As the world gets more and more mobile with each passing day it’s important to realize more of your visitors will be visiting your website on their mobile devices.  That’s why within the last year Responsive WordPress themes have become hugely popular.  Responsive WordPress themes are ones where the layout expands or contracts to fit the viewers screen no matter if they’re on a 30″ monitor or a tiny 3 inch iPhone screen.  If you know your visitors are viewing your site from mobile devices it’s good practice to have a mobile version of your site available or have a responsive theme which will make your site look good even on small handheld mobile devices.

Here’s a comprehensive list of 72 Responsive WordPress themes currently available.  I will be keeping this post up to date so please bookmark it.  Without further adieu, here they are..

1.Seven Wonders Responsive Theme – SevenWonders is a clean and modern wordpress HTML5 theme that is Fully Responsive, which mean the layout will adapt depending on the device screen size.

2. Agenci is a full-featured WordPress template built for creatives, agencies, freelancers, graphic designers and the like, who just want a professional, jazzy and ultimately kickass website.

3. Akita- HTML5 and CSS tableless design, Responsive design for all screen resolution sizes, Option to turn special stylesheet that targets tablets and mobile devices off or on.

4. Aleska – is a very corporate looking theme so it’s perfect for businesses of all types.  The navigation menu is really nice and includes a homepage slider.  Yet another nice responsive theme.

5. Angular – A fully responsive theme that really stands out. It is a responsive WordPress Theme (try resizing your browser), suited for users who want to showcase their work on a neat portfolio site.

 6. Arcadian - Is a responsive theme with a nice photo sliding grid on the homepage.  Comes with a layout builder, widget ready and has plenty of room for all your content.

7. Artboard - Artboard is a really elegant theme with a Powerful fullscreen jQuery slider, Browser-tested on all major browsers and Font replacement+

8. Artisan – Unlimited skins, fully responsive design and a drag and drop slider with touch support.  Includes a filterable portfolio and 9 custom widgets.

9. Aware -  an interactive, responsive portfolio theme perfect for freelancers, web designers, photographers and videographers alike.

10. Bangkok- a responsive theme for news and editorial type blogs. Bangkok is SEO optimized, has unlimited colors, 6 footer layouts, 10+ blog styles, 450+ fonts available, Drag Drop page builder and a Drag Drop slider manager.

11. Barely Corporate -  a clean WordPress theme that couldn’t be more easy to use. With a beautiful exterior and a backend that gives you ultimate versatility and freedom, Barely Corporate will have your website up and running in no time.

12. Brilliant - Fully responsive design compatible with mobile and tablet devices.  Choose from light and dark skins with unlimited color picker.

13. Construct- a clean and semi minimal responsive theme perfect for portfolios or travel blogs.  Includes different Post Formats (Standard, Image, Gallery, Video) and Left or Center Aligned Layout Options.

14. CookingPress - a responsive WordPress theme for foodies! Built in recipe builder plus advanced search by ingredients feature. HTML5 & CSS3

15. Darwin – a responsive theme with a nice masonry layout that is filterable to display portfolio pieces in a nice grid fashion.

16. Di’verso – a fresh and clean multipurpose WordPress Theme, built for your corporate/portfolio site or your personal blog.  5 Different homepage sliders, homepage page composer, 960 grid system layout, unlimited custom colors and backgrounds.

17. Eventure- built specifically for events Eventure is fully responsive and comes with 15 home page combinations, full layout control and unique calendar layouts.

18. Exposure – built with a bunch of features Exposure is a fullscreen photography theme with unique features liked blurred out menus and an audio player.

19. Focus – A carefully crafted, multi-optional responsive WordPress theme, designed for business, professional portfolios, flexible personal blogging sites.

20. Good Minimal – a responsive HTML5 & CSS3 , clean and minimalist style theme that is good for portfolio, blogs and businesses. This theme is flexible and is used media queries to adapt screen sizes, weither it is iPhone, iPad and wide screens.

21. Gratitude – a responsive Buddypress theme as well as a WordPress theme Gratitude offers lots of shortcodes with easy insertion, unbranded white label admin panel, unlimited sidebars and coded with love.

22. Grizzly – built for showcasing apps or applications. 3 Ways to Showcase your App : Slide, Magnify and Video

23. Hypergrid – a feature-rich, responsive WordPress theme which easily transforms your basic blog into a fully functional gallery showcase website. Includes filterable gallery, submission form for visitors, built in advertisements and more.

24. Instyle – Instyle is a responsive HTML5 & CSS3 Portfolio theme with WordPress post format support. Instyle uses Twitter Bootstrap CSS3 / HTML5 framework for easier development.

