Jetpack’s Picks: Five Resources for December

At the beginning of each month, we’ll round up five of our favorites links around the internet to help you better run your business or blog in the month ahead.

Get ready for a focused December with the help of these five useful resources.

Website Design Trends for 2017

Websites are crucial to any business, and are often the first thing clients or customers see. Website Magazine offers a few examples of the features you can expect from updated websites in 2017.

“Designers – and the brands that employ them – cannot have their head in the mud when it comes to the trends impacting user expectations and how visible their sites will be on the increasingly sophisticated search engine result pages. Rather, you should be productive and advocate for better design.”

10 Simple Editing Hacks for DIY Bloggers

Producing quality content is key, even if you are a one-person army. Jeff Bullas gives us ten hacks for proofing our own content before hitting publish.

“The last thing you want to do is publish a blog post that has errors or doesn’t read well. Remember, your content is representative of your business!”

The Tools That 5 Highly Productive Entrepreneurs Use

When you’re running your own startup, it can be tough to stay organized and on track. Entrepreneur’s Han-Gwon Lung shares exactly what you’ll need to keep up with other productive entrepreneurs.

“When I graduated from college, I had no work experience. And that didn’t sit too well with the real life that followed. I repeatedly messed up at work or fell behind schedule because I lacked good productivity habits. Before long, I realized I needed help. So I turned to productivity apps for answers.”

4 Helpful Tools for Organizing Your Social Media Calendar

Looking to streamline your social media content strategy? Hubspot’s Sophia Bernazzani rounds up four tools to make social media pros’ lives a little easier.

“What do cross-country road trips, wedding speeches, and social media marketing have in common? You could wing all three, but it’s probably better to have a plan for what direction you’re heading — especially when it comes to your social media content strategy.”

33 Personal Blogs of Startup Marketers We Love

The personal blogs of marketers you admire offer glimpses into their lives — and why they’re so successful. Alfred Lua from Buffer compiled a list of the best blogs to draw inspiration from.

“I like to think that reading the blog of a marketer I admire is like having a coffee with them and getting a chance to learn all about their approach to marketing.”

Have a link we should consider for next month? Drop it in the comments below!

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The Jetpack Personal plan: affordable site security, backups, and spam protection

As a site owner, you rely on your website to attract customers and earn money — regardless of whether you run a high-traffic, e-commerce site or a “brochure” site for your restaurant, consultancy, or small business. The new Jetpack Personal plan is an affordable way to safeguard you site’s content, data, and code from hackers and spammers, so that your site is always up and running when your customers arrive.

Introducing the Jetpack Personal plan

Our new plan protects your site at a much lower price — providing the security essentials you need to keep your site safe from hackers and spammers.

Learn more about Jetpack’s Personal plan

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Here’s What Jetpack Is Grateful For This Thanksgiving

As we gear up to celebrate Thanksgiving here in the U.S. this week, we checked in with six members of the Jetpack team to see what they are most grateful for.

Continue reading → Here’s What Jetpack Is Grateful For This Thanksgiving

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Jetpack 4.4.1: Bug Fixes

Jetpack 4.4.1 is a small update to yesterday’s 4.4 release.  It fixes two issues that were affecting a small number of our users:

  • Jetpack 4.4.1 fixes an issue where some users with slower servers would get an error on the Jetpack dashboard when WP_DEBUG was enabled.
  • Jetpack 4.4.1 fixes an issue where users on a Jetpack Professional plan who were paying monthly (as opposed to annually) wouldn’t be able to enable SEO Tools.

We hope you’ll love the new Jetpack features and improvements! Install it on your site or upgrade your current version today and let us know what you think. As always, your feedback is extremely important to us and you can send it directly through our Support contact form.

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Jetpack 4.4: New SEO Tools, Sidebar Widgets, and Personal Plans

Jetpack 4.4 has now been released which includes a ton of improvements, bug fixes, and a few new features for both free and paid users.

New Features

For our Jetpack Professional subscribers, we’ve also added a brand new feature: SEO Tools to help you optimize your site for search engines and social media.

We’ve also added two new sidebar widgets:

  • Google Translate” which allows users to translate your site into their own language, and
  • My Community” where you can see who recently interacted with your site.

