Over the last month, we have made a bunch of bug fixes, feature enhancements and even upgraded our servers! And today we are releasing a whole bunch of new toys that have been in the works for a while – from better social integrations, the ability to import from Posterous and Tumblr, to some simple things like more images in your home page slideshows!

Optional Plugins!

Activate and deactivate as you wish!

Not everyone needs every feature. But we wanted to be able to allow everyone the features they needed. And now we can!

Just look for the new “Add-ons” menu item in the dashboard…

More on the way!

Now that we can add plugins easier, we will be adding more often! If you have any suggestions, let us know!

Better Social Integrations – Publish to Facebook and Twitter!

Auto or manually publish to Facebook and Twitter!

Every page, blog post and image gallery can be instantly shared to your social profiles easier than ever!

Social Commenting Too!

Now visitors to your site can comment using their Facebook and Twitter profiles! You can evan have the site find Tweets and Facebook comments and list them alongside your website comments!

The whole list of new stuff!!

Late last week we finished and released a major series of upgrades and new features. If you haven’t noticed yet some things might look a little different around the admin area. Not only has the toolbar at the top been improved and consolidated, but it is also responsive and works even better on an iPad, including… reordering your galleries. Try it out. It’s pretty cool.

An Upgraded WordPress and TONS of New Features!

The biggest thing we did was upgrade everyone to the very latest version of WordPress, which brought tons of new features, just by itself. All upload windows now have a drag-n-drop target that allow you to drag files in bulk right from your computer. The new and improved admin toolbar and the responsive admin also came along for the ride. But we added and fixed a lot too. Here is a look at some of the new toys…

Drag and Drop File Uploads

Upload faster to any page or post!

Now, when you click the “Insert Media” link, you can drag files right from your computer’s desktop into your site!

Faster gallery uploads too!

The file uploader works everywhere you want to upload a lot of files, so creating galleries is now easier than ever!

Better Background Images!

A nicer interface.

We have cleaned up the way background images are chosen and made the options more clear and easier to find.

Lots more to choose from on the way soon!

We have overhauled the way background images are stored too, making it easier for us to add more images and group them by style. Watch for some great new backgrounds, coming soon!

A Better, Easier to Use Admin and New Toolbar!

Why we switched

We have been using an “Easy Mode” admin plugin for some time. While it made things easier on some new users, it was a very different look from the standard WordPress menu. It also had a couple little hiccups that made switching modes a little awkward at times. So, we wrote our own new admin mode plugin from the ground up! Faster and easier switching, a cleaner look that doesn’t reinvent the WordPress admin and a way to provide cool new messages like this page!

The new toolbar

Our previous version had the WordPress admin bar at the very top of the page and our own section under that, which took up some space. WordPress has reimagined the top bar and we added in our own little touches to consolidate it all into one area.

Introducing SnapShots, the easy way to “snap” a new design into place in seconds. We have just launched 21 new designs with yummy names like Apple Pie, Blueberry Cobbler, and Vanilla Panna Cotta. These are sure to flavor your BlogSite in style. Activate with one click, and a new theme, color and font choices, and backgrounds, all “snap” into place. One more click syncs all those styles to your SmugMug site, for an instant, cohesive, online presence.

We’re so excited about our SnapShot launch, we’re giving $50 off your first year. Use the code SNAPSHOTS50.*

Our video below explains how EASY and FUN Photography BlogSite “SnapShots” can be:

*NEW Annual BlogSite subscribers only. Offer good through April 16th.