This weeks batch of WordPress talk includes a number of great posts from the around the blogosphere. It is good to see just how many people are writing about WordPress!

• Bootstrapper has listed their 100 most usable plugins. I’m a sucker for lists like this and hopefully you enjoy them also. It is always fun to see what other peoples favorites are.
• Last week I collected your input on what you’d like to see on WordPress 2.6. It looks like Dan at WPCandy has collected over 30 ideas he’d like to see with WordPress 2.6. Talk about thorough! This list has a lot of great ideas that hopefully the WordPress team sees.
• Noticed some of your favorite WordPress features missing? The WordPress Expert has listed the 5 features removed in WordPress 2.5. Hopefully we can get these back for WordPress 2.6 (if not before).
• ThemeLab has explained how to setup a privacy policy on your WordPress blog. This is crucial for people that monetize their blogs with Google AdSense.

The fourth month of 2008 is now complete and this blog is celebrating the completion of its seventh 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 1450 subscribers (up 350 from last month). Thanks to everyone for supporting Hack WordPress through reading, comments, guest posts, and any inbound links you’ve sent 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. How To: Setting Up Your WordPress Permalink Structure
2. How To: Switching Your Blog’s Permalink Structure
3. Premium WordPress Theme: Shifter Theme
4. How To: Creating a Custom Page Template
5. Does WordPress Need Trackbacks Any More?

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank this month’s 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 first place you should look.
• SkinPress - SkinPress provides a large variety of website templates, including over 60 free WordPress templates.
• WonderHowto - As you could probably guess from the domain name, WonderHowto uses video to explain how to do a variety of things.  One recent tutorial explains how to upgrade your WordPress blog.

If you have WordPress themes, WordPress plugins, or other WordPress related products and services that you’d like to promote, we still have one advertising spot available.   Advertising rates may be going up soon, but all existing advertisers are grandfathered in at their existing rate for a few months, so now is a good time to get that last spot!  Please check out our advertising page, then contact us if you are interested.  First contact that qualifies gets the spot!

It has been awhile since I’ve done one of these, so here is a quick post highlighting some interesting posts from around the blogosphere that are related to WordPress.

• CagIntranet explains how to create a category loop to display those posts in your sidebar. Chris Pearson has also written a great post about the ideal way to use your blogs categories.
• Weblog Tools Collection has done a final WordCamp Dallas 2008 wrap up. The post includes notes and pictures from the event (including pictures of the WTC authors!)
• ProBlogDesign has posted 60 RSS icons that you can use for your blog. This post includes some incredible RSS icons that anyone can use.
• Noupe has posted a powerful list of WordPress plugins. This is a large collection of WordPress plugins anyone can use and should help you find just about anything you need.
• Theme Lab provides a great tutorial guiding you on how to put your available domains to good use. I have about 200 domains I’m not currently using and I’ve been trying to figure out if I should sell them or start using them. If done tastefully and legally, this could be a great use for these domains.
• WordPress Max has written a post explaining how to use your WordPress blogroll feature for site navigation in your sidebar. This is a creative and interesting idea allowing you to create links from your dashboard to feature content.
• Performancing explains how to use WordPress custom fields to auto-embed YouTube videos.

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.