comments WordPress.com bloggers attracted in 2014.

The Waiting also got a makeover this year. If you’re ready to switch up your theme, we added almost 100 new options this year including 39 free and 57 premium themes.

Naptime Writing Storms the Stage

Christine Harkin, the writer behind Naptime Writing, was another of the 22 WordPress.com bloggers recognized as a BlogHer Voice of the Year, and another of our mini-panelists.

We were so struck by the humor and writing wisdom on offer during the panel that when the organizers of WordCamp San Francisco were looking for speakers to be part of the event’s blogging track, we suggested her without hesitation. Her presentation, Finding and Maintaining Your Blog’s Voice, was full of her trademark wit — and of course, inspiring, actionable blogging advice.

The strong and vibrant community behind WordPress is its biggest strength, and Automattic works hard to contribute to the fabric.

We loved meeting thousands of WordPress.com bloggers at the many events we sponsored and spoke at in 2014, from the International Beer Bloggers Conference in Dublin, Ireland, to Webstock in Wellington, New Zealand, to BlogWorld in Las Vegas, US — over 40 conferences and 79 WordCamps.

Behind everything Automattic does are 301 Automatticians:

• 66 Happiness Engineers responded to your requests for assistance 365,212 times.
• Every one of our 134 developers worked on the improvements and enhancements we’ve been rolling out over the past few weeks.
• 9 systems engineers kept everyone’s sites running fast and secure.
• 8 editors shepherded over 22,000 of you through Blogging U. courses.
• 24 themers made 96 stunning new layouts and dozens of customization improvements available.

And of course, along with all 301 of us and the four writers and artists profiled above, there was you, creating those 18 million new blogs and 555 million new posts, giving us the 24,485,420,085,002 bytes of data we moved around every hour.

Those bytes aren’t just little packets of code winging around the internet’s series of tubes (at least, they’re not just that). They carry stories. Memories. Voices. Relationships. Experiences.  They’re your essays, your photos, your poems, your drawings. Every time a piece of what you’ve created pops up on someone’s screen, you expand someone’s universe, just a little, and they expand yours — which is the real power of WordPress.com, and of the internet.

Thanks for letting us being a part of your 2014. Here’s to 2015; we can’t wait to see what next year’s look back will contain.

In 2014, we discovered how much WordPress.com bloggers want to connect with each other and do more with their blogs — tens of thousands of you have participated in Blogging U since it began a year ago!

This year, we’re starting an in-person event series called Press Publish for people who want to take their blogs even further, starting with two conferences this spring in Portland, OR and Phoenix, AZ. These events will focus on inspiration and tools from WordPress.com, though people blogging on any platform will be welcome. Speakers will be a combination of awesome WordPress.com bloggers and staff members including folks from the Happiness Team, Blogging U, and the Theme Team — in short, the WordPress.com experts. :)

We’re at the “Save the Date” stage: March 28 in Portland and April 18 in Phoenix. We’re putting together the program now, and will start announcing speakers, schedule, and pricing later this month. To get announcements when we start posting this information, head over to the Press Publish site and subscribe to/follow it.

In the meantime, we’d love to hear from you about bloggers/speakers or topics that we should have on our radar. Are there WordPress.com blogs that you can’t live without? Are there any subjects you would really want to see addressed at an event like this, either in terms of creating great content or in terms of using WordPress.com (or Jetpack)? Sound off in the comments, and if mentioning favorite bloggers, please link to their blogs. Thanks, and hope to see you at an upcoming event!

Our editors dove into the archives to resurface top posts published on WordPress.com this year, from personal essays to comics, and photography to fiction. Here’s a glimpse of what you published — and what the community especially loved — in 2014.

“Ever Wished That Calvin and Hobbes Creator Bill Watterson Would Return to the Comics Page? Well, He Just Did,” Stephan Pastis, Pearls Before Swine

“Bill Watterson is the Bigfoot of cartooning,” writes comic artist Stephan Pastis of the legendary Calvin and Hobbes creator. This summer, Pastis collaborated — in secret — with Watterson. Their awesome idea: Watterson would silently step in and draw Pastis’ comic strip, Pearls Before Swine, for a few days, pretending to be a second grader. Pastis recounts the experience, offering a rare glimpse of Bigfoot.

Pearls Before Swine; Stephan Pastis; June 4, 2014.

“No Apology,” Mehreen Kasana

I will apologize for ISIS when every single white American apologizes for the mass incarceration of black and brown people in the United States. I will post an 8,000 word apology when English people email me individual apologies for what the British Empire did to the subcontinent. I won’t limit this to whiteness only; I will apologize when every single ethnic, religious group apologizes for whatever someone did simply because, under this debauched logic, they owe the world an apology for sharing an identity. When I start seeing these apologies, I will apologize too.

Until then, no apology.

In “No Apology,” Brooklyn-based writer Mehreen Kasana pulls no punches in a bluntly powerful post explaining why she refuses to apologize for Muslim extremists. Her post forces all readers to take a hard look at identity, nationalism, and how we pick and choose who we hold responsible for violence — and who we absolve.

“Meanwhile, Just Outside of Ferguson,” Don of All Trades

Life goes on, even when there’s chaos.

While much has happened in Ferguson, Missouri, since the August 2014 shooting of Michael Brown, this Don of All Trades post, published not long after the shooting, remains an intimate, resonant read. Don, a St. Louis police officer, recounts just another day on the job, in a town right outside of Ferguson, where life continues as usual and everyone — cops included — is invested in making the community better, safer, and more just.

“A Response to ‘Women Against Feminism,'” Hannah Collins, I Wanted Wings

So before you hold up your anti-Feminist placard proudly and smile at your own sense of empowerment, think not what Feminism can do for you, but what it can do for that one girl.

In a response to the #womenagainstfeminism movement, Hannah Collins says why she is a feminist and explains, especially to those who feel they don’t need feminism, that many people around the world still need it.

