Chris Lema recently wrote a post about why he writes eBooks, like most of his articles I loved his unique twist on an issue. Turns out Chris doesn’t write eBooks to make money or establish his authority on a subject–as if he needs to. No, Chris writes eBooks so he doesn’t have to keep repeating the same advice.
So to go along with my getting started with WordPress post from last week, here is my list of must read blogs for anyone new to WordPress. By the way, I love having these types of conversations, but at least this way I don’t have to send you an email full of links afterwords, just this one. Also, there is no better way to get a potential client or contact to remember your site’s address than to send them a useful link that just happens to be on that site.
I’m also writing this as part of my series on content strategy because if your blog has anything to do with WordPress, you want to make it apart of the conversation. The first step to being a part of the conversation is listening. Also, following the WordPress news, and reading tutorial sites is the first step to actively participating in the WordPress community, which will pay untold dividends in the future for you, I promise.
I will start with three names I recommend you keep and eye out for, where ever they post. I will then share new sites and tutorial sites. I’m pretty happy to be able to include a link for my own contributions to many of them. It may appear that I’m biased towards sites that publish me. While this is a nice feature, it’s actually the other way around, I make it a point to only submit to the sites I enjoy reading. I hope to be able to, over time, update this post with more links to my contributions to
Chris Lema
I’m not just putting Chris first because his article provided the lede for this post, but because he’s one of the best bloggers out there. Chris posts everyday on his site, and is also a regular contributor to Torque. Chris covers everything that’s important from being honest, to how to stay consistent as a writer, to best practices for business and has a knack for writing “best plugins for X” post without making it into one of “those posts. What makes Chris’ writing special is he tends to take a pretty standard setup and twist it into something totally new that helps you a common issue in a whole new light.
Justin Tadlock
Justin is the author of the Theme Hybrid Framework, and countless themes and plugins. If you’re just getting started with theme development and can’t seem to understand whatever tutorial you’re reading, you should check if Justin has written about it on his blog as his articles tend to be the clearest easiest to understand on the topic. While you’re on his site consider signing up for his theme club, at free plus $29 a year for support you can’t beat that price for standards-complaint, great looking themes.
Tom McFarlin
Tom tends to cover a little bit of more technical topics for WordPress, then you might need to know at first, but keep his name in mind. When you’re starting to get into more difficult topics, finding an understandable writer is essential and Tom’s blog, as well as his articles for Wptuts+ are the perfect level of sophistication without loosing you in mumbo-jumbo.
New Sites
WPTavern
If you want the latest updates on everything going on in the WordPress world, all in one place, WPTavern is hard to beat. Posting several times a day, WPTavern covers exciting new plugins and themes, important events in the community and market place, and updates on both WordPress core development and WordPress.org.
Torque
Every day Torque publishes one or two posts that are a good mix of news, advice and tutorials. If WPTavern is too much for you, you can follow Torque and get the basics of what is going on in the WordPress ecosystem, while getting great advice along the way.
Post Status
Post Status features both original content by Brain Krosgard as well as news curated by Brian and user submissions. Brian’s posts are always well written and draw on his experience as a developer and contributor to the community. The “Latest Links” section of the page is a great source for news as well.
Tutorial Sites
WPBeginer
WPBeginer is a very appropriately named site. They have the answer to pretty much anything a WordPress beginner needs, plain and simple. This site will be your go to when you are getting started with WordPress and will continue to be useful as long as WordPress is part of your life.
WPMUDEV
WPMUDEV offers daily posts that are tutorial heavy but also include news, and round-ups on themes, plugins hosting and more.
wptuts+
Part of the largest tuts+ network, Wptuts+ is full of basic to advanced tutorials and screencasts about WordPress development.