25. Jigsaw – Designed and tested to look great on a wide range of devices (iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Android device, laptop & desktop

26. Knead – A responsive theme in both light and dark skins with custom services templates to list all your business services. Comes with automatic image resizing, advertisement management and ajaxified comments.

27. Kraken is a clean and modern Business & Portfolio WordPress theme that’s perfect for showcasing your work in a minimalistic fashion. Includes both light and dark versions, drag and drop homepage content management and more.

28. Locus – Responsive layout, 3 skins: Dark, darklight, light, 3 backgrounds for each skin, Filtered portfolio, One page news and jQuery enhanced.

29. Luckytimes – A responsive theme with a clean and unique grid layout.  Includes custom google fonts, PSD files for customization, unbranded admin panel and more.

30. Lulu – Lulu is a fully responsive, minimalist, awesome WordPress theme, responsive flex slider, filterable portfolio/gallery and built-in contact form. Includes Flex Slider and 4 custom post types. 3 Different Color Schemes, including different colored icons.

31. Mercury – A responsive business theme with filterable portfolio, 8 custom widgets, 3 slider options, 5 default skins and 40+ shortcodes.

32. Modernize - A responsive WordPress theme with a lot of flexibility because of it’s built in Drag and Drop page builder. Includes font uploader, Unlimited Color, Unlimited Sidebar, 6 Footer Layouts, Logo Uploader, Background Uploader, Price Table and more!

33. Modulo – Responsive layout with 3 different sliders and unlimited color variations. Advanced and unbranded admin panel with 120+ options (inbuilt optiontree)

34. Momento – A fullscreen photography theme that is responsive. Responsive full-width slider which can also expand up / down at the click of a button.

35, Mooncraft - A dark responsive theme with full control over colors and is also touch screen compatible. Includes 10 custom widgets.

36, Mosaico -  a unique and responsive magazine WordPress theme with clean, sleek and customizable design. Video ready, 11 custom widgets, Full featured posts, Unique Mosaic section, Logo and favicon upload, Sidebar tabs and more.

37. My Mobile Page V3- Complete Touch flexible navigation, Fluid responsive layout, Flexible slideshow, Responsive carousel image Notebook is a responsive and simple-to-use WordPress theme for the creative agency, freelancer or virtually any other business looking for an attractive, professional web presence.gallery.

38. Notebook is a responsive and simple-to-use WordPress theme for the creative agency, freelancer or virtually any other business looking for an attractive, professional web presence.

39. The Novelist – This theme is built for the serious writers looking to showcase their writing.  Book-style layout with Left/Right arrow key support, slideout widget panel, fullscreen image backgrounds and more.

40. Office - Office is the ultimate WordPress theme for any corporate business. Featuring a very professional design, 7 custom post types, drag and drop homepage modules, unlimited highlight color option, optional navigation icons, 3 menu regions, an optional responsive layout…

41. Orchid – Orchid is a simple and clean portfolio type WordPress template. It is filled with tons of features but i would say its responsiveness is its key feature.  Homepage carousel, 3 different color schemes, 8 different post formats etc.

42. Pixel Power - This is a clean, modern, powerful WordPress tumblog-style theme designed for a wide variety of uses from bloggers to design portfolios. The responsive web design adapts from large to mobile screens, just resize the browser window to test it out, no additional setup required!

43. Pixem – a Responsive Portfolio Template for Individual Professionals & Agencies. Clean Lines & Minimal Design Approach Highlights your Work. Showcase your Portfolio on any device efficiently with its Unique Responsive layouts.

44. Propulsion – A responsive theme by the popular Kriesi developer on Themeforest.  Includes well thought out SEO coding and many different features such as custom post types, woocommerce shop plugin compatibility, bbpress ready.  And the list goes on.

45. Reach – Reach is a business portfolio / showcase WordPress theme that offers clean styling with easy use and flexible layouts though shortcodes and template options.

47. Reaction – more than a WordPress theme, it’s a comprehensive HTML5 framework and it includes a full templating system as well; A collection of several incredibly powerful scripts and CSS structures that’s been tied together into a kit that’s perfect as a jumping off point of your next project.

48. Responser – Built-in mobile & tablet styling. No need to recode for iOS or Android., Sliders and portfolio galleries are touch-enabled(swipe left/right) and orientation-independent and Portfolio images display fullscreen and swipe-enabled on mobile devices.

49. Rewrite – a versatile WordPress theme with a super clean, responsive design. This theme looks just as great on the iPhone as it does on the desktop. Swipe support for sliders and fully scaleable embedded video support make this a great theme.

50. Rising – A fully responsive theme with mobile swipe gstures fully supported on sliders & scrollable sections. The WordPress framework is rock-solid and has been tested in thousands of websites, with various server configurations.

51. Ruskin – Responsive layout with multiple post format support along with 6 custom widgets, backgrounds, and unlimited sliders.

