WordPress is one of the most popular blogging platforms available today. And for good reason.
It’s powerful enough to be a complete CMS, has every feature or function a blogger could dream of (either built in or available via plugins or custom functions), and it’s free and open source.
While WordPress is incredibly powerful and easy to use on its most basic levels, it can also get pretty complicated, pretty quickly.
Below are more than 300 resources to help you master WordPress no matter what your skill level is.
Everything from premium and free themes to plugins to WP hacks and everything in between is included. If it’s possible with WordPress, it’s likely you’ll find it below.
Theme Roundups, Theme Templates, and Theme Frameworks
WP can have an almost infinite variety of designs applied to it. Themes can be as simple or complicated as you want. Below are a wide variety of theme roundups, theme frameworks for building your own themes, and premium theme sites with customizable or out-of-the-box themes. Be sure to check out the tutorial section next for resources for building your own themes.WordPress PSD Framework – A free PSD template that includes all the common elements in a WP design for you to build on.
WordPress Theme Generator – An online theme generator that doesn’t require any coding knowledge.
Easier Theme Development with Sample WordPress Content – A downloadable bundle of sample WP content that includes posts, tags, categories, and pages to make theme development easier.
Blank WordPress Themes Ready for 2.7 Up for Grabs – Offers up a couple of free, empty themes you can download.
Blank WordPress Themes – A collection of two- and three-column blank themes from Refueled.
Thematic – One of the most advanced theme frameworks available.
Carrington – A free WP CMS theme framework that includes two browser versions and a mobile version.
Free HTML 5 WordPress Theme – A free theme template that takes advantage of HTML 5 features and functions.
The Buffet Framework – A theme framework aimed to be easy-to-use for both developers and end users.
Thesis Theme for WordPress – Another basic theme framework.
OnePress Community – A WP and bb Press theme framework.
Whiteboard – A basic framework for WP theme development.
WP Framework – A blank theme framework with minimal formatting.
WordPress Theme Frameworks—A Comprehensive Overview – A great rundown of what theme frameworks are and why they’re useful.
WordPress Theme Development Frameworks – An in-depth review of some of the most popular WP theme frameworks.
WP Contact Manager – A theme that basically transforms your WP installation into a full-featured contact manager.
41 Great Looking Free WordPress Themes – A roundup of beautiful free themes.
16 Free Premium WordPress Themes That Don’t Suck – An awesome roundup of free premium-style themes.
11 Tips for Speeding Up WordPress Theme Development – A great list of ways to speed up your theme development process.
13 Helpful Cheat Sheets for Building WordPress Themes – A great roundup of cheat sheets helpful to WP theme designers.
140+ Brilliant Free WordPress Themes Around – A roundup of some excellent free WP themes.
10 of the Best WordPress 2.7 Compatible Themes – An overview of ten excellent WP themes compiled by Mashable.
10+ Best WordPress Themes for March 2009 – An awesome collection of newish themes from WP DesignBlog.
17 Free and Best WordPress Themes – A small roundup of excellent WP themes.
3-Column WordPress Theme Gallery – Includes a large number of excellent 3-column themes.
45+ Free Premium WordPress Themes with Magazine or Grid Layouts – An excellent roundup of free magazine-style and grid themes.
15 Fresh WordPress Themes to Get the Coolest Portfolio for You or Your Studio – A collection of portfolio-styled WP themes.
Best WordPress Themes Collection – A roundup of excellent paid WP themes.
10 Best Free WordPress Themes You Haven’t Seen – A great collection of seldom-seen WP themes.
30 Free Magazine/Grid Style WordPress Themes – A compilation of 30 excellent magazine and grid style WP themes.
100 Excellent Free WordPress Themes – An excellent roundup of high-quality themes from Smashing Magazine.
40 Stylish, Minimal and Clean Free WordPress Themes – A roundup of minimalist themes from Speckyboy Design Magazine.
WordPress.org – The official theme repository from WordPress, with nearly 1,000 free themes available.
WordPressThemesBase.com – A categorized theme directory that you can browse by category, design properties (columns, sidebars, etc.) or tag.
Top WP Themes – A directory of free themes, many with a corporate or professional look.
Themes2WP.com – A categorized directory with more than a thousand themes.
WPthemespot.com – A theme aggregator with beautiful themes featured from all over the web.
WooThemes – Offers paid themes in a club format, though you can also purchase individual themes.
