Howto

I am very inspired by creative podcasts. Entertaining guests and the unscripted nature of the conversations make me feel like I am right there, chatting about world affairs or the deep societal transformations of the connected age. I decided to start my own show with a group of friends  — loosely about blogging, but delving into all sorts of things.

It took three hours, with a total cost of $5/month, including our own domain name. In this post, I’ll share my journey of launching a brand-new podcast on WordPress.com, and later promoting it on iTunes and Spotify.

Why start a podcast?

Podcasting has been hailed as “the new blogging.” According to Edison Research, 51% of Americans have listened to a podcast, and hosts have created over one million podcasts on iTunes Podcasts.

Have you ever written a Twitter thread, and then wished you could turn it into a blog post? You can now do it in seconds.

Writing Twitter threads, also known as tweetstorms, can be a great way to clarify your thoughts: keeping each paragraph under 280 characters forces you to focus on your message.

Threads are great for engagement and sudden bursts of inspiration. But when the thread is done, wouldn’t it be nice to have a quick way to capture the full conversation in one place — one page to read, one link to share, all your thoughts captured on a website you own?

Now, when you embed a tweet that’s part of a larger thread, you’ll see a new “Unroll” button on the block toolbar. Click or tap it to import the entire thread into your post.

Podcasting isn’t just for professional broadcasters or celebrities. If you have a passion for a topic — no matter how niche — and want to explore your options beyond blogging and tweeting, consider launching a podcast! All you need to get started is a decent microphone and headset, an internet connection — and our next free webinar to learn the basics.

Date: Thursday, July 23, 2020
Cost: FREE
Time: 8:00 am PDT | 9:00 am MDT | 10:00 am CDT | 11:00 am EDT | 15:00 UTC
Registration link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/5115944218471/WN_DEIBungPRlSs4hIKhN6ezA
Who’s invited: Bloggers, business owners, and anyone else interested in starting a podcast.

You’ve launched your website or started a blog. Congratulations! Now it’s time to attract an audience. You built a website to reach people with your art, ideas, or products and services. We’ve created a free online session to help you do just that. 

Register for our next 60-minute webinar, Traffic Control: How to Find and Grow an Audience for your Website, to get advice and guidance on attracting the right people to your site.

Starting a new website can be a bit overwhelming but we’re here to help! Beginning Monday, April 20th, WordPress.com will host free, 30-minute live webinars to cover those initial questions that come up as you start to build your website. Each day will cover a different topic, all designed to give actionable advice on how to create the type of website you want. 

Date: Starts April 20, 2020 and repeats daily Monday thru Friday

Weekly Schedule:

• Mondays – Getting Started: Website Building 101
• Tuesdays – Quick Start: Payments (Simple and Recurring)
• Wednesdays – Quick Start: Blogging
• Thursdays – Quick Start: WooCommerce 101
• Fridays – Empezando: Construcción de Sitios Web 101

Time: 09:00 am PDT | 10:00 am CDT | 12:00 pm EDT | 16:00 UTC

From our support sessions with customers each month, we know that growing your brand or business is a top website goal. And in this unprecedented time in which more people around the world are staying at home, it’s important to promote your products and services online to reach a wider audience and connect with more people.

Our team has been hard at work improving the block editor experience. We’ve launched six new blocks that integrate WordPress.com and Jetpack-enabled sites with popular services — Eventbrite, Calendly, Pinterest, Mapbox, Google Calendar, and OpenTable — enabling you to embed rich content and provide booking and scheduling options right on your blog or website.

We are proud to host many websites for language tutors, yoga schools, and personal fitness coaches around the world.

It’s exciting to see how educators and consultants across different industries are getting creative with their online offerings: language teachers conduct 1:1 sessions to help students hone pronunciation, yoga studios livestream group sessions, and instructors lead writing boot camps via Zoom breakout rooms. Even my own strength coach is monitoring my workouts — I launch the camera on my phone, place it against the wall, and do deadlifts while he supervises.

Last year we launched Recurring Payments to support creators, consultants, small businesses, and other professionals in establishing dependable income streams. We were very pleased to discover that online educators using this feature are thriving as well!

Whether you already own a small business or are exploring the idea of starting one, you’ll come away from this free, 60-minute live webinar with a wealth of actionable advice on how to maximize your digital presence.

Date: Thursday, April 2, 2020
Time: 11:00 am PDT | 1:00 pm CDT | 2:00 pm EDT | 18:00 UTC
Registration link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/4215849773038/WN_at0PB64eTo2I0zJx-74g2Q
Who’s invited: Business owners, freelancers, entrepreneurs, and anyone interesting in starting a small business or side gig.

Getting your new business website ready for launch? Want a little hand-holding — a step-by-step tutorial on setting up a WordPress.com site from start to finish, that you can work on at your own pace and on your own time? “WordPress.com Fundamentals,” a comprehensive video course created with our friends over at Fiverr, walks you through all the fundamentals in 90 minutes.

The course covers the basics of setting up a business website, but anyone new to WordPress.com can benefit from lessons on how to create an account, set up a site, customize a theme, publish content, and share it on social media. It was developed by WordPress.com Happiness Engineers with years of experience guiding thousands of new WordPress.com customers in chat, email, forums, and concierge sessions, so you know you’re getting expert guidance from people who know every WordPress.com tip and trick.

Here the presentation slide deck (100+) used during the oGH Dutch Usergroup session and (partially…