Domain Name Registrars

Namecheap - This registrar has good prices and customer support. Their management interface is easier to use than most.

Website Hosts

Tiger Technologies - Besides amazing support from company employees, this website hosting company gives refunds for partial months, if you cancel hosting. They have reasonable monthly or yearly prices, support from their own employees (no outsourced support), no CPanel, but a clean, simple interface, one-click WordPress install, shell access, up-to-date PHP, MySQL database access, backups, carbon neutral hosting, free domain name with hosting.

WPEngine - This website host has great WordPress-only hosting; they have managed updates (They update WordPress for you automatically.), daily backups, malware scanning, and staging area for testing.

Website or Blog Platform

WordPress - This is the most popular and fastest growing publishing platform on the web because it’s so flexible, allowing it to power e-commerce sites, personal websites, business websites, blogs, and everything in-between. With a content management system (CMS) like WordPress, you can easily publish and update your own content, and have a blog with your website. WordPress is ten years old on May 27, 2013.

WordPress Themes

StudioPress Themes and Genesis Framework - Genesis framework is a premium theme, but is are well-coded, has good SEO, and a great assortment of child themes to give your site a unique look.

Automattic Themes - Themes are listed near the bottom. They are all really nice free themes available in the WordPress plugin directory. Automattic themes also include default themes Twenty Ten, Twenty Eleven, and Twenty Twelve which can easily be customized for a business.

Smashing Magazine Themes - There are a few really nice themes, as well as other design and development resources.

Vandelay Design - This site has some nice church and photography WordPress Themes.

e-Commerce WordPress Plugins

Easy Digital Downloads - This free plugin is great for managing document downloads whether paid or free. It’s a light-weight, easy-to-customize plugin with Paypal Standard gateway, shopping cart, coupon codes, reports for seller and customers. There are lots of additional free and premium add-ons.

Woocommerce - This is an easy-to-use plugin for selling products online using PayPal Standard. It has excellent documentation, inventory management, reports, flat-rate shipping, shopping cart, coupon codes, is easy to customize, and has many add-ons for your shop. While it’s free to get started, some of the premium add-ons are helpful, including additional shipping tables and methods, recurring payments, and other payment gateways. The one-page checkout is very easy for customers to use, as well.

Shopp - This is an easy-to-use premium plugin. The included payment gateways are PayPal Standard, Google Checkout, and 2Checkout with additional gateways available for a bit extra. Other features include easy-to-use product variations, tiered rate calculators, shopping cart, coupon codes, and easy customer check-out.

WordPress Plugins

• WordPress SEO by Yoast - Has an indicator to let you know how your on-page SEO is; also has a sitemap generator.
• Google XML Sitemaps - Easy to use and works well.
• Jetpack - RSS to email sign up form, contact form, stats, social share, carousel, and many others; all the Jetpack options are easy to use; also see Get Started with the Jetpack WordPress Plugin
• Contact Form 7 - a good form plugin.
• Ninja Forms - very easy to use for non-programers.
• Regenerate Thumbnails - useful if you change themes to create new thumbnail sizes to fit the theme.
• Genesis Responsive Slider - Allows for pages, posts, images with text; very good configuration options.
• WooSlider - Is a paid plugin, very easy to use.
• Duplicate Post - Very useful if you need to start with similar content in a post or page; Can duplicate, rename, and then edit.
• Search Everything - Searches custom post types, as well as the usual WordPress content.
• Page.ly MultiEdit - Allows for multiple editable areas on a page; content editor is tabbed.
• WP Gallery Custom Links - Images can link to pages, posts or files, instead of the attachment page.
• Imsanity - Keeps uploaded images to a usable size without editing before uploading.
• Backup Buddy - Is a paid plugin; allows backups to be sent off-site; very easy site restore and migration; worth the cost.
• Limit Login Attempts - Useful if bots try logging into your site often.
• Members - Add new user roles and edit capabilities; limit content; side bar login too.
• User Role Editor - Add new user roles and edit capabilities by role or user.
• SB Welcome Email Editor - Allows you to write a custom email that is sent to new users.
• Login Logo - Easily adds your logo to the WordPress login page.
• WP Google Fonts - Easily add Google Fonts to your website.

Newsletter services

You can read more about no cost email newsletter services.

