The WordPress.com Connection

Of course, it was bound to happen when you get a great product like WordPress putting out various version of their awesome blogging platform. Some people, as evidenced by some of the helpdesk tickets we've seen, are confused because they can't connect their WordPress blog.

So this post is a brief attempt to help clear up that confusion.

The simple test
If you try and connect your WordPress blog to Empire Avenue and it doesn't work, odds are you're running a hosted WordPress.org blog.

More detail
Let's use this excellent support quote from WordPress on the distinction:

The distinction between WordPress.com and WordPress.org can cause some confusion for people. Let’s clear it up.  WordPress.com is brought to you by some of the same folks who work on WordPress, the Open Source blogging software.  WordPress.com utilizes the same WordPress software which you can download at WordPress.org.  With WordPress.com the hosting and managing of the software is taken care of by the team here atAutomattic.  With WordPress.org you need to install the software on your own server or with a 3rd party provider.

It's that last sentence that's the important one: "With WordPress.org you need to install the software on your own server or with a 3rd party provider."

Since Empire Avenue's WordPress.com connection talks directly to WordPress.com's API, hosted at Automattic, we get great data and a high-level of authentication for the blogs that have connected.

As we've said prevously  "Using a WordPress.com blog, the Empire Avenue market makers can reliably get your blog post, comments and other content and evaluate the blog, generating a more accurate value score than the same blog would on a self-hosted WordPress.org platform."

And it's the Market Maker's API-level access to all that cool data that's the real benefit for WordPress.com users.

But wait, there's more...7 more days
If you've got (or are planning to set up / migrate to) a WordPress.com blog, then you've got about a week to connect it to Empire Avenue and be entered into this contest with these fabulous prizes:

• 1st Prize: Empire Avenue Private Island ($100 value), 50k Empire Avenue Eaves and an Apple iPad 2 (16GB, Wifi Only Version – $520 value)
• 2nd Prize: Empire Avenue Private Island ($100 value) and 50k Empire Avenue Eaves
• 3rd Prize: Three prizes of 50k Empire Avenue Eaves
• 4th Prize Five prizes of 30k Empire Avenue Eaves