Also new in Jetpack 4.4 is Pinterest embed support. Now, you can easily embed your Pinterest profile, boards, or individual pins simply by pasting the links into any post or page. Here’s an example of an embedded board:

Code, Speed, and Infrastructure Improvements

We’ve added a number of new unit tests to improve our development and release process, new API endpoints to allow better management of themes and plugins, and twelve new filters to make Jetpack more extensible.

We’ve also made progress on one of the biggest issues facing Jetpack users: site domain name changes. Jetpack 4.4 makes great improvements in easing some of those difficulties with the new Safe Mode feature. This will help with users who work a lot with staging sites, development, and even users who simply want to change the domain for their site.

Other improvements include replacing many of the screenshots throughout the plugin with SVGs in order to make the overall file size smaller and Photon is now using HTTPS by default.

New Personal Plan

New in Jetpack 4.4 is a brand-new Personal plan that provides site backups with unlimited storage and spam filtering. Now, you can have peace of mind knowing that your personal site is safe in our hands with the same quality of service that our Professional and Premium plans offer, but at much lower price.

Full Changelog and Thanks

If you’d like to learn more about these releases and the other changes brought to Jetpack, you can check the full changelog here.

We hope you’ll love the new Jetpack features and improvements! Install it on your site or upgrade your current version today and let us know what you think. As always, your feedback is extremely important to us and you can send it directly through our Support contact form.

Thank you for helping us continue to improve Jetpack, and a special thank you to our contributors:

Adam Heckler, Antti Koskinen, Alex Mills, Andrei Lupu, Andrew Duthie, Andrew dela Serna, Artur Piszek, Brandon Hubbard, Brandon Kraft, catchmyfame, Chase Livingston, Christopher Finke, Dan Walmsley, Derek Smart, Drew Butler, Elio Rivero, Enej Bajgoric, Eric Binnion, George Stephanis, Igor Zinovyev, Jeff Golenski, Jeremy Herve, Jesse Friedman, Josh Betz, karpad3, Kelly Dwan, Lance Willett, Mathilde Sahuguet, Marin Atanasov, Marko Andrijasevic, Michael Arestad, Miguel Lezama, Nikolay Yordanov, Oliver Juhas, Oscar Lopez, Rich Collier, Richard Muscat, Rocco Tripaldi, Ryan Kanner, Sam Hotchkiss, Simon Wheatley, Steve Seear, Timmy Crawford, Valerie Kalantyrski, Vuk Vuković, Xiao Yu, Will Brubaker, Will Kwon, and Yoga Sukma.

Posted in Releases | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

New to Blogging? Install These Five Jetpack Features First

You just started a blog and you’re ready to share it with the world. (Welcome to the wonderful world of blogging!)

Lucky for you, you’ve stumbled onto our blog, so hopefully you’ve been given the good advice to install Jetpack. Jetpack is a plugin for WordPress with many features (cough, cough, more than 40) to make your life as a blogger a whole lot easier.

With so many features to explore, where to begin? We’ve got you covered.

If you’re new to blogging (or to Jetpack), activate these five features first.

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1. Keep your site safe and secure with Protect.

When you’re new to blogging, the last thing you want is to worry about your site’s security. Breathe easy knowing that your site is secure with Protect.

This feature allows you to protect your site against brute force attacks, which sadly, are becoming more and more of a frequent concern for website owners. By enabling Protect, your site will automatically block unwanted login attempts.

2. Spread the love on social media with Sharing.

Make it super simple for your blog readers to share your posts!

Sharing lets you add buttons to blog posts to give readers the ability to share a post to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, and a host of other social media/web services to amplify your message.

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3. Keep readers on your website longer with Related Posts.

Help readers better navigate your site by pointing them to related content you know they’ll love based on the blog post they’re currently reading.

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Related Posts scans all of your posts, analyzes them, and selects at least three related archived blog posts to showcase underneath or above your post. This helps readers figure out what to read next and keeps them on your site even longer.

4. Be the first to know when your website experienced downtime with Monitor.

Ugh. Dreaded website downtime. It’s never fun when your site goes down. Monitor keeps tabs on your site and alerts you the moment downtime is detected.

Fun fact: Monitor checks your site every five minutes and notifies you as soon as a problem arises. We’ll also email you when your site is back up!

5. Make your blog a beautiful place to visit with Photon.

Photos are an incredibly important piece of the puzzle when it comes to finding success as a blogger. Compelling visuals help keep site visitors interested and engaged.