“Football the Religion,” Tony Burns, Shooting the World 

During a visit to Myanmar, freelance travel photographer Tony Burns documented Buddhist monks playing football on the grounds of their monastery, after a day of classes. His photo essay, “Football, the religion,” is a standout in our photography archives this year.

Tony Burns, “Football, the religion,” Shooting the World

“Why Nerd Culture Must Die,” Pete Warden

When I look around, I see the culture we’ve built turning from a liberating revolution into a repressive incumbency. We’ve built magical devices, but we don’t care enough about protecting ordinary people from harm when they use them. . . . We don’t care about the people who lose out when we disrupt the world, just the winners (who tend to look a lot like us).

Pete Warden, the CTO of Jetpac, says that nerd culture, once outside the cultural mainstream, now runs the world. And in this post from October, he explains why it must die.

“A Pale Blue Glow,” Shane L. Larson, Write Science

This emotional attachment and personification of machines seems disingenuine to some people; spacecraft aren’t people, they are collections of wires and circuits and nuts and bolts — they don’t have souls to become attached to. I dunno. I think they do have souls. They are the embodiment of every one who ever imagined them, worked on them, or stared at the data and pictures they returned. These little robots, in a way, are us. They are our dreams.

On the collaborative blog Write Science, astrophysicist Shane L. Larson pens a thought-provoking piece on the spacecrafts we’ve sent into the outer solar system, including the Voyagers and Pioneers, that will eventually die. Larson celebrates our human achievements in space, explores our relationships to the machines we build, and reminds us of the beauty and mystery of the cosmos.

“An Earthly Guide to Sainthood,” Giovanni De Feo, Cease, Cows

You cannot answer prayers with miracles involving direct deliverance of suffering. However, you can bring joy. Lottery wins are usually the most simple. The miracolati will later dream of you, which will all go to the glory of our kind. They don’t have to be big wins, we actually encourage little ones, as it keeps them hoping.

In this earthly guide to sainthood, Giovanni De Feo, a speculative fiction writer living in Genova, Italy, offers a glimpse into the rules of an afterlife and the responsibilities of a saint. Published at Cease, Cows, a journal of short fiction and prose poetry, De Feo’s piece encapsulates the writing you’ll find here: strange and exploratory.

 “What My Bike Has Taught Me About White Privilege,” Jeremy Dowsett, A Little More Sauce

This is what privilege is about. Like drivers, nice, non-aggressive white people can move in the world without thinking about the ‘potholes’ or the ‘gravel’ that people of color have to navigate, or how things that they do — not intending to hurt or endanger anyone — might actually be making life more difficult or more dangerous for a person of color.

In his popular summer post, Michigan-based pastor Jeremy Dowsett explains how riding his bike has helped him to understand privilege. At once personal and accessible, the piece resonated with a wide audience (and was later republished on Quartz).

“August 14,” Optional Poetry

This isn’t my home,
I am a temporary resident
and my family ties are
blessedly recent

but things are soaked
in history here,
you can’t take a step
without stepping in it

In 1963, Medgar Evars, a black civil rights activist, was assassinated in the driveway of his home at 2332 Guynes Street in Jackson, Mississippi. Catherine’s poem, set at the Evars family home, is a subtle but powerful tribute to Evars and his important work with NAACP — and an indictment of a society that is still struggling to realize the dreams and promises of the civil rights movement.

“Deaths in the Iliad: A Classics Infographic,” Laura Jenkinson, Greek Myth Comix

At Greek Myth Comix, artist and classic civilization teacher Laura Jenkinson brings the classics to life through comics and infographics. In “Deaths in the Illiad,” she presents an impressive illustrated infographic of Trojan and Greek deaths, battle stats by hero, notable battle performances, and more.

Section of “Deaths in the Illiad,” Laura Jenkinson, Greek Myth Comix

“A Veteran Teacher Turned Coach Shadows 2 Students for 2 Days — A Sobering Lesson Learned,” Grant Wiggins

But in shadowing, throughout the day, you start to feel sorry for the students who are told over and over again to pay attention because you understand part of what they are reacting to is sitting and listening all day. It’s really hard to do, and not something we ask adults to do day in and out. Think back to a multi-day conference or long PD day you had and remember that feeling by the end of the day — that need to just disconnect, break free, go for a run, chat with a friend, or surf the web and catch up on emails. That is how students often feel in our classes, not because we are boring per se but because they have been sitting and listening most of the day already. They have had enough.

This fall, education writer Grant Wiggins shared an account from a veteran high school teacher who shadowed tenth and twelfth grade students for two days. The experience was eye-opening, while the post generated an overwhelming response via comments and emails.

“The Eroticism of Placelessness,” Cody C. Delistraty

Those who choose to remain placeless find that next to us lays either an empty pillow or a body that we feel little affection for, merely a vessel for countenancing this intentional loneliness. Eroticism is not an antidote; it is a Band-Aid.

Cody C. Delistraty, a writer and researcher based in Paris and Oxford, writes about culture, psychology, and the human condition. In “The Eroticism of Placelessness,” he muses on placelessness — inhabiting in-between spaces — and its connections to freedom and romance, but also loneliness. We appreciate Delistraty’s blend of essay, research, and commentary and eloquent discussions to bigger questions.

We’re proud of the global community of bloggers that publish on this platform each day. You’re welcome to browse recent editors’ picks on discover.wordpress.com.

We look forward to reading you in 2015!

It’s that time of year again. The snow has started falling in northern countries, friends are gathering together to exchange presents, and it’s time to launch a beautiful new annual theme for WordPress.

Hello World, Twenty Fifteen is here.

Twenty Fifteen is all about the details. Everything you publish is elegantly set in Noto Sans and Noto Serif, keeping the design harmonious and balanced in multiple languages around the globe. That polylingual pixel perfection is matched by its responsive design. From device to device, Twenty Fifteen will look smart and polished.

The attention to detail is reflected in the menu design. Check out the descriptions under the links in the demo and the screenshots above. Learn how to add menu descriptions on the theme showcase page.