52. Sapienta – a minimal design portfolio theme with a responsive layout using a smart fluid grid and CSS Media Queries.

53. Saviour – a responsive WordPress theme with 18 custom fonts, 12 page templates, custom widgets, options panel and WordPress 3.3 compatible.  Fully optimized for the iphone.

54. ShapeShifter – Fully Responsive WordPress Theme and Theme-Options Manager. The Super Skeleton UI Kit (Exclusive Freebie PSD ). 3 Minimal skins and 2 fontstacks to start with.

55. SizeMttrs -a responsive and unique theme designed for Designers, Artists, Photographers, etc, who want to show their work from a wider view, but adapting it to any device. All your content will adapt to any screen, wide screen, laptop, tablet and smartphone.

56. Slate -   A responsive theme with both light and dark styles Slate is very clean and minimal.  Fully Scalable Galleries, Mobile Swipe Support, Fully Scalable Embedded Video.

57. Sodales – Sodales is a responsive WordPress business theme with lot’s of cool and useful options and built upon the 1140 cssgrid. Valide HTML5 and Background image uploader for pages, posts and custom post types.

58. Styx – Styx is the Reponsive WordPress theme for Business, Corporate, Software, Portfolio and Blog built with latest WordPress features. Custom Post Type, Customizing Elements Colors, Extensive admin panel etc.

59. SupaFlex – Responsive theme with built in layout composer, Localization ready, unlimited color options and more.

60. Super Skeleton – Based on the popular 960.gs Super Skeleton is a responsive theme from epicera, who is one of the most popular theme developers on themeforest. 20 HTML Template Files and Non-Obtrusive Javascript.

61. Supportive- awesome fully responsive knowledgebase theme with a Fully Responsive design, Unlimited Colors, Multiple Backgrounds and a Built-in ajax contact form.

62. Swagger- HTML5 and CSS tableless design, Responsive design for all screen resolution sizes, Option to turn special stylesheet that targets tablets and mobile devices off or on.

63. SWIX – Swix is an extremely customizable and flexible theme, suitable for almost any kind of website. All pages and posts can be manually changed in the options panel via drag and drop functionality.

64. Trine – Trine is a Responsive portfolio theme for WordPress. It’s packed with useful elements, functions and shortcodes that respond with the layout. Featured section can be displayed as a slider, static image or video.

65. View – Really nice minimalist design that is best for personal and portfolio websites. It includes a lot of features like gallery, video, flex slider, and a many more.  Available in 5 different color schemes.

66. Vue – Responsive design with fullscreen slideshow and MP3 audio player.  Unlimited backgrounds, built in ajax form, google maps and twitter integration.  Perfect for starting a gallery of inspiration.

67. Website – A responsive theme with unlimited sliders, multiple post formats like tumblr and includes 8 custom widgets.

68. WebWorks – Webworks is a powerful theme that allows to construct pages in different ways.  Incoludes 4 featured menu styles, 9 portfolio styles including 6 sliders and 3 grid layouts.  Supports video with 4 built in widgets.  Has a custom logo autofit feature so your logo will fit nicely no matter the size.  Includes custom font support.

69. Webzine – Webzine is a Responsive Layout magazine and portfolio theme with creative jQuery brick slide, it can be set as a magazine website, blog, personal homepage, portfolio, and so on.  Includes infinite scrolling.

70. William - a grid-based, responsive, minimalistic, ajax powered portfolio theme for creatives. The theme comes with a well thought out responsive layout, unlimited sidebar management, 5 post formats, simple theme options and much more.

71. WP Pro Real Estate  – currently the only Responsive theme on the real estate market.  WP Pro Real Estate 3 is one of the most powerful real estate themes purpose built to showcase your listings, loaded with more features than you can shake a stick at! WordPress 3.2+ & 3.3+, HTML5 & CSS3, Unlimited Skins & Patterns, Unbranded AJAX Powered Admin Options Panel, Drag & Drop Homepage Builder and Flex Slider with Touch Support.

72. XO – SUPER responsive WordPress theme, that boasts an awesome clean look and beautiful media support.  Designed around the 960gs grid and HTML5/CSS3 it includes a filterable portfolio and 68 preset backgrounds.

Responsive HTML Boilerplates:

Skeleton – Beautiful responsive template boilerplate for responsive designs.

1140 CSS Grid – 12 columns fluid to mobile layout.

Golden Grid System – 16 columns of design, 18 total, it’s a folding grid system

Less Framework 4 – An adaptive grid system

It seems like just last year fullscreen WordPress themes just started to capture some momentum within the theme development community and now…well you can see that there was clearly a demand for them.  Fullscreen or full bleed WordPress themes empower photographers and creatives to display their photos in a bold manner.  It’s no wonder they have become so wildly popular over the last 18 months it seems.

