There are so many ways that coaches and holistic healers can get a website today.

You can go the ‘old fashioned’ route and have a website designer build a pages in HTML. You can use some of the pre-made services you’ll find on any number of hosts (though most of the designs look like they’re 10 years old). Or you can have your website created on one of the myriad of publishing platforms available today.

Of course my favorite publishing platform for coaches, healers and the other service providers I work with is WordPress. There’s others, of course. But having use other platforms I find WordPress to be the right combination of ease-of-use, expandability and power for my clients with their coaching and healing practices.

And since I’m constantly getting asked why I like WordPress so much as a platform and content management system for coaches and healers, let me offer a bunch of my reasons:

1. WordPress is free!
   That’s right, WordPress itself costs nothing. It’s open source code and protected under GPL licensing so that no one can directly sell WordPress (keep that in mind when you speak with your website designer). Now that doesn’t mean your designer shouldn’t get paid for their time – they should. And it should be clear that what you’re paying for isn’t WordPress, but the skills, time and support from your website designer.
2. Easy Editing
   Adding and editing your content in WordPress is a snap. Click a single button and WordPress creates a new page or blog post for your site. And the editor works in very similar way to Microsoft Word – take a look at this video. So with your coaching website on WordPress there’s no need to pay your web designer to do simple updates to you copy or even add new pages to your site. Huge time and cost savings.
3. Easily Add Audio/Video
   So many coaches and healers I work with today are using video and audio to promote their businesses. Well, WordPress makes incredibly easy to add either (or both) to your website. No more sweating through code trying to get that YouTube video on your site (if you even dare).
4. Easily Change Your Navigation Bar
   Your navigation bar is one of the most important parts of your website. Being able to add new links, change their names or reorder them has long time been reserved to coders. But with the most recent versions of WordPress you – the coach, healer or service professional – can have complete control over your navigation bar with a simple drag-and-drop feature. This is yet another way to that you have control over your site and can save tons of money in updating your site.
5. Small Learning Curve
   I keep talking about how easy using WordPress is to use. One of the reasons is because the learning curve is so small. Now I’m not talking about using all of WordPress. I’m simply speaking as a publishing platform and content management system. I usually teach my coaching clients how to create, publish and edit their first page in about 10 minutes. Pretty small learning curve for a huge capability.
6. Integrated website and Blog
   As I write this I keep watching myself want to write ‘the most important thing’ about WordPress. But you can’t really have more than one ‘most important’ thing. That said, having your website and your blog on the same domain name is vital. Not only does WordPress allow you to do so, it allows you to completely manage both the pages and the blog posts of your coaching website from one place.
7. No Limits on Size of Your Website
   Your coaching website on WordPress can be as small or large as you need it. There’s no limit to the number of pages or to blog posts. This site, for instance, has more than 500 posts and over 130 pages – and I haven’t written that much in the past couple of years. So your coaching website on WordPress can scale to handle whatever size site you need.
8. Integrates Easily with Social Media Sites
   People offering a service build their business on relationships. Nowhere on the web are relationships more accessible than social media. There are so many ways to get WordPress to work well with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google +1 and a whole slew of social media sites that it would take many posts to explain even a bit of what the possibilities are. Just assume that your WordPress website will be able to do anything you’ve seen done already on the web – often very easily.
9. Plugins
   Plugins are add-ons to WordPress that give it expanded functionality. While at this moment I don’t know how many plugins there are, there must be thousands. Think of anything you want to do on your website – anything to better promote your coaching or healing practice – and there’s a really good chance there’s a plugin (or ten) already created to do it. Nearly all are plugins are free as well.
10. Themes
    Themes are basically designs in WordPress (though they can do more). The great news is there are thousands of free and paid themes available from a massive source of designers. Want something custom? That can be done too. Basically, if you see a design you like it can be built as a WordPress theme. As a matter of fact, I often rebuild existing coaching and healing websites as WordPress themes.
11. Security
    No system on the internet is hack proof. And WordPress has gone through some growing pains when it comes to security. Yet security in WordPress is excellent. You can even go the extra mile and make it even more secure through specific plugins and coding. I have a package I call the WordPress Security Protocol which  you’re welcome to ask me about.
12. Google Loves WordPress
    Google loves content and WordPress allows you easily publish what you want when you want it. Combine that with the clean code, a number of SEO features both built in and through plugins, and easy content submission through sitemaps and RSS and you have a powerful system for getting your coaching website found in search results.
13. Forever Expandable
    The same way there’s no limit to how many pages and posts your site can have, WordPress makes expanding your site incredibly easy. Want to add a membership or shopping cart to your coaching site? No need to a full redesign or even another ‘part’ to your website. WordPress, with a bit of coding and some choice plugins, can grow to whatever you need your site to do.
14. Lots and Lots of People Are Using WordPress
    If your coaching or healing site isn’t on WordPress chance are you know quite a few people whose are. Not only can they tell you about how great and easy WordPress is to use, but they can also show you around a little bit. And because WordPress is so widely used now, there’s very little chance of it ever going away.
15. Support
    Of course I support all my clients through one-on-one training and access to my large catalog of short, topic-specific video tutorials. But beyond me there’s tens of thousands of active WordPress users that you can likely find an answer to just about any question you have around your WordPress website.
16. BONUS: WordPress.tv
    This is a great site that has all sorts of professionally recorded video relating to WordPress. There’s even a great ‘How-to’ section that covers a number of topics.
17. BONUS #2: Autonomy
    Before I ever became a WordPress fanatic I had two question – how much control can I give non-techie users over their sites and how easy would it be to learn? Well, WordPress is so easy to use I often teach my clients how to blog, add and edit pages, change what’s in their sidebar and change their navigation bar in as little as 20 minutes. Seems odd, but my goal is to make myself unnecessary to my clients. And WordPress does a great job at that.

