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One of the biggest benefits of our Business and Commerce plans is that you can add additional WordPress plugins to enhance the functionality of your website.

Below, we’re highlighting two of the newest additions to our plugin marketplace, now available at a hefty exclusive discount for WordPress.com users.

Create courses with Sensei Pro

Automattic, the same company behind WordPress.com, creates Sensei LMS. We’ve collaborated to bring our Learning Management System and course creation tools to WordPress.com sites in one seamless experience.

With Sensei Pro, you can create online courses with quizzes, certificates, cohorts, and detailed student reports. Lessons are edited just like WordPress posts or pages, so you will already know how it works.

You can enable the distraction-free Learning Mode to provide students with an optimized mobile-friendly learning environment that keeps your course content front and center.

Learn more about Sensei Pro.

Sell courses with WooCommerce integration

Selling courses can be a lucrative way to generate revenue for your blog or business. Sensei LMS integrates deeply with our WooCommerce suite of tools to make selling access to a course a breeze. 

You can also take advantage of WooCommerce extensions to handle coupons, memberships, subscriptions, and more. 

Learn more about WooCommerce and Sensei integration.

Publish interactive and private videos

Videos are often a big part of online courses. WordPress.com sites also come with our VideoPress service, which lets you upload videos directly to your site without dealing with a third-party tool or embed codes. Especially important for video courses, you can mark a video as “private” to ensure it won’t be downloaded or linked to, and will only be available to course students.

Even better, with Sensei’s Interactive Videos block, you can create pause points with additional content to any video. For example: 

• Add a quiz question in the middle of a course video. 
• Add a contact form to the end of a sales video.
• Show links to additional resources to a blog post video.

Add Interactive Videos to any WordPress page or post. They are not limited to courses or lessons.

Learn more about Interactive Videos.

Engage with interactive blocks

In addition to the Interactive Videos, Sensei also comes with interactive and educational content blocks, including:

• Quiz questions
• Accordions
• Image hotspots
• Flashcards
• Task lists

Using these blocks, you can craft compelling content that captivates and keeps your readers engaged. Whether writing an educational blog post or creating a sales landing page, you can add these blocks to any WordPress page or post. 

Learn more about Interactive Blocks.

Getting Sensei Pro and Sensei Blocks

For existing sites on WordPress.com, you’ll find Sensei’s plugins in the plugin marketplace. WordPress.com users receive a 30% discount on Sensei Pro automatically.

• Sensei Pro — all course creation tools and interactive blocks included. Get Sensei Pro here.
• Sensei Interactive Blocks — interactive videos, accordions, image hotspots, flashcards, and task lists. Creating courses is not needed to be able to use these blocks. Get Sensei Interactive Blocks here.

Or, create a brand new site with Sensei Pro bundled here.

We’re excited to announce that Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, has acquired the popular WordPress plugin ActivityPub. 

This innovative plugin brings a whole new level of social networking to your website by integrating it with the wider federated social web. When installed, the plugin allows you to easily share your content and interact with users on Mastodon and other platforms that also support the ActivityPub protocol. 

Just as Automattic aims to do with all of our products, this plugin helps to decentralize the web, break down silos, and foster a more connected online ecosystem. 

Why you should use the ActivityPub plugin

If you’re a blogger or content creator who wants to reach a wider audience, the ActivityPub plugin is perfect for you. Just as Jetpack Social — another one of our great plugins! — automatically shares content to large social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, ActivityPub automatically allows anyone on a federated network to follow your blog’s posts, which will show up in their Home feed. The federated networks include:

Responses on those platforms show up in your WordPress post’s comments, allowing you to interact directly with readers across the fediverse, streamlining engagement and creating a more cohesive online presence. 

Moreover, in using ActivityPub for WordPress, you’re supporting the open source movement, promoting transparency and collaboration, and empowering users to take control of their online experience and contribute to a more diverse and inclusive internet landscape.