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If you don’t size your photos properly though, you can seriously slow down your site. That’s where Photon comes in handy. Photon is an image acceleration and editing service. What does this mean for you? Less load time on your host and faster image loading for your readers.

Seasoned bloggers, what do you think? Which Jetpack features would you recommend to a new blogger?

Don’t have Jetpack installed yet to try out these features? If you don’t currently have Jetpack, be sure to install it so you can begin taking advantage of all the plugin’s features. The easiest way to install Jetpack is via your site’s Dashboard. Please follow these instructions to install and connect Jetpack.

Posted in Features | Tagged , , , , | 10 Comments

Why We Go To WordCamp

620 WordCamps. 67 cities. 48 countries. 6 continents.

Have you ever been to a WordCamp event? Curious about what it is?

WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress, the free and open source personal publishing software that powers over 75 million sites on the web.

Passionate WordPress fans are everywhere. WordCamps happen all over the world and Jetpack sponsors every single one of them. We also attempt to visit as many WordCamps in person as possible!

Our #1 goal is to support the WordCamp effort worldwide. Here’s why we love supporting WordCamps.

WordCamps are an opportunity to bring WordPress community members together IRL.

The Internet is a wonderful place, but there’s still something to be said for bringing together people in person to network, connect and learn from one another. Not only are WordCamps a great way to meet new friends, it’s also a place to develop new business connections.

WordCamps are a great way for beginners and seasoned WordPress users to learn and grow.

A typical WordCamp event includes sessions on how to use WordPress more effectively,  plugin and theme development, advanced techniques, security and more. Lectures, panels and workshops dive deep into these topics for those looking to enhance their knowledge of WordPress.

WordCamps are a low-cost way for WordPress users to keep learning.

Unlike many other conferences or meet-ups, WordCamp works hard to keep costs low so everyone has an opportunity to benefit. Sponsorship helps make that happen.

WordCamps allow us to meet the Jetpack community in person.

Here at Jetpack, we love our passionate users. When we get out and about in the community at WordCamps all over the world, we get to meet YOU in person. We always have a table at WordCamps and send a few members of our team to listen to your questions, thoughts and feedback. Nothing makes us happier than hearing from our Jetpack community.

WordCamps help us to both improve Jetpack and spread the word about our product.

Whether someone uses Jetpack or not, when we meet WordPress users in person, we listen and gain feedback that gives us ideas and helps us improve Jetpack. This allows us to make an even bigger impact for those who use WordPress day in and day out. WordCamps also lets us spread the word about important tools like Protect, which benefit the entire WordPress community at large.

Want to attend a WordCamp event? Check out this list of upcoming events to see when WordCamp is coming to a city near you!

Posted in Events, WordCamp | 2 Comments

Jetpack’s Picks: Five Resources for November

At the beginning of each month, we’ll round up five of our favorite links around the internet to help you better run your business or blog in the month ahead.

Get ready for a productive November with the help of these five useful resources.

How to Get More Done By Batching Your Blog Tasks

We all want to save more time when it comes to blogging, right? Emily from My Adaptable Career offers up tips to batch your tasks and get more done.

“Batching your work reduces task switching. Instead of flitting from one small task to the next, you focus on a single type of work for several hours.”

5 Psychology-Based Design Tips to Improve Engagement on Your Website

Want to improve engagement on your website? Neil Patel says you need to pay attention to your site’s design. We agree!

“Your brand’s message isn’t limited to the word choices that you make. The environment under which you present your message is equally (perhaps even more) important.”

Longer Tweets Are Here: All You Need to Know About Twitter’s 140 Character Update

If you’ve ever wished for the ability to have a couple more characters in your tweets, your wish is Twitter’s command! Longer tweets are here, and Buffer’s Ash Read breaks down what it all means.

“Now, @names in replies, media attachments (like photos, GIFs, videos, and polls) and quoted Tweets will no longer be counted against the valuable 140 characters that make up a tweet.”

How Much Money Does It Take to Start an Online Business?

Starting an online business is an exciting endeavor. However, it also costs money. Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income shares exactly what you’ll need to consider financially if you’re looking to take the leap.

“There’s a common misconception about what it really costs to get started. Most people, including me at one point, think that it requires loads of money. I understand how that can be discouraging.”

“How to Turn Your Business Blog Readers Into Paying Customers”

It’s the dream, right? Turning your blog into a business and turning your blog readers into customers. Alicia Rades explains how to do just that in this ProBlogger post.

