Tutorials are all the rage right now, especially WordPress Tutorials. I understand why. There used to be a plethora of posts like this one for a while. Many people still write posts like this: “100 amazing themes” and “50 creative logos”. They’re nice to look at, helpful and inspiring.

However the trend is definitely towards tutorials. Look at Envato’s newest marketplace as an example.  And we at Pingable understand the trend.  Tutorial posts are more helpful in a tangible way.  Users can read a post and walk away with a real, measurable, helpful new skill set.

In light of this trend, we thought it would be nice to combine the two types of content.  Here is a list of 25 extremely Helpful WordPress Tutorials.

Free WordPress Tutorials

16 Vital Checks Before Releasing a WordPress Theme Tutorial

WordPress Tutorial by Ludovico Fischer

This tutorial will help you check off those must-do steps before making your new theme public. You spent countless hours developing the theme, don't forget these steps. From protecting comments on posts to correctly paginating posts, don't forget any of these steps.

Designing the Post Meta Data Section

WordPress Tutorial by the Codex Team

Using post meta data is one of the most versatile and helpful features of WordPress. You can essentially generate all of your post excerpt information on the fly which can make for a rich user experience. This official codex tutorial walks you through creating this section of your design.

Creating Custom Fields for Attachments in WordPress Tutorial

WordPress Tutorial by Andy Blackwell

WordPress custom fields are incredibly useful and versatile. They can turn a regular theme into a dynamic and user-powered design. However when displaying attachments the code needs some tweaking. This tutorial walks you through the necessary tweaking to make it work.

Fun Character Entities WordPress Tutorial

WordPress Tutorial by the Codex Team

Using various character entities in your designs can make the user experience smoother. This can be navigation arrows, ampersands, etc. This tutorial by the official codex crew will help you incorporate those characters into your next design.

How to Integrate an Options Page into your WordPress Theme Tutorial

WordPress Tutorial by By Dan Walker

All of the latest quality WordPress Themes include backend (administrative) options themes to help the user utilize all of the incredible, complicated features coming standard with the latest themes. This tutorial will guide you in creating this feature for your next theme.

Premium WordPress Tutorials

WordPress, Beginner to Master Tutorial

WordPress Tutorial by By Dan Harper, $5

This tutorial walks you through creating a complete WordPress site including a blog and portfolio. Written after the many new features in WordPress 2.7, this tutorials brings you up to speed before looking closely at WordPress 3.0.

Securing and Hardening WordPress Tutorial

WordPress Tutorial by By JT Pratt, $5

WordPress is inherently secure as a blogging platform. However as it is converted into a CMS, more user data is being transfered and more opportunities to access core files are created. This makes it less secure. This tutorial will help you secure WordPress against data theft but also make it less prone to malicious attack and forceful entry. A must-read for any serious WordPress user.

Creating a Custom WordPress Portfolio Page Tutorial

WordPress Tutorial by By nuResponse, $5

This tutorial will help you leverage the WordPress custom template functionality to create powerful design functionalities within your site. You will be walked through creating a portfolio page to display information in a unique way which can be applied in unlimited ways.

We hope you enjoyed these Helpful WordPress Tutorials.  These are some of the best free and premium tutorials we could find.  If you have your own must-read WordPress Tutorials, please leave a comment below!

Have you noticed the dramatic increase in “list” posts?  They often have title like “10 best free magazine style WordPress themes” and “10 best social media plugins”.  We, too, enjoy a list here and there.  We thought it would be fun (and funny) to come up with our own top 10 list of  lists.

• 10 Unusual and Original WordPress Themes
• 7 tools for Fighting SPAM in WordPress
• Top 10 WordPress Magazine Themes
• Top 10 Underrated WordPress Plugins
• 11 Top WordPress Plugins Everyone Should Have
• Top 10 WordPress Security Plugins
• 22 Mixed Quality WordPress Hacks
• 10 Twitter Hacks for your WordPress Blog
• Top 35 Plugins for WordPress to Share Your Blog Post
• 135 Ultimate Roundup of WordPress Tutorials

Image Credit: InstantShift.com

If you are looking to pay for a WordPress theme, the first place I would start is Elegant themes…for $39.95 you get access to 50+ professional themes that are constantly updated and added to.

