We’re down to only a few weeks left in 2012, and the last one gone by has been a great source for some fantastic WordPress goodies.

This week on WPMU’s Best in WordPress, we bring you information on the new WP 3.5, web analytics and SEO, some responsive CSS, and tips on how to get more involved in the WordPress community. Enjoy!

1. How to Become a Top WordPress Professional: SmashingMagazine

In this fantastic article, WP pro Siobhan McKeown shows you a number of ways to use your talents and get more involved in the WordPress community. In the process, you’ll learn how to drive more traffic to your own site, even make some money.

2. 10 Things You Need to Know about WordPress 3.5: Technosailor

Aaron Brazell writes about interesting things, and he writes well. In his blog, which you NEED to read, he gives valuable and honest input about tech and WordPress and, more importantly, how the two impact our real world. In this post, he covers 10 things you need to know about the new WordPress 3.5 released this morning. This post about 3.5 rises above most of the other update posts you might read over the next few days, which is why we highlight it here.

3. Web Analytics and SEO: WordCamp

Andy McIlwain covers web analytics and SEO at a recent WordCamp Toronto Event. He covers measuring your presence on the web with WordPress, plugins, and data. No magic tricks here, but a list of great resources you can use for actionable results on your site.

4. MyMail Newsletter Plugin:PippinsPlugins

A new mail and newsletter plugin on the market, reviewed by WP developer Pippin. It has some promising features and is a great option for those looking to integrate their website with their email lists.

5. Create Your Own Share Buttons

Another great post from Paulund about creating your own share buttons with Sharre from jQuery. If you are a developer creating custom sites you want to check this out. Sharre gives you the ability to create custom share divs on your site, and it taps into all the popular social networks. It has the look and feel of bootstrap components – but for sharing buttons. Love this!

6. Microformats and Why You Should Use Them: WP Mayor

If you’re not yet familiar with (or not yet using) microformats this post will give you a good rundown of the features and uses. It also gives you a good introduction to Google’s rich snippets tool and how to take advantage of them.

7. How to Split Long Posts Into Several Pages: Blondish.net

Have a long post and don’t want the infinite scroll? Split it into pages – a trick used by many popular news sites. There are advantages and disadvantages to using pages and Blondish covers them all in this post.

8. Create and Customize Responsive WordPress Themes

Part 4 of Patrick Cohen’s series on creating and customizing responsive WordPress themes takes you through the media queries in CSS, and continues his excellent post series on responsiveness in WordPress – and creating responsive themes the right way!

Remember, we’re always on the lookout for great WP resources. If you’ve written one yourself send us a note and if we like it you’ll see it right here in bright lights.

Related articles

• WPMU’s Best in WordPress: Dec. 3rd – 9th
• Are You Setting Up WordPress For SEO Success?