How to install ActivityPub for WordPress

Installing the ActivityPub plugin is a breeze, even if you’ve never added a plugin before. 

1. From your dashboard’s left-side menu, navigate to the plugin marketplace and search “ActivityPub” (all one word). Alternatively, you can click here and go directly to the plugin page. 

2. Click “Install and activate.” 

3. Once activated, you can click “Manage plugin,” which allows you to choose the type of content that will show up in fediverse feeds — if you’re not quite ready for that, you can always access it later under “Settings” → “ActivityPub.” 

At Automattic, our philosophy has always been to democratize publishing and make the web a better place. In our acquisition of ActivityPub for WordPress, we’re doing that for the social web.  

WordPress.com is an organization — like others within Automattic — that is heavily invested in Open Source and the democratization of the web. We genuinely believe that everyone should have control over their presence, their data, and even their social experiences. That’s why we’re really excited about some of the work Bluesky is doing.

What is Bluesky?

We’re building a new foundation for social networking which gives creators independence from platforms, developers the freedom to build, and users a choice in their experience.

blueskyweb.xyz

Think about all of the different pieces tied to any one of your social accounts:

• Your username – how people identify you in that platform
• Your connections/network
• The content you’ve created
• The media you’ve uploaded
• The conversations you’ve had with others
• Your connections to influencers, brands, and businesses
• Purchases within a specific platform

Now, imagine being able to bring all of that with you when you get frustrated with changes on one social network and rediscover the magic of one you had *almost* forgotten about. 😉

This is exactly what Bluesky is trying to accomplish with its AT Protocol, and we can’t wait to see how it evolves.

That’s so cool! Why is that cool?

So glad you asked!

We’re all probably familiar with the “blue checkmark of officialness” used across many social platforms. It’s essentially a way for users to identify the real accounts for famous and notable people/brands/things.

Bluesky lets you claim a domain that you own as your username/handle, and they automatically verify it by checking your domain for a simple text record. That may sound complicated, but it’s actually quite simple — especially on WordPress.com.

Think of it like any kind of certificate you might get, which often requires a signature from you as well as from some sort of official before it’s considered a verified document. It’s just like that, except that instead of collecting dust, this unlocks a digital superpower: a consistent way for anyone to find the real you (potentially) anywhere on the web.

How do I add a text record to my domain?

I’ll cover some simple steps for those of you who manage your domains here on WordPress.com. If you have domains registered elsewhere on the web you will have to check that registrar’s documentation. If you’d rather just manage it here, you can check out the steps to transfer it over.

Note: You will need an invitation to join to the private beta of Bluesky before you can set up an account and use this feature.

8 easy steps

Step 1: Navigate to the site that your domain is associated with on WordPress.com — if you only have one site you can simply go to WordPress.com.

Step 2: Use the left hand menu to navigate to Upgrades/Domains.

Step 3: Identify the domain you want to use and click on the vertical elipses on the right. Click “view settings.”

Step 4: Click on the arrow to the right of “DNS Records” to expand the information. Click on “Manage.”

Step 5: Click the “+ Add Record” button at the top of the screen.

Step 6: Change the record type from “A” to “TXT.”

Step 7: Add the Bluesky information to your record.

• Add _atproto in the “domain name (optional)” field.
• Add the Bluesky “Value” in the “Text” field.

Step 8: Click the “Add DNS record” button.

I’m always pleasantly surprised by how fast our DNS is. In this case, I was able to verify the record in the Bluesky app less than 30 seconds after I saved it on WordPress.com. Here’s what the app looks like while you’re setting up, after it’s verified, and after you officially update your handle.

If you made it this far, you’re at least a little bit interested. Let us know what piqued your interest in the comments!

At WordPress.com, we’re always pushing our platform to do even more so that you can create, design, and publish amazing things with ease. Our newest features go a little deeper into the settings, making them particularly suited to those who call themselves tinkerers. Even if you don’t think of yourself as a pro, get in there and play around anyway! You’re more capable than you think, and if you break something our team can always get it back — we’ve all been there. 