Obox Theme Shop – A premium theme site with some really awesome themes available with single-site licenses or developer licenses.
StudioPress – Premium WP theme site that lets you download themes individually or as a package.
NattyWP – Another club-based premium themes site.
Blurbia – A premium themes site that also offers one free theme.
Elegant Themes – Another great premium themes site that allows unlimited access for less than $20.
WP Remix – A premium WP CMS theme with more than 50 page templates available.
10 Premium WordPress Themes Released in April 2009 – A roundup of recently released premium themes.
Gorilla Themes – A premium themes site with ten themes available.
Press75 – Another premium themes site that lets you buy themes individually or as a bundle.
Theme Layouts WordPress Themes – The WP category from ThemeLayouts has hundreds of themes available, free for members to download.
100 Amazing Free WordPress Themes for 2009 – An awesome roundup of beautiful themes compiled by Smashing Magazine.
Cream of the Crop: Six Cutting-Edge, Minimalist WordPress Themes – An article from Skelliewag of beautiful, minimal themes.
Graph Paper Press – A club-based WP themes gallery that also offers some free theme downloads.
10 Minimalist WordPress Themes You’ll Love – A collection of ten minimalist themes, some of which aren’t commonly seen.
25 Simple and Minimal WordPress Themes – A great roundup of minimalist themes from ReviewPk.
60 Great WordPress Themes – An excellent, recent roundup of gorgeous WP themes.
25 Best Free WordPress Themes – An absolutely amazing roundup compiled by EliteFreelancing.com of gorgeous WP themes.
14 Most Visually Appealing Free WordPress Themes – A small collection of beautiful and elegant themes.
15 Magazine WordPress Themes You Can Use for Free – Another roundup of excellent magazine themes.
83 Beautiful WordPress Themes You (Probably) Haven’t Seen Yet – While this post is a couple of years old and you probably have seen many of the themes on it, it’s still a great roundup of gorgeous designs.
21 Mindblowing Premium-Like Free WordPress Themes – A collection of unique themes that often defy the conventions of what we normally think of as a “blog design.”
20 More Free First-Class WordPress Themes – An excellent roundup of beautiful themes, many of which aren’t widely seen yet.
85 Best Beautiful Free WordPress Themes – An excellent roundup from [Re]Encoded.com of stunning WP themes.
23 of the Best Grunge-Style WordPress Themes – A collection of excellent grunge-style themes, many of which aren’t commonly seen.
13 Best Grunge WordPress Themes Online – A great roundup from CSSAddict of beautiful grunge themes.
20 Free 3 Column WP Themes – A great roundup of gorgeous 3-column themes.
45+ Must See WordPress Themes – A categorized roundup of themes compiled by Noupe.
15 Free Stunning and Unique WordPress Themes – A roundup of mostly clean and professional-looking themes.
WordPress Rainbow: 35 Colorful Free WordPress Themes – A great roundup of bright and colorful free themes.
22 Free and Unique WordPress Themes – A recent roundup of themes not seen very often.
Great Green WordPress Themes – A wonderful collection of WP themes with a green color scheme.
25 Free WordPress Themes (2009 Edition) – A roundup of some really beautiful and different themes.
25 Artistic Themes for WordPress – A great roundup of artsy WP themes.
21 Premium-Like Free Photoblog Themes for WordPress – Photoblogs have specific needs not often addressed in standard WP themes. Here are 21 themes specifically built for photoblogs.
15 Portfolio Themes for WordPress – A great roundup of themes perfect for portfolio sites.
65+ Free Exceptional WordPress Themes Worth Investigating – A great roundup of gorgeous themes compiled by Tripwire Magazine.
8 Fresh WordPress Themes – An older post that offers up some great theme designs.
50 Beautiful Free WordPress Themes – A roundup of stunning WP themes.
Tutorials and Tips
The tutorials featured below cover everything from basic WP installation and setup to more complicated topics like theme development, plugin development and advanced WP features and functions.My WordPress Install Process – A guide from Blogging Pro for installing WP.
You’ve Installed WordPress, So What’s Next? – A great overview of steps you should take after you’ve installed WP.
The Ultimate Guide to Setting Up WordPress after an Install – A complete guide to what to do once you’ve installed WP, from Pro Blog Design.
Dissection of a WordPress Theme: Part 1 – A really in-depth overview of how WP themes are constructed.
