Widgets are a way to add new content (like your Twitter stream, a tag cloud, or a link to your blog archives) in the sidebar, header, or footer of your site. To see the widgets you have available to you, log in to your WordPress.com dashboard and click on Appearance » Widgets. To add a widget, simply click on it and drag it up and over to the right of the widget screen, into the Default Sidebar, Header Area, or Footer Area section of your site. Then, to control visibility, expand the widget and click the Visibility button next to the Save button.

For example, if you wanted the Archives widget to only appear on category archives and error pages, choose “Show” from the first dropdown and then add two rules: “Page is 404 Error Page” and “Category is All Category Pages.”

You can also hide widgets based on the current page. For example, if you don’t want the Archives widget to appear on search results pages, choose “Hide” and “Page is Search results.”

Visibility is controlled by five aspects: page type, category, tag, date, and author, but each visibility rule is handled separately, so there isn’t a way, for example, to only display a widget on posts that are categorized as “Summer” and also tagged with “Picnic.”

The visibility panel is available today in every widget for every user on WordPress.com; visit Appearance » Widgets in your blog’s dashboard to take control. Or, to learn more about using widgets on your blog, check out our recent Introduction to Widgets series: Widgets 101, Widgets 201, and Widgets 301.

Speaking of moving on from Google Reader, did you know that you can import your subscriptions directly from Google Reader into the WordPress.com Reader? We launched the Reader about 18 months ago; it’s responsive to fit any size screen, you can like and reblog WordPress.com content without leaving the news stream, and if you run out of new posts to read, you can discover new content in the Recommended Blogs section.

To import your subscriptions, just visit the WordPress.com Reader import page; you’ll be reading your feeds in the WordPress.com Reader in three clicks or less, or your money back.

The Reader can also import and export OPML, so you can try it out no matter what feed reader you’re using today.

Everything a growing business needs, at a price a growing business can handle.

Our users already know how easy it is to build great websites on WordPress.com: we’re flexible, powerful, and scale along with you. WordPress.com Business makes it even easier to build a site that supports your growing business long-term by giving you every tool you need up front and for only $299/year:

• Live support from friendly people, so you can get one-on-one help from a real human when you need it.
• Unlimited premium themes, so you can find the perfect look for your site without worrying about costs.
• Unlimited storage, so you can have all the video or audio content you want without dealing with YouTube or Vimeo.

Now, your site can hit the ground running, no upgrades or add-ons needed. WordPress.com Business also includes everything we already offer with our Premium Bundle:

• A custom web address your customers will remember.
• Advanced design tools and web fonts so your site reflects your brand.
• Video and audio uploads, to wow your clients with demos and testimonials.
• No Ads, so people who visit your site are 100% focused on you.

And of course, the free features that make WordPress.com the choice for so many businesses and bloggers — the security, unlimited bandwidth, one-click integration with social networks, and mobile apps — are part of the deal, too.

A professional website without a professional price tag.

Want to change up the look of your site? Try a premium theme or two (try four or five, and you’ve already made up the cost of WordPress.com Business). Trying to build a brand? Use Custom Design to match colors and fonts. Need a little hand-holding? A Happiness Engineer will walk you through whatever you don’t know.

With premium themes starting at $50/each and our largest storage upgrade coming in at $290/year, WordPress.com Business starts saving you money from the moment you sign up. And anyone who’s ever had a website crisis knows that expert live support is priceless. At $299/year, WordPress.com Business saves you much more in developer, designer, and support costs, making it a great choice for your business and your bottom line.

Get unlimited choice from our selection of free and premium themes with WordPress.com Business

Take your business and your brand online with a few clicks.

Start with choosing a theme — our favorite part — and then use Custom Design to tweak it to your needs. Upload your logo. Change the colors and fonts. Get your hands dirty by tweaking the CSS. You have unlimited choice from our collection of free and premium themes, which include themes designed for specific users like restaurants, musicians, or magazines as well as elegant, flexible themes suitable for a variety of sites. Try one premium theme, or try them all. All our current premium themes and every premium theme we will ever launch will be available to you for no extra cost, and you can switch between them at will.

If you’re setting up a new online journal, try Mimbo Pro or Further; both include a rich home page and advanced customization options to help organize your publications. Use our Soundcheck theme for your wedding band and upload videos of your gigs, or show off your restaurant’s new seasonal menu with Confit. Setting up an online portfolio? Check out Blocco or Shelf, each with its own unique approach to showcasing your work. None of the above? Highly configurable Oxygen can create a site to support any kind of organization.

Next up, add your own web address: one domain is included with the purchase, so you can extend your brand even further (you can also use an existing domain and point it to your new WordPress.com site). Now you can import content from your other sites, upload all your images and videos — with unlimited storage, you can have all the promos, testimonials, or demonstrations your customers can handle — or start chatting with a Happiness Engineer in real time with any questions.