The fine details and strong structure make Twenty Fifteen look even better with a bit of customization. We have five featured color schemes carefully adapted to blend seamlessly with all the amazing color palettes available with Custom Colors.

Add your own custom header and you’ve got a stunning, personalized site.

Handcrafted by designer Takashi Irie with incredible testing, support, and contributions from the many passionate people that make the WordPress community, Twenty Fifteen is now available for you and your readers. If you’re managing your own WordPress installation you’ll see Twenty Fifteen arrive as part of the new version of WordPress set to release later this month.

Have a happy new year with Twenty Fifteen.

We’re back with a new collection of our favorite stories from across all of WordPress.

1. Books for the Broken-Hearted

Hannah Richell

Hannah Richell’s husband Matt was killed in a surfing accident in July. In a recent post, Richell writes about finding comfort in reading words written by people who have also experienced the shock of losing a loved one — people like Joan Didion, C.S. Lewis, and Cheryl Strayed.

2. The Shame of Poor Teeth in a Rich World

Sarah Smarsh, Aeon

An essay about growing up poor in America, and the role of teeth as a class signifier.

3. Giving Up the Ghost

Lynn Cunningham, The Walrus

Lynn Cunningham smoked cigarettes for fifty years before making a decision to quit and get help by visiting the Mayo Clinic’s Nicotine Dependence Center in Minnesota.

4. The Laborers Who Keep Dick Pics and Beheadings Out of Your Facebook Feed

Adrian Chen, Wired

Adrian Chen travels to the Philippines, where he meets the employees who work for content moderation companies that scrub objectionable content from social media sites.

5. ‘Before I Write a Word, I Need to Know Clearly What I Want to Say’

Ed Odeven Reporting

An interview with Baltimore-based author and sportswriter John Eisenberg.

6. Talking Shit about Hemingway and Thoreau with ‘The Toast’ Founder and ‘Texts From Jane Eyre’ Author Mallory Ortberg

Elisabeth Donnelly, Flavorwire

The beautiful thing about Texts From Jane Eyre, based on Ortberg’s original column for The Hairpin, is that it offers exactly what it says on the cover: the Western canon is parodied and spoofed through the silly modern invention of texting. Ortberg’s comedy is shot through with love and deep literary knowledge, highlighting the silly and outrageous subtext bubbling under classics from Lord Byron to Nancy Drew. It’s hilarious, wickedly smart work that also serves as a fantastic reading list.

7. Pot Kids

Kate Pickert, Time Magazine

Inside the quasi-legal science-free world of medical marijuana for kids.

8. On Modesty

Anna Vodicka, Shenandoah

An essay about modesty that recalls the author’s girlhood in a conservative community and challenges the mixed messages of women as both “Eve” and “Jezebel.”

9. One of Us

Jennifer J. Roberts, Boston Magazine

Memories of being a Southie kid and black in a mostly white neighborhood in Boston.

10. An American Dream Deferred

Eli Saslow, Washington Post

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Eli Saslow profiles Javier Flores, an undocumented immigrant who was hoping that an executive action by President Obama would prevent him from being deported to Mexico and forced to leave his wife and U.S.-born children behind in Ohio. Flores is now in La Mixtequita, Mexico, with few options to reunite with his family.

As always, you can find our past collections here. You can follow Longreads on WordPress.com for more daily reading recommendations, or subscribe to our free weekly email.

Publishers, writers: You can share links to your favorite essays and interviews (over 1,500 words) on Twitter (#longreads) and on WordPress.com by tagging your posts longreads.

Carving out your very own corner on the web is important to you. You may be a brand-new user on WordPress.com — if so, welcome! — or a veteran blogger returning to an old habit. Recently on the Verge, Lockhart Steele, the editorial director of Vox Media, talked about getting back to blogging. On a noisy internet with many platforms, some are bringing their blogs back from the dead and reclaiming their personal turf.

But for me, the web ecosystem will always be bloggy at its core. I’m looking forward to being a part of it again myself.

– Lockhart Steele

No matter what type of blogger you are, these ten themes — ideal for personal blogging and writing — will inspire you: some are simple and understated, while others are bold and modern. Each theme works right out of the box, so you can start publishing right now.

Browse away!

McKinley

Say hello to McKinley: a flexible, easy-to-use theme for writing, photographs, and short bits of content. The distinct post formats for your quote and link posts add blocks of color to your homepage, distinguishing quick posts from your longer pieces. Featured images also look great, while slideshows display at full width.

See McKinley in action on the blog of author Amanda Mininger.

Syntax

A minimal design that gets out of the way? Check. Large font that’s easy on the eyes? Check. Pullquotes that supplement the reading experience? Check. Enter Syntax, a writing and reading theme with no distractions. Straightforward yet elegant, it works well with your longreads and chapter excerpts, but also displays featured images in your posts, which look fantastic in post archive view:

Check out how Economist contributor and Hannibal and Me author Andreas Kluth uses Syntax.

Intergalactic

For writers who believe that images are as powerful as words, take a peek at Intergalactic, launched last week. Bold featured images and content blocks transform this theme into a visual feast, while the one-column layout creates a clean, quiet reading experience.

See Intergalactic take off on the site of journalist and photographer Bryan Smith.

Ryu

There’s so much to love about Ryu, a popular personal blogging theme among our top ten. The large post titles are sophisticated, while the various post formats add variety to your site. (The background color of an image post automatically matches the uploaded image, which is a nice touch!) Subtle but effective design details are already in place, so you can activate the theme and start posting.

See Ryu in the wild on The Smallest Forest, a crafts and design blog.

Hemingway Rewritten

A minimal theme with a cool scrolling header effect, Hemingway Rewritten has all the key features for most bloggers. Use the default countryside featured image, or upload your own custom header. Insert a few widgets in the sidebar on your homepage, or create full-width template pages to give your best content all the space it deserves. It’s a versatile yet clean layout, and Hemingway would be proud.