How to Create a WordPress Theme: The Ultimate WordPress Theme Tutorial – An extremely in-depth tutorial for creating themes from ThemeShaper.
The WordPress Developer Toolkit – This tutorial and tool roundup from iThemes gives a great overview of what you need to have and learn to develop great WP sites.
How to Edit WordPress Themes Using Dreamweaver – A great guide to theme editing with Dreamweaver.
WordPress as a CMS – A 27-minute video tutorial for using WP as a content management system.
How to Create a WordPress Theme from Scratch – A great tutorial for building a WP theme from the ground up.
Create An Awesome WordPress Theme Options Page (Part 1) – A tutorial for creating a theme options panel in the backend of WP.
WordPress Loop: Get Posts Published Between Two Particular Dates – A great guide to retrieving and displaying posts published during a specific time frame.
Leopard: How to Install WordPress – A tutorial for creating a local installation of WP on Mac OS X Leopard.
Premium WordPress Theme Design Part 1—The Photoshop Mock Up – The first in a series of tutorials for creating a premium-style WP theme.
The Power of WordPress Custom Fields – A great overview for working with custom fields.
Customize Your WordPress Login – Learn how to customize the look of your WP login screen.
Things You Should Know When Using Post Excerpt – An overview of things to keep in mind when using the post excerpt function in WP.
WordPress Custom Fields; Laying Text Over Your Lead Graphic – A tutorial that shows you how to add a text overlay to your graphics.
5 Useful WordPress Functions You Didn’t Know Existed – A rundown of five great WP functions most people have never heard of.
Power Tips for WordPress Template Developers – An excellent resource from Smashing Magazine of advanced techniques useful to template and theme developers.
How to: Make a Control Panel for Your WordPress Theme – A tutorial for creating a customization menu in the backend. for your WP theme.
WordPress Ajax Commenting Revisited – A tutorial for creating your own ajax comment system.
WordPress Screencast Tutorial—Photo Captions – A video tutorial for adding captions to your photos.
How To: Adding an Author Page to Your WordPress Blog – A fantastic tutorial for creating an “about the author” page on your blog.
Turning a Web Template into a WordPress Theme: A Video Tutorial – A video tutorial for turning virtually any website template into a WP theme.
Styling Your WordPress Comments – Learn to style your comments to better complement your site’s design.
Displaying Author Meta Information in WordPress 2.8 – An excellent tutorial for displaying the meta information included about authors within the front-end of your WP site.
So You Want to Create WordPress Themes, Huh? – This is one of the most comprehensive and in-depth theme development tutorials out there, broken down into more than 16 parts.
The Ultimate Guide to the WordPress Loop – A must-have resource for anyone who wants to develop WP themes or just have a better understanding of how WP works.
Mastering Your WordPress Theme Hacks and Techniques – A great collection of hacks and customization from Noupe.
How to Use Thumbnails Generated by WordPress in Your Theme – A guide to working with WP-generated thumbnail images.
How to Write Your Own WordPress Theme – A complete tutorial for WP theme development.
Tutorial: Creating Custom Write Panels in WordPress – A tutorial for adding unique data to your posts using custom write fields in the backend.
Display Thumbnails for Related Posts in WordPress – A tutorial for displaying the WP-generated thumbnail images for your posts in a related posts list.
How to Set Up Pretty Permalinks in WordPress – A guide to creating pretty permalinks from ThemeLab.
Multiple WordPress Page Layouts in One Single Template – A tutorial that shows you how to create more than one page layout without having to resort to separate templates.
Build a Newspaper Theme with WP_Query and the 960 CSS Framework – A complete tutorial for building a news-style theme.
How-To: Create a WordPress Theme in 5 Minutes – A tutorial that shows how to set up a basic WP theme. It also includes all the code you’ll need.
The Ultimate WordPress 2.8 Optimization Guide – A complete guide for setting up and optimizing your WP 2.8 installation.
WordPress as a CMS: How to Think About Building a Website with WordPress – A great overview and tutorial for setting WP up as a CMS.
WordPress: How to Get Custom Fields Outside the Loop – A tutorial for creating custom fields that reside outside the WP Loop.
WordPress Tutorial: Blog Posts in Different Columns – A tutorial that shows how to make blog posts appear in more than one column on your site.
Multiple WordPress Loops Explained – A great tutorial to get you started with multiple loops.
