The founding developer of the popular blogging software WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, shared some of his thoughts about what’s next for the platform today. WordPress is completely open source, but Mullenweg founded the company behind the business arm of the product, Automattic.

At the paidContent event today, Mullenweg shared that a new “radically simplified” version of WordPress will be available soon.

On his blog, Mullenweg took things a step further, discussing what he calls the “fourth phase of our evolution.”:

WordPress was first for pure blogging, then became embraced as a CMS (though some people still deny this), is seeing growth and innovation in being used as an application platform (I think we’re about a third of the way through that), and just now starting to embrace social and mobile — the fourth phase of our evolution.

Mullenweg aims to help make WordPress “shorter, simpler, and faster”, making everyone in the word a publisher with the click of a button. He mentions the importance of mobile and social being the future of WordPress, and that we can start seeing the direction the software is going in its official iOS and Android apps.

How will Mullenweg re-imagine and “radically simplify” WordPress as we know it today? “Even though I’m thinking about this all the time I don’t have all the answers yet — that’s what makes it fun.” he shares.

WordPress is set to turn 9 years old this Sunday, and it’s amazing to see how far the platform has come. I can truly say that without WordPress, I’m not sure if I’d be writing this post and have the ability to share it with all of you.

I think it’s fairly safe to say that when we see a “Like” button on the Web, we almost instantly associate it with liking something on Facebook, at least I know that I do.

Two years ago, WordPress.com launched its own “Like system”, which allowed readers to like something that they read, which would then add their gravatar to a cluster of other people that liked it, too. When it was announced, the company said that it hoped the feature would drive people to explore other blogs and bloggers.

It seems that users liked the idea, because WordPress.com has posted some of its recent success with the system, as well as some new enhancements.

According to the graph below, the traction of the feature has picked up since its launch, seeing well over 800,000 clicks a week:

While those number might not seem overwhelmingly huge, the growth is definitely a good thing and shows that Facebook might not own the “Like” after-all. Either that, or all of the users clicking the button are assuming that it’s related to Facebook, even though WordPress.com blogs have a share button for the service. Confused? Don’t be.

In what seems to be a push to turn WordPress.com into more of a social network, the company announced that it has added the option to put the buttons on all of your content, instead of on each individual blog post like before.

By editing your Like button options, you can allow people to click the button on your home page, blog posts, and individual pictures within slideshows. Here’s what the button looks like on a front page of a WordPress.com blog, which now lets you click the Like button without having to drill into the content:

Since liking posts can be a way to bookmark items for yourself and to show off on a profile, your interactions will now show up on your profile page under “Posts I Like”:

So go forth and get your Like on, but don’t expect it to show up on Facebook. You’ll have to click the share button for that.

With close to 72 million WordPress installs around the world, chances are you’re using the platform in one form or another. Be it a customized mini-site or landing page, your main CMS, e-commerce platform, etc. you or someone you know is using WordPress.

Now as any good marketer will tell you, “If you’re not measuring, you’re not marketing,” so we’ve all done our due diligence and set up the prerequisite Google Analytics account, checking stats on a daily basis and deriving valuable, actionable items from them.

But what about all that “other” traffic, primarily driven by social media? Wouldn’t it be quite handy to know which visitors to your WordPress based site are also logged into various social networks? Enter the Social Media User Detection plugin.

Inspired by Tom Anthony’s initial post outlining both Twitter and Google’s login mechanism (Facebook below), and authored by Marty Martin and Brian Chappell of Adapt Partners, the Social Media User Detection plugin will automatically detect and record the login status of your site’s visitors and send this valuable information over to your Google Analytics account.

In addition to giving you a much better picture of who your visitors are and where else they are, this information can be used for a host of data analysis. Using Advanced Segments, this plugin allows you to take full advantage of Google’s powerful Analytics service, and allows you to lay an entire social layer on top of this tracking. Not a fan of Advanced Segments and prefer Custom Reports? No problem, it’s all included.

Somewhat similar to the method I outlined in How to track Social Media within Google Analytics, this plugin saves you the trouble of manually setting a number of items up, and the installation instructions document includes clickable links that auto-full the custom segments sections for you. All you need to do is ensure that you’re logged into your Google account that you use for analytics tracking, and click “Save Segment” – very handy.

However, it’s not all click, click, done, as there is a tad bit of “developer speak” involved, primarily from Facebook. In order for the plugin to properly function, you’ll need to create a blank app within Facebook and then transfer this unique app ID number back to the plugin configuration area.