Oh yeah, and let me clear one more thing out of the way – your WordPress website DOES NOT need to look like a blog. As I said above, anything that can be done in web design can be done on a WordPress website.

WordPress rocks! It really does. And here’s my bottom line statement on how it can serve you: If you can’t currently edit your own website’s content, then you should move your website to WordPress. There are many options for doing so – each of which we can discuss in a short, no-pressure phone call. Remember, in moving your site to WordPress you can:

• Keep your existing design the way it is – we just make it a WordPress theme and show you how to use it.
• Keep part of your existing design and make those updates you’ve been wanting to make as we turn your site into a WordPress theme.
• Get a completely different website design with features and functions you never had before.
• Any other combination you can think of.

Just get in touch with me to talk about how WordPress can help you specifically. I take calls from people everyday who pick my brain and get their questions answered. As I said, no pressure – just help, advice and guidance.

The list of why you should be using WordPress for your coaching, holistic healing or professional service website could go on. But WordPress only matters if you’re using it. So find out how you – and your business – can benefit from this amazing publishing platform.

And if you’re using WordPress already for your site, tell me what you love (and don’t love) in the comment box.

(note: image from Lincolnian (Brian) on Flickr,  some rights reserved)

But I know there are some people who read my blog regularly who don’t have any experience with WordPress. Perhaps they’ve heard of it and have no idea what it is. Maybe they’ve even used it but haven’t really understood how powerful it can. And yet I know there are others who haven’t heard of WordPress at all.

So I’m going to share a few short screencasts I’ve made over the past year to introduce some of the most powerful user features in WordPress and show you why you want to consider using it for your next website.

Now, just so we’re clear, this set of screencasts are meant for website owners who are running a business and who want and need to manage their websites themselves without having to deal with code. So these videos are made not for the coder or web developer – there’s plenty of that stuff. These videos are for coaches, healers and anyone else who has a service-based business so you can see what’s possible with a WordPress website.