DiggProof Your WordPress – A complete guide to making your site stand up to traffic spikes, like those caused by making the front page of Digg.
Displaying Code in WordPress Posts – A brief overview of the methods available for displaying code snippets within your posts.
WordPress Tutorial: Category Trick for WP 2.7 – A tutorial for applying different styles to specific categories.
How to Make a Random Post Button – A tutorial for creating a button to take visitors to a random post on your blog.
10 Things to Do After Installing WordPress – A list of 10 must-do steps to take after installing a fresh copy of WordPress.
10 Impressive Techniques to Spice Up Your WordPress Theme – A great roundup of style improvements you can add to your WP theme.
20+ Tutorials and Resources for Working with Custom Fields in WordPress – An excellent collection of tutorials for dealing with custom fields.
Top 50 WordPress Tutorials – A roundup of fifty great WP tutorials compiled by Nettuts+ and covering virtually every aspect of WP development.
135+ Ultimate Round-Up of WordPress Tutorials – A categorized roundup of tutorials compiled by instantShift.
30 Tutorials Combining Both WordPress and jQuery – A great roundup of jQuery/WP combo tutorials from Speckyboy Design Magazine.
40+ Awesome Tutorials and Techniques for WordPress Theme Developers – A tutorial list specifically aimed at theme development put together by tripwire magazine.
60+ Awesome WordPress Tutorials – A great collection of tutorials that will lead you right from installation through advanced WP development.
30 Excellent WordPress Video Tutorials – A collection of video tutorials for everything from theme development to creating plugins to administration tasks.
110+ Massive WordPress Video Tutorial Collection – A roundup of more than 110 video tutorials for everything from installing WP to using it to developing for it.
Top 10 Tutorials for Developing WordPress Themes – A compilation of ten of the best theme development tutorials out there.
23+ Excellent Tutorials for WordPress Theme Developers – A great roundup of theme development tutorials from Web Developer Plus.
63 Essential WordPress Hacks, Tutorials, Help Files and Cheats – A great roundup of WP resources.
Getting Past First Base…Using WordPress as a CMS – A recent guide from Foraker Design to using WP as a CMS.
How to Speed Up Your WordPress Blog – An excellent resource for making your WP site run faster.
HOW TO: Create a jQuery Carousel with WordPress Posts – An excellent tutorial for creating a carousel to display WP posts from a specific category.
Customize WordPress Theme to Match an Existing Website: A Step-by-Step Blog Integration Tutorial – Create a WP theme that matches an existing website design for seamless integration.
How to Only Show Posts With a Specific Custom Field – A quick tutorial for showing posts with content in a specific custom field.
Create a Plugin With Its Own Custom Database Table – A tutorial for coding plugins that need to have their own custom db table.
How to Add Sidebars to a Theme – A very basic tutorial for theme developers.
Post Image the Easy Peasy Way – A quick tutorial for creating a function that automatically displays images with your posts.
How to Add an Announcement Box to Your WordPress Theme – A complete tutorial for creating a news or announcement box that can be switched on and off from the dashboard.
Create Your Own Private Twitter Site Using WordPress – A quick tutorial for creating a private, Twitter-like network using WordPress.
How to Add Pagination Into a List of Records or WordPress Plugin – A very thorough tutorial for adding pagination to records generated by a WP plugin.
Creating Widgets in WordPress 2.8 with the Widget API – A great overview and tutorial for working with the new widget API included in WP 2.8.
Use WordPress as a PHP Framework for Your Static HTML Pages – A very interesting tutorial on how to use WP as a PHP framework.
Tutorial: Multiple single.php Templates in WordPress – A guide to using more than one single.php file in WP.
How to Create a Beautiful Dropdown Blogroll without JavaScript – A complete tutorial for creating dropdown menus using just plain HTML.
Custom Header Images for WordPress Pages – A tutorial for using custom header images on different pages using custom fields.
How to Display Recent Comments Without Using a Plugin or Widget – An excellent tutorial for adding recent comments to your theme using the functions.php file and some code right within your theme files.
Display a Random Post (with AJAX Refresh) – A complete tutorial for creating a random post display using jQuery.
Get More Traffic: An SEO Guide for WordPress – Thorough coverage of changes to make to improve your blog’s SEO.
How to Design and Style Your WordPress Plugin Admin Panel – A complete tutorial for styling the admin panel for your WP plugins.