See Hemingway Rewritten transformed on The Disorder of Things.

Eighties

One-column themes aren’t necessarily understated — just look to Eighties as the exception. Like the decade from which it gets its name, Eighties is fun and dynamic, from its bold blog title font to the huge full-width featured images. But despite the flashiness, it gives you the space to write, while the balance between your images and prose is tasteful.

Take Eighties for a spin on Camerajunky, the online diary of a camera addict.

Bushwick

Looking for something different from the themes we’ve showcased above? One awesome feature of Bushwick is the fixed header area on the left — best viewed on a bigger screen — which you can personalize with your own image. On the right, readers can scroll through your latest posts.

Check out Bushwick on the blog of artist Danny Gregory.

Bosco

A single column, elegant typography, and lots of whitespace make Bosco an easy, pleasant reading experience. You’ll find unique treatments of post formats; for example, titles of link posts go straight to the content you’ve linked, rather than another page on your blog. You can also place widgets at the footer, to add cool extras without distracting your readers.

Readers will love the experience of Bosco — see it on Misprinted Pages, a blog on books and writing.

Pocket ($75)

The final two themes in our list are premium, and our first — Pocket — mixes contemporary design with bold typography. Here, make your voice heard with attention-grabbing headlines, quotes, and stunning images. Your front-page archive is a single column, with distinct content blocks for your various types of posts. In the Customizer, you can also choose from multiple color palettes, select a grayscale effect for your featured images, and experiment with other extras.

See how writer, teacher, and swimmer Matthew Swanston uses Pocket.

Notebook ($75)

One of my favorite new premium themes, Notebook is sleek and sophisticated. Set a commanding background image and introduce yourself on your homepage. Let the minimal graphic menu, which slides in and out on the left, direct readers to your content. The default typography is modern and easy-to-read, and images are used in various ways to enhance your site — not just as featured images at the top of your posts, but as background images in the post navigation and thumbnails in archive view.

Check out this premium theme on the Notebook demo site.

Whenever I get the chance to travel, I always photograph local street art. The topics, colors, and scenes help me absorb the feel and atmosphere that makes each destination truly unique. Join me for a tour of some amazing street art from around the world, right from the comfort of your armchair.

Welcome to Berlin, Germany, our first stop on the tour, where we find Christine Estima‘s photo of street art by ElBocho. I love the bold lines and striking expressions:

#ElBocho Berlin Baby (Photo by Christine Estima)

And now, over to Cardiff, Wales, for something slightly more muted. DIFF GRAFF did a great job capturing Rmer‘s portrait of Marlon Brando as the Godfather. It’s quite striking, wouldn’t you agree?

Marlon Brando by the artist Rmer (Photo by DIFF GRAFF)

Heading to Dunedin, New Zealand, we stop off at Dunedin Wears the Pants. The site, run by Caitlin and Helen Owen, celebrates Dunedin’s vibrant creativity. Continuing with our more muted palette is an incredible, perspective-boggling piece by Daniel Mead:

Baldwin Street Art by Daniel Mead (Photo by Caitlin and Helen Owen)

Hop over to the Xochimilco borough of Mexico City, Mexico, and feast your eyes on the vibrant colors of American expat Shannon‘s photo essay, “Who are the people in your neighborhood?” on her blog, Casita Colibrí:

From the photo essay, Who are the people in your neighborhood? (Photo by Shannon)

In search of more brilliant colors, we stop in San Francisco at Stan Santos‘ blog Simple Kitchen Seasons. Here’s a sample from a recent series of photo essays by Stan featuring sights on the streets of San Francisco. The brilliant blues are stunning in this piece:

Photo by Stan Santos

For a more minimalist feel, check out this photo essay by Jan Kalserud taken on the streets of Taipei, Taiwan. For more incredible street art, check out Graffiti Taiwan, a blog by Jan Kalserud and David Jiang dedicated to documenting street art and graffiti in Taiwan’s public places.

Photo by Jan Kalserud

Spinning the globe, let’s stop at Rotterdam Street Decorations, a blog dedicated to sharing the ingenious creations found on the streets of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Here’s some political commentary in bold purple:

Lastplak @ Noorderkanaalweg VI (Photo by Rotterdam Street Decorations)

Our final stop on the street art armchair tour brings us to Reyjavik, Iceland, for some words of wisdom, courtesy of Dawid, the blogger behind Adnotator. Be sure to check out his colorful photo essay in full.

Photo by Dawid

If you’re sad the tour has come to an end, be sure to explore the street art tag in your Reader.

What are your favorite pieces of local street art? Please share links to your work in the comments!

From the US to Turkey to Brazil, established journalists are using their blogs to enhance their reporting in traditional media.

From novelists to bakers, books by WordPress.com bloggers are popping up on shelves and screens everywhere this spring.

Just in time for the weekend, a tasting menu of some of our very best food blogs, from the most decadent burgers ever created to macarons so beautiful you want to bite into your screen.

We first met Christy after reading her post, My Grace is Gone (A Climb Out of Alcoholism). The sheer honesty and emotional intensity of the piece resonated with us — so much so — we not only bumped it to Freshly Pressed, we included it in our year-end Editors’ Picks — a collection of our favorite, most powerful posts from 2013. Christy sat down with us to tell us how she got started at Running on Sober, what blogging has meant to her in recovery, and a little about some new blogging projects she recently started.

Tell us the story of how you started your blog, runningonsober.com.

One of my best friends actually pissed me off, that’s how. It’s actually kind of funny. See, I had my last alcoholic drink in May 2011, just two months after my mom died. (No, that’s not the funny part.) But I had all this time on my hands, and I didn’t know what to do with myself. So I did what many newly-sober people do — I threw myself into other activities: jelly bean eating, running, and blog reading.

