The precise opposite of my approach. I try to use as few vowels as I can, ideally one per attempt. (Not always easy.) By move #6 I’ll have used up all the vowels (usually by move #4)–I want to eliminate as many common consonants as I can on my first few moves, so I’ll start with SMART or PLANK or GRIND or something of that sort–sometimes i get lucky and hit a few consonants and even get them in the right place once in a while, But if I’m on move #4, I’ve eliminated a bunch of consonants and usually know exactly which vowels to use and not to use. 17-for-17, btw, average score about 4, so it’s working for me.
I like to eliminate double and unusual letters. Words like AALII, KAZOO, QUICK and ZULUS are very helpful for getting rid of extraneous guesses. 
My current method of picking my first guess is to listen for the first five-letter word (with no repeating letters) in whatever song happens to be playing on the radio at the time. Today (1/24 for spoiler’s sake) was “angel” from Lightning Crashes.
Regular mode. I’ve noticed the creator likes word with infrequently used consonants so I throw down something with P or K. Today my first entry was knife. Then I just fiddle around with pattern, etc.
The main Wordle thread reads like a heavily redacted government document. It’s pretty funny.
Refined version of this strategy; first guess is TRANS, second guess is LOUIE. That gives me all five vowels plus the RSTLN combo of Wheel of Fortune fame.
Sounds like a good approach. What’s your distribution of successes? Meaning, how many 6s, 5s, 4s and so on?
To me your approach would appear to optimize that. I am 35/35 so far but I’d guess that my approach is not as optimal as yours. I typically (not always) play these words in order because it gives me the letters based on frequency of occurrence:
IRATE
LOCUS
HYMEN
GAPED
I start with STAIN then CHORE, then if necessary LUMPY. 16/16 so far. 3 3s, 8 4s, 4 5s, and 1 6,
I’ve been starting with IDEAS (a bit better than IDEAL, I think) to get some vowels. (the solution of MOUNT the other day gave me no hits from IDEAS, which is unusual. I got it very quickly.) 5/5 so far - a 3, 3 4’s, and a 5.
I’ve been using @Smapti’s strategy the last few days. Today I put in audio, then got the word on my next try just by guessing…
The problem with TRANS or IDEAS is that there are only like 60 words that have an S in the last position (in the solution dictionary). So, while S is very common, it’s unlikely to be in position 5.
When I first started playing, I would lead with STARE so as to hit the most frequent words.
My struggle with that is it puts me in a position where I know it has an S, T, E (for example) and it’s not STARE. Not helpful! Could be damn near anything!
Now I start with WHINY to cast the net over some common, second-tier vowels and consonants. If it hits, the information is a lot more useful. If it misses entirely, then I can get more use out of STARE.
Still starting with AIERY, which catches four vowels (including Y in the last position) and a common consonant. If I get no hits on that, I go with SNOUT for the other two vowels and more common consonants.
That’s usually enough to get it in four.
I started out just picking random words and had two failures early on. One instance where I set it to high viz colors and forgot halfway through that the letters I had weren’t in the right position, and one where I just had too many possible words and not enough letters eliminated and failed naturally (I play on hard mode).
I’ve been using TRAIN as my first word for about two weeks though (have a 14 day streak), and it’s looking pretty good overall.
1
2***
3******
4*******
5*****
6
I tried @Smapti’s AUDIO strategy for the first time today. I thought I’d get it in 4… but then barely got it in 6.
My streak stays alive at 36, and 100%. Here…
I’ve been starting with RATED and it seems to work well for me. I usually get it in 3 or 4.
I’m a bit behind because first I downloaded the Wordle app from the Apple Store, and like a dummy couldn’t figure out how it related to all the Facebook posts I saw.
Then I played it every day for a week on my desktop, and then on the weekend on my phone, so I had 2 different “streaks” going.
Now I’ve trained myself to just play on the phone. I like it.
For what it’s worth, there aren’t any past tenses in the answer set. D is still somewhat common in position five (more common than S, which is really uncommon), but it will never be the answer.
You might do better with TRADE, which uses the same letters but puts E at the end (most popular ending letter).
Thanks for the tip! Could it be that I will be an even STRONGER player now?! Bwahaha! I know all the best words!
If you’re finishing in 3 or 4, you’re not going to get much better than that!
My “go to” starter is STORY. For some reason, I like to check to see if the word ends in Y on the first move.
My next word will depend on the results of the first word, but if I got nothing off the first, my next word is FIEND.