Wicked WordPress Archives in One Easy Step! – A complete tutorial for creating stylish WP archives.
Make a Mobile Friendly Version of Your Blog with Google Reader – An awesome method of making a blog better-formatted for viewing on mobile devices by using Google Reader.
Designing for WordPress: Complete Series and Downloads – A complete video tutorial series from Chris Coyier for designing WP themes.
100+ WordPress Video Tutorials, from Basic to Advance – An awesome roundup of video tutorials for virtually every aspect of working with WP.
Complete WordPress Theme Guide – A three-part tutorial series from Web Designer Wall for creating WP themes.
Import and Export WordPress Data – A video tutorial that shows you how to import your data from other blogging platforms (including TypePad and Blogger) and how to export your data for installing on another version of WP.
Create a Tabbed Featured Posts Area in WordPress – A tutorial for creating a tabbed area for displaying multiple featured posts.
A Crash-Course in WordPress Plugin Development – A video tutorial for creating your first WP plugin.
List of WordPress Thesis Theme Tutorials – A collection of tutorials for working with the Thesis parent theme.
Tutorial: Add a Background to Your WordPress Theme – A very basic tutorial for adding a different background image to a standard WP theme.
26 Complete WordPress Blog Design Tutorials – A roundup of 26 tutorials for creating specific WP designs from scratch.
Installing WordPress on Tiger – A great tutorial for installing a local copy of WordPress on Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.
Integrating BuddyPress, WordPress MU, and bbPress – A great guide if you want to build a complete social networking site.
12 Great Tutorials on Creating a New WordPress Theme – An awesome roundup of theme development tutorials compiled by [Re]Encoded.com.
5 Useful and Creative Ways to Use WordPress Widgets – A great guide to using WP widgets.
How to Easily Customize the WordPress Image Caption – A tutorial for customizing the appearance of the built-in WP image caption text.
10 Steps to a Client Friendly WordPress CMS – A guide to making WP more end-user-friendly as a CMS.
An Elegant Featured Content Slider for WordPress – A tutorial for creating a slider to display your recent posts.
WordPress Theme Guide – A complete guide to building WP themes from Urban Giraffe.
Mastering WordPress Shortcodes – A great guide for learning all about WP shortcodes.
Plugins
Plugins extend the functionality of a standard WP installation. There are thousands of plugins on the WordPress site but finding the best among them can be incredibly time-consuming. The plugins featured here have already been vetted by other bloggers, making it easier to find not only the plugins that do what you want, but those that do it well.BuddyPress – A plugin that adds a social networking platform to WordPress MU.
bbPress – A forum system meant to integrate with WP, created by the makers of WP.
Wordpress Plugins and Tutorials – A great roundup of categorized plugins, with a few articles and tutorials included at the end.
Top 10 Characteristics of a Great WordPress Plugin – An excellent guide that should be referred to by anyone developing, or even just using, WP plugins.
12 WordPress Plugins for Theme Development – A great list of plugins essential for theme developers.
Top 35 Plugins of WordPress to Share Your Blog Post – A great roundup of plugins that make it easier for your visitors to share your blog’s content.
3 WordPress Plugins to Manage 125×125 Ads – 125-pixel-square ads are a very popular size; here are three plugins to help you manage them.
55 Best WordPress Plugins – A roundup from About.com of the plugins every WP user should consider.
Top WordPress Plugins – A compilation from TheBlogJoint.com of the best WP plugins available.
10 Best WordPress Plugins—March 2009 – A recent post covering ten of the best WP plugins, including ThickBox and Lexi.
20 Best WordPress Plugins—April 2009 – Another great roundup from AjaxLine of recent WP plugins, including AnyFont and Twitter Widget Pro.
13 of the Best WordPress Plugins – A list compiled by David Airey of the best WP plugins, including All in One SEO Pack and cforms II.
6 Best Facebook WordPress Plugins – A collection of six plugins for integrating your WordPress blog and your Facebook profile or page.
20 of the Best SEO Plugins for WordPress – A collection of great plugins to improve your SEO, compiled by Mashable.
30+ Must Have WordPress Plugins – Another roundup of essential WP plugins.
Best WordPress Plugin for Related Posts? – A review of some of the available related posts plugins and the author’s verdict on which one is best.