Listed in no particular order, (although I did list some of the top sellers first as they do stand out from the crowd) are 40 fullscreen WordPress themes.  You can click the links below to jump immediately to that full screen theme.

Studio8, King Size, Core Theme, Village Theme, Contrast Theme, Delight Theme, Invictus, DK Theme, Flashlight, Full Scene, Adventure, ANAN, Black Label, Chocolate, Mediareel, Panarama, Picture this, Viewfinder, Alive, Apolo, Architectos, Artboard, Fullscreen template, Her, JR, Mass, Meshable, Pacifico, Photolux, Photorific, Photox, Pluto, Rhea, Simpolio, Specere, Studio Zen, Teardrop, This Way, Xebax, Zeus,

1. Studio8 – a very bold and visually appealing theme Studio8 is one of the nicest full screen themes I’ve seen. The menu system that minimizes out of sight which is powered by jquery is really nice. This theme also works with well with youtube and vimeo support. The ajax of this theme is something you need to see for yourself.

2. King Size – Fullscreen background slider with 5 gallery types to showcase your work. Custom admin panel with shortcodes and widgets. Over 5,500 copies of this theme have been sold!

3. Core Theme – Full screen slideshow for photo gallery along with built in font manager and 4 portfolio styles. Includes 8 custom widgets and many shortcodes. With over 4,000 copies sold you know people just love this theme.

4. Village Theme - Village includes a bunch of different features really too many to list here. Including drag and drop image uploader, automatic thumbnail creation, video support and of course full screen backgrounds.

5. Contrast Theme – suitable for photographers, graphic and web designers as well as agencies. Includes 120+ shortcodes, widgets, 4 unique portfolio layouts. Select between Color, Image, Flash Video, Google Maps and Slideshow type backgrounds for any post and page easily with pattern options. Apple iPad compatible!

6. Delight Theme – Another theme with lots of features including fullscreen backgrounds. Sidebar generator, Portfolio Galleries with Lightbox, Google maps and more.

7. Invictus – A full sized image and video theme for photographers and creatives alike featured both black and white skins, fullscreen background support, post image sliders, fullscreen flickr slideshows as well as bulk photo uploading.

8. DK Theme – a premium theme built for photography or portfolio websites with the latest WordPress features in mind including custom post types, unlimited colors as well as full screen slideshows. This theme also includes 7 custom widgets.

9. Flashlight – 6 different galleries makes this theme pretty darn impressive Fullscreen, Masonry Grid, Inline Slideshow, Inline Attached, Classic 3 Column, WordPress Default). Supports woocommerce so you can sell your photos with ease along with a bunch of cool features.

10. Full Scene - offers both dark and light skinds, customizable background (fullscreen and normal), customizable secondary colors along with custom @font-face fonts. This theme is very professional and can be used for many different businesses. +30 shorcodes!

11. Adventure – minimal theme with drag and drop ajax slider, 1-4 column galleries, and interactive walls.

12. ANAN – a lovely full screen theme which includes custom post types, color picker, custom fonts and a full screen homepage slideshow. Includes 4 portfolio styles and 8 custom widgets. Includes custom menu support.

13. Black Label - Fullscreen Video Background Support. Fullscreen HTML5 Video Background Support. Fullscreen Images Background Support. Audio Background while viewing images…

14. Chocolate – A clean and elegant theme for displaying your images in a fashionable way. Includes 2 level galleries, fullwidth showcase-style slider for homepage and custom widgets. Standout feature is it’s tumblr style post types. It also has a masonry gallery.

15. Mediareel – fullscreen slideshows, portfolio custom types, color picker and unlimited sidebars. Includes 3 custom widgets and choose your own logo.

16. Panarama – Paginated background sliders in posts, fullscreen galleries, exif data, background pattern options, MP3 player integrated, custom menus and sliding menus. Of course google analytics and web fonts are there.

17. Picture this – If fullscreen is what you want then Picture this will deliver. Fullscreen background image slideshows for each post/page/portfolio. Includes custom color picker, logo options, text colors, etc. Over 1,600 copies sold!

18. Viewfinder – Minimal design with valid HTML make this theme very pristine. 2 color variations light and dark with optional exif data display. Extensive theme options are all unbranded for your pleasure.

19. Alive – Unlike most full screen themes that stick to the same layout Alive actually breaks out of that mold to create a custom feel which is perfect for many situations. Includes dynamic navigation menu, full screen background slideshow and AJAX features.

20. Apolo – full screen image and videos with HTML5 support. 40+ cufon fonts, youtube and video support as well as 30+ shortcodes. Includes ajax contact form.

