We never stop singing the praises of WordPress here at Arbenting, and that enthusiasm has fueled this post through to fruition as well. We decided that we wanted to present a list of the most helpful design blogs with a fixed focus on our favorite of content management systems. Beyond just the list though, we wanted to also give an informal run-down of sorts about each one of them, providing a bit of information for you to chew on (not literally, we don’t mean for you to physically try gnawing on your screen…so stop that). Please note that the sites are not presented here in any kind of order. We don’t know that we could put them in any kind of preferential order even if we tried, as we find all of them an essential addition to our reader.
Download the opml with all 10 blogs.
WP Candy
WP Candy is a wordpress blog featuring news, quicktips, tutorials and more. If you have never been there before I highly recommend browsing around the site a bit and tasting all of the goodies. WP Candy was co-created by Michael Castilla, a front-end developer, currently living in Miami, Florida and Dan Philibin, a self-taught web developer out of western Pennsylvania. Both guys are very passionate about WordPress and that fact really comes across in the site.
Live Since - September 2007
Twitter - @wpcandy
Article Highlights
- A Guide to CSS and WordPress: Part 1
- The Advanced WordPress Help Sheet
- 4 Simple Ways To Speed Up WordPress
- Automating My WordPress Workflow
Subscribe to the All-in-one WPCandy Feed or go to the WP Candy Feeds page to subscribe to one of the more specific feeds.
Pro Blog Design
Pro Blog Design, created by Michael Martin, covers blog design, coding and Wordpress. Michael is a Web designer from Belfast specializing in, you guessed it, blog design (you did guess it, right? I thought I heard something. Well, we’ll just pretend you did.). The blog is written by a number of different web professionals giving you a wide range of experience and opinion.
Live Since - August 2007
Twitter - @problogdesign
Post Highlights
- 30 Ways to Improve Readability
- 13 Tags to Delete From your Theme
- Make Your Template Unique
- 25 Ways to Spice Up Blog Post Photos
Subscribe to Pro Blog Design
Wordpress Hacks
Wordpress Hacks started out as a wordpress fan site created by Kyle Eslick, the founder of Apricot Media. It has since grown into a very helpful blog with contributions from a number of different talented wordpress enthusiasts. Also, the site covers a wide variety of WordPress related topics.
Live Since - October 2007
Twitter - HackWordPress
Post Highlights
- How To: Hack WordPress Theme Template Pages
- Building a Multi-Author Blog with WordPress
- How To: Making Your Old WordPress Posts New Again
- How To: Add Social Bookmark Links to your Theme
Subscribe to Wordpress Hacks
Theme Shaper
The Theme Shaper blog was created by Ian Stewart, the mastermind behind Thematic. Ian is a professional designer, WordPress enthusiast, and self-taught graphic artist with about 10 years of professional experience.
If you are a fan of Thematic, you absolutely must subscribe to this blog. And if you haven’t checked out Thematic yet, then do yourself a favor and go there today!
Live Since - January 2008
Twitter - @iandstewart
Post Highlights
- How To Modify WordPress Themes
The Smart Way - WordPress Child Theme Basics
- WordPress as a CMS: How To Think About Building a Website With WordPress
- WordPress Child Theme Basics
Subscribe to Theme Shaper
WpRecipes
WpRecipes is a blog created by Jean-Baptiste Jung of Cats Who Code (another great blog you should stop by) which delivers quick, clear and concise WordPress recipes straight to your reader.
Do not expect any long, in depth articles here. The entire blog is made up of quick code snippets and tips that I guarantee you’ll wonder how you ever lived without this awesome site.
Live Since - October 2008
Twitter - @catswhocode
Post Highlights
- Display your categories in two columns
- How to: Show related posts without a plugin
- How to: Create a tag page on your WordPress blog
- How to: List future posts
Subscribe to WpRecipes
Justin Tadlock
While Justin Tadlock is not completely about Wordpress, he also tends to post about life and blogging stuff now and then, Wordpress is the main focus of the site, and the articles are too good to not include him on this list. And really, there are very few non-WordPress related posts, so make this a must stop along your cyberspace WP broswing and you won’t be disappointed.
Live Since - April 2003, though the blog didn't become Wordpress focused until October 2007
Twitter - Not Found. If anyone knows, please comment and we’ll change it.
Post Highlights
- The complete guide to creating widgets in WordPress 2.8
- The slippery slope dilemma: How much control should users have?
- Coding the WordPress Loop
- Why I created a WordPress theme framework
Subscribe to Justin Tadlock
WP Engineer
WP Engineer was created by Alexander Frison, a freelancer in the field of web and graphic design; Frank Bültge, a developer of plugins, themes and solutions and author of WordPress - Weblogs einrichten und administrieren; and Michael Preuss, a freelance webworker and WordPress theme developer. Together these three self-proclaimed ’WordPress Junkies’ provide some highly useful WordPress articles.