• Mad Mimi
• MailChimp
• Wysija WordPress Plugin

Images to Use in Your Blog Posts

You might want to see How to Customize Your WordPress Website Header.

• Flicker: Creative Commons - Choose a license to search for images.
• Google Advanced Image Search - Search by “usage rights” at bottom.
• MorgueFile - These can all be used, and there are also photography lessons.
• Stock.XCHNG - These can all be used; recently purchase by Getty Images.
• Big Stock Photos - Low cost, royalty-free images.

Backgrounds, Icons, and Other Resources

• Bittbox - Lots of great brushes, fonts, textures, and vectors.
• Lost & Taken - High resolution textures and backgrounds.
• Subtle Patterns - Lots of wonderful subtle textures; great for backgrounds.
• IconDock - Really wonderful sets of free and premium icons.
• PSD365 - Download a new PSD everyday or purchase graphics.

Web Font Resources

• Font Squirrel - Lots of free beautiful fonts, web fonts, and also a web font generator.
• Google Webfonts - Lots of easy to use web fonts; read about How to Use Google Web Fonts in Your WordPress Website
• Adobe Edge Web Fonts - A selection of free web fonts; part of Typekit
• Typekit - A premium font service with many proprietary fonts from top font foundries.

Image Editors

• GIMP - Similar to Photoshop, but at no cost; good for editing photos or creating images.
• Adobe Photoshop - Premium drawing app and image editor.

You just finished reading "Resource List for Your WordPress Website".

I'd love to hear what you have to say!
Marcy
Amethyst Website Design

You’ve heard it before. “Your small business needs to build an email list for marketing. Without an email list, you have no business.” But you’re working with a very small budget right now, so what are your options?

Here are four easy-to-use, no cost email newsletter services to use to build your small business email list. All work with a WordPress website, and two work with any website. All can use double opt-in, so that you comply with CAN-SPAM Act. And you do need to comply with CAN-SPAM, so that your business is not marked as a spammer, and also so that more of your email newsletters reach your client’s inbox, rather than being delivered to their spam folders. You can read more about the “why” for using an email newsletter service. Also be sure to read the Terms of Service before you choose a service because the no-cost plan may not be available for your type of business.

• Jetpack Plugin Subscriptions
• Mad Mimi
• Mail Chimp
• Wysija Plugin

Jetpack Plugin Subscriptions

If you use the Jetpack for WordPress plugin, building an email list is as easy as activating the Jetpack Subscriptions module. Once you activate the module, you can add the Blog Subscriptions (Jetpack) widget to your sidebar. Visitors will then be able to sign up to receive every blog post in their email. You can view your list of subscribers from your WordPress Admin. Just click on Jetpack, and then on Site Stats. At the very bottom is Subscribers with Blog and Comment links below. Click on Blog, and you will see the complete list of email addresses. This is a great way to start your list, but you are limited to only sending your blog posts.

The newsletter sent has only one look.

Mad Mimi

Mad Mimi has always had a starter option in which you could send to an email list of up to 100 subscribers for free, but they recently changed that number, so that you can now store 2,500 contacts and send 12,500 emails per month on their free plan. When you sign up, you get started with the Compose button. Mad Mimi has a 2 minute video that gets you started quickly with your newsletter right in the compose window. Choose from their themes or create your own. It’s all easy to use — point and click and drag and drop. Click the Audience tab to upload your current email list. Click Social to add your social media connections to each email. Click Webform to add a link or embed the sign up form into your website. If you use WordPress, you can add the Mad Mimi for WordPress plugin to help add the sign up form. You can even add a sign up form to your Facebook business page by clicking on “Add Things.” Free add-ons include: RSS to Email (to send your latest blog post), Google Analytics, Etsy integration, Survey Monkey surveys, Stats Sharing.

Mad Mimi works with any website.

MailChimp

MailChimp has always had the Forever Free plan for up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails a month. They now have a drag and drop newsletter editor which makes it much easier to use. Because MailChimp has more options than other choices, some find it more difficult to use. But if you follow the buttons 1 – 2 – 3 on the screen when you login, you can’t go wrong. When you get to 3 Campaign, just follow the 5 step arrows at the top. You can design a sign up form and share it as a web page or embed the sign up code in your sidebar, as this site does. If you use WordPress you can also use plugins to add the form to your sidebar: MailChimp List Subscribe Form or MailChimp Widget. Mail Chimp also has an RSS-to-email campaign to send your latest blog post to your subscribers.