21. Architechtos – Tired of standard thumbnail grid layouts? Then Architectos offers something different in the way of a loose and open layout. Comes with a visual drag and drop interface. Architectos also supports videos.

22. Artboard – jQuery fullscreen slider and tested with all major browsers. Includes font replacement and is ipad/iphone/mobile friendly. The front page is responsive.

23. Fullscreen template – touch screen ready! This theme features some tasty animation effects when you first load it so be sure to check it out. Comes in two different color schemes with custom built background image slider with two special effects you have to see.

24. Her – ER is a powerful, premium fullscreen background WordPress theme great for photography and portfolio websites but can also be used for other projects. Fullscreen Background Image Slideshow and Use Background Music on any page/post/portfolio item you want!

25. JR – Custom shortcodes, page templates, contact form and blog pages make JR pretty impressive. Works with WordPress 3.3 and includes social networking functions.

26. Mass – Includes 13 layouts that are AJAX and crawlable which is important for SEO. Includes an impressive Facebook comment integration as well as custom post types and the masonry jQuery plugin.

27. Meshable – Both image and video support for fullscreen, audio player, ajax galleries, spam protection, shortcode generator and more.

28. Pacifico – boasts many features like gallery slider management, SEO features, form builder and more. 8 Theme Skins, 3 Layouts, 25 styled widgets, 35+ styled shortcodes, Google fonts (422 fonts so far) and Multisite support.

29. Photolux – a powerful and elegant photography and portfolio based theme that features both dark and light skins. The ajax gallery and awesome jQuery animations makes this theme very dynamic. Cufon and Google fonts supported.

30. Photorific – offers full screen image slideshows, color matching, shortcodes, widgets for flickr photos as well as offers portfolio section with video support. Includes ability to create unlimited sidebars.

31. Photox – Built on a solid HTML5 WordPress framework, Photox is an impressive and minimal full screen background theme. This theme also includes well thoughtout SEO features.

32. Pluto – a fullscreen theme for restaurants and food places… this fullscreen theme includes both dark and light skins, drag and drop homepage contents and fullscreen image galleries.

33. Rhea – is an elegant full screen theme that has cool blur menu effects, 10 page templates, password protected gallery support, 7 custom widgets, as well as audio support.

34. Simpolio – full screen theme with 7 amazing effects along with background video support. Mulisite ready with support for unlimited portfolios. 50+ Shortcodes, 8 page templates, 6 different blog templates.

35. Specere – Weird name but this theme has many impressive features including image panning, white label admin, scrollable thumbnails, social integration, sharing and is fully localized.

36. Studio Zen – Features Fullscreen slideshows with audio. Also, video fullscreen playback for Vimeo, Flash, Youtube and HTML5 videos. Fullscreen Focus view toggle clears other elements for best view of fullscreen slideshows.

37. Teardrop – features a fullscreen slider, background video support, unlimited color options, multiple portfolios and galleries and 11 page templates. Teardrop also has a featured called “Magic Portfolio” that generates layouts randomly for you which can be used for something cool. Also includes a Flickr photostream for background slideshow.

38. This Way -HTML5 and CSS3 are heavily used in this theme with tons of features including full screen sliders, audio support, video support, custom fonts, lightbox and even google maps.

39. Xebax – Xebax is Powerful Fullscreen WordPress theme that will match with any of personal, business, or portfolio site. Comes with massive admin panel options to help you manage your site more easier.

40. Zeus – Fullscreen Video & Image Background wordpress theme, also with a Image Slider Background. Perfect for photographers, designers, directors or companies wishing to display their work in an elegant and modern way without complications.

What do you think?  Have any favorite fullscreen themes?  Have I forgot to list one?  Let me know in the comments below.  Hope you enjoyed this post!

I’ve been working with WordPress for more than two years now and it’s hard to remember how it felt when I just got started. I do know that it’s important to have some sort of guide to learn the basics and get acquainted with somthing new.

I thought it would be handy to compile a list of what I consider to be the best free resources for beginners to get up and running with WordPress. I divided them into written guides and downloadable PDF files, and video screencast tutorials.

Written guides / tutorials

Easy WP Guide
http://easywpguide.com/ : an entire website built as a WordPress guide. It also offers a downloadable PDF version. It also has a beautiful design
WPBeginner tutorials section
http://www.wpbeginner.com/category/wp-tutorials/: this is the ultimate blog for WordPress beginners, they’re always publishing new tutorials and are very active in the community.

WordPress Codex official documentation
http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Lessons: I couldn’t leave out the official WordPress documentation, could I?

InterconnectIT WordPress User Guide
http://interconnectit.com/products/wordpress-user-guide/: These guys allow you to download their WordPress guide as a PDF. There is also an unbranded Word format, but that’s not free.