Happiness Engineers are standing by.

We’re just getting started with live support on WordPress.com, and we will be experimenting with both text chat and voice. For now, our focus is on offering you text chat during US business hours (EST). We’ll be collecting your feedback on how we can improve and expand live support as the service evolves.

WordPress.com Business is available now from the WordPress.com store, for $299 yearly for one site. Already have WordPress.com Premium? Stay tuned for an upgrade path. And as your business grows, so can your WordPress.com site. If you need even more, check out WordPress.com Enterprise, which gives you the best of WordPress.com with VIP features such as 70+ approved plugins and Javascript customization.

Focus on what matters — growing your business.

If you’re starting or growing a small business, you know how important it is to have a great website — and you don’t have money or time to waste. With WordPress.com Business, you get all the tools you need to build a rich, engaging website that supports your goals without having to hire a web developer (or turn yourself into one). We’ll worry about backups and bandwidth; you worry about your business.

Last week we started to roll out some visual changes to WordPress.com and the WordPress.com Reader. We’ve been working hard on improvements in two key areas; making WordPress.com an amazing responsive experience on your mobile device, and making sure we’re doing the best job highlighting all of the beautiful photos and videos you’re posting.

Use WordPress.com Anywhere

With more than one billion smartphones in service around the world, we want WordPress.com working and looking great on every single one of them. If you log in to WordPress.com, you’ll notice a new responsive design that works and fits wonderfully on your smartphone, tablet, or computer, regardless of the brand of your device or its screen size.

Checking your stats, writing new posts, reading the latest on Freshly Pressed, or checking in on notifications through your web browser are all now a more comfortable experiences on the go.

Beautiful Media

Some of the biggest updates have been around the WordPress.com Reader. You’ve all been posting some great photos on WordPress.com, and we wanted to do a better job making sure your followers can see them at the highest quality. If you use a featured image on your post, or you upload an image to your post that’s at least 595px wide or more, we’ll feature that image in full width above your post in the Reader.

Strong images really make your posts snap and stand out. We’ve loved seeing all of your featured images during testing, and we hope you’ll love it too. If you have smaller images in your posts, don’t worry, we’ll still show them embedded inside of your post in the Reader so your followers will never miss out.

We haven’t forgotten about videos and galleries! If there’s a video embed or a photo gallery in your post, we’ll feature it in the Reader above your post if possible. If you add a gallery to your post we’ll also tell your followers how many images are in the gallery and where to view them.

We’re working to bring even more great features to the Reader in the next couple of months, so keep an eye out for changes. Now, go grab your phone or tablet and check it out!

The types of Post Formats you can choose from depends on your theme. To see what Post Formats your current theme supports, go to Posts » Add New in the dashboard and look for a Format module on the right, with various options like the one below:

Using Post Formats is optional — if your theme supports them, you don’t have to use them, since the default (standard) format works well with any content you publish. Using Post Formats is also free: you don’t need to purchase the custom CSS upgrade to enable different Post Formats.

Our Top Themes Now Support Post Formats

Recently, we made our top 25 themes — from popular free themes like Pilcrow, Manifest, and Bueno to premium themes such as Elemin — look even better with Post Formats. Here’s a sampling of how Post Formats look different, using the Elemin theme as an example:

Image Format:

Video Format:

Quote Format:

Link Format:

Audio Format:

Aside Format:

Graphic icons spice up this particular theme, while other themes have different design or textual elements appropriate for their layouts. Browse the themes that support Post Formats in our Theme Showcase.

Start Posting Now

You can publish instantly using popular Post Formats right in your dashboard. Just click on “New Post” on the top right, then select one of these popular formats to publish instantly to one of your sites:

Alternatively, you can go to Posts » Add New in your dashboard to create a new post. Just select the appropriate Post Format in the Format module, and you can use the “Preview” button to view the post before publishing it.

This week, we’ll highlight our responsive themes on WordPress.com. Maybe you’ll find a new design that’s perfect for your site in 2013.

Of 220+ themes in the WordPress.com Theme Showcase, over 50 themes are responsive: they provide a tailored layout depending on the device you’re using. In other words, sites using our responsive themes will look their best not only on desktop browsers, but also on devices with smaller screens, such as the iPad and iPhone. In our Theme Showcase, you can sort through these themes by selecting the “responsive width” feature.

Today, tomorrow, and Thursday, we’ll highlight some of our responsive themes and share how WordPressers showcase their work with these layouts. On Friday, we’ll unveil a new theme which — like many of our new themes — is responsive.

First up: Ever After and Sight.

Ever After

Nat, the bookbinder behind The Smallest Forest, has more than just another arts and crafts blog. Sifting through her posts is very much like turning the delicate pages of a beautifully crafted, handmade book.