So, let’s get started…

Using WordPress to Create, Update and Edit Your Website’s Content

Being able to publish and edit your own content whenever you want is a vital part of having a successful business website. And with WordPress you can do so without having to know a lick of code or hire a webmaster to do it for you. This saves you huge amounts of money and time. And streamlines you opportunities to make money. Watch how easy it is to edit your own content in WordPress:

Easily Manage and Update Your Navigation Bar

There were ways with systems before WordPress to edit your own content. But there’s almost never been an easy way to put control over your website’s navigation bar before WordPress 3.0. Take a look at how easy you can add, move and rename your nav buttons:

Change Your Design Whenever You Want

You can see from the two videos above that WordPress gives you incredible power over your website without having to know a lick of code. Well, it gets even better. The last feature I want to show you is how easy it is to to change your design using WordPress.

Now you still may want or need to hire someone (I can recommend somebody) to set WordPress up the way you want it with all the features and create for you a custom visual design that brands your business. But once your site is in WordPress, changing designs is as easy a the click of button. Watch…

As I said, you may still want to work with a web designer to get your site initially setup in WordPress or build our customized website design. You may even want to hire someone to create your next design or modify one of the thousands of existing WordPress themes for you. The bottom line of why this is so, as I say, ‘game changing’ is because you’re using WordPress the cost and development time of a redesign is cut greatly. I can’t give you specifics as price will depend on your needs and your developers skills and offer (for instance, I merge website design with business coaching so my clients learn how to use their websites to meet their business goals).

As you can see, WordPress opens the web to you in ways that just weren’t possible just a couple years ago – at least for those who don’t know how to code websites. That’s why I say that every website needs to be in a system like WordPress.

So if you’re website isn’t in WordPress or if you’re about to have your first website built, let’s have a short conversation about how to get you using WordPress. Feel free to contact me and we can discuss your specific needs.

What sort of questions does this bring up for you?

What website do you have that you’d like to move to WordPress?

note: WordPress is open source software licensed under GPL. It is open to the public to freely use and modify and it is never for sale – meaning no one can charge you a license fee for using WordPress. Setup, design, customization, etc – yes. But to charge you for WordPress is against the license.

note: image from Nahh on Flickr,  some rights reserved)

THIS OFFER HAS ENDED!

You may have heard that we’re expecting our fourth child sometime in the next couple of weeks. My wife, the kids and I are extremely excited and are looking forward to meeting this new little Miracle (sorry, couldn’t resist).

At the same time, I’ve been looking for an interesting and fun thing to do with another birth in my life – one of a website nature. And I think I’ve done it:

Until noon, eastern, on Sunday, August 30th, I’m going to sell my business-ready, template-based websites for the absolutely insane low price of $350. No typo, I mean three hundred and fifty dollars. Sounds pretty good, huh?

And there’s no strings attached, no gimmicks or bait-and-switch. Just business-ready, WordPress-driven websites (and/or blogs). Include a little training and whole heap of bonuses from people like Chris Garrett, Michael Martine, Easton Ellsworth, Pamela Weir, Stephen Smith and a number of others. They’re each offering products throughout the event.

The Grand Prize

Aside from getting a fully-functioning website for $350, you have the opportunity to win a massive Business Quick-Start Package. Every person that buys a $350, business-ready, WordPress-based website between now and noon on Sunday, you’ll be entered into a drawing. One winner will get:

• A membership to Chris Garrett’s Blogger Authority course ($397 value)
• Easton Ellsworth will prepare a Master SEO Keyword List for your business website and give you some pointers in how to use it to generate SEO results. ($497 value)
• Pamela Weir will help you with your copy writing and editing and write and submit press releases to announce your new website. ($400 value)
• Michael Martine’s WordPress SEO Secrets book which walks you step-by-step on how to get the absolute most SEO benefit from WordPress. And, it’s not theory. It’s very much a how-to book. ($47 value)
• Two, one-hour Business Advisory Phone Sessions with me where we’ll discuss the best possible strategies for promoting your business through your new website. ($500 value)

This is an amazing opportunity to get the website you need at a price that you can definitely afford. Oh, and did I mention the best part: If you’re not exactly ready for a new website you can buy now and use it later. We’ll get you all set up – hosting, WordPress, you design, and plugins – and put a ‘coming soon’ page on top of your website until you’re ready to use it.