Videos

WPTuts WP101 video training
http://wp.tutsplus.com/category/tutorials/wp101-training/: WPtuts is a relatively new site in the WordPress blogosphere, but its content is of high quality. They have partnered with WP101 to provide excellent video tutorials that cover the basics of WordPress administration.

WordPress.tv
http://wordpress.tv Of course, WordPress has its own channel with presentations given at Wordcamps. There are videos for all levels from beginner to expert.

Leanr WordPress youtube channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/learnwordpress3: a collection of WordPress video tutorials on youtube

iThemes WordPress tutorials
http://ithemes.com/tutorials/: iThemes brought us the Builder theme and Backupbuddy. This is their collection of WordPress video tutorials that they are providing for free.
Viva Themes WordPress screencast vimeo channel
http://vimeo.com/user5879160/videos: here is a collection of screencasts from Viva themes that cover the basics of WordPress such as using a contact form or changing the permalinks.

WP101.com free videos
http://www.wp101.com/tag/free/: here are the free video tutorials from WP101. To get access to the complete collection, there is a small fee to pay.

WordPress is rapidly gaining popularity… even more than before.

Fact 1: 14.7 percent of the top million websites in the world use WordPress. (source: http://goo.gl/e1MRU)

Fact 2: 22 of every 100 active domains created in the U.S. are running WordPress. (source: http://goo.gl/XIZ7F)

Good and bad news…

So what does this mean? While more and more websites are powered by WordPress, more and more developers are contributing in one way or another to make WordPress secure and better. The bad news is that it makes a very attractive target for hackers.

Power to the people

Fortunately, there is a great community, we only need to look at the way the recent timthumb script vulnerability was handled.

That being said, if you haven’t yet checked your website for the timthumb vulnerability, I suggest you go grab the Timthumb vulnerability scanner plugin and run a scan.

More info here: http://wptheming.com/2011/08/cleaning-up-the-timthumb-hack/

Security good practices

There are several best practices that you should keep in mind in order to make your website less prone to vulnerability:

Themes and plugins downloads – only download themes from trusted sources, the official WordPress.org theme repository is the best place to go for free themes. Themes undergo a rigorous quality check before being released for download.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of plugins. Plugin code quality is overall very poor.
What to look out for when deciding about a plugin:
Plugin author: Is the plugin author a well respected contributor to WordPress? Big names in the WordPress community are usually a guarantee of coding best practices.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/profile/greenshady
http://profiles.wordpress.org/users/joostdevalk/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/profile/scribu
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/profile/markjaquith

Is the plugin being actively developed? – check the Last Updated date, and Compatible up to version number. They should be recent. WordPress has recently instaured a new rule to delete all plugins that havent been updated in two years.

Average rating to download ratio: if the plugin has many downloads and still has a 4 or  5 star rating, it’s a good indicator of its reliabilty.

Forum discussions: all plugin pages link to related forum discussions. I suggest browsing these threads before installing the plugin.

Keep your local computer clean of viruses. Seriously, use a good antivirus and firewall, and you won’t be uploading malicious files to your website server unknowingly.

Use SFTP – SFTP is SSH over FTP. If you’re using filezilla, you can select SFTP instead of FTP in the connection settings. On hostgator, you’ll need to set the port to 2222 and set the server to Unix. This will encrypt your username and password, which will stop hackers from intercepting them.

Don’t use default admin user – you’ve heard this one before, but I still have to educate people about this. Just create a new user with administrator rights and either delete admin or change its rights to subscriber. If you’re afraid of forgetting what your username and password were, I suggest using a browser extension such as LastPass to manage your passwords.

Use a secure password. I mentioned LastPass, this extension also allows you to generate secure passwords which you wont have to remember. Change your password from time to time.

Check folder and file permissions  best practice is 755 for folders and 644 for files. You can use the ServerBuddy plugin, BackupBuddy or Ultimate Security Checker for that.

Database prefix: you should not use the default “wp_” database prefix. This can be set during the installation process. It can also be changed on existing WordPress sites, but is a little trickier because it may involve replacing strings in serialized data. (plugin options and such).

Remove install.php from the wp-admin folder.

Remove readme file from the root folder.

If possible, move your wp-config up one level. For example, you can install WordPress in a subfolder of your public_html folder, and put the wp-config.php file directly under public_html.

Wp-config.php tweaks:

change the secret keys: https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/, you can regenerate these periodically. This will have the effect of forcing all users to log in again.

disable admin plugin and theme editors: define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true);

Hide login errors: add this to your functions.php file:

add_filter('login_errors', create_function('\$a','return null;'));

Advanced security measures:

robots.txt: disallow sensitive folders to be crawled by robots: http://perishablepress.com/wordpress-robots-rules/

.htaccess file: you can use the htaccess file to control access to files and folders on your server. For example, you’ll want to protect the wp-config.php file, and you can even restrict access to the WordPress admin to IP addresses or ranges.