“With the Facebook app, you can use the API to detect whether a user is logged in or not,” comments Martin. “With Twitter and Google, the plugin checks to see if the browser can initiate a request for an image that would normally be hidden behind the login. If the image returns a respond code indicating that the browser can access it, then we can construe that the visitor is logged in. If an error comes back, and the image is not found, the user is not logged in.”

Once you’ve created the Facebook app, it’s time to take a look at custom segments. If you’ve ever set up a custom segment within Analytics, the process is exactly the same as before. If you’ve not set up a custom segment, the Social Media User Detection plugin makes it incredibly easy, as mentioned above, providing clickable links that will pre-fill all the necessary fields. Don’t forget to save the segments! The only stumbling block I ran into was that you must manually activate the Custom Segments in order for them to display within your overall Analytics reporting. This is easily remedied by clicking on the “Advanced Segments” tab in the top left corner under “Standard Reporting”. From here, simply click on the social media properties you’d like to track and click apply.

Once the Facebook app is created, the plugin configured, and custom segments established, it’s time to sit back and watch the tracking magic happen. Keep in mind, this plugin serves to lay atop your existing Analytics data, thus visitors to your site will have a seamless experience, and tracking happens in the background. The benefit for you is that you’ll have a much clearer and deeper picture about your users, and what social networks they’re using.

Martin informs me that while writing the plugin, the duo chose the top social networks, but they’ve already received requests to include LinkedIn and Pinterest. However, “because it can be a bit complicated to set up the custom segments in Google, we’re trying to figure out a way for the users to selectively choose which social networks they want to monitor. Not everyone wants to monitor Gmail, for example, but that could potentially change the custom segment ID that they’re using. It’s not necessarily difficult to add another network, but we need to be absolutely clear in our instructions on how to do it, and make sure it works.”

So if you’re planning your next social media campaign, why invest thousands in promoting across a platform that’s bringing you little to no return? Likewise, if you’d simply like better data on where your users hang out, I’ve yet to find a simpler plugin that will provide you with this info. The Social Media User Detection plugin can provide you with concrete data as to where your time and money should be (well) spent.

Oh, and did I mention it’s free?

➤ Social Media User Detection plugin

Mikko Hyvärinen via shutterstock

It doesn’t get more global than WordPress. Over 60 million people use some form of the popular blogging service, either hosted on WordPress.com or professionally hosted elsewhere. That fact alone means that when the project steps out for or against something, it has an incredible audience who pays attention.

In a blog post today, the team behind the popular publishing platform is asking its users to stand up against SOPA and PIPA, because it potentially threatens their freedom to publish the things that matter most to them on the Internet.

Here’s what Jane Wells, UX lead at WordPress had to say on the matter:

Using WordPress to blog, to publish, to communicate things online that once upon a time would have been relegated to an unread private journal (or simply remained unspoken, uncreated, unshared) makes you a part of one of the biggest changes in modern history: the democratization of publishing and the independent web. Every time you click Publish, you are a part of that change, whether you are posting canny political insight or a cat that makes you LOL. How would you feel if the web stopped being so free and independent? I’m concerned freaked right the heck out about the bills that threaten to do this, and as a participant in one of the biggest changes in modern history, you should be, too.

Along with this request for political-themed help, which even Wells says is not the norm for WordPress, the team has posted a video that aims to educate people on what SOPA and PIPA means for them and for Internet professionals:

With the WordPress army officially making its position on these two acts known, you too can make a difference by contacting your local member of US congress. You can use this app that we wrote about to do so.

The WordPress platform is said to power 15% of the web, so it looks like these acts aren’t going to be put into action without a fight.

If you’ve ever thought above moving your blog from one platform to the other, it can be rather tricky. Importing creates duplications of posts and a long list of other issues.

Tumblr Importer will import all of your Tumblr blog into a self-hosted WordPress blog in a snap.

Tumblr Importer:

• Correctly handles post formats
• WP-Cron based background importing: start it up, then come back later to see how far it’s gotten
• Duplicate checking, will not create duplicate imported posts
• Imports posts, drafts, and pages
• Media Sideloading (for audio, video, and image posts)

Keeping all of your images, audio, and video intact is key, as Tumblr is popular for its media posts. Tumblr Importer even brings all of the stored items onto your new WordPress host. For example, my blog is currently hosted at Tumblr and contains mostly video and photo embeds.

To install, all you have to do is download the plugin, put it in its correct folder, and activate it through your Plugins menu on your WordPress blog.

If you’ve been thinking about making the move to WordPress from Tumblr, this is your best best. Hopefully there will be an option for the WordPress.com hosted blogs soon.

Thanks to Matt Mullenweg for the tip.

If you’re a blogger, then we’re sure you’ve been in a situation where you can’t login to WordPress or Tumblr, or you need to get something to the world fast via Twitter or Facebook.