MailChimp has lots of extras like Facebook Integration, Social Sharing, Subscriber Analytics.

Wysija

Wysija is a plugin for WordPress that can send your latest blog posts or a newsletter that you create from their templates to 2000 subscribers for the free version. It has more features and capabilities than Jetpack Subscription; the features are similar to those of Mad Mimi and MailChimp, but it all works within your WordPress admin. Once you install the plugin, you see Wysija in your admin menu with three screens of settings. Newsletters allow you to create and send a newsletter or to create a style for sending your blog posts. Subscribers gives you access to all your subscribers and the list they are on. Settings has five screen to help with sending settings and your lists. Wysija features include really easy drag and drop newsletter creation, sign up form for your sidebar, send your blog posts, multiple lists, choice of theme templates, statistics, and auto-responders. While you can send newsletters using your WordPress install through your hosting, Wysija recommends that you use one of their preferred Email Service Providers – Elastic Mail or SendGrid. (Again you don’t want to be a spammer, and you do want your email newsletters delivered.) Both of these email service providers are free to start, but have scaled pricing, so that you can send to a small list at very little cost ($1.00 or less) per month.

These are good options, if your business doesn’t qualify under the TOS for the other services.

So even though you are running your small business on a budget, you can build your list and send email newsletters for free!

You just finished reading "No Cost Email Newsletter Services for Small Business".

I'd love to hear what you have to say!
Marcy
Amethyst Website Design

This custom WordPress website design and development project was for Campus Christian Center (C3 Tempe), a nonprofit that provides shared-use facilities for student and community Christian organizations near Arizona State University. Their new facility is across Mill Avenue from ASU and features rooms that hold from 5 to 200 people. They were a wonderful group of people to work with; they have a lot of insight into what they do, and knew what they needed in a website.

The custom website design used colors and simple styling to match their beautiful logo. Their home page features a slider, four featured page areas linking to their most used pages, their most recent blog posts, and the footer features their social media which they use often. Using WordPress with the Genesis Framework for this project made the design and development go quickly.

The people at C3 Tempe collaborate with other local churches, ministries, and businesses, and they wanted to feature these organizations on their website. So we developed a WordPress custom post type for their supporters to use to easily add their information to the website.

This is the custom post type inside WordPress; there is an input box for all their information, and they can also easily upload their organization logo.

This is the way the information displays on their website, so that all pages are uniform. The uploaded logos are scaled to fit the space.

C3 Tempe uses a Google Calendar to schedule the rooms in their facility. We developed a form and room map so that student and local community organizations can request a room for their meetings. The form input goes to the gmail account for C3 Tempe, so that they can easily add the event to their room calendars.

Their Google Calendar is embedded in their WordPress website. This allows visitors to see when there is an event that they want to attend and also to see when they can schedule a room for their organization to use.

This was a wonderful website design project with a great group of people! It was a pleasure to work with them.

Features: WordPress, Genesis Framework, custom website design, responsive website design, mobile device website design, custom post type.

You just finished reading "Custom WordPress Website Design for Nonprofit C3 Tempe".

I'd love to hear what you have to say!
Marcy
Amethyst Website Design

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

(original photo by Amber Pearson)

You just finished reading "Happy New Year!".

I'd love to hear what you have to say!
Marcy
Amethyst Website Design

Amethyst Website Design is proud to take part in Small Business Saturday. I have discounts on all blog and website design packages of up to 25%. For all the details, you can view my offers here. Discounts are in effect for a full week. They include:

• Basic Blog Package – $325
  Now $255 until Dec. 1 (Save 21%)
• Basic Website Package – $625
  Now $475 until Dec. 1 (Save 24%)
• Custom Websites and Other Services
  Now 24% off until Dec. 1
• Blog or Website Maintenance Package
  Now $90 for 6 hours until Dec. 1 (Save 25%)

~ Marcy
PS. Click to see my offers!

You just finished reading "Support Small Business Saturday!".

I'd love to hear what you have to say!
Marcy
Amethyst Website Design

The Jetpack plugin now has a Custom CSS module for you to use to edit your WordPress Website theme. This means that you can customize your website design very easily, and more importantly, safely. Any changes you make here are easy to remove, and your default theme is still intact. Get started with the Jetpack plugin if you don’t have it installed.