I was looking for a free minimalist theme for a site I was working on, and I found a whole heap of great options, so I decided to make it into a post. Most are pretty minimalist, others are just simple designs. Hope you find them useful.

First some Premium themes

Modest

Demo | Buy

SimplePress

Demo | Buy

OK….Here’s the 30 FREE Themes…

Equilibrium

Demo | Download

Emptiness

Download

Fotofolio

Demo | Download

Enormous

Download

MagZine

Demo | Download

Modern Clix

Demo | Download

Undedicated

Demo | Download

Excel

Demo | Release Page

Grace

Demo | Download

The Essayist

Demo | Download

Go Green

Demo | Download

Berita Business

Demo | Download

Folio Elements

Demo | Download

Nerdpress

Demo | Download

Meta-Morphosis

Demo | Download

Bookish

Demo | Download

Bpress

Demo | Download

UNA

Demo | Download

Vivee

Demo | Download

OneRoom

Demo | Download

Black Belt

Demo | Download

Empty Canvas

Demo | Download

Aligned

Demo | Download

FREEmium

Demo | Download

Designredux

Demo | Download

Business Tunes

Demo | Download

Helium

Demo | Download

Fresh Tweet

Demo | Download

Dodo

Demo | Download

Vigilance

Demo & Download

Monochrome

Demo | Download

Freestyle

Demo | Download

If you are looking to pay for a WordPress theme, the first place I would start is Elegant themes…for $39.95 you get access to 50+ professional themes that are constantly updated and added to.

I like to play around with vector art from time to time. I have made a few sets of icons and I have a site where I share vectors that I and other people have created. Check it out: Free Vector Art. Here are some great tutorials that will help you on your way if you are interested in vector design, and Adobe Illustrator.

Thug Bunny Vector Tutorial

Ninjas Vector Tutorial

Cow Vector Tutorial

Killer Bunny with chainsaw Vector Tutorial

Sports Car Vector Tutorial

Fish Cartoon Vector Tutorial

Fox Drawing Vector Tutorial

Graffiti Text Vector Tutorial

Groovy Vector Tutorial

Master Painting Vector Tutorial

Torn Wallpaper Vector Tutorial

Mini Vector Tutorial

Product Ad Vector Tutorial

Wood Grain Vector Tutorial

Vintage Shirt Vector Tutorial

Bitmap to Vector Tutorial

Simple Banners Vector Tutorial

Character Shading Vector Tutorial

Snowboarding Vector Tutorial

Bar of Soap Vector Tutorial

Stamp Vector Tutorial

Swirls Vector Tutorial

Creating Characters Vector Tutorial

Tree Vector Tutorial

Retro Emblem Vector Tutorial

A gallery or portfolio theme for WordPress can be very useful for a whole range of different sites. Here are 10 beautiful themes for you. All the themes are high quality themes. I have included 5 completely free themes, and 5 themes are part of the Premium Elegant themes club….you can access all 5 of the premium themes for a one off cost of $39. Read more here about why we like Elegant themes so much.

ePhoto (Premium Theme Club)

Demo | Join Premium Theme Club

The Unstandard (Free)

Demo | Download

CSS Gallery Theme 2.0 (Free)

Demo | Download

Sky (Premium Theme Club)

Demo | Join Premium Theme Club

Portfolio Press (Free)

Demo | Download

Sharpfolio (Free)

Demo | Download

eVid (Premium Theme Club)

Demo | Join Premium Theme Club

Snapshot (Free)

Demo | Download

Infinity (Free)

Demo | Download

eGallery (Premium Theme Club)

Demo | Join Premium Theme Club

Deviant Art is an amazing resource for digital artists and designers. There is a wealth of free tutorials and resources available, here is just a few of them.

hair drawing tutorial by Abuze

Digital Painting Tutorial by Dianae

Photoshop Inking Tutorial by Spirallin

Mini Painting Tutorial by jdillon82

Blending Tutorial by acidlullaby

Bubbles Tutorial by B1nd1

Wonder Woman Painting Tutorial by UdonCrew

+ How to do the LineArt + by Arehandora

Tutorial: Painting Sky in PS by Foxbane

Magic Swirl tutorial by danzr4ever

Blumen walkthrough by janaschi

Tutorial: Painting Embroidery by kay-ness

tree tutorial part 2 by calisto-lynn

Apple tutorial by michan

Masking Tutorial by One-Vox

For more Photoshop stuff check out my new Photoshop Brushes site.

