Smart WordPress Resources for Bloggers and Designers

The WordPress community is full of free resources, just for the asking. And new stuff is popping up all the time. Today I leave you with just a few.

Things you might not know about WordPress

If you are logged into WordPress.org, you can now favorite your most helpful plugins. Share them on your profile page on WordPress.org and find them quickly when you need to go back to them.

If you build WordPress websites, as a designer or developer, you really must check out  Code Poet. You’ll find favorite resources, case studies, ebooks and a boatload of real world strategies. Sign up to get regular updates on everything that hits Code Poet.

Many, many WordPress conferences, called WordCamps, are happening across the globe—with session tracks for both causal users and seasoned developers, from Portland, Oregon to  Sydney, AustraIia to Kathmandu, Nepal. I just wrapped up WordCamp Seattle, and it was incredible. To find one near you, simply go to WordCamp Central.

Speaking of WordCamp, if travel isn’t in your future, you can view tons of videos of presentations from WordCamps over at WordPress.tv. You never know what gem you will find there.

And, if you have some extra minutes on your hands and are curious about how many times the current version of WordPress has been downloaded (because we all need to know that, right?), you can see it happening live at the WordPress Download Counter.

Here’s a random fact that lots of people don’t know. You should never use the full word, “WordPress” in your top level domain name (for example wordpressrockstar.com). You can use it in a subdomain, though. Why? Because it’s trademarked and they want to protect their company identity and brand. They they prefer you to use WP instead (for example, bobWP.com )

If you want to use the WordPress logo, it’s available for download. But there are some fake logos out there, so be careful. (WordPress loves it if you call them out.) You can see more of what fake logos look like and access a  bunch of real ones to download here.

And finally, for all you trivia buffs, at exactly 8:23 AM EST, May 23, 2012, WordPress by the numbers:

• WordPress.org has 1,515 themes (not counting all the great premium themes)

• WordPress 3.3 has been downloaded 19,175,012 times (and counting)

• WordPress.org has 19,536 plugins (and counting)

• WordPress plugins have been downloaded 304,574,321 times (and counting)

So there. Don’t you feel just a little ‘WordPress smarter’?