To find out more, you need to visit The Website Habitat – my new site. There you can see the designs, find out what’s included and make your purchase. But hurry, time is running out.

note: image from Darwin Bell on Flickr, some rights reserved)

Well, I’m back. Yeah, I know it’s been a while. But I’ve been pretty hard at work.

You’ll also notice that in my month-long absence, I’ve managed to complete a new design of my blog. My goal was to clear out the clutter so the good stuff would be easier to find.

And while I don’t see this layout as being complete, I felt it was close enough to launch it tonight. What I’d love is your feedback. What do you like and don’t like. What works, what doesn’t. And please, if you run into any bugs, let me know. If you could list the browser and operating system you’re using that would be most helpful.

I’m really excited about the layout changes. I’ve got lots of plans for the coming year – including podcasts and video casts. I’m also working on a customized homepage layout – which I’m in no rush to put up.

In the meantime, I’m going back through old posts making sure formatting is solid as well as adding tags and changing my categories (oh what we know in hindsight). Gonna be a lot of work, and for me it’s worth it. So you’ll see small changes on my site over the next few week.

Now that I’ve gotten this launched, updated from WordPress 2.2 to WordPress 2.5, updated my services pages, restructured my growing business and caught up with my work, I’ll also get back to writing regularly – both here and at emoms.

There’s more, of course, including a new blog my wife and I have been hard at work planning. As well as getting her up to speed on her soon-to-be-announced mom blog (about moms, pregnancy, birth and parenting).

So lots going on. Sorry for the break. Now back to our regularly scheduled program…

And remember, I’d love to hear your feedback.

One of the most remarkable things about WordPress for me is the huge development community that supports it. First, WordPress is free (you can even get it installed for free on your server). Second, it’s infinitely expandable through thousands of plugins, add-ons and widgets. If you need a function for your site, it’s likely someone’s already written a plugin to do it.

Yet one of the places that I feel WordPress really shines is in all the free themes (templates) that are available. Basically, thousands of developers from all over the world have created visual designs for WordPress. And while some premium themes are available for between $50 & $250, there are thousands of themes that are completely free.

Just like WordPress, free is a good thing. And, as your developing, updating or enhancing your web business web presence, it can sometimes be good to do so on a small budget.

Here are WordPress theme catalogs, each having many (and in some cases thousands) of free WordPress themes:

