Ready to dig deeper into the nuts and bolts of your WordPress.com site? We’ve got two new Blogging U. courses on demand to help you do just that.

Build a Business Site

Build a Business Site is a brand-new, ten-day course that helps you plan, build, and promote your business website. We’ll help you define your site’s raison d’être and plan content, choose the theme that fits your brand, and examine whether blogging can help boost your business. Along the way, we’ll cover specifics like pages and menus, domain mapping, widgets, using social networks to promote your site, and SEO.

Intermediate Customization

This ten-day course takes you in-depth into the free customization options available to all WordPress.com members. Find and understand your theme’s details. Delve into how headers and titles are displayed, and create a totally unique custom header. Coordinate your background, get comfortable with widgets — including custom widgets and widget visibility — and learn basic HTML for even finer control over how your content displays.

Not what you need right now? There are five other courses available as well:

• Blogging: Learning the Fundamentals — a solid grounding in publishing, customizing your blog, and engaging with the blogging community.
• Blogging: Commenting Basics — a short course to get comfortable with commenting and commenting etiquette.
• Blogging: Branding and Growth — audit your brand, analyze your stats, explore social networks, and more in this intermediate-level course.
• Writing: Intro to Poetry — find your inner Dickinson with daily poetry prompts, and learn basic poetic forms and devices.
• Writing: Finding Everyday Inspiration — a longer course to spark a daily writing practice and the new post ideas all around you.

Ready to start? Head to the course that interests you, and click the “Start course” button!

FAQs

What is Blogging U?

Blogging U. is a collection of self-guided courses to help you get the most out of your WordPress.com site. Courses give you a daily assignment or writing prompt, along with the technical help you need to complete the task and insider advice from both our editors and the wider blogging community; each course has a handy resource page collecting everything in one place for you to refer back to whenever you’d like. Publish new posts using the course’s tag — don’t worry, we’ll tell you how! — and you’ll be able to connect with others working through the same course for support, feedback, and friendship.

How do I start a course?

Visit the page for the course you’re interested in and click the “Start” button — that’s it! If you’re logged in to WordPress.com, you’ll receive an introductory email right away, and your first assignment a few minutes later. If you’re not logged in, we’ll prompt you to do so, and then you’re off and running.

What if I want to stop?

No problem — every email you’ll receive includes an unsubscribe link at the bottom. Click it, and the course stops.

This won’t affect any of your other WordPress.com emails, like notifications. And if you want to give the course another try, you can restart it.

How many courses can I take? Can I take them more than once?

As many as you’d like, as many times as you’d like. We recommend taking one course at a time, but you’re free to take multiple courses simultaneously.

What if I need assistance during the course?

Every assignment includes expert advice from our staff as well as links to resources and to our support folks. We also encourage you to use the tag for your course when publishing posts, and to browse that tag in the Reader to find and connect with other bloggers.

What if I don’t blog on WordPress.com?

All general assignments (publishing posts, customizing your blog, leaving comments, etc.) are applicable to any blog, anywhere. However, you’ll need to have a WordPress.com account to register for a Blogging U. course, and any specific how-to guidance we offer will be specific to WordPress.com.

How much does each course cost?

Nothing. Blogging U. courses have always been free, and still are.

Ready to register? Head to the Blogging U. home page to get started!