The holidays make for a crazy time of year. You’re spending time with family, traveling, maybe enjoying some winter weather. All of this can help you create wonderful blog posts. 🙂
Here are a couple tips on how to let your blog shine as you head into the new year.
Blogging made easy
Press This is a great way to simplify your blogging experience. It lets you grab content from any blog post, article, website, or photo you find on the web. If you can you see it in your browser, you can use Press This to blog about it on WordPress.com!
It will automatically insert an image, quote, video, or link on any website directly into your blog post as well as include a link back to the source. No more having to copy and paste 5 different things. With Press This you can share great content quickly.
Drag the bookmarklet (the link that says “Press This”) from the Tools page of your WordPress.com Dashboard into your browser’s bookmarks bar to get started. This adds a handy link you can use to post content.
The next time you want to share a link, photo, or video on another site just press the bookmarklet. You’ll see a window pop up where you can add photos, video, and quotes straight from the site.
The two icons next to “Add:” let you choose which photos or videos on the page you want to insert into your post.
Combine all of that with the mobile options we featured last month and you can really blog from anywhere on the web or anywhere in the world.
Let your photos shine
After many lovely days spent with family during the holidays you probably have dozens (hundreds? thousands?!) of photos from trips, meals, adventures, and lovely winter weather. WordPress.com makes it easy to showcase these right on your blog.
Using our built-in photo galleries or slideshows you can share the best moments from the holidays. Here’s a few from my trip to Yosemite National Park in the winter a few years ago.
Between Press This and showcasing your photos you have some great toys to play with as you make your blog even better in the new year. Enjoy the holidays!
WordPress.com News 
Nice tips. I can still blog while enjoying my holidays 🙂
Cool, I didn’t know that you could upload pictures and videos on Press This. I’m also going to look into making one of those slideshows.
Thank you for the tips, but unfortunately on this holiday I don’t go anywhere 🙂
I often feel like there must be an alternative to the copy and paste orgy I go through posting on our blog. Press This is going to be very helpful for us. Thanks for explaining it Andrew. Happy holidays.
Ah, nice one WordPress.
Happy holidays to everyone too 🙂
Yes, great feature from WordPress…. so useful 🙂
Great Ideas…May you have the warmest of holidays filled with joy! Peace be with you.
Great tutorial! Lots of excellent detail and very inspirational. I’m new and am going to put those ideas to use very shortly! Thanks a lot, and Happy Holidays 🙂
Thanks for the Press This info. I will be making a slideshow out of my photos, I forgot about that. I only did it with cupcakes once. Fun Fun Fun!
Nice! 🙂 WordPress is amazing!
I’ve had this in place for quite a while, but kept forgetting I did. 🙂 I guess if I used it more, I may have remembered.
The plot thickens – always new things to try on WordPress.
I’ve always wondered what “Press This” is … thank you! 🙂
I am well acquainted with the copy-and-paste ritual. Glad to have your tutorial on Press This to simplify my life. Thank you!
I love you, WordPress! ❤
Wow, Press This is nifty tool. I hope to use the slideshow too.
Cool. Already added to my bookmarks.
This is excellent. I’m going to have a blast in 2011!
Wonderful tips. I wasn’t really aware of the photo galleries and slideshows. I need to figure that out in time for the explosion of holiday photos this weekend.
Excellent, I’ll be Pressing This as soon as I get the opportunity, and I’ve been taking full advantage of the slideshow and gallery functions this year – my only complaint is that the gallery/slideshows automatically incorporate all the images for that post – you can’t have two separate slideshows in one post, or just selected images in one gallery. Other than that, it’s very attractive.
Now, if you can provide WordPress bloggers with a couple of extra hours in the day to use all these features, that would be the ideal Christmas gift.
Slideshows do include all the images on a post but you can exclude certain images from appearing in a gallery. Check out the details we have at:
https://wordpress.com/support/images/gallery/#gallery-shortcode
We’ll keep working on adding extra hours to the day. 🙂
Oh so, so GREAT!, I love it…this well help me start. Thank you.
Thank you for these tips!
Cool this can be useful, soon I’m going to use photos to my life-inspiring-blog that I’ve taken myself. I hope that will improve the blog a bit :-D!
I knew there must be an easier way to add pictures, etc. I am new to blogging and would hate to admit how long it takes to create each little post!
I look forward to giving it a go!
Thanks for you help!
Thanks a lot. Happy holidays!
Great tips!
I’ve found great use for many of these features – and only recently discovered some of them!
Sounds nice, Thanks!
Cool. I like it.
Nice tips. I use WordPress for Nokia to keep blogging during my vacation.
Ha, I’ve always wondered what the purpose of “Press This” was and now I know. Thanks!
Thanks much! 😀 Love Press This – didn’t know I could do that!
I love the slideshow feature. Will be testing it out with my Christmas photos in a week or so.
Oh, WordPress, I just love you. But I still don’t get what “Press This” is. Is it basically a kind of “re-post” function? Or more like a crop-quoting tool?
Anyway, thanks for being so great to us. Happy holidays. 🙂
It’s both. 🙂 You can use it to post links to content on other sites or you could automatically pull in a quote, image, or video you’d like to use in longer article.
truly loving the press this button. although mine doesn’t come up as a pop up and it took me a while to get it on my toolbar, i got it there in the end and have used it about 2 times already. Thank you WordPress!
I was just wondering what Press This was… neat
Great tips, thanks a lot.
ive always heard about this feature called ”press this” but i never really understood what it was meant to be used for and thanx to guys for explaining it to me now i can create a blog post more easier!