• WordPress Theme Viewer – The ‘official’ WordPress theme viewer. Thousands of free themes and thumbnails to see theme layout. Select ‘test run’ to see the theme in full form. Can narrow your search using the options in the sidebar.
• WordPress Themes – More than 2000 free WordPress themes with thumbnails. Great resource. Rating system and download stats tell you how popular themes are. And be sure to check out their WordPress Theme Sparkling Index.
• BGThemes – To date, more than 2000 free WordPress themes. Briefly browsing, I saw a few that I’d not seen on other sites so there may be some exclusive themes here – though I can’t say for sure. Each theme has a thumbnail and a rating system. And the search feature is nice as well.
• Free WordPress Themes – A hand-picked selection of WordPress themes, with thumbnails. All themes are aesthetically pleasing, with solid usability and validated code.
• WordPress Theme Review – This collection is managed by my friend, the blog guru herself, Sarah Lewis. This is a growing database of WordPress themes with a focus on SEO. In Sarah’s own words, “Want to know if search engines like Google and Yahoo! will love your theme? The higher (the) score is the more love the theme gets.” Pretty important thing to know.
• Weblog Tools Collection – One of my favorite sites for both WordPress themes and plugins. But not because the site is easy to use. Theme catalog is huge but thumbnails were only added recently. Of course, I rarely visit the site directly any more relying on its RSS feed to keep me updated on new themes and plugins. And it’s the feed that makes me love the site.
• Free WP Themes – A small, yet very nice selection of WordPress themes with thumbnails. Preview mode lets you view theme as it would look on WordPress blog.
• Theme Time – A very nice, solid selection of attractive WordPress themes. Thumbnails and previews available as well as some premium themes.
• SkinPress – This site show promise. Attractive, yet small list of WordPress themes with thumbnails and theme preview. Definitely worth a look.
• wpSnap – Excellent list of free WordPress themes with thumbnails and demo mode. I saw some very nice looking designs here – a few of which I’d not yet seen elsewhere.
• Blog Themes – A nice WordPress theme collection with thumbnails and previews. Appears to have several hundred themes with download statistics. Saw a few new ones here and the authors seem to be a bit picky about aesthetics.
• Top WordPress Themes – Showcasing a few hundreded free WordPress themes. I’ve seen a number of these in other places. Yet the site is easy to navigation, features thumbnails and has a preview mode.
• Free WordPress Templates – Looks like a few hundred WordPress themes. Saw some interesting and attractive themes. Site has thumbnails but no preview mode.
• My Green Corner – A few hundred, mostly attractive WordPress themes. Thumbnails and preview mode.
• ThemesBox – Only a few WordPress themes, though the ones that are listed are very nice. Thumbnails and demo area for each theme. This is a nice one to check out for a one-stop, quick stop.
• WP Skins – Thousands of WordPress themes with thumbnails and download statistics. Nice site, with tons of themes, though I’d rate it lower because of the popup advertising.
• WPDesigner – Fair selection of WordPress themes with thumbnails. Most of these themes are available on other sites.

So there you are. Tons of free WordPress themes to pick from.

And if that’s not enough, here’s a short list of helpful blog posts that have covered free WordPress themes over the past few months. Each of these I have at the ready in my browser’s bookmarks. So I guess now you get a glimpse inside what’s in my browser.

• 100 Excellent Free WordPress Themes – Smashing Magazine
• 83 Beautiful WordPress Themes You (Probably) Haven’t Seen – Smashing Magazine
• 21 Fresh, Usable and Elegant WordPress Themes – Smashing Magazine
• 10 Fresh, Elegant and Clean WordPress Themes – Smashing Magazine
• 8 Fresh WordPress Themes – Smashing Magazine
• Top Ten Best Free WordPress Themes and Templates – Part 1
  
• Top Ten Best Free WordPress Themes and Templates – Part 2
• Top Best and Beautiful WordPress Themes and Templates – Part 3
• Best Customizable Multiple Color Styles WordPress Themes – Part 4
• Best Three Column WordPress Themes and More – Part 5
• Free Magazine Style WordPress Themes and More
• Hack WordPress – Best 2-Column WordPress Themes
• Hack WordPress- Best 3-Column WordPress Themes

Have you used any of these resources yourself? If so, rate them – how well did they serve your needs? And what are they missing?

And if you haven’t used them, what are you waiting for? There’s thousands of attractive free WordPress themes waiting for you to use. Now you have no excuse not to be using WordPress.

I could browse around just fine on my blog itself. However when I tried to do anything else I got this error message:

Error 403

We’re sorry, but we could not fulfill your request for /wp-admin/moderation.php (requested file changes based on task) on this server.

Your Internet Protocol address is listed on a blacklist of addresses involved in malicious or illegal activity. See the listing below for more details on specific blacklists and removal procedures.

Your technical support key is: 4428-b779-1366-73cd

You can use this key to fix this problem yourself.

If you are unable to fix the problem yourself, please contact dawudmiracle at gmail.com and be sure to provide the technical support key shown above.

Didn’t matter what I tried – comments, add post, delete spam, even update my profile – nothing worked. So I tried logging out and back in only to find out that I couldn’t log back in.