And in this case, a little experimentation can reap big rewards. All it takes is a small change or two to make a huge difference in how people see (and interact with) your website. 

Let’s jump in and take a look.

Make your site’s buttons pop 

Giving your buttons a shadow effect is an easy and powerful way to give your pages some extra panache. Now, new preset options available in the Styles menu let you apply that across your site. 

From the Styles sidebar, click “Blocks,” and then “Buttons.” From there, you’ll see four options for how to style your buttons. This feature is only available on block themes. 

When to use this feature: You’re a master of the CTA (call to action) and you put a button at the end of every blog post asking readers to watch a YouTube video, listen to a podcast, or buy a book. You’ve been thinking that those buttons are looking a little stale and flat. Use the new shadow presets to invigorate your default buttons with a depth and freshness that wasn’t there before. 

Reuse a beautiful design 

Not only can you copy and paste text from one block to another, you can now copy the entire styling of a block — colors, typography, and anything else — and paste it to another block of the same type. 

From a block’s settings menu, select “Copy Styles.” Then once you add a new block, select “Paste Styles” from the settings menu to transfer all those design goodies.  

When to use this feature: You’ve spent some time playing with gradients and type settings to make a Quote Block look really nice, and it’s paid off — now you want to bring that primo styling over to a Quote Block on a different page. Rather than recreating the steps you took, simply use “Copy Styles”/”Paste Styles” and get a gold star for efficiency. 

Give readers a sticking point 

A “sticky” component on your website is a piece of content (often a header + menu, though not always) that stays stuck at the top no matter how far down you scroll through a page or post. It’s a handy feature for visitors to your site, especially on mobile, where scrolling back up to a menu can be annoying. 

There are other uses as well, such as an important announcement or promotion that you want visible at all times. 

However, only a group can be made sticky rather than any individual template part. So you’ll first wrap your desired sticky blocks in a group, select that group, then access the “Sticky” option from the settings sidebar. 

When to use this feature: Your website features long pages or posts that require a lot of scrolling. Maybe you’re a baby name consultant and have numerous lengthy lists of names. Utilize a sticky header and menu so that visitors don’t have to scroll all the way back up in order to quickly access the next category of names to peruse. 

Twice as nice: copy your entire site! 

Are you a professional in the web-building space? We’ve launched a new feature that allows you to easily copy the entirety of a site. Once you create your base template site, you’ll be able to spin up new client sites without starting entirely from scratch.

An important note: copying a site creates a new plan as well. For instance, copying a business site creates a new business plan at the same time.  

From the wordpress.com/sites dashboard, click the three-dot menu, hit “Copy site,” go through a couple confirmation steps, and you’ll be set. This feature is available on Business and Commerce plans with Hosting Features active.

When to use this feature: You’re a solopreneur website builder and you often use previously built sites as inspiration for current builds. If you’re working on a new site and thinking about using a framework or feel that you’ve already created, copy the site with a single click and start the project with some of the work already done. 

In Case You Missed It

If you missed our other recent updates, below is a quick snapshot.

A new mobile experience for WordPress.com

Our new and improved Jetpack mobile app offers everything you need to WordPress on the go.

Professional design, without a designer

This primer on Styles gives you the lowdown on making your website pop in just a few clicks.

A new home for WordPress.com courses

Our courses have a new home at WordPress.com/Learn. The best part? All the courses are totally free and there’s no registration needed.

A more diverse stock photo library

Cocoamattic ERG, an employee resource group at Automattic, partnered with Nappy.co to release a collection of 90+ beautiful photos of Black people interacting with technology. 

Our latest batch of design tools empower you to create a consistently compelling style across your entire website with just a few clicks. Today we’d like to zoom in on the “Styles” settings, which allow you to make sitewide changes and create new style defaults right from the Site Editor. 