My friend is pretty patient with me, but eventually she said, “I want you to strive to be less and less like her over time. And more and more like yourself.” –Christy

Most of the blogs I was reading were about getting sober and about running — and my favorite blog was the perfect trifecta: a blog about a newly sober woman and her “act of returning to normal.” She wrote about the ups and downs of early sobriety, about the mountains of sugar our bodies crave, and about training for a half marathon. It was like she was in my head. I would email her blog posts to my friend and say, “I can relate, as usual!” Or, “This sounds exactly like me!”

My friend is pretty patient with me, but eventually she said, “I want you to strive to be less and less like her over time. And more and more like yourself.”

What my friend so wisely saw was that I needed to learn how to define myself, for myself. I needed to learn who I was — not to identify with or emulate somebody else. I was enough. I just had to find me again. After years of drinking and loss and grief, I had lost myself.

I was scared, and a little angry. But she was right, and I knew it. Less than a month later, and scared out of my mind, I published my first blog post.

How did you come up for the name of your blog, Running on Sober?

Much of that first month I contemplated a blog name. I was not blog-savvy. All I knew was what I was reading — a handful of running and sobriety blogs. So I thought…running…sobriety…sober…running…sober. And then the light bulb went on. I’m a music lover and a Jackson Browne fan, and one of my favorite songs is Running on Empty. But I’m not empty, I thought, I’m just sober. And not only did I have a name, I had a tagline too, and didn’t even know it at the time. Most of my friends and readers either call me Christy or RoS, though there are times I wish I would have named my blog Blitzed and Mixed Female so that I could be called BAMF. Hmmmm… maybe my next blogging project!

How (if at all) has blogging about alcoholism and recovery helped you along?

Christy and Spot.

I haven’t had a drink since I began blogging. So while blogging is not the sole reason I have remained sober, it is no doubt one of the biggest reasons. Like many people first getting sober or clean, I battled with anxiety, being honest with others, feeling like no one else can possibly understand me, and issues of shame and anger and regret.

As I blogged and met other bloggers with similar backgrounds, I started feeling more comfortable sharing with others. Especially in the comment sections, because you can have a relaxed dialogue and get to know your fellow bloggers. So I began opening up and learned I wasn’t as unique as I’d believed. We all shared so many things in common.

I found if I was having a bad day, it helped to write about it — totally out of character for me, because I was not a complainer — and people just listened. They didn’t tell me what to do, they didn’t try to fix me, they just let me vent, and I found that so liberating! Now I vent and rant with the best of them… which is great, because I’m not keeping it in, and I’m not letting it poison my personal relationships or my health. I’m sure my husband is very grateful too!

Blogging plays a huge role in my sobriety, and is looped in with all the other tools in my sobriety toolbox; I like to say that sugar — lots of sugar — and recovery meetings helped me get sober, but that blogging, running, honesty, and not drinking are all current tools that help me stay sober. Okay, and sugar. Lots of sugar. We all have to pick our battles.

How have readers responded to your writing?

Bloggers can feel needlessly isolated — all you have to do is say, “Hi, I like you.” And nine times out of ten, you have formed an instant connection. –Christy

Can I just go on the record here and say that the WordPress community freaking rocks? Seriously, they do. From the very first day I hit that first publish button I have had nothing but positive reactions. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I am not shy. I’ll talk to anyone. If someone visits my blog and leaves a comment, I’m going to say thank you in some way, usually via a direct response and often a visit. If I read an interesting post or visit a fun blog, I’m going to say “Hey, I like your style, thank you for this post — do you like Fritos?”

What, (if anything) has surprised you about the responses you’ve received?

One of the surprising reactions I’ve received is how open non-recovery (or “normal”) bloggers are to my personal stories. I’ve made many friends outside of the so-called sober blogs, and they have been some of my strongest supporters. I’m far from an addiction specialist or expert, so I don’t know the latest statistics, but I feel pretty confident saying that addiction touches more lives than not. Either via personal experience with substance abuse or even food, gambling, shopping, exercise, dieting, sex, smart phones…you name it, most of us are addicted to something. And if we’re not addicted, chances are someone in our family or close friends is, or chances are we grew up with it in our homes.

I wrote about losing my mom while I was struggling to quit drinking. My Grace is Gone (a Climb Out of Alcoholism) is hands-down the most brutal piece of writing I’ve done to date. I don’t know where the words came from. I sat down to write a post on running, and out poured my deepest regret and shame like someone had turned a fire hydrant on full blast inside of me. It was time. Apparently, the story was ready to be told.

People get it, they know conquering your demons is tough — even if they don’t always understand the complexities involved — they know it’s not easy. I’ve heard from so many people that have lost family members to their addictions. Someone told me, “I wish my brother had known about your blog. I wish he knew there was support out there. Maybe it would have made the difference. Maybe he wouldn’t have felt that suicide was his only way out.” Man… that knocked the breath out of me. And one of my loyal readers found me by chance when she was looking to better understand her daughter’s addiction struggles and wanted to support her daughter, because she was proud of her. That took my breath away too, because I lost my mom to cancer before she could see me thrive in sobriety, and one of my biggest hopes is that she is somewhere where she can see me and be proud of me.

Christy and her mom.

I’m not sure I was ready to tell it, but sometimes you just have to jump. I was physically ill afterward and I cried non-stop for nearly a week, but I knew I had recorded something special. I knew this was the rickety fraying rope bridge I had to maneuver before I could move forward in my healing. I don’t know if you’re ever ready for that, but I also didn’t want to stay stuck in that pain and grief either. At least writing about it, I was owning it. I was shining a light on the darkest corner of my skeleton closet and telling those demons, “you don’t control me anymore.”

And a funny thing happened, once I took the power away from that shame and darkness, it slipped away on its own. It didn’t happen overnight, but it happened. And it happened with the love and support of the blogging community. I am forever grateful to WordPress for supporting me as I strive to reclaim my lost grace, and I am grateful for the chance to help others along the way.