After a bit of frustration I found the error related to the Bad Behavior plugin. Here’s what Michael Hampton, BB’s developer said:

…Yesterday I moved all of my sites to a new dedicated server. In the process, I decommissioned an old blacklist I was running which I thought wasn’t being used, not realizing that Bad Behavior was still set to use it. Shortly afterward, I found myself locked out of my own blog, just as you all did. So therefore, this release.

So if you use Bad Behavior, you probably want to upgrade immediately (link begins download).

To upgrade the plugin simply do the following:

1. Download the latest version of Bad Behavior (2.0.11)
2. Unzip the download
3. Create an FTP connect to your WordPress plugins folder (wp-content/plugins/)
4. Upload the entire Bad Behavior folder into your plugins folder, overwriting the one that’s currenly there.
5. Try logging back into your WordPress admin

This should be fixed. It certainly worked for me. Just to be clear, I could browse my blog just fine. I just couldn’t do anything on it.

And…thanks to Joanna Young from BusinessBlogAngel for first bringing this error to my attention when she tried to leave a comment. Joanna, and everyone else, the issue is resolved so please join back in the conversation.

For the past few months I’ve been using Akismet with the Math Comment Spam Protection plugin. The usual number of comment spam I would get was between 25-50 daily, with almost no comments ending up in spam.

Then Lorelle suggested that I remove the Math Comment Spam Protection and install Spam Karma2 and Bad Behavior. It made sense. And since I deeply trust Lorelle’s judgment on anything WordPress, I did it.

But since changing, I’ve been bombed with spam comments. Just yesterday I got 1,400 spam comments caught by Akismet – and that doesn’t include the 800 that Bad Behavior says it caught.

What gives? Why am I all of sudden being bombarded with spam?

Lorelle told me, and I ultimately believe her, that the Math Comment Spam Protection didn’t work. So no fault of hers.

Yet this tidal wave of spam hit me when I took down Math Comment Spam Protection and installed Spam Karma2 and Bad Behavior?

Coincidence?

Have I set something wrong with Bad Behavior and/or Spam Karma2? Or did the Math Comment Spam Protection plugin really work for me?

What are your thoughts?

Have you seen a huge increase in comment spam this week?

Any great resources for Bad Behavior or Spam Karma2 setup?

Lorelle VanFossen, of course, writes Lorelle on WordPress (RSS) – one of the best resources for anything relating to WordPress. Need a plugin? Lorelle’s likely written about it. Need to solve a problem? Lorelle may have covered it. Want the latest news? Lorelle’s the one. She even sums it all up with her WordPress Wednesday column on Blog Hearld (RSS).

Lorelle’s done it all. Including make every blogging mistake possible. At least that’s what she said in her interview with Daniel Scocco from Daily Blog Tips (RSS).

Daniel: What is the biggest blogging mistake you did?

Lorelle: Oh, honey, I’ve done them all. I’ve been doing this so long, I’ve done all the big mistakes. When I read through blog posts listing their blogging mistakes, I think, “Yep, did that one in 2001. Oh, that one, I did it big in 1998. Been there, done that in 2004. Won’t repeat that mistake of 1997.”

Is there just one big mistake? Nope. There are only big lessons that come from every mistake along the blogging path. I tend to focus on the lessons learned and not the screw-ups.

Lessons…that’s the perspective I love about Lorelle. Having spent some time with her at SOBCon07 back in May, it was easy to fall in love with her. She’s real, she’s honest and she doesn’t judge. And just like me, she has her opinions…

Daniel: How long should a blogger wait to monetize the blog?

Lorelle: I do not think bloggers should monetize their blogs. I think that people who want to get into the business of blogging must make a business plan on how they will use blogging for their business or as their business, thus creating a plan for monetizing their blogs.

But general bloggers? Why should your hobby make money? If you want to work your way towards professional blogging, then blog for a year or two to get a feel for blogging and make your business plan. Then move towards being a professional blogger.

I couldn’t agree more. Too many bloggers are watching what the business bloggers are doing and think about the “easy money” they could be making off their blogs. But it’s not easy money. It’s hard work.