Professional design without a designer  

From basic options like colors and typography, to more advanced parameters like content dimensions, padding, and block-specific settings, you’re sure to find our style customizations useful no matter your level of design expertise (or lack thereof!).  

Though a number of themes come with style variations that you can test out, using custom Styles gives you even more freedom and flexibility to experiment and play around with various design pieces. 

Utilizing these settings creates new default styling for elements on your site, such as headings, paragraphs, and buttons. This means that any new pages or posts created will automatically inherit these styles, making the entire process much more efficient. Additionally, any changes you make will be reflected across the entire site, ensuring a consistent look and feel.

Our Site Editor design tools are perfect for those who want to save time and effort while maintaining a consistent look and feel across their website.

How to DIY design, with ease 

From the Site Editor (on the left sidebar, navigate to Appearance → Editor), click the “Edit” button at the top left of the page, and then the Styles icon on the top right. A sidebar will come up with a number of options to explore. (Note: This option may not appear if the theme you’re using isn’t compatible with the Site Editor.)

The best place to start is with the Style Book. Using Style Book, you can explore the various color and typography schemes and get a sense for what different blocks will look like before implementing them: 

Once you’re out of the Style Book, you can click “Browse Styles,” which allows you to preview what those style elements look like on your actual site. Remember, nothing is set in stone until you hit the “Save” button. 

From there, you can experiment with specific settings for typography, colors, and layout. You can also fine-tune design aspects for specific blocks. For example, if you tweak the color or text size in the Heading Block, it’ll change every heading on your site as well as become the new default for any new headings.

When you set a block-specific style from the Site Editor, any changes you make on specific pages or posts will only apply to that placement – though you can hit the “Apply globally” button to incorporate them across the entire site. 

Styles tools are available on Premium plans and above.

Serendipitous connections, like discovering a shared interest with someone in line at the coffee shop, look slightly different in distributed organizations. This year, leveraging the values of open source, Automattic shared the planning and organization of a company-wide 24-hour online event among the entire company, in order to create space for serendipitous connections. 

What followed was energy, diversity, and abundant creativity!

The Purpose: Intentional Random Connections

As we welcomed 2023, this event was an invitation to connect across divisions, timezones, and geographies across 90+ countries: 

• Intentional: We scheduled a date one month in advance so that people could create space to join at times that were convenient to them and their team.
• Random: We invited any and all wonderful ideas to the agenda. We believe that great ideas can come from anywhere and anyone.
• Connections: Communication is the oxygen of a distributed company and our intention was to create space for connections to form.

The Invitation: Open-Sourcing the Agenda

Rather than deciding the agenda up front, we entrusted the agenda to the whole company. We invited people to contribute what they’d like and then join any sessions that interested them. (This structure is built on the values of Open Space by Harrison Owen.)

Hosting a session was simple — all one had to do was choose a topic and add it directly to a shared Google Calendar which we created for the day. All that was left from there was to arrive on the day at their selected time to host their session with the folks who chose to join. 

Movement among sessions was welcome and everything was optional. 

The Outcomes: Abundant Creativity!

In total we had 38 sessions hosted over 24 hours (both synchronous and asynchronous). The creativity, energy, and diversity that was created far exceeded what any one person could have planned on their own.

We had cat parties, dog walks, asynchronous virtual raves, collaborative poem writing, role playing games, lego sessions, language lessons, art parties, parenting discussions, muffin making, company trivias, children’s book readings, open mics, musician parties, walks around the globe, and a lot of games! For the full list of sessions see the bottom of this post. 

While many companies report difficulty getting engagement in online company events, the survey feedback from this event showed that:

• 100% of participants would recommend future events like this
• 95% of participants met with someone they’d never met before
• 100% of people who hosted would host a session again

For a 2,000-person company, these are pretty staggering results. The value of distributed ownership and co-creation speaks for itself!

We hope these results convince you to try this out in your own organization!