This support and validation has encouraged me to put my face out there in my post This Face of Alcoholism and to pursue writing as a craft, just for the sheer joy of writing and storytelling. You’ve given me confidence to spread my wings, to get out of my comfort zone, to be “brave” (my theme word for 2014), and as my friend encouraged almost two years ago, to act more and more like myself. And to join Twitter (@Christys_Words) — finally! (Yeah, sorry about the frigid temperatures, that’s just hell freezing over.)

Which blogs in the recovery community do you feel a particular connection with, and why?

There are so many wonderful recovery bloggers out there — and just like all bloggers, recovery bloggers all have their own styles and voices too. The key is finding a few that click with you and complement your goals and personality. I’m still one of the old-fashioned bloggers with a blogroll; I find them to be extremely popular with recovery blogs, because when you’re thinking about getting sober, you don’t always know who to turn to. That’s why I keep my blogrolls and my resources page — so people can find the help they need.

I was lucky to meet a kindred spirit within the first month I began blogging: Kristen from ByeByeBeer. I don’t have a sister, but if I could choose one, it would be Kristen. I had only been blogging for two weeks when she found me, and we clicked instantly. We both share a love for running and sugar, we have about the same length of sobriety (just over 2.5 years), we both enjoy picking on Journey (the band and the word), we both fell madly in love with Darwin the Sherpa-coated IKEA monkey and immediately began plotting how we could extradite Darwin to the States. Plus Kristen inspires me to be a better writer.

Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.

—Leonard Cohen

Very early on, I also connected with Lisa from Sober Identity for her pragmatic and cognitive approach to sobriety, and also for her love of running and cookies. I owe so much to Michele of Mished-Up for helping me process the grief of losing my mom, for helping me call bullshit on my inner voice who, still, wants to hold me back from recovery and retreat to isolation.

I’d be remiss in not mentioning fellow blogger El Guapo from Guapola who has embraced many of us from the recovery circles. He is a strong advocate of Mental Health issues, and his musical library far exceeds even mine! Plus, Guapola is where I first went public with a personal photograph — granted it was from twenty years ago and I was wearing a prom dress and channeling Madonna, which now that I think about it, was a pretty damn gutsy thing to do. Or crazy. But I’m going to stick with gutsy.

You’ve recently started two new blogs. What inspired you to take your writing in a new direction?

I was the kid always highlighting passages in my books and tape recording songs from the radio so I could sit and transcribe the lyrics into a notebook. Instead of catching butterflies, I was catching words. –Christy

Words for the Weekend (or just Words as we often call it), actually started as a lark soon after I began blogging. Like most readers and writers, I love words, I love the feelings words can inspire, I love how a timely quote or poem can comfort or motivate, but mostly I love finding the undercurrent that connects those feelings — those words — and I love recording those words for later inspiration.

I began sharing some of these collections over the weekend on my blog, because things seemed a little slower-paced, a little more quiet and reflective, and I wanted a place to share the words I had captured, initially for myself, but then others starting sharing and commenting, until eventually Words became a regular weekend feature with a life and readership of its own. Each weekend it matured and came more into its own, and I knew eventually it was going to need its own apartment, but I also knew it needed and deserved more attention than I could devote solely, so I waited and I kept that idea on the back burner.

At the same time, I was getting to know a fellow blogger, a talented writer and one of the best WordPress poets I’ve discovered, C.K. Hope (Jennie) of Daisies From Dust. I began sharing her poems in various volumes of Words, and in doing so, learned she too was a kindred word lover and collector.

We collaborate so well, we decided to take on an even bigger challenge — daily words. We launched a new WordPress site on January 1, a single daily Words selection, and the response has been very receptive and positive.

The new year also brings new blogging goals and plans for Running On Sober. Running, music, sobriety… it’s all continuing. But I’m also planning to share more of my creative writing and poetry, I’ve already joined in some of The Daily Post‘s Prompts and Writing Challenges and hope to encourage more to join me.

A few members of Christy’s local “community.” She has a cat, two dogs, three donkeys, and nine cows.

I also plan to open the doors up to new voices and perspectives. With Jennie, I plan to host a monthly “addiction in the family” feature, and with my friend Michelle Terry of MamaMickTerry, I hope to host a monthly “brave” feature. In both features, I’d like to invite others to share their stories of bravery or addiction from a family stand-point.

I chose the word Brave for my 2014 theme word to inspire me to act even if I was afraid, and to share even if I was scared. I was a little scared to do this piece, but brave is being scared and doing it anyway.

My goal this year is to let my words be anything but empty. And maybe a bit more concise. WordPress.com will help me accomplish that. I’m excited, 2014 is going to be a great year! Let’s get running.

Thank you, Christy!

One of the strengths of WordPress.com is the community — a global network of users, learning from one another and supporting each other. Earlier this month, Michelle shared blogs within the mental health community, and we’ll continue to highlight blogs that promote health and wellness. Today, let’s take a look at blogs focused on exercise, fitness, and healthy eating. (As a bonus, we’ve included steps on how to use our new recipe shortcode, which might be handy for those of you with food and recipe blogs.)

Exercise and fitness

Image by Tomas Sobek (CC BY 2.0).

You’ll find many bloggers writing about exercise and fitness in the Reader. Personal trainer Ariana Dane offers general advice on exercise and nutrition at Living a Balanced Life that is motivating but realistic: from skipping new year’s resolutions to slowing down and being mindful of what causes you stress when it comes to weight loss.

Over at Fit, Feminist, and (Almost) Fifty, you’ll find commentary and opinion pieces on fitness and health. The backstory: two feminists in their late forties with active lifestyles have goals to be the fittest they’ve ever been by age fifty.

They ask: what does it really mean to be fit? The writers approach fitness and health with a critical eye, and often challenge common assumptions. If you’re not sure where to start, read their thoughts on naked yoga, body shaming, and women-only workout spaces. It’s a refreshing space for provoking discussions.

Tony at One Regular Guy Writing About Food, Exercise, and Living Longer is a former men’s magazine editor and writes straightforward, candid posts about general health — from big bellies to soft drinks to smoking. Being retired for twelve years, he’s had more time to work on personal goals (and is even considered a success story by the National Institute on Aging). From his About page:

When the blog started, I was talking the talk; three years later I am walking the walk. You can do the same. I am just a regular guy.