Instablogg lets you set up a blog post instantly and anonymously in seconds. Even if you’re not a blogger and don’t want to set up your own blog, Instablogg is perfect for quick publishing.

I can’t see the service adding anymore features, as its simplicity is what attracts you, but Instablogg is seeking requests for features here.

Writing a blog post, instantly

You’re shown a familiar WYSIWYG editor as soon as you visit the Instablogg site. You don’t have to sign up or connect any accounts. Simply give your blog post a title and start entering in whatever you like, including pictures, video embeds, and a your text.

Of course, Instablogg doesn’t have a video or hosting service, as this is a no frills and simplistic approach to instant publishing. You can make the post private, or public.

You’re given a unique URL to edit your post, but if you lose it, you’re out of luck because there of course is no sign-up process to claim your post.

Obviously, if you’re a serious blogger and want your own design, themes, and branding, then you should look for another service.

Sharing your post

Once you’ve written and published your post and want to share it with the world, Instablogg’s simple design includes a share to Twitter button, a Facebook Like button, and even a share button that includes services like Digg.

You can view my example post here.

The service has two other interesting features considering its simplicity, built-in commenting powered by Disqus, and a unique QR code for each post.

Services like Tumblr and Posterous are super simple blogging platforms, but again, not having to sign up is a plus. Another option for anonymous blogging is a service called FearlessBlogging, but isn’t as simple as Instablogg.

If you’re just getting started in the world of online publishing, or you need to get your words or a piece of news out to the world immediately, Instablogg is the best anonymous service I’ve seen.

Matt Mullenweg, creator of the WordPress blogging platform and founder of Automattic, will have big reason to celebrate this Sunday after the number of self-hosted and WordPress.com blogs passed the 50 million mark.

WordPress keeps a counter on its WordPress.com site, counting the number of WordPress installations on their own servers but also self-hosted blogs, where developers, designers and other users have decided to take control of their own installations of the open-source software.

Today, WordPress has helped 350,225 WordPress.com bloggers post 302,882 posts and over 270,000 comments. Roughly calculated, it means that 210 posts and 188 comments are submitted each minute. The stats page counts a total of nearly 77 million words written, almost double the size of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

That’s just WordPress.com users….in one day.

The milestone was confirmed by WordPress’ Andrew Nacin, who posted:

Total WordPress sites just passed *50 million* today! http://t.co/PoXxrF5 #wcmtl

Each month, there are around 287 million people accounting for 2.5 billion pageviews on WordPress.com blogs, reading posts that are written in over 120 languages. English accounts for the two-thirds of all written posts, with Spanish and Portuguese in second and third respectively.

WordPress is reported to power 14% of the world’s websites, damn impressive.

Twitter just published a great blog post promoting #longreads, a hash tag that provides more in-depth context and content than 140 characters can ever provide. By searching #longreads, you’ll find tweeted suggestions of long articles and short stories by studious fans of great journalism and long form writing.

Twitter suggests the following related accounts to consider following if #longreads strikes your fancy:

@longreads: Run by the creator of the hashtag, this account shares the most popular articles and credits whoever surfaced it.
@somethingtoread: Shares select essays and articles that have been saved on @instapaper
@ifyouonly: If you only have time to read one thing…
@longformorg: Shares long-form reads from the past and present.
@sportsfeat: A companion to the account above but devised specifically for sports features.

If you’re a fan of long reads, highly recommend you stay tuned to TNW on the weekends where we run a series of editorial magazine length pieces about particular topics. Some of my personal favorites: WordPress, the free software with the big economy, What is the Technological Singularity?, How the Internet is Revolutionizing Education and The Rise of The Mobile Social Network.

We also suggest you check out LongReads.com, a wonderful site that hands picks some of the finest long reads on the web. It’s also worth noting Instapaper provides a similar service.

So, you’ve decided to start a blog. Good for you. As someone who has started, contributed and edited several over my “Internet lifespan”, it can be a very rewarding experience.

These years of experience may not make me an expert (per se), but they do give me some insight on what one should do when they first get started versus what they shouldn’t. I’ve bought books on the subject and read many “how to” articles on getting started with your very own blog, but it took me a lot of searching and reading time to get to the heart of the matter. I’m going to break down the two most important things you need to keep in mind and act on when starting out. How you decide to tackle these two blogging basics can make a big difference in how the rest of your blogging experience takes shape.