But so is blogging in general. Some days it’s easy, some it’s hard. Everyday it’s effort. That’s why many blogs aren’t successful.
And that’s what I love about Lorelle, she tells it like it is. She doesn’t sugar coat it. She’s honest about the ups and downs. That why I recommend that everyone read her new book, Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging.

I’ve read it three times cover to cover and it’s full of great advice. It’s literally the first blogging book I’ve read that’s really about blogging. Most blog books spend way too much time covering blog platforms or why to blog. Authors sometimes spend 1/2 to 3/4 of a book getting to the meat.

Blogging Tips is different in that Lorelle assumes you’ll get that type of information elsewhere. Instead, she gets right into meat. I highly recommend her book (and I’m not getting an affiliate kickback to say that).

I also really enjoyed Adii’s interview with Lorelle where they talk a bit more WordPress.

You know, it’s also kind of challenging to find photos of Lorelle. I snagged one with her and David Dalka (he’s on the right, I’m on the left and Lorelle is between us) when we were at SOBCon.

I spent a bit of time over the night upgrading to WordPress 2.2 (from 2.0.3). I’m already loving the upgrade. Why?

• The speed optimizations. This version is really quite faster than the previous one I was using – both on the browser side and admin.
• I love being able to scan back through all my comments (previous version only allowed me to see last 20 comments)
• I like the admin tab enhancements. It’s great that Comments now has its own tab.
• It’s great to be able to deactivate all plugins at once.
• Did I mention it’s faster?

I’m quite happy with the upgrade. I have a couple of small hiccups and found a plugin that I couldn’t get to work. Luckily it was a minor plugin. Otherwise, no problems with the upgrade.

And I know that with all computer upgrades there could be some hiccups. So, please, if you find anything that’s not functioning correctly on my site, would you let me know in the comment box?

Thanks, in advance.

And if you’re the do-it-yourselfer, there’s a number of tutorials on how to make the jump to 2.2, including in the WordPress Codex. And if you’re using version 2.1.x, this is considered a mandatory upgrade.

1. Lorelle on WordPress – If I need anything related to WP, I go to Lorelle’s site first. It is such a comprehensive resource. (Bookmark it NOW)
2. WordPress Codex – The second place I go when I need a question answered.
3. Problogger’s WordPress Resources
4. Alex King – I’m loving the Most Popular plugin (I have it running at CasualKeystrokes and it will be here soon)
5. cre8d design
6. Lisa Sabin-Wilson – her upcoming book WordPress for Dummies is sure to be a must have resource
7. WASABI WP Plugins
8. Themes.wordpress.net – the huge sortable database of free WP themes
9. WP Designer – themes and support forums
10. Brian Gardner – more beautiful themes
11. Kaushel Sheth – and more great themes
12. ThemesBase – more themes and support forum
13. WordPress Station – a WP blog about WP

I used 1-3 regularly. And Alex King is a great resource for anything WordPress.

There are a few other resources I either use regularly or have found to be helpful for my clients:

1. WordPress.org – Home to everything WordPress.
2. WordPress Plugins – Finally a plugin directory on WordPress.org. Good initial place to search for plugins – growing quickly.
3. Weblog Tools Collection – Daily updates of new themes and plugins. I read feed daily.
4. BloggingPro – Up-to-Date news about many things WordPress.
5. The WordPress Podcast – WordPress Community Podcast. Nice listens. Most recent podcast covers WordPress 2.2 delay and how tagging figures into future updates.
6. 7 Essential WordPress Hacks – Tubetorial’s 7-part video how-to series. Well-done, easy to follow.
7. WordPress on YouTube – Over 11,000 More than 500 video clips related to using WordPress. Need to know how to do something, likely find it there. (updated)
8. UPDATE: www.wordpressthemes.com

So there’s a few more helpful WordPress Resources. You can find a ton of WordPress sites so if you have anything to add, please let me know.