The Smallest Forest

Her post series on Designing a Creative Travel Journal is worth a look — she approaches her craft projects with both meticulousness and love. Ever After is a wonderful theme for this blog — its wide one-column layout shows off her colorful creations, close-up shots, and how-to images. If you activate Ever After on your site, your content and photographs will look their best on the smaller screens of iPads, iPhones, and other mobile devices as well.

Another blog using this theme, Sandy Anger Studios, publishes an assortment of lovely wedding photographs and family and couple portraits. Take a peek at snapshots of a backyard wedding in St. Thomas, Ontario, and an elegant fall event in Morriston, Ontario, to see more examples of this responsive theme.

Sight

Jessica, an architecture student in New York, explores a number of topics on her blog, Architessica. In addition to architecture and urban design, Jessica writes about the environment, historic preservation, and the history and development of New York City (and beyond). Her blog’s name is boldly displayed at the top — an immediate way the Sight theme grabs a reader’s attention.

Architessica

Simple yet elegant, Sight works for a personal blog like Architessica. The featured slider on the home page allows her to highlight specific content with a prominent featured image — which is perfect given her array of interests. Sight is also appropriate for other types of sites, such as online magazines. The theme has numerous customizable features — menus, a header and background, and more — and the layout looks great on all devices.

Check out Sight in action on another notable blog, Everyday Ambassador. A collaborative site, Everyday Ambassador supports the movement for responsible global citizenship in a digital world, focusing on individual public service and grassroots diplomacy. Posts are published by multiple authors, and the theme presents their content in an accessible way. Versatile and responsive, Sight is a great choice.

Go Mobile

We’ve just highlighted themes that look their best on all screen sizes, including mobile devices. You can enable a mobile theme on your own site in your dashboard by going to Appearance » Mobile. Check “yes” next to “Enable mobile theme” and click “Update.”

And if you haven’t browsed WordPress on your mobile device, learn more about our apps:

• WordPress for iOS
• WordPress for Android
• WordPress for BlackBerry
• WordPress for Windows Phone

Tomorrow, we’ll highlight two more responsive themes: Oxygen and Confit (which we recently launched at the end of November).

Well, wait no more! The latest features brought to WordPress.com — such as tiled galleries and slideshows — are now available for WordPress.org users with self-hosted sites through the Jetpack 2.1 release. You can now show off your images in gorgeous photo mosaics and slideshows that integrate seamlessly with the Carousel module.

In addition to these media features, WordPress.org users who have installed the latest Jetpack release will notice updates to the Photon, Infinite Scroll, Publicize, Sharing, and Contact Form modules, while the Custom CSS editor has also been updated. For a complete list of changes, see the Jetpack changelog.

What is Jetpack?

Jetpack is a free plugin that connects to WordPress.com and allows users with self-hosted WordPress sites to enable the awesome features available to WordPress.com users, like Stats, Comments, Contact Forms, Sharing tools, and more. In the past, WordPress.com features weren’t available on self-hosted WordPress installs.

Jetpack brings the best of WordPress.com to users of self-hosted WordPress sites in one super plugin; it’s quite convenient, as you don’t have to bother with several separate plugin installations.

Interested in learning more? Visit the Jetpack site.

WordPress.org vs. WordPress.com

What’s the difference between a self-hosted (WordPress.org) site and a site hosted on WordPress.com?

WordPress is a free open source blogging software that powers many blogs and sites; over 60 million users have chosen WordPress to create and run their homes on the web. These WordPress.org users have self-hosted sites — in other words, users download and install the software on a web server, and pay a fee (generally $7-12 a month) to a web host, such as Bluehost or Go Daddy, to keep it up and running.

WordPress.org users with self-hosted sites can upload themes, upload plugins (such as Jetpack), run advertisements, edit the database, and even modify the PHP code that powers their sites. While a self-hosted site requires more technical knowledge to set up and run, you have complete control over it.

Brought to you by the same folks who work on WordPress, WordPress.com is a free hosting platform that makes it very easy for anyone — including you! — to publish online. If you have a blog hosted on WordPress.com, all of the technical stuff is taken care of (setting up and backing up your site, updating the software when we release new versions, blocking spam, keeping it secure). Because your site is on our servers, you don’t have to worry about your site “going down.”

Also, as you’ve probably noticed, WordPress.com users are automatically part of a larger community: in the Reader, you can discover new content on various topics, read handpicked editorial selections, and find and follow like-minded bloggers.

Here at en.blog.wordpress.com, we focus on announcing new WordPress.com features and highlighting the best from this community. If you’re interested in learning more about self-hosting your blog or site, go to WordPress.org, visit the WordPress.org blog, and read about the differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com on our Support site.