“More traffic doesn’t necessarily mean more customers. You have to be able to leverage your blog content in a way that convinces readers to trust you and buy from you.”

Have a link we should consider for next month? Drop it in the comments below!

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Spread the Love on Social Media: Five Must-Enable Jetpack Features

Social media has changed the way we communicate, the way we network and certainly, the way we interact and share online.

Sharing your content, images and stories on social media can help take your blog or website to new heights. Jetpack understands this and we’ve developed several useful features to help keep your social media game strong.

Check out five of our favorite must-enable social media features.

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  1. Social Media Icons: Make it easy for your readers to find you on social media with Social Media Icons. This feature allows you to add icons for the social media sites you use to your sidebar or other widget area on your website. Currently, you can add usernames for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, GitHub, YouTube, Vimeo, and Google+.
  2. Publicize: After you publish a blog post, your job is not quite over. Now, you need to make sure people actually read the content you’ve written! Publicize helps you save time by sharing your site’s posts on several social media networks automatically when you publish a new post. The feature is easily customizable: you can pick and choose which social networks to share to, as well as write custom messages to promote your post.
  3. Sharing: Now that you’ve shared your own content on social media, let your readers and fans do a little bit of the legwork too. When you enable Sharing, you give your readers the option to share your post to a number of social media sites including  Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Google+, Pinterest, Skype, Reddit, Pocket, Email, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and more. By default, the social buttons appear at the bottom of a post or page, but you can configure the plugin to move the buttons elsewhere.
  4. Likes: Social proof is super important. When a new blog reader sees that a post has received some Likes, they may be more likely to read it. Enabling the Likes feature lets your blog readers to show a little bit of love for your post with a Like.
  5. Extra Sidebar Widgets: Social media icons not enough for you? With Extra Sidebar Widgets, you can add separate widgets for Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and more. This way, your readers can see short snippets of your recent posts, hopefully enticing them to click over and become a new follower!

Looking for even more social media features? We’ve got lots more for you to discover!

Tell us your favorite Jetpack social media features! Share your tips and tricks in the comments below.

Posted in Features | 4 Comments

Jetpack’s Picks: Five Resources for October

At the beginning of each month, we’ll round up five of our favorite links around the Internet to help you better run your business or blog in the month ahead.

Get ready for a spectacular October with the help of these five useful resources.

The Benefits of Jetpack For Your WooCommerce Store

We’re obviously a little biased, but we love this post from Nicole Kohler about why and how you should use Jetpack if you have a WooCommerce store.

“In combination with WooCommerce, Jetpack can bring store owners easily-integrated attack protection, downtime alerts, content sharing, and a slew of other features designed to make your life easier. It’s the equivalent of strapping a rocket to your store — but a lightweight one.”

11 Simple Design Tips to Enhance Your Social Media Images

It’s no secret that compelling visuals are extremely important when it comes to blogging and social media. Brian Peters offers up eleven simple design tips for non-designers over on the Buffer blog.

“Humans are, by nature, very visual beings. In the brain itself, there are hundreds of millions of neurons devoted to visual processing, nearly 30 percent of the entire cortex, as compared with 8 percent for touch and just 3 percent for hearing.”

All in One: Tools and Apps to be a Blogger Who Can Write, Edit, Proofread, and Create Images

As a blogger, you have a lot on your plate. Andrew Howe shares a list of tools on the Kikolani blog to help you blog with ease.

“Unless you have a big staff team who works for your blog, it’s you who needs to be ‘all in one’ and do all tasks on a high level. If you’re wondering how to do it without burning out, the answer is pretty simple: use tools and apps that can help to save time and efforts while being a blogger.”

These Grants Can Help You Finally Get Your Small Business Off The Ground

Looking for grant funding for your small business? Look no further than this useful post from Carson Kohler for The Penny Hoarder.

“Small business grants are to small businesses as scholarships are to colleges. If you’re looking to start a business — or fund an existing one — a grant could be a great financial solution.”

How to Become a Better Storyteller in 30 Days

At its very core, blogging is all about storytelling. This Onboardly posts offers up a month-long guide to become a better storyteller in 30 days.

“Storytelling is at the core of marketing, design and product management within a startup. It’s been referred to as the ‘killer app’ and the ‘biggest business skill to have in the next five years.'”

Have a link we should consider for next month? Drop it in the comments below!

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