1. Don’t post daily. In fact, maybe just weekly to start.

Many first-time bloggers make the mistake of jumping in full bore. They start by posting every day (including weekends), because they have been told it will draw readers in right away…and they’re really enthusiastic when they enter the blogging realm. Then as time goes by and either certain aspects of their life start to play into how often they post or they don’t see immediate readership results, they slow down a bit. No more weekends posting. Then it turns into posting three times per week. Then just once a week. This is not the way to go.

Sure, the web is forgiving, but you can’t start by posting daily and expect readers to stick around when you start to drop off in posting frequency. It’s always better to start off slowly, despite all of your enthusiasm, because it shows growth rather than decay. Ultimately, keep this quotation in mind when starting out:

“Slow and steady wins the race.” – Aesop, The Hare and the Tortoise

Readers will come if you deliver quality content, but it’s not going to happen overnight. It’s going to be the quality that wins out, not the quantity. If you’re writing a blog on your own, make sure you start off with no more than 2-3 posts per week. Then build from there. It will not only allow you to write better over the long haul, but will keep the endurance of your enthusiasm far longer than writing daily.

2. Use images. Or don’t. But know when to do either.

While I think that there is merit to using an image in many cases, sometimes they can get in the way of the written content. I’ve struggled with this myself, as evidenced on my own site. Even well known blogger and co-author of Content Rules, C.C. Chapman believes having an image is more important than ever, as evidenced in this tweet:

Never seen a visual RSS reader? Check out Pulse on an iPad and you’ll see why photos in blog posts are more important now.#blogchat

I use Flipboard and seeing images definitely attracts my eye, but images rarely keep me interested for long. If the writing sucks, then I’m out of there. I follow blogs that both do and don’t use images. But after a quick look at my RSS reader, I found that most of the ones I follow don’t use images. The quality of the writing is just that good.

I tend to use images for shorter posts and none when I’m writing longer pieces (unless they need screenshots to better illustrate what I’m writing about). Play with it a bit. Experiment. Unlike with posting frequency, this is an area where you can do that and not run the risk of alienating your readers all that much. But if you are going to use images, make sure you give credit where credit is due.

The question you need to ask yourself is whether or not you can deliver top-notch writing that can stand on its own, with no image required. And you’ll need to ask that question again and again throughout your blogging life. Be honest with yourself, otherwise your material will suffer.

Keep these two important blogging basics in mind when you start blogging and you’re going to have a great foundation to build your readership, deliver quality content and — best of all — have fun doing it.

And if you work in public relations, you’ve probably been either ignored or rudely answered by countless writers.

But aren’t we meant to work together?

David Spinks is a serial entrepreneur living in NYC. He’s the co-founder of u30pro, Scribnia and now BlogDash, a new site that’s dedicated to connecting PR professionals with the appropriate and relevant bloggers they’re trying to reach.

The site, which launches today, is similar to a media database with a filter system that aims to be a huge boon to both press and public relations.

“The site will help bring bloggers more targeted opportunities,” explains Spinks, “And we will help businesses find the exact bloggers they are looking for.”

It’s free for press: bloggers fill out a simple profile, optionally link Facebook and Twitter accounts, then choose their pitch preferences, such as –email, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, “in person” or “never pitch.”

In then asks you 10 specific questions like “Are you open to receiving money for writing a blog?” and less morally concerning questions such as “Are you open to receiving invitations to cover events?” You can even write in little comments like, “Only if there’s booze.”

Once logged in, bloggers can direct companies who pitch them to BlogDash and share their past experiences of working with certain businesses. Businesses can also write up and review bloggers. In addition to signing up, blogger names will be pulled in by partnering with other databases and by manually gathering publicly available information about bloggers like through LinkedIn and Twitter.

To start, BlogDash will offer a simple $99 per month plan (per user) for public relation companies and businesses. The site will also include an email feature in the near future. Bloggers will be able to manage pitches through the site or via email. PR companies will not be allowed to mass message on the site.

BlogDash’s team includes co-founder Mark Duquette, who is based in Montreal, and a remote team of designers and developers in different countries, including a development team in Romania. The New York staff works out of New Work City, a co-working space in SoHo of independent entrepreneurs. Prior to BlogDash, Duquette ran an ad network, Hispano Click. Its sale funded BlogDash in addition to private donations from friends, family and a few small angel investors.

Why create BlogDash? Founder David Spinks is not only an entrepreneur, but a blogger in his own right, who’s hoping to put forth a product that will make the lives of both press and PR less tiresome.

BlogDash is how Spinks will monetize Scribnia, his year and half year old blogging community, an organized way for others to learn about blogger’s biases, backgrounds, and abilities. Scribnia enables readers like yourself to rate writers that they love and those you cannot stand.

If you’re a blogger would you use Scribnia or BlogDash? Tell us why or why not in the comments.