50 Best WordPress Plugins for Power Blogging – A compilation of some of the best plugins available for WP power users.
5 of the Best WordPress Plugins – A fairly in-depth look at five great WP plugins.
Top WordPress Plugins – A roundup of great plugins, broken down by category and including Advanced Admin Menu and In Series.
11 Top WordPress Plugins Every Blog Should Have – A list from Yoast of what they consider to be the essential WP plugins.
Top 8 WordPress Plugins Used by SEO.com – A list of 8 of SEO.com’s preferred WP plugins.
70 Best WordPress Plugins to Supercharge Your Blog – A comprehensive list of awesome plugins, including Broken Link Checker and Comment Timeout.
The Best WordPress Plugins – A short review of some of the best WP plugins out there.
9 Best WordPress Plugins – A list of great plugins, including WP Smushit and WP Syntax.
Best WordPress Plugins—18 Most Downloaded WordPress Plugins Ever – A listing of the most popular WP plugins, including NextGEN Gallery and WP Super Cache.
5 Best WordPress Plugins to Shorten URLs – A collection of WP plugins for shortening your URLs.
Best WordPress Plugins – This post compiles the best WP plugins broken down by category.
WP Tutorial: Your First WP Plugin – A tutorial for creating your own WP plugins.
10 WordPress Plugins Guaranteed to Save You Time – This is a great collection of plugins compiled by Six Revisions to make you a more efficient blogger.
How to Write a Simple WordPress Plugin – A great tutorial to acquaint you with building WP plugins.
40 Exceptional “CMS Enabling” WordPress Plugins – Includes forty plugins to turn WP into a full-featured content management system.
Contact Form Plugins for WordPress – An overview of some of the contact form plugins available for WP.
The TTFTitles WordPress Plugin – A plugin to let you swap out your post titles with dynamically-created images.
TDO Mini Forms – This is one of the coolest plugins for WP out there. It allows non-registered users and/or subscribers to your site to submit their own content (which is kept in draft form until an administrator approves it). It even works with Akismet to help prevent spam posts.
30+ Plugins for WordPress Comments – A great roundup of comments-related plugins compiled by Mashable.
21 of the Best WordPress Plugins for New Blogs – A collection of plugins focused mostly on front-end features and basic end-user management.
Top 5 WordPress Plugins that Help Increase Comments – A small roundup of plugins designed to get more visitors to comment.
Top 30 WordPress Plugins That Are Actually Useful! – An awesome roundup from Speckyboy Design Magazine of incredibly useful plugins, including FireStats and WASABI Related Post.
19 Top WordPress Plugins – A great roundup of popular and useful WP plugins, including DISQUS Comment System and Popularity Contest.
Top 10 WordPress Hidden Gems (Plugins) – An awesome roundup of often-overlooked plugins that do really amazing things, including Front-End Editor and Feed Styler.
10 of the Best WordPress Contact Form Plugins to Choose From – A roundup of some of the best contact plugins available.
Top 11 Comment Plugins to Make Your WordPress Blog More User Friendly – An awesome roundup of comments-related plugins, including the Top Commentators Widget and CommentLuv.
Top 10 WordPress Gallery Plugins – Ten great plugins for creating and managing image galleries.
10 Best Photo and Image WordPress Plugins – A roundup of excellent plugins for handling images, including Shutter Reloaded and SEO Friendly Images.
Plugins That Make WordPress Into a Company Intranet – Coverage of plugins that make it possible to use WP as a corporate intranet.
20 New, Useful and Promising WordPress Plugins – A roundup of twenty great WP plugins, including WP Greet-Box and Post Ideas.
10 Mistakes You Could Avoid in WordPress Plugin Development – A must-read article for anyone doing plugin development.
16 Excellent WordPress Security Plugins to Secure Your Blog – A great roundup of security-related plugins for WP.
31 Useful Twitter Plugins for WordPress to Choose From – An extensive list of plugins for integrating Twitter and WP.
6 WordPress Plugins That Help Your Blog’s Maintenance – A great roundup of maintenance-related plugins, including Broken Link Checker and WP Anti-Virus.
Tricks, Customizations, and Hacks
The resources featured below involve customizations and hacks you can apply to your WP installation and themes that extend the functionality of WP beyond what plugins and widgets are generally capable of.13 Vital Tips and Hacks to Protect Your WordPress Admin Area – A compilation of security hacks for WP admin.