A Peek Into Some of the Sessions

Full List of Sessions

Synchronous:

• Hidden Identity Games x2
• Automattic Trivia
• TypeRacer 
• Mandarin Conversation: 中文聊天網聚  
• Tabletop Roleplaying Games 101
• Cat’s Party
• Dungeons & Dragons for Newbies 
• Children’s Book Reading and Conversation 
• Bavarder en Français: French Conversation 
• LEGO AFOLs Unite
• Play Pokemon 
• Cyberpunk 2077 Roleplaying Session
• Make Banana Muffins with Greg 
• Defuse a Bomb x2 
• Drawful Game
• Virtual Dog Park 
• Charla en Español 
• Art Party
• Parenting Teens Conversation
• Brazilian Portuguese Conversation: Papo Farofa 
• Open Mic 
• Power Yoga 
• Play Gartic Phone
• Automusician Connection
• Cat Party 
• Let’s Speak Italiano! 
• Tales from the Table 
• Open Screenshare 
• Animal Crossing Parade of Homes
• Silly Games and Snacks 
• Casual Hangout

Asynchronous:

At WordPress.com, we’re always adding features and pushing our blocks and Site Editor to do more so that you can create, design, and publish amazing things with ease. Our newest features are largely design-focused, giving you the confidence to explore a variety of styles and then easily apply them across your entire site. 

Let’s jump in and see what’s new. 

Browse Mode: An easier way to navigate the Site Editor 

Browse Mode allows you to easily explore, navigate, and edit your site’s templates and template parts, including adding new templates right from this interface. To play around with Browse Mode, simply click your site’s icon from the Site Editor. 

When to use this feature: You want to see how all the pieces of your site fit together — and to jump between your templates and template parts for easy editing.  

Clearer access to your advanced block settings

With more powerful blocks comes the need for easier, more intuitive access to advanced settings for those blocks. To that end, we’ve split block settings into two tabs within the sidebar. On the left side, you’ll find standard customization options like color, typography, and spacing. On the right side, you’ll find more advanced options, like layouts, custom CSS, and a button to apply changes across your entire site (more on that below).  

When to use this feature: You’re working on your navigation menu and need more customization than just color or typography options. Go over to advanced settings to change the orientation of the menu from horizontal to vertical — among other things! 

Preview style options with the Style Book 

A number of themes, including staff favorite Twenty Twenty Three, now come with styles, which change the look and feel of your site — color, spacing, etc. — within the overarching design aesthetic of the theme. 

With the newly launched Style Book, you can now see how various styles affect different blocks. You’re able to preview colors, typography, embeddable media, and more. 

When to use this feature: You’re curious about switching up the colors or typography on your site, but you want to know what it’ll look like, especially within specific blocks, before committing. 

Apply design changes across your entire site  

When working and designing in the Site Editor, it’s easy to find yourself having created a certain style that you really like and want emulated across your entire site. With our new “Apply globally” button, you can do just that. 

When to use this feature: You’ve spent some time styling a heading (or other block) on your homepage or a page template, and you want that look to carry over across all the headings (or whichever block you’re working with) on your site. 

In Case You Missed It 

In the midst of holiday season business, you may have missed some of our other recent and exciting updates:  

Boost your traffic with Blaze

Learn how to turn your posts and pages content into clean, compelling ads that run across millions of sites on WordPress.com and Tumblr.

Explore new themes   

We introduced five beautiful new designs in January, including our new default theme, Twenty Twenty Three. 

Grab yourself a .link domain 

A .link domain name and Link in Bio page supercharges your social media by giving you a place to host all of your links.

Insert chapter breaks on your videos 

Chapter breaks offer a quick, convenient way for viewers to navigate longer videos or see the outline of a video’s content at a glance. 

Share your work-in-progress website

With Site Previews, you can generate a unique link for your in-progress Business or eCommerce site that allows your team or clients to access and explore the site without needing to log in.