Sure, you’ll find tons of posts from “fitness experts” on the web. But Tony’s take is frank, no-nonsense, and from the fresh perspective of just another guy.

Healthy eating and living

Last fall, Ben highlighted an assortment of food blogs. Here’s a glimpse at a few more that focus on healthy eating and cooking.

Jamie Phipps at The Hearty Herbivore shares vegetarian and vegan recipes, from tropical kale salad to vegan crust and white pizzas. Her photographs of food make these fresh, healthy concoctions hard to resist; we also dig her sweet treats, like her vegan banana toffee pie and a peanut butter and banana smoothie.

Julie Montagu at The Flexi Foodie is all about yoga and a plant-based diet. Her blog is focused on eating and cooking nutrient-dense food, and ideas to strengthen your body through stretching, breathing, lifting, and opening. In addition to recipes, she talks about healthy eating in general: from cutting down on the use of oil to promoting cancer-fighting foods.

Image via The Flexi Foodie

Russ Crandall launched The Domestic Man to explore where our food comes from and to reconnect with nature. His blog, which is soon to be a cookbook (released in February), chronicles his cooking adventures and a dietary lifestyle modeled after the Paleo diet, which focuses on natural, unprocessed foods.

Check out his recipes for Karniyarik (Turkish stuffed eggplant) or Brudet (Croatian seafood stew) or Blaukraut (German red cabbage) for a tour of the natural flavors of the world. We also like following his adventures in gardening, too. (We’re interviewing Russ next month — stay tuned.)

Embed a recipe with shortcode

As you can see from the food blogs above, recipes are key component of these sites. We’re happy to announce that you can now embed a recipe on WordPress.com sites, with consistent formatting and basic metadata. You also have the option to print it with the click of a button. All you need to do is put your recipe between a set of shortcode tags.

The title and attributes of an embedded recipe.

Here’s a summary of how it works: to add a recipe to your site, insert the [recipe] shortcode when you’re creating a post or page. Everything between the opening [recipe] and closing [/recipe] tags will be set apart as the recipe.

You can include optional attributes to add extra information, like the number of servings or the difficulty of the recipe. (This also helps search engines index your recipe properly, since the code uses special microdata intended for recipes.)

Recipe attributes

• Title: title of your recipe
• Servings: number of servings the recipe makes
• Time: total time the recipe takes
• Difficulty: how hard the recipe is to create
• Print: a link to print the recipe is displayed by default if you’ve added one or more of the attributes for servings, time, or difficulty. (Alternatively, you can hide the print button by adding print=”false”)

For more details on inserting the shortcode, check the recipe shortcode support page. You can also see one in action for Caribbean chicken curry. (We apologize if you read that on an empty stomach!)

Do you have any favorite blogs on fitness, exercise, and healthy living? Let us know.

When we start a blog instead of simply keeping a private diary, it’s because we want to connect with others. When you start to blog, you join a community.

It comes as no surprise that many bloggers are drawn to online communities as a place to work through challenges — to heal and process, find others with similar experiences, and seek (or offer) support. There are lots of supportive communities around WordPress.com: women dealing with breast cancer, people managing diabetes, parents of children with unique needs, and many, many more. Throughout January, we’ll be zooming in on how bloggers use WordPress.com to support their health and wellness.

Today, on the heels of the Blog for Mental Health 2014 kick-off, we’re focusing on mental health. Read on for a look at the many ways WordPress.com bloggers use their sites to improve their own lives, and the lives of others who have been impacted by mental illness.

Collaborative blogs

WordPress.com is home to a variety of collaborative and group blogs, a format especially suited for communities with shared life experiences who want to expand their reach.

On Canvas of the Minds, founded by bloggers Ruby and Lulu, an ever-growing group of authors writes about all aspects of living with mental health issues:

We have come a long way in our fight against stigma and in our desire to educate people about what having a mental illness really means, but there is so much more yet to do. We will not rest until the last of the myths, misconceptions, and fears born of ignorance are replaced with truth, understanding, and acceptance.

Of course most of all, we want those struggling with mental illness to know they are not alone, that it is a fight which can be won, and that we are here to support you in your journey to wellness — and to lend support to anyone trying to understand what life with mental illness entails.

Co-founder Lulu began the “Blog for Mental Health” initiative on her personal blog in 2012 and moved it to Canvas of the Minds in 2013, where it quickly attracted a long list of participants — take a look at 2013′s participant blogroll. More bloggers are now making a 2014 commitment: to “blog about mental health topics not only for myself, but for others.”

More mental health-focused writers gather at the Mental Health Writer’s Guild site. Browse their member listings, which include hundreds of bloggers writing on everything from depression to PTSD to Schizophrenia. Members support one another, contribute writing to the Guild’s blog, and participate in blogging competitions and challenges. (Interested in becoming a member? Learn more.)

Of course, not all mental health-focused blogging is written; photography can be just as powerful and evocative, as the bloggers of Broken Light Collective know.  Each day, they feature a new photo taken by a photographer struggling with mental illness — like this self-portrait by Kait, who copes with depression, anxiety, and disordered eating:

Each post features the photographer’s own story, along with a description of what the photo means to them. Broken Light Collective allows its bloggers to celebrate the triumphs and tragedies of their diagnoses through art — and in doing so, helps them support and inspire others.

Flying solo

Other bloggers choose to write solo. Although many quickly connect with kindred spirits, their blogs are places where they track their moods, write through painful periods of depression or anxiety, discuss the day-to-day challenges of mental health issues, or simply vent.

Some, like Sunny with a Chance of Armageddon’s Lulu, also blog on other sites — she’s one of the Canvas of the Minds co-founders, and maintains a separate site to focus on her own journey as a person with Bipolar Disorder.