Activate the Jetpack Custom CSS Module

In the admin sidebar, click Jetpack. Then scroll down through the Jetpack modules until you see Custom CSS. If you see a blue “Activate” button, click on it to activate the module. If you see the “Learn More,” and “Configure” buttons, this module is already activated. See the image above.

Let’s get started!

Add Custom CSS

To get to the “Edit CSS” area for your theme, you can click on Appearance > Edit CSS. You will be at a screen that looks like this:

Now let’s use the editor to add some custom CSS for our blog and post titles, and also customize the link colors to match the custom color we chose for our Google Font. We want to have all of our custom CSS in the Jetpack custom CSS Stylesheet Editor. Then we can remove the custom code from the WP Google Fonts plugin. The theme used is the Twenty Ten theme.

Add Custom Title Fonts

First copy and paste the custom font code that you used in WP Google Fonts plugin into the Jetpack custom CSS Stylesheet Editor. The editor will reorganize the code, but it’s still the same. There should be no change to your website.

#site-title a,
.entry-title,
.entry-title a,
.widget-title,
#site-description {
    font-family: 'Josefin Sans', sans-serif;
    color: #f680bf !important;
}

Add Custom Link Colors

The original color of the links in Twenty Ten is a blue color (#0066cc) that changes to a red (#ff4b33) on hover.
For the theme we are creating, we can make pink (#f680bf) links that hover to a light gray (#888888). So we add this code to the Edit CSS section – CSS Stylesheet Editor. Add it above the font code. (Note that #888 is shorthand for #888888.)

a:link, a:visited {
    color: #f680bf;
}
a:active, a:hover {
    color: #888;
}

Now all the links are pink, but the links in the post meta (at the top and bottom of each post) in twenty Ten were gray (#888888) and changed to red (#ff4b33) on hover. So let’s change them back to gray (#888888) and hover to our pink (#f680bf) color. Add this code below the link code, but above the title font code.

.entry-meta a,
.entry-utility a {
    color: #888;
}
.entry-meta a:hover,
.entry-utility a:hover {
    color: #f680bf;
}

We can also have the pink blog and post titles hover to gray (#888888). Add this at the bottom below the title font code.

#site-title a:hover,
.entry-title a:hover {
    color:#888;
}

Add a Sans-serif Body Font

A sans-serif body font would probably be nicer with the Josefin Sans titles, than the Georgia serif body font that Twenty Ten uses. Let’s just use the same sans-serif fonts that were used in the Twenty Ten theme for the titles. Add this at the very top of the code.

body {
    font-family:"Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, "Nimbus Sans L", sans-serif;
}

This is what the CSS Stylesheet Editor looks like now.

Again this is all of the custom CSS we have added today. Note the order of the code.

body {
    font-family:"Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, "Nimbus Sans L", sans-serif;
}
a:link,a:visited {
    color:#f680bf;
}
a:active,a:hover {
    color:#888;
}
.entry-meta a,
.entry-utility a {
    color:#888;
}
.entry-meta a:hover,
.entry-utility a:hover {
    color:#f680bf;
}
#site-title a,
.entry-title,
.entry-title a,
.widget-title,
#site-description {
    font-family:'Josefin Sans', sans-serif;
    color:#f680bf!important;
}
#site-title a:hover,
.entry-title a:hover {
    color:#888!important;
}

Now you can go to Settings > Google Fonts, and remove the Custom CSS that you had there, and save it. You still need to have the Josefin Sans font in the drop down and at least one (or all three) of the h1, h2, h3 tags checked, or the Google font won’t be added to the theme for you to use in your own Custom CSS.

Next time we'll look at changing the color of the navigation menu.

You just finished reading "Custom CSS with Jetpack for WordPress Website Design".

I'd love to hear what you have to say!
Marcy
Amethyst Website Design

You love what you find time to do
~ Anonymous

Do you find time to do what you love for your small business? You make choices with your small business everyday. You decide how you need to spend your time to make your business better. Are you making the choices, or are circumstances making choices for you? Are you just working hard, doing whatever comes up? Or do you spend at least some of your time doing what you love in your business?

Sometimes it feels like we just do what we have to do. But most of us started our business because it was something we love to do. So let’s not stay so busy just “doing.” Let’s not lose sight of doing what we love.

(The font used for this is Bariol.)