Live Since - September 2008
Twitter - Not Found. If anyone knows, please comment and let us know.
Post Highlights
- Publish The Feed Later
- Customize Your WordPress-Feeds
- The Perfect Title Tag
- Expand Search Results In WordPress
Subscribe to WP Engineer
Blog Design Blog
Blog Design Blog was created by Vinh Le to explore the importance of good design in the success of a website on which an individual or group of users produce an ongoing narrative (sorry, I just couldn’t bring myself to say the b-word again…not, the b-word, blog. I couldn’t bring myself to say blog again…dammit). Vinh Le is a Freelance web designer living in Quincy, Massachusetts.
While Blog Design Blog isn’t 100% WordPress based either, it is completely focused on blog design in general which is always relevant to WordPress designers and developers. It has also been a bit slow lately but I am really hoping for it to pick back up. If nothing else, the archives are full of some truly great reading material.
Live Since - February 2008
Twitter - @blogdesignblog
Post Highlights
- Why You Need to Become a Renaissance Blog Designer
- How to Disassemble a Free WordPress Theme Part 1
- How to Not Get Lost When Learning to Create a Blog Design
- 3 Things to Remember When Designing a Blog Footer
Subscribe to Blog Design Blog
WPZOOM
WPZOOM is a fantastic blog created by Pavel Ciorici. The site is a constant and consistent stream of wonderful WordPress articles as well as a bountiful supply of discussions and reviews on WordPress themes, plugins and other Wordpress related topics.
Live Since - April 2008
Twitter - @ciorici
Post Highlights
- 40 WordPress Plugins to Improve your Blog’s Performance
- Quick Tip: Insert “Reply To” Into Your Comments
- Tips to protect your WordPress blog
- Using WordPress as a Portfolio: Examples & Themes (15+)
Subscribe to WPZOOM
The Official WordPress Blog
No list of blogs for the WordPress enthusiast, developer or designer would be complete without the The Official WordPress Blog. I mean, it’s like all official and stuff. You get news, development updates and more, directly from the horse’s mouth.
Subscribe to The Official WordPress Blog
Your Turn
Do you have a favorite WordPress blog that we left out? Comment and leave us a link. And check back, because we will be doing a list of general web design blogs soon.
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pretty cool! thankfully you’ve included wphacks (designed by us). Will try to ensure that we’ll make in one of the list next time :)
Mayanks last blog post..Maintain a WordPress blog in hindi, tamil, telugu, arabic and other languages
Amazing list there.
You may also add Blog Design Studio (http://blogdesignstudio.com/) by Mayank onto this list. Its been there since June 2008 and he also posts some amazing Wordpress Tutorials apart from General Blogging tips
Vikas SNs last blog post..Circuitcity.com Is Back
Thanks for including WPHacks.com on your list! :)
Pretty sweet list there, and all of them are already on in my Greader, but I really do miss a couple like WP Tavern for instance…
Remkuss last blog post..WordCamp NL site gelanceerd
nice post man. very helpful for someone who’s new to the game.
pher
paulhers last blog post..New Browser Test: BrowserLab from Adobe Labs
Thank you for including our website on this list. :)
Greatly appreciate!
Alexs last blog post..WordPress Plugin Compatibility Checker
thanks for the useful list..
tasarhanes last blog post..Sezin yeni bir blog yazısı ekledi: Sokakların Kralı Romeo (Roadside Romeo)
Nice post.
The guys at http://fire-studios.com/blog/category/wordpress have been putting some useful wordpress articles out recently.
Patternheads last blog post..Free Vector and Pixel Pattern — Antique Engraved
Useful list, most of them I knew, but thanks :D
T-Laws last blog post..Abstract Floral Background Vector
Thanks for including ThemeShaper on your list!
Ian Stewarts last blog post..Get Thematic Version 0.9.5
Thanks for the comments everyone, I’m glad you all found it helpful and found some new blogs to read.
@Vikas — I left off Blog Design Studio for the same reason I left off Cats Who Code. I wanted to put their WordPress focused sites on the list instead. but I agree, it’s a great blog.
@Remkus — Thanks for the suggestion, I had never heard of Wordpress Tavern and have subscribed now. Feel free to link to any others you feel should have made the list!
@Patternhead — Thanks! Fire Studios has a great blog and they’re actually on our list of best general web design blogs that we’re working on now.
very helpful resources of wordpress design, thanks for the nice list..
joyologo design shop 2.0s last blog post..wordpress special business theme
Nice list. I bookmarked it and will definitely be adding this to the new wordpress wednesday post next week :)
Mike Smiths last blog post..Today is officially Wordpress Wednesday!
@Joyoge — I’m glad you found some helpful sites :)
@Mike — Thank you! Ohh, I’m really excited for the first wordpress wednesday, sounds great!
Nice man!,