Sara Sullivan also writes about life with Bipolar Disorder on her cleverly-named blog, bi[polar] curious. We also love her tagline, “Poppycock from the bipolar spectrum,” and her helpful list of resources for the newly-diagnosed.

On Laments and Lullabies, another Sara “[s]wims through the shark-infested waters of depression, anxiety, and adult ADHD.” A trained artist as well as a writer, her hand-drawn header instantly gives you a glimpse of her state of mind on the rougher days:

There are hundreds more, from Cat at A Tale Too Tragic to Tell, writing on his ups and downs dealing with depression, to The Disorderly Chickadee’s DeeDee, whose endocrine disorder has side effects mimicking a mood disorder.

Narrowing the focus

Many people use their blogs to chronicle treatment changes and rough patches, but there are also bloggers with a more specific focus who approach mental health blogging from a particular angle.

Sad Mum Happy Mum writes about her daily fight with depression, as many bloggers do, but with an eye to the particular challenges faced by parents with depression — the difficulty of caring for another person when it seems impossible to care for yourself.

On Malingering Normal and Ruminations on Madness, bloggers focus on the language we use to talk about mental illness and how society understands (and misunderstands) the mentally ill, as an important step in reducing the stigma too often attached to mental illness.

There are also bloggers who approach mental health issues from the other side: from the perspective of someone who is successfully managing their condition, like Erica at Thoughts of a Lunatic:

Yes, I am crazy. I have a past full of depression, addiction, self harm, abuse, suicide attempts, therapy and medication to prove it. Nowadays though, I use writing as my outlet … along with ocd cleaning, cooking, reality tv, eating, and enjoying being newly married.

The community and support I have found here is priceless, and has allowed me to be okay being myself.

A fun bonus from blogging? I met my husband!

We love seeing bloggers connect, support one another, and use online publishing as a way to help managing mental health issues. WordPress.com is proud to provide a home for them.

Yesterday, we learned the ins and outs of pushing your new posts to Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Today, we continue our tour of the Publicize universe with the three other social networks you can connect to from your WordPress.com account: LinkedIn, Tumblr, and Path.

The ability to share your content with different audiences quickly and easily will help you cultivate a healthy readership. Just as important, with Publicize you can tweak your sharing preferences so that each post reaches its intended destination: you can always choose which services to publish to, and what custom message to include (if any).

You can connect to these three services in exactly the same way, and from the exact same page, as the ones discussed yesterday. Simply visit Settings → Sharing in your dashboard, click “Connect” on the desired one, and authenticate your account in the window that opens. Once you’re done, you’ll see all the social networks you’ve connected to in every new post’s Publish module.

All linked up

LinkedIn is by now much more than a professional networking site. It’s a major content hub in its own right, with movers and shakers from every possible sector sharing their ideas and connecting with like-minded thinkers.

If you’ve decided to connect your WordPress.com site to your LinkedIn account, you can use it to increase your visibility within your professional circles, or join interesting discussions with other people in your field (or in any field, for that matter). For bloggers who often write about work-related themes, this is often a natural step to take.

The best part? If you occasionally publish posts that are more suited to be shared with friends or fellow bloggers than with potential employers, all you have to do is uncheck the LinkedIn box in the Publish module. While public posts are visible to anyone who’s visiting your site, you nonetheless control the content associated with your profile on LinkedIn.

Curate, collect, and write away

With millions of active users, Tumblr hosts an incredible number of buzzing communities, with a strong focus on the curation of visually striking art, photography, and animation (and, sure, a few gifs for good measure). Many a WordPress.com user has benefitted from connecting an art-filled site or a professional portfolio with a tumblr blog. Aimed for quicker consumption, it lets you expose your work and the content you’ve curated around the web to a different, less text-oriented audience.

Of course, nothing stops you from sharing any content to your Tumblr account. Even if your post contains no images at all, it can still benefit from the added exposure of another venue. A link in your followers’ feed will allow them to visit your blog and explore your content, both old and new.

Share a moment with one click

Path, the most recent addition to the Publicize lineup, lets users create a more intimate social network, as it caps the contacts you can add at 150. This makes it ideal for sharing personal stories, photos, and updates — “moments” that members of your network can enjoy from their smartphones.

Just because your posts will be viewed on a smaller screen doesn’t mean they’ll lose their luster — if you use the image or video post format, the media in question will be resized to fit your contact’s smartphone screen. For longer posts, Path will display an excerpt of the content, with a link to visit your blog for anyone who’d like to read the rest.

We lead multidimensional lives across multiple platforms. With Publicize, you can create a customized sharing experience for all the content you produce. If your WordPress.com site is the hub of your online content creation, Publicize expands your reach into the different corners of your network, making your presence as visible and as accessible as you want it to be.

This year’s Black Friday special on WordPress.com is our biggest yet. Today you can add any upgrade to your blog for a free 14-day trial.

The sale covers all of Friday, November 29, for all US time zones. Sale started midnight today, and ends on 12:00AM PST on Saturday, November 30.

A free trial with no strings attached is a great way to get to know our different upgrade plans:

• WordPress.com Premium ($99 yearly), includes all our blog upgrades: more design customizations, video uploads, more space — and no ads.
• WordPress.com Business ($299 yearly), includes everything that WordPress.com Premium offers, as well as unlimited access to all our premium themes, unlimited storage space, and real-time live chat support — right from the dashboard.
• WordPress.com Enterprise ($500 monthly), includes everything offered by the other plans, as well as access to more than 100 plugins to customize your branding, better track your audience, integrate with social media services, and more.

Go to Store in your dashboard to see all our plans and other upgrades, and try them out for free.

For technical reasons, domain upgrades are not included in this offer. If the upgrade plan you’re trying out includes a custom domain credit, like WordPress.com Premium or WordPress.com Business, the credit will be disabled for the duration of the trial. The credit will become available if you choose to purchase the plan when the trial is over.

With this offer, we hope that more of you will be able to try out our great upgrades this year.

Happy holidays!

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