Great tips! I will try them a.s.a.p. Thanks!
Merry Christmas and enjoy your Holiday!
It’s really a great tool to share informations. But of course it needs some creativity to make our post interesting to read.
Thanks
Thank you for the great tips! As a new blogger, I am always looking for ways to enhance my blog.
Great Tips. My new years resolution is to get more pics on my blog and generally make it a look a lot better.
I’ve been using Press This for some time, and I don’t just use it for posting content from web pages. When I’m feeling lazy and don’t want to type wordpress.com in the address bar, I just hit Press This and start typing. It’s pretty good for lazy people.
I never knew you could showcase photos! Thanks for the tips, and I wish the WordPress team a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Thanks for the tips bud! Greatly needed for a new blogger such as me, not that WordPress is already user-friendly 😀
These are great tips! Thanks…
This is awesome! It’s all about I love WordPress. cheers!
I’ve been hunting all over the web for something like this 🙂
Thank you for pointing this stuff out. I always wonder about features of WordPress but am too lazy (and maybe even scared) to try! It helps when you explain a bit.
Thanks a lot for summarizing the main points. Keep up the good work WP team. Cheers!
I made use of the slideshows in an upcoming blog of mine. Easy to use.
Press This is a good tool, just be mindful of the creator’s copyrights. As a photographer, it is something I am very concerned with. Is there a way to know if someone uses Press This on your WP blog?
Our stats will track Press This if you have it displayed as one of our sharing buttons but the stats do not track shares via the bookmarklet.
Great tip…I think I will be pressing this in the near future.
Good stuff, WordPress peeps.
I think I’ll be using the Press This thingy soon.
Thanks, WP.
Simply amazing! I’m new to the blogging experience here, and what a treat to be able to utilize such a great tool from the get go!
Thank you so much!
Press this seems like an amazing new time-saving feature.
Spectacular! Thanks, WP, for all the wonderful tips to make our blogs more user-friendly.
“Press This” is going to save me SOOO much time when I do my “5 Great Finds” (when I feature posts etc that I find around the web)! LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!
Thank you alot for this post, it’s the holiday season and I’ve been sitting in front of my laptop wanting to write about something, anything, but there’s not much momentum. I think these tips might just break the inertia! 🙂
Thank you so much! WordPress RULES! Y’all are so user-friendly that even I, who started out knowing NOTHING, can learn as I go! I am learning new things all the time, and WordPress makes it fun!
Thanks so much always being helpful. Have a very happy holiday WordPress! I will try this out.
Looking forward to it 🙂 Merry Christmas to you
Does Press This work on Chrome?
Yep. Press This will work in all browsers.
Very cool tips. Thanks! I like the Press This button.
Very helpfull! Happy Holidays!!!
Thanks a bunch. I’m going to try to use them A.S.A.P.
I have been wondering what and how to use Press This, and didn’t get to experiment until this post.
Now I am addicted to Press This, it is amazing and really simply the blogging process.
This is perfect! Thank you!
Thanks so much for this 🙂
I just LOVE the enthusiasm from you and everyone who posts. Happy Christmas everyone!!
Thank you for the tips! It´s really helpful to know the features better (sometimes we get a bit lost 🙂 ).
Happy holidays to everybody! 😀
Have to try that slide show… am just a two month old blogger now so am appreciating all the hints, thank you!
I always love things that make life easier! Thanks and Merry Christmas.
Awesome tips!
I’m new to WordPress but love blogging and helping others.
Thanks
Although I had the blog for sometime, I did not use it, so am quite new to this too. The above feature looks easy and cool to use.
Hopefully can get some guidance from all of you who use WordPress.
Merry Christmas and Have a great happy Holiday!
Welcome! If you’re looking for more tips on using WordPress.com you may want to check out our support documents and the forums.
I like those pictures from Yosemite…
Thanks! 🙂
Thanks so much!!
Being lazy and behind the times, I’ve not yet used Press This… but will now be certain to check it out! Thanks and Merry Christmas.
Thanks, I will get a lot of use out of the Press This tool.
Thanks. I have been wondering how pieces of blog posts are doing. I have been cutting and pasting the chosen phrasing. Thanks.
I really liked the concept of Press This. Blogging is becoming easy and innovative now a days! 🙂
Very helpful tips! Earlier I could not get how to add an album to my blog. Thanks a lot!
Had a wonderful Christmas but now it’s back to worky work. Great feature, thanks!
Those are really great tips, thanks a lot for sharing useful info.
Thanks WordPress this is amazing! 😀
Thanks for this information, it really helps! 😛
Holidays have lots of cool ideas and events… definitely a big help to increase reads and rates.
And following this tip will be a great plus to all kinds of blogs.
Thanks you for sharing, dude. 🙂
Happy Holidays to all!
Merci
There will come a day when we’ll be able to respond and share as fast as we can think to do it. We’re getting there. Thanks for opening our eyes.
Thanks for the tips!
Another nice tool from WP. That’s why WP is much better than the other platforms….easy to use and keep coming with more and more tips.
anything that makes life easier and brighter can only be good. cheers!
great post thanks again wordpress – happy new year!
The slideshow option is very nice. Just what I needed. Thanks WP.
Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.
Thanks for the help! Always up for making life a bit easier!
Good ideas. Thank-you.
Merry Christmas season and a good 2011!
Thanks for the tips!
Thank you for your great tips!
Happy new year!
Good tips…will do, grazie mille. Felice anno nuovo
Thank you for the update
Thanks…
Be spirit forever!