As the premium WordPress themes market continues to grow and competition becomes more intense, it is only natural to begin looking towards the future of premium WordPress themes. We all have different opinions of what that future holds, but one thing that is for sure. Widgets are going to play a huge role in the future of these themes.

The first theme that appears to be focused completely around widgets is the Shifter WordPress theme, which features a fully customizable dashboard with widgets for pretty much everything.

Here are two screen shots:

My buddy Jeffro of Jeffro2pt0 is one of those guys that is always ahead of the times. If you’d like to see an example of what Shifter can do, I recommend you check out his website. He switched to Shifter awhile ago and hasn’t looked back. You can also read his explanation for “shifting” to Shifter.

Sound interesting? You can purchase Shifter for $79.95 for a single-use copy, $99.95 for a single-use copy with support from the author, advanced copy is $199.95, and the developer’s package is $999.95.

If you’d like to learn more, I recommend you check out Shifter’s website.

The third month of 2008 is now complete and this blog is celebrating the completion of its sixth month of existence. This blog has continued to grow and exceed my expectations. It’s getting a good amount of traffic, and the subscriber count has broken 1100 subscribers (up 400 from last month). Thanks to everyone for supporting Hack WordPress through reading, comments, and even inbound links mentioning the stuff you find here. It really is appreciated!

In case you’re new to Hack WordPress, I like to kick off each new month with a quick wrap up of the previous month covering the most popular posts for that month. Here are some of last month’s most popular posts:

1. WordPress 2.5: Improve your Dashboard with Fluency Admin
2. WordPress Hack: Creating a Two-Tiered Navigation Menu
3. How To: Change the WordPress Author Archive Permalink
4. Premium WordPress Theme: Mimbo Pro Finally Released
5. Easily Create Redirects with the GoCodes WordPress Plugin

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank this months sponsors:

• PremiumPress - Magnus is a freelance web designer with a couple of great premium WordPress themes for sale.  If you are interested in purchasing your next WordPress theme, I recommend you check him out!
• WP-Premiums - This site is dedicated solely to showcasing premium WordPress themes.  If you are looking for inspiration for your next theme, this is the place you should look first.

If you have WordPress themes, WordPress plugins, or other WordPress related products and services that you’d like to promote, we still have two advertising spots available. Please check out our advertising page, then contact us.

Also, would you like to gain more exposure for your blog?  if you enjoy writing about WordPress, we have a couple guest writing positions available.  Guest authors are able to contribute posts as often as they like.  Check out this page for more details!

What better day than April Fool’s Day for the next installment of WordPress talk?  I assure you that there are no jokes in these WordPress-related posts from around the blogosphere:

• The WordPress Expert offers 7 tips for the WordPress “Write Post” page. This post covers a few different things to keep in mind when when writing your posts within the WordPress dashboard.
• Performancing covers tips on upgrading your WordPress versions. Basically, the idea of this post is to remind people that upgrades may cause theme or plugin compatibility problems, so it is recommended that you test both on a subdomain/directory first before making the upgrade for your live site.
• Smashing Magazine has released 20 more great WordPress themes. What can I say? I’m a sucker for theme galleries! That is why I have so many of them.
• Daily Blog Tips has posted about a WordPress plugin called cformsII.
• Webware covers their 5 favorite features of WordPress 2.5.  I would also probably rank one-click upgrades as my favorite addition. 
• Aaron of TechnoSailor shares his WordPress FAQ presentation from WordCamp Dallas.  This is great for anyone that wasn’t able to attend the event.