I have put together a list of Photoshop resources for you guys. All of the resources link to PSD files that are free to download. Please check the authors’ sites for licences. Some are free for personal use others are free for whatever. Have fun.

1. Vista Flare Orb

    

2. Party Crowd

   

3. Film Frame

   

4. Grunge City

    

   

5. Dj Design

    

6. iPhone GUI PSD

   

7. Plastic DVD Cover

   

8. Old School Retro Cassette Tape

   

9. Glossy Icon Pack

    

10. Shiny little icons

    

11. Web 2.0 peeling sticker

    

12. Buttons PSD

     

    

     

13. Aero Avatar and Sig

     

14. Star Sticker

    

15. Cool Junk for Web Designers

     

    

     

16. Green Leaf Icon Pack

    

17. Precious Heart

    

18. Icey Styles

    

19. Batman

    

20. Lots of Badges
    
    

    

21. Ipod Touch

    

22. Zune

    "350" alt="Zune" src="http://173.199.141.152/~pingabl/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/zune11.jpg" width="275" border="0">

23. Playstation 3

     

24. Slurpee

     

25. Orb
    

I have gathered a list of 20 + Free Sets of Royalty Free Icons for you to use on your projects. Check for different licences on the sites. But all of the icons are either GPL or CC. I hope you find them useful.

Xi4Dox

Bagg and Box’s

Iron Man

Back to the Future

Care Bears

Easter Icons

Gaming Icons

PS3 Icons

TMNT Icons

Star Wars Icons

Dino Icons

The City Icons

TV Icons

Flat Panel Monitor

Apple Imac

HP Set

Lil Shuffles

Ipod Nano

The Water Closet

Vespa

Myths

Looking for design inspiration? Following on from my post: 12 Well Designed BlogSpot Blogs I have made a list of cool logo designs from different Blogspot blogs. Check them out, and have a read while your there if you have time.

Ijdesign

Blogpappers

Poppy Talk

Estefany Franco

Jennski Studio

Inner City Snail

Adopt a Microbe

Why Me?

Ultra Awesome

Super Graphic Blog

Eclectic Cow

Girl Meets Glamour

Penguin and Fish

Everybody Likes Sandwiches

Design Muse

With new Web 2.0 sites and services popping up every day, it’s hard work just keeping track of the cool stuff you can do online – let alone having the time to browse use any of them. So what you need a someone to do the hard work for you, and waste their free time checking this sort of stuff out.

1. Sociagami -  Allows you to monitor and update most of your social networking accounts from one spot.
2. Startupping -  A community for Internet entrepreneurs.
3. Sproutbuilder – Create your own widgets for your blog or Facebook to add viral marketing to your arsenal.
4. Ask 500 People – Make questions – and find out what people think.
5. Reshade – Make Small Images large.
6. Tipit – Create great content and post this button to your site. It allows people to “tip” you.
7. Dipity – Create and share interactive timelines to inject life into your older blog posts and more.
8. Social Marker – Semi Automatic social bookmarking tool is easy to use and ensures you actually get your sites submitted. Use Do follow option – sign up accounts at each – go to school getting backlinks.

9. Posty – Post to all your microblogging services at once with Posty an Adobe Air client that puts it all in one place. Download the desktop tool and access Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Tumblr, Friendfeed, and Identi.ca for posting, images, and videos in one place.
10. Pikistore – Create an online T-Shirt shop in seconds. Has a built in editor.
11. Spot Merchant – Web 2.0 style e commerce stores.
12. Predictify – Predict the future and make money. Great for research.
13. Free Tell A Friend – A free tell a friend widget to add to your sites.
14. Tubemogul  – Free video submitter – It submits your videos to the 12 top video sharing sites and tracks how much traffic they get. This would be a great tool to use to promote your videos. Check out my How to Make money on Youtube post to find out how this site will help you make some dosh.
15. Mixx – A site where you can post interesting content (including yours).

If you didn’t find what you were looking for:

• Web 2.0 World Mosaic
• Listio

Update:
Reader Nigel also suggests you check out Hubdub.