Use a dedicated server: on a dedicated server, you have total control over server configuration, which allows you to set much tighter security configurations than on a shared hosting solution.

Premium WordPress hosting solutions: http://page.ly/,http://wpengine.com/

Use an SSL certificate. You will have to purchase and install an SSL certificate.
http://codex.wordpress.org/Administration_Over_SSL

WordPress security toolbox

Plugins

Ultimate Security Checker: this plugin provides a quick way to assess your overall security and helps you quickly fix problems. I run it on all my installations until I get the highest score possible. One aspect that you may not have control over is the server configuration on shared hosting plans.

ServerBuddy: you can determine how well configured your hosting provider’s server is thanks to this plugin. It will scan for unsafe configurations so that you may either change them or contact your hosting provider. Another useful tool it provides is a directory size listing. This will allow you to quickly identify which files are taking up too much space.

Limit login attempts: this plugin will make a brute-force attack difficult or impossible. By default, WordPress allows unlimited login attempts, so this is a must-install plugin.

Block bad queries: this plugin protects your site from malicious URL requests

WordPress File Monitor: if a hacker gains access to your website’s file system, he can do all sorts of bad things. Use this plugin to be alerted as soon as any changes are made to your WordPress files. A nice side effect is that if you install this on your clients’ sites, you can effectivley be warned if they are messing with files they shouldn’t, and if they break something the log files will give you a clue to what has been done. Which leads to the next plugin.

Backupbuddy: this plugin will cost you $75 for a 2 site license. But if you’re looking for a set it and forget it backup solution, this may be your ticket. That being said, I do have some reservations, as it has not been working that well for me on a couple of larger websites, so I can’t fully endorse it. I present another backup solution in the next section.

Secure WordPress: provides miscellaneous tweaks to make your WordPress installation more secure. If you install it, you won’t need the BBQ plugin. One thing it does is remove the update notifications for non-admin users.

Bad behavior: a plugin by core WordPress developers which helps protect your site against malicious activity such as denial of service, and it is also effective against spam.

Hotfix: provides fixes for WordPress bugs.
Bulletproof Security: The BulletProof Security WordPress Security plugin is designed to be a fast, simple and one click security plugin to add .htaccess website security protection for your WordPress website.

Apps

ManageWP:  a recently new service by well respected developer Vladimir Prelovac, ManageWP provides you with an efficient way to manage multiple WordPress installations in one place. You can update WordPress and plugins across all your sites with one click of a button. You can also set up backup routines to Dropbox and Amazon S3 and migrate sites across servers. So if Backupbuddy isn’t for you, I suggest trying ManageWP.

Sucuri sitecheck: offers a free scanner that will check your WordPress site for malware.

Cloudflare: this service is like an extra security layer for your website. It integrates nicely with WordPress via a plugin and also with the W3 Total Cache plugin. It is not only a caching solution, but it also protects your website against attacks. It isn’t too difficult to setup, but I recommend asking a professional if you are not familiar with DNS, nameservers and domain management. I also advise against using the Hostgator Cpanel cloudflare tool, as it will break your site. Install it directly through the Cloudflare website. A nice feature is that it will filter bots from your analytics.

VaultPress: created by the founders of WordPress, VaultPress is an extensive backup and security solution for serious WordPress users. It starts at $15 per month.

WordPress security resources

WordPress official documentation

http://codex.wordpress.org/FAQ_Security
http://codex.wordpress.org/Hardening_WordPress
http://wordpress.org/news/category/security/
http://wordpress.org/news/2009/09/keep-wordpress-secure/

Blog articles

http://dev.studiopress.com/wordpress-security-guide.htm
http://wp.tutsplus.com/tutorials/10-steps-to-securing-your-wordpress-installation/
http://digwp.com/2010/07/wordpress-security-lockdown/
http://theme.fm/2011/09/strategies-for-successful-wordpress-upgrades-2382/
http://wpmu.org/what-lurks-in-the-wordpress-plugin-repository/
http://securemyblog.com/secure-wp-articles/

WordPress security news

http://www.wpsecure.net/

WordPress security presentations

http://wordpress.tv/2011/01/29/dre-armedabrad-williams-user-security/

Conclusion

Even implementing a few of these tips will help keep hackers at bay. It can be very expensive and detrimental to your website to get hacked, so if you haven’t yet, I suggest at least installing the plugins.

Did I miss anything or get something wrong? Have an awesome tip to secure WordPress? share in the comments!

Introducing the free “Tumble Ten” theme. Tumble Ten is a modified version of the default Twenty Ten theme with a more Tumblresque style created for use with the new Woo tumblog plugin. This can also be used without the plugin if you just want the look for your own blog.