You just finished reading "Do You Find Time For Your Business?".

I'd love to hear what you have to say!
Marcy
Amethyst Website Design

It’s easy to use Google web fonts in your WordPress website. Google currently has over 500 free fonts in their web fonts library. There are all types from classic to handwritten with lots to choose from in between.

The easiest way to use Google fonts in your WordPress website is to use a plugin. I tried several, but the one I found easiest to use that allowed selection from all the current Google fonts is WP Google Fonts by Adrian Hanft. Go to your WordPress Dashboard, click Plugins, Add New, and search for it. Install and activate it.

Above is a screen shot of the theme changes we’ve been making to the Twenty Ten theme with the Josefin Sans font used for headings. The original Twenty Ten fonts are standard Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica fonts; see the image at the bottom of this post. So let’s get started.

How to Use WP Google Fonts Plugin

In your dashboard, find Google Fonts under Settings. Clicking on it opens this screen.

We want to change the website title, the post and page titles, and the sidebar widget titles. First you want to choose the font from the drop down. I choose Josefin Sans, but Sail, and Great Vibes are nice cursive fonts, and Osborn and Open Sans are alternative sans serif fonts, that would work well in a theme too.

Then check Headline tags (h1, h2, h3); save it, and view your website. For some themes, this may change all the fonts, but for others, like Twenty Ten, we have to edit the CSS too.

CSS for Using Google Web Fonts in your WordPress Theme

Here’s the CSS code that was used to edit the page titles and change their color:

#site-title a, 
.entry-title, 
.entry-title a, 
.widget-title, 
#site-description {
font-family: 'Josefin Sans', sans-serif; 
color: #f680bf !important; 
}

So let’s break the code down. The CSS selectors are the labels for each title; see the image below.

#site-title a
.entry-title
.entry-title a
.widget-title
#site-description

font-family: calls the name of the Google font that you chose to use. Put it in quotes; you can also add a fall-back font – sans-serif.
color: calls the name of the font color we chose – #f680bf .

This CSS code will work with many other themes, as well. You can use Color Scheme Designer to help choose a color for fonts for your website theme. You want to use a color in RGB format, as in the code above.

You just finished reading "How to Use Google Web Fonts in Your WordPress Website".

I'd love to hear what you have to say!
Marcy
Amethyst Website Design

The default WordPress themes have some beautiful images to choose for the header, but if you want to customize your WordPress Website header image to match your custom background, here’s how to do it.

Previous versions of WordPress did allow you to change your website header image, but you had to resize the image on your computer or use a web image editing service. Recent versions of WordPress (3.4) allow you to rotate, resize, and crop your images right inside WordPress. This tutorial uses the WordPress Twenty Ten theme, but many others have the option to edit the header.

Choose An Image for Your WordPress Header

We are going to start with is this cherry blossom image from MorgueFile.com.  Search for “May_and_June_2007_039.jpg” by ren (Of course, you can choose your own image too!) Download it to your computer.

(MorgueFile.com is a great source for free photos to use on your blog.)

Go to your WordPress website or blog and login to your Dashboard.

1. In the Admin navigation on the left, click on Appearance and then on Header.
2. Look at the text below the default header image. Note the width and height in pixels. For this image the width is 940 pixels and the height is 198 pixels.

Upload Your Header Image

Now upload the image to the Media Library, so you can use the WordPress image edit tools.

1. In the Admin navigation on the left, click on Media and then on Add New.
2. Drag and drop your image file into the uploader or click “Select Files” and navigate to your image.
3. You will see a thumbnail of the image. Click the “Edit Image” button below the image.

Rotate and Scale Your Header Image

Now we’re going to edit the image. You will need to click “Save” after each edit, and then click “Edit Image” again to do the next edit step.

1. First rotate the image. (If you are using a different image, you may not need this step.) Hover over the little icons at the top and choose the one that gives the tip “Rotate counter-clockwise.” Click the blue “Save” button.
2. Click the “Edit Image” button again. Then click the “Scale Image” button in the upper right hand corner.
3. In the width square you want to put in the width that you wrote down from looking at the default header image above. For this example the width was 940 pixels. The height will scale automatically.
4. Click the “Scale” button.

Crop Your Header Image in WordPress

Now we will crop the image so that the height is 198 pixels (the height from the default image above). We will keep the width at 940 pixels.

