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.

When Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad last January, it kickstarted a year of rapid experimentation as news publishers hunted for ways to capitalize on tablet computing. The “iPad effect” was a tsunami through the publishing industry.

The two entrepreneurs, Baptiste, age 25 and Barreto, age 23, were poised for the age of the tablet. Both men are passionate writers who wanted to make their content look beautiful on the iPad. Armed with skills in coding and software development, Baptiste and Barreto are now entrenched in their efforts to make the publishing experience more enjoyable for the reader from both the editorial experience and the advertising side.

“We’re a media company with a heart and soul of awesome software and design,” says Baptiste.

The men arrived in New York City just two weeks ago for the inaugural NY TechStars class by way of Boston via Miami (Baptiste) and Miami via Argentina, Chile and Colombia (Barreto). Averaging about 5 Red Bulls a day (provided by the TechStars program), the two spoke very highly of their experience thus far under the wings of TechStars founder and director, David Cohen and David Tisch, respectively. Aside from a rough adjustment to NYC’s winter weather, they’re very excited to be in the city that never sleeps, and very stoked that there is a 24-hour Best Buy just steps from their office.

So what is OnSwipe? OnSwipe is a platform that makes it easy for any publisher from a blogger using Posterous to the New York Times to make their content and advertising an immersive, aesthetic experience on iPads via a Web browser. It runs off of WordPress for now but will work with Movable Type in the near future. Mind you, OnSwipe IS NOT AN APP. It delivers an app like experience on the web that looks beautiful on an iPad.

“Apps are bullshit for content,” says Baptiste who refers to native apps as “PDF readers” and equates them to a Ponzi scheme for publishers. “It’s all about delivering an app-like experience on the web. With OnSwipe, publishers can have their cake and eat it too.”

As an editor you don’t have to do very much work. Just turn the OnSwipe platform on and it organizes your content into a customizable, design conscious and iPad friendly format. Want to know more? Watch the gentlemen behind OnSwipe talk about their platform, the future of digital publishing and why the iPad is so important.

“The demo shown in this video is of PadPressed, the precursor to OnSwipe. Think of padpressed as the equivalent of our “university research project.” OnSwipe is a much larger evolution from that and encompasses much more,” explains Baptiste.

“This is our time to reinvent media. It’s not going to happen again for a very long time, so we might as well do it right and have fun with it,” Baptiste says with a wide smile.

Baptiste is currently writing a book on entrepreneurship under the Portfolio imprint of the Penguin group. Before founding OnSwipe, Baptiste worked on numerous start-ups including Cloudomatic, Genevine and Publictivity. Meanwhile, Barreto is also a serial entrepreneur. In addition to working on Cloudomatic, he founded two businesses in Latin America, PulsoSocial and Socialatom and later co-founded the exceedingly popular online music sharing community, Grooveshark. And he is just 23 years old, by the way.

While they haven’t officially launched yet, in just 30 days the boys raised a sweet 1 million in seed funding from Spark Capital, Betaworks and AdMob investor ENIAC Ventures. Angel investors included Hubspot CTO Dharmesh Shah, Jennifer Lum, Roy Rodenstein and Wayne Chang. While they’re looking to hire between 8-10 new employees, they’ve also convinced Threewords.me founder Mark Bao to work with them part-time.

For now you may click onto the next story, but just remember the future of media will be all about swiping.

Yet another news organization joins the rounds at Tumblr, launching its first Tumblr blog today. CNNMoney Tech will use the Tumblog to share story outtakes, amusing tidbits and tech buzz from the newsroom.

It’s not a bad idea for news sites to join Tumblr as it has the potential to add a lighter layer of context to their day-to-day coverage in a viral, highly visual environment. CNNMoney Tech stocked its blog with over 270 funny, snarky, insightful posts before today’s launch. Tumblog contributors include: Paul R. La Monica, CNNMoney Assistant Managing Editor; Stacy Cowley, CNNMoney Tech Editor; David Goldman CNNMoney Staff Writer; Julianne Pepitone, CNNMoney Staff Reporter; and Laurie Segall, CNNMoney Staff Reporter.

CNNMoney’s tech-news coverage team says they’ve been stealthily building their Tumblog since September. Check it out here.