Knowledge is power, as the old saying goes. And when it comes to WordPress, keeping abreast of the latest news and developments will keep you on the cutting edge of the constantly developing platform.

New themes and plugins are produced literally every single day. Improvements and bug fixes to the WordPress platform are constantly suggested and developed. With all this going on, trying to keep up with everything can seem rather overwhelming.

But as is often the case in life, you should consider quality over quantity. Rather than subscribing to every single WordPress-related site you can find in the vain hope of keeping up to speed, you only need to follow a few select resources to get the vast majority of the best news, updates, and features.

Our Recommendations

At ManageWP, ensuring that we are on the cutting edge of WordPress development is more important to us than most. We have grand ambitions for our tool to be a must-have for any self-respecting WordPress user. In order for that to happen, we must broker mutually beneficial relationships with plugin and theme developers, as well as keep our finger on the pulse of the WordPress community.

Because of that, we have built up a small but powerful list of the most influential WordPress resources on the web. If you follow this select group of blogs and resources, you will never be far away from the next big news story or development.

So without further ado, let’s take a look at the list!

1. WordPress.org News

This is a no-brainer  – what better place to start than the official WordPress.org blog? Although it isn’t updated that regularly, each new post typically covers something rather important. For any self-respecting WordPress user, it is must-read content.

Subscribe via RSS.

2. WordPress Development Updates Blog

As you no doubt know, WordPress is an open source development platform. In theory, anyone can get involved with its development. And unlike commercial software, the doors are wide open when it comes to checking out ongoing development.

And that is where the WordPress Development Updates Blog comes in. It does exactly what it says on the tin – if you want to keep up with the latest WordPress development news, this blog should be your first port of call. The development team do a great job of offering clear and transparent updates on a regular basis.

Subscribe via RSS.

3. WordPress Trac

This is a resource where any WordPress user can make a contribution to our favorite content management system’s ongoing development. The WordPress Trac is a web-based bug tracking system that is used to handle all existing and resolved WordPress bug issues. If there is a problem within WordPress, you will probably find that it is being handled here. And if not, you can take the opportunity to report the issue yourself.

Many of WordPress’ new features are incubated at the WordPress Trac. Take ticket #18311 for example, which hopes to implement HTML markup in image captions in v3.4 (long overdue). If you want to keep your finger on the pulse of WordPress’ ongoing development, you should be checking up on the WordPress Trac periodically.

Visit the Trac here.

4. WordPress.tv

This is a seriously underrated resource. For those of us who are unable to attend every single WordCamp in the world (that’s all of us), WordPress.tv is the next best thing. It offers up an enormous number of speeches and presentations with far-ranging topic coverage.

For example, watch this clip to discover some little known facts about publishing in WordPress:

There is plenty more where that came from. You can lose hours in WordPress.tv if you are not too careful.

Subscribe with Miro.

5. WordPress Tavern

You have got to love a site whose tagline is, “Where every drink is on the house”. But WordPress Tavern is more than just a gimmicky name. For several years, it has been one of the foremost WordPress news resources, and it should take pride of place amongst your RSS reader subscriptions.

WordPress Tavern is most definitely one of those sites that you subscribe to so that you don’t have to subscribe to 50 others – all of the most relevant and valuable news is drawn from various resources and presented to you for your reading pleasure.

Subscribe via RSS.

6. WPMU.org

This site has been around for years, and shows no sign of slowing down. Multiple posts are published every single day, featuring everything from the latest news, to in-depth tutorials, to tips and tricks.

If you want to get the best out of WordPress and discover new things that you can do to improve the functionality of your website, WPMU.org should be on your list.

Subscribe via RSS.

7. WPCandy

This is another site in the same vein as WPMU.org, and you really do get the best of both worlds by subscribing to each. Whilst you are never going to find out about every single little WordPress update and news item, WPCandy is another great addition that will keep you abreast of the vast majority of updates. They have also just released a very shiny quarterly magazine.

Subscribe via RSS.

8. Weblog Tools Collection

If you really want to be on the cutting edge of themes and plugin releases, Weblog Tools Collection is the resource for you. Amongst sporadic WordPress-related news articles, they post links to new themes and plugins released via WordPress.org every two days. It is a haven for those with WordPress OCD (we don’t judge).

9. ManageWP

Call us biased, but we think that our youthful blog is quickly establishing itself as an extremely useful resource for WordPress users.  Not only do we offer the latest news and updates on ManageWP itself, we also feature the best new themes and plugins every single month. And that’s not to mention all of the other posts we publish, featuring tips, tricks and guidance on how to make the most of your WordPress sites.

What Is YOUR Favorite WordPress Resource?

There are of course countless WordPress related websites out there – you only have to refer to the WPMU 100 to get a sense of scale. So perhaps your favorite resource is missing from the list above. If so, don’t be shy – give us your suggestions in the comments section!

Creative Commons photo courtesy of stephend9