1. Click your mouse on the image and drag a box; it doesn’t matter what size.
2. In the Image Crop box, add 940 : 198 to the Selection box; the selection box will now be the correct size for the header. You can use your mouse or the keyboard arrow keys to move the selection box up or down to select the part of the image you want.
3. The radio button “Change can apply to All sizes except thumbnail.”
4. Now click the “Crop” button at the top.
5. Click the blue “Save” button.

Now click the blue “Update Media” button.

Set Your Edited Image As the Website Header

In the Admin navigation on the left, click on Appearance and then on Header.

1. Below the default image is “Or choose an image from your media library.” Click the “Choose Image” button.
2. You will see the image you just created. On the right, click on “Show” and then click the blue “Set as header” link below the image.
3. Then you will see the image. Since you have already edited it, click the “Skip Cropping, Publish Image As Is”

Now click to view your new custom header on your website or blog!

You just finished reading "How to Customize Your WordPress Website Header".

I'd love to hear what you have to say!
Marcy
Amethyst Website Design

The Jetpack WordPress plugin is a set of plugins developed by Atomattic for WordPress.com blogs, but now available to WordPress.org websites, as well. Jetpack will cover many of your small business WordPress plugin needs. As of this writing, Jetpack is about a year old and has grown from just a few to fourteen separate features; all are free except VaultPpress.

Jetpack incorporates some of the best Automattic WordPress plugins that used to be available as separate plugins – Sharedaddy, Grunion Contact Forms, Wicket Twitter Widget, After the Deadline, and WP LaTeX.

Jetpack WordPress Plugin Modules

• Worpress.com Stats – website statistics
• Jetpack Comments – allows commenting with Twitter or Facebook logins
• Subscriptions – users can receive your blog in their email; a service like FeedBurner is not needed
• Carousel – the newest module, a photo gallery lightbox
• Sharing – social sharing buttons for each post, like Twitter, Facebook, and Google+, but no Pinterest (As of 08/02/12, Pinterest and Tumblr too!)
• Spelling and Grammar – uses After the Deadline proofreading
• VaultPress – paid automatic blog backup service
• Gravatar Hovercards – User profile info available in a pop-up
• Contact Form – creates a contact form, but also can be used for other forms
• WP.me Shortlinks – provides a shortened link of your post
• Shortcode Embeds – provides ease of use and more control over media embeds from YouTube, and other sources
• Beautiful Math – great if your blog features lots of Math equations
• Extra Sidebar Widgets – Add images, Twitter and RSS feeds to sidebar
• Enhanced Distribution – real-time post sharing

Install the Jetpack WordPress Plugin

Jetpack often comes installed when you use a one-click WordPress install from your hosting company. You can also install it like any other WordPress plugin, from your WordPress Dashboard using Plugins > Add New. Next, activate the plugin.

Then in order to use Jetpack, you will first need to click the green button that says “Connect to WordPress.com” to connect Jetpack to your account at WordPress.com. If you don’t have one, you can create an account during the connection process.

When you activate the plugin, you will see a screen with all 14 modules. All modules are already activated, except for VaultPress and Jetpack Comments. (As of 01/25/13, there are 24 modules, including Publicize, which sends your blog posts to your social media sites, but still allows you complete control over what is posted.) Some of them need to be configured, and have a “Configure” button.

If you decide you don’t need a feature, it is good practice to deactivate plugins that you aren’t using including Jetpack modules. If you don’t need a particular Jetpack feature,you can deactivate it by clicking the “Learn More” button. The “Configure” button will turn to “Deactivate” or a “Deactivate” button will appear. Click “Deactivate” and that module will no longer be activated.

It appears that Jetpack does not always auto-activate new modules, especially those that could cause issues for your website, so you will want to check the plugin for new features whenever you upgrade. Jetpack is a valuable WordPress plugin to help you add needed features to  your small business website.

Note: Some developers have expressed dissatisfaction with Jetpack recently, primarily due to paid product placement, the required connection to WordPress.com, the loss of previous stand-alone plugins, and unconventional plugin behavior. A good disscussion, including comments from WordPress founding developer, Matt Mullenweg, is at Brian Krogsgard.

You just finished reading "Get Started with the Jetpack WordPress Plugin".

I'd love to hear what you have to say!
Marcy
Amethyst Website Design