We’ve got the look: 65+ new themes in 2012

We released themes at a rate of more than one a week in 2012. These beautiful themes look great no matter which device your visitors use to see your content. What’s more, if you’re a musician, restaurateur, bride-or-groom-to-be, or a civil servant looking for a simple way to share information with your audience, we’ve got you covered.

Tae Phoenix is a Seattle-based singer-songwriter who recently released her first album, Rise. Her site takes full advantage of everything WordPress.com and the Soundcheck theme have to offer, with embedded audio and video, a tour calendar, her Twitter feed, links to her new album, and press mentions.

Custom Design puts you in charge

Have design chops or an eye for contrast, color, and composition? With the Custom Design upgrade, you can tinker with your site’s CSS, compose a unique color palette for your site, and choose from among some awesome Typekit fonts to create the specific look you desire for your online home on the web.

New and improved for 2012

No matter whether you’re just starting to blog or are a seasoned web designer, here’s a sampling of how we made WordPress.com better for you in 2012:

• We doubled the space we offer in the space upgrade.
• We introduced SASS and LESS for those who’ve got the Custom CSS upgrade.
• We added unique visitors and countries to all WordPress.com stats pages.
• We created importers to help you bring your Tumblr blog or your Splinder site to WordPress.com.
• We released tiled galleries that allow you to get creative with photos on your blog.

We made a lot of progress in 2012 and we’re already working on bringing you more awesome in 2013. Happy New Year from WordPress.com!

The solution to this? CSS preprocessors.

(If you’re new to CSS, you might want to stop here and check out some CSS basics. If you’re already knee-deep in selectors, read on to learn how CSS preprocessors can streamline your styling.)

CSS preprocessors are extensions to CSS that make it easier to manage your site’s styles. They have features like reusable variables, selector nesting, and functions, which allow you to easily reuse styles and apply them to different selectors. Put simply, a CSS preprocessor is like a friendly robot that automatically handles all of the copying and pasting you used to have to do with your CSS.

The two most popular CSS preprocessors are Sass and LESS, and they’re both available today in the CSS Editor on WordPress.com and the Jetpack plugin for self-hosted blogs. To use either language for your Custom CSS, just change the Preprocessor option before you save, and your Sass or LESS will automatically be compiled into CSS when it’s served to your site’s visitors.

If you’re not familiar with Sass or LESS, check out Getting Started with Sass or Using the LESS CSS Preprocessor for Smarter Style Sheets. You can ignore any instructions about installing the preprocessors or running them manually, since we handle that for you. Happy styling!

Here are just a few of the acts who are taking advantage of features like the gig calendar and embedded tracks from SoundCloud and Bandcamp.  They’re all using the Soundcheck theme, developed specifically for musicians, but they’ve used custom touches to build sites with unique looks and personality.

Tae Phoenix is a Seattle-based singer-songwriter who recently released her first album, Rise. Her site takes full advantage of everything WordPress.com and the Soundcheck theme have to offer, with embedded audio and video, a tour calendar, her Twitter feed, links to her new album, and press mentions. She’s lightened up the basic Soundcheck color scheme with a bold header image that echoes her album cover, and her first single is front and center on the home page, ready to be heard.  Her site is polished, professional, and ready for the big time — just like her.

Finnish DJ Radical Effect is a 180 from our Seattle singer-songwriter, and it shows. He uses his WordPress.com site to support the October release of his debut single and his quest to “conquer the Finnish nightlife.” A rotating selection of header images gives the site its industrial feel, while a more washed-out palette creates a chill, laid-back vibe. In addition to the music-specific features, Radical Effect also houses a blog on the site, to post news and give fans insight into his creative process.

Canadian pop-punk outfit Letterbomb proves that you’ve never too young to rock — already performing together for three years, they range in age from 14 to 18. They’ve given their site a youthful edge with a moody color scheme, the repeated use of their bulls-eye logo, and plenty of photos. Their newest track is embedded on every page, begging to be heard, and plenty of links let fans buy music and merch. And as they grow, their WordPress.com site can grow with them, giving them more space for music and video and helping them keep track of tour dates.

Fifteen-year-old twins and Oklahoma natives Grace and Sophia chose WordPress.com to build the site that supports their growing careers as folk singer-songwriters. A colorful yet muted palette, capped off with custom header images and a craft-inspired background, give the site its personality. They’ve added social media sharing buttons to the main navigation bar, encouraging their fans to connect with them across a variety of platforms.

These four artists have opted for the new premium Soundcheck theme, but there are 200+ themes available on WordPress.com, many of which — like Oxygen (a freebie!), Shelf, and Debut — were either designed for or lend themselves well to music sites. With affordable upgrades like custom design, your band’s own URL, and plenty of storage space for your music and videos (coupled with WordPress.com standards, like rock-solid security, unlimited bandwith, and the world’s best Support team), making WordPress.com your band’s online home is a no-brainer.

Is there an act you love on WordPress.com? Share a link in the comments!