The Woo tumblog plugin allows you to do Tumblr style posting as well as using the normal WordPress post styles making it easy to quickly add links, quotes, pictures, and videos from the WordPress dashboard or the familiar WordPress interface.

You can download the theme, Woo tumblog plugin, or view a demo from the following links.

Steve: Since the theme was reported with bugs, we would like to review the theme and try to fix the bugs. So now we temporarily disable the downloading links. Sorry for the inconvenience, please keep browsing the site and find out more interesting and helpful stuff.

Tumble Ten theme also comes with 3 custom widgets:

1. A flickr widget for all your photos
2. Twitter feed
3. Author Bio

For those of you who are curious here is a screenshot of the Dashboard Widget. This widget allows you to add any type of Tumblog post without ever leaving the Dashboard. Blogging with WordPress has never been faster.

Install Instructions:

• Download the theme and plugin from the above links or install the plugin from your WP Dashboard.
• Install theme and activate.
• Install plugin and activate.
• This next step is extremely important for the Woo Tumblog Plugin to work Properly. Make sure you go to Settings -> Permalinks and then hit the “save” button. This needs to be done to make the tumblog Permalinks work.
• That’s it!

Since this is a free theme I cannot provide any support but if you have a question that can be quickly answered feel free to ask in the comments.

Google Analytics makes it easy for you to track and keep tabs on the who, what, when, where, how and why of your blog’s readers. This 4.5 minute video talks you through setting up Analytics for your self-installed WordPress blog.

If you are currently using WordPress for iOS or are one of the disappointed users who tried it and immediately deleted the old thing within 5 minutes…you have to check out the latest version to hit the App store. I have already downloaded the app and have to say it’s a big improvement from the dinosaur that came before.

It’s a whole new WordPress for a whole new platform. WordPress for iOS, version 2.6, is now optimized to take advantage of the iPad’s new user interface, making blogging from your device even easier than ever before. Download it from the App Store today or read more about it on the WordPress for iOS website.

A short list of reasons why this is the best version yet include:

• Video. Record, upload, attach, and play videos within the app. Yay for being able to catch your friends’ and co-workers’ most embarrassing shenanigans creative moments with iPhone video and publish them immediately for all the world to see on your WordPress site.
• A total rewrite of the way local drafts are handled, to prevent the unintentional loss of your pending posts.
• Autosave/post revisions. Bam! One of the “oh, thank goodness” features of the web app makes it into the iOS version.
• Easier setup. Faster and easier process for adding your sites to the app.
• Media Library. We’re gradually getting closer to the media management you’re used to in the web app.

***Please note: Some users are reporting an error message related to login information after installing this update. If you get an error message related to your username and password but are sure your information is correct, please remove the app from your iOS device and do a clean install. Be sure to convert any Local Drafts to online posts before removing the app. The developers are working on a 2.6.1 bugfix release to be submitted soon.

Devin Price from WPTheming.com shows you how to enable wordpress 3.0 multisite. In this tutorial he will switch a standard WordPress installation over to the multisite version so you can use multiple blogs from one installation.

Now that WordPress 3.0 is out here is a quick tutorial on how to add custom navigation to your themes.

The new custom navigation feature in WordPress 3.0 has to be my absolute favorite. This gives you the ability to add items like custom links, pages, and categories. The drag and drop interface makes it extremely simple to use. This feature will not be available in older themes unless the theme author updates that theme. In this article, we will show you how you can enable and install custom navigation menus in your themes.

How to enable Custom Navigation Menus in WordPress 3.0

Step 1.
Add the code below to your theme’s functions.php file:

[php]
add_theme_support( ‘menus’ );
[/php]

Step 2:
Once you have the code placed in your functions file, you can add it in your theme. You can add a menu anywhere you like to fit your designss need by pasting the code below:

[php]
<?php wp_nav_menu( array( ‘sort_column’ => ‘menu_order’, ‘container_class’ => ‘menu-header’ ) ); ?>
[/php]

The function that calls the custom menu is, wp_nav_menu. The arguments in the code above code are sort_column and container_class. The sort_column value tells WordPress to follow the order you pick in the options panel, and the container_class is the css styling class that you want for this specific menu.

Learn more about WordPress 3.0 custom menus:
Function Reference/wp nav menu
Appearance Menus SubPanel

If you’d like to change which of the authors on your blog is given attribution for a specific post, this video will show you how.

Video length: 30 seconds

Overview:

If you have more than one one author working on your blog you might find from time to time that you need to change the attribution or author of a post.

You can do that with the dropdown menu under the postauthor pane. Selecting the name of whoever you would like to credit for the post. When the post goes live, that is the author who will be credited.