Hack Together a User Contributed Link Feed with WordPress Comments – Shows you how to set up a user-generated public link feed by utilizing post comments.
5 Great WordPress Hacks – A small roundup of hacks, including sending pages to Twitter and listing all of the authors on your blog.
Top 10 WordPress Hacks from June ‘09 – A roundup of recent hacks, including listing all hooked WP functions and detecting which browser a visitor is using.
9 WordPress Hacks to Encourage User Interactivity – A great collection of hacks for getting your visitors to interact more, including showing the most recent comments and reversing the order of your comments so the newest ones show up first.
9 Useful Snippets for Your WordPress Functions – A collection of handy snippets you can add to your functions.php file to add functionality to your blog.
WordPress Hack: Opening Links in New Windows – A great hack using JavaScript for forcing links to open in new windows.
10 Tips to Improve Your WordPress Theme – A great rundown of theme customizations that make your site more user-friendly.
10 Most Wanted Category Hacks and Plugins for WordPress – A great rundown of category hacks, including displaying the most recent posts within a specific category and excluding certain categories from being displayed in a loop.
10 Awesome .htaccess Hacks for WordPress – A great collection of .htaccess hacks, including removing/category/ from your WP URLs and how to redirect visitors to a maintenance page.
10 Killer WordPress Hacks – A roundup of great hacks from Smashing Magazine, including displaying AdSense ads only to search engine visitors and replacing the “next” and “previous” page links with pagination.
10 WordPress Tips and Tricks for Your Comment Page – A great roundup of comment tricks, including displaying the total number of comments on your blog and separating comments from trackbacks.
15 Killer Hacks for WordPress That Are Extremely Useful – An excellent roundup of useful hacks including displaying random header images on your blog and listing future “upcoming” posts.
9 Extremely Useful RSS Tricks and Snippets for WordPress – A great selection of tricks and customizations for RSS feeds, including creating RSS-only posts and excluding a category from your RSS feeds.
7 WordPress Customizations – A quick rundown of how to customize your WP installation in multiple ways.
Define Your Own WordPress Loop Using WP_Query – A great hack to creating your own customized WP loop.
10 Useful WordPress Loop Hacks – A roundup from Smashing Magazine of ten excellent WP loop hacks.
13 Tags to Delete From Your Theme – A list of tags that are generally unnecessary in a standard WP theme.
30+ New Useful WordPress Tricks & Hacks – This post from Hong Kiat shows more than thirty new hacks and tricks to customize your WP installation.
40+ Most Wanted WordPress Tricks and Hacks – A roundup of great hacks compiled by Hong Kiat.
WordPress Theme Hacks – A roundup of a number of simple hacks for making better WP themes.
30+ (More) Most Wanted WordPress Tips, Tricks and Hacks – Another roundup from Hong Kiat of great WP customizations.
22 Mixed Quality WordPress Hacks – Despite the title, this is actually a roundup of more than twenty high-quality hacks for customizing your WP blog and making it stand out from the crowd.
10 Easy Ways to Fix Common WordPress Headaches – A great overview of ways to improve the functionality of your WP installation.
Galleries and Inspiration
If you’re looking for inspiration for your next WP-powered site, look no further than the resources below. Included are design roundups, galleries, and instances of uncommon WP usages.160 Unique WordPress Themes – An awesome roundup of 160 unique WP designs.
11 Non-Traditional Uses of WordPress – A great roundup of some unique WP implementations and the tools used to create them.
WPLuxe – A great WP gallery that also includes a blog with WP news and resources.
45 Beautiful and Creative (WordPress) Designs – A roundup of beautiful WP designs compiled by Six Revisions.
15 Creative WordPress Header Designs – A small roundup of beautiful WP headers.
15 Impressive and Beautiful Uses of WordPress – A collection of 15 sites using WordPress in elegant and innovative ways.
Best WordPress Sites – A gallery of excellent WP-powered sites compiled by N.Design Studio.
60+ Unusual WP Blog Designs – A great roundup post from Noupe of unique WP designs.
30 Untypical WordPress Sites – A great roundup of 30 unique WP sites.
WordPress Showcase – The official WP showcase blog/gallery.
WP Inspiration – An amazing gallery showcasing only WP-powered sites.
CSSBloom – This gallery includes a WP tag with a great collection of unique designs.
CSS Glance – Another gallery with a WP tag that includes hundreds of WP designs.
We Love WP – A great gallery dedicated to beautiful WP designs.
Sites—WP Candy – A WP gallery from the WP Candy blog.
LoopPress – A WP gallery that lets you rate and comment on designs.
WPCube – Another dedicated WP gallery.
Unmatched Style – The WP category on Unmatched Style includes a few dozen WP designs.
Best CSS Gallery – Their WordPress tag includes more than a dozen WP designs.
Gallerific – Another general-purpose gallery that has a WP tag and features some great designs.
Blogs, Articles and Other Resources
This is where you’ll find everything else WP-related that didn’t quite fit into the categories above. There are articles about WP-specific topics, blogs by and for WordPress designers and developers, and cheat sheets and other resources to make your WP development easier and more efficient.Adii Rockstar – The blog of “WP Rockstar” and theme developer Adii, covering blogging, development, and themes, among other topics.
Brian Gardner – The personal blog of WP theme designer Brian Gardener.
WordPress Tavern – A blog that covers WP news, plugins, themes, and even BuddyPress.
instantShift – InstantShift’s WordPress category has tons of great tutorials, tips, and other information on WP.
StylizedWeb – StylizedWeb has a great WP category with tutorials, reviews, plugins, theme roundups, free themes, and more.
Weblog Tools Collection – A WP blog that covers mostly plugin news and releases.
WordPress Blog – The official WP blog.
WordPress.com Just Another WordPress Weblog – The official Wordpress.com blog.
WPCandy – A blog that covers themes, plugins, tutorials, and more.
WordPress Publisher Blog – A blog from Automattic aimed at publishers using WordPress.
Hong Kiat – Hong Kiat’s WordPress category has pages of great content, including hacks, tutorials, giveaways, and roundups (some of which are mentioned above).
155 WordPress Resources, Tutorials, Plugins, Themes, AJAX, Podcasting…WP Monster List – A huge roundup of resources from Speckyboy Design Magazine.
The Advanced WordPress Help Sheet – A PDF WP cheat sheet.
WordPress.tv – View videos about all things WP.
Nathan Rice – Nathan Rice writes about WP theme design and blogging.
WpRecipes.com – A blog covering WP tutorials and tips.
Wpazo – A blog covering the best WP news, resources, and updates every day.
WP Engineer – A blog for WP developers.
ThemeShaper – The blog from the developers of the Thematic framework.
WordPress Weekly – A weekly podcast dedicated to WP from TalkShoe.
Darren Hoyt – Darren Hoyt’s WP archive category has tons of great resources and new articles are added most months.
WordPress Theme Development Check List—PDF Version – A PDF checklist for WP theme development.
Justin Tadlock – Blogs about WP plugins, tutorials, and news.
Plugins – A podcast dedicated to WP plugins.
WordCast – A WordPress podcast with more than 60 episodes already published.
50+ Cheat Sheets for Building WordPress Themes and Plugins – A huge roundup of cheat sheets and references for theme and plugin developers.
WP Topics – An aggregation of the content of some of the most popular blogs about WP out there.
Pro Blog Design – Pro Blog Design’s WordPress tag has tons of articles and resources related to WP design and customization.
Top WordPress 2.7 Tips, Hacks, Plugins and Resources – While this roundup is specific to WP 2.7, much of the resources and information it includes also applies to 2.8.
100+ Killer WordPress Resources – A huge collection of varied WP resources compiled by Steffan Antonas.
WordPress Daddy – A great blog with regular posts on plugins, customizations and hacks.
WPDesigner.com – A great blog with a huge archive of WP-related content.
wpGuy – A blog dedicated to WP that also features themes and plugins.
Lorelle on WordPress – An exceptional WP blog that covers tons or WP news, tips and advice, as well as general blogging info.
15 Resources for Setting Up an E-Commerce Site with WordPress – A great roundup of plugins, themes, and tutorials for creating an e-commerce site with WP.
The Autopsy of WordPress as CMS with 25 Great WP Plugins and Designs – A great article on using WP as a CMS, along with plugins that make it possible.
WordPress God: 300+ Tools for Running Your WordPress Blog – A slightly older post from Mashable, but it still has some great plugins and other resources listed.
Compiled exclusively for WDD by Cameron Chapman.
Which are the resources and plugins you can’t live without? Did we miss your favorite one? Please add it below…