Building a Photoshop and Flash tutorial database (1 Viewer)

[adriantabb]

Hi!

I'm working on a project called
16 pixels dot net Photoshop and Flash tutorials

I launched this site a few days ago, and I'm plannig to add new tutorials everyday.
I'd be intrested in a few things from visiting people.

- What would you like to see improved in this site ?
- Did you find any of the current tutorials helpful ?
- Have you got a tutorial you'd like to recommend ?

Please don't treat this as a spam message. My intention is not just to get you to visit this site. But to make it be of a real use to you and others who would like to learn how to use PS and Flash.
If you would like to see a tutorial on a specific topic, please reply here and I'll do my best to find one for you and add it to the database.

I'm not expecting only pettings and praises but honest opinions about this site so i can improve it.
Thank you and have a pleasant visit on 16pixels !

 

[fatmuscle]

I'd have to say great work!

I dunno much, but a quick look looks impressive and I know where i'll head to if I want to learn flash

 

[AsyLum]

Wow quite comprehensive, perhaps a more categorised menu where we can choose levels, i know a few sites which sticks them in beginner/intermediate/expert sections as a faster way to browse through them

On a whole good site though, ill be checking it for sure

 

[snapperhead]

in Safari, the google ads dont show up (which I dont mind as I really dislike the design idea of forcing visitors to look at ads interspersed between content-top and/or bottom is fine but so the ad looks like its is apart of the content...not a good look)
(see attached screenshot..note how the google ad link is squashed etc) + its seems out of place.
Maybe it would be better placed at the bottom instead of "tricking" visitors to click on what they think is tutorial link? (good way to lose interest for me anyway)

One thing that most tutorial sites are missing are:
1) a display area for peoples work who try out your tuts (if they want to submit). Could hold a competition or something to encourage participation. Maybe a photoshop tennis forum to sharpen skills?
2) Links to PS and Flash add ons + reviews (esp. freebies)

Also, dont be platform elite. Most professional graphic work has been traditionally performed on the mac platform and still continues to be so make sure your work and site is non-platform specific.
Whilst most of BOS users are probably WIndows users, your actual target audience will be a more even mix (ie people learning for industry say at uni or at a training institute) so you should cater to this. If you dont, it shows an ignorance of the purpose of your chosen software

Hope this is of some help

 

[adriantabb]

Ok. Thank you AsyLum and fatmuscle.
And thank you snapperhead, your comment is more than welcome and I'm happy you spent the time to write it.

I'll start with the subject of Google Ads, as I feel the need to justify their use and placement. I'm not going to try and prove wrong your post, but explain you probably missunderstood my intents.

I consider that I'm not forcing/tricking people into clicking them. And I'll give you my reasons.
Most people nowdays read what they are clicking on and I'm not masking the fact that these are Ads provided by AdSense, more than that I add one more line above the add in which i reenstate the fact that it is an add.

This site is financed entirely out of my budged and the income i've made out of google doesn't even add up to paying the bandwidth.
Google provides relevant ads, and after my site will be crawled by their search engine this relevance should increase.
Most people don't bother to read adds anymore, and sometimes miss something that might have been of interest to them.

What I'm trying to do is bring adds into their reading path. If they like something in an add, they'll click it if not they'll move on.

At this point i'm displaying 2 ad links and 5 tutorials per page. I'm not going to add image banners, pop-up windows and other crappy advertinsing methods that would bring some important cash, because as I said my purpose is not to get rich out of a site like this but to manage to pay the maintenace fees.

The level of ads will be reduced in a few steps as trafic coming to this site will add up to pay the fees. First I will place the first ad at the top and the second ad at the bottom of the 5 tutorials. The next step will be to leave just one ad.

Ok.... I managed to write a plea of not guilty here. So let's move on to the rest of your comments.

2) Links to PS and Flash add ons + reviews (esp. freebies)

That is alread on it's way, together with a more comprehensive method of sorting tutorials and a Basic/Intermediate/Advanced tutorial rating.

1) a display area for peoples work who try out your tuts (if they want to submit). Could hold a competition or something to encourage participation. Maybe a photoshop tennis forum to sharpen skills?

That is probably the best feedback idea I got out of all the forum topics i opened so far. In 2,3 months i'll be switching to a more generous hosting plan. Meanwhile I've already started to write the code for it.
Thank you, I'll make sure to credit you and this forum in the about section when the feature will be released.

Regarding the platform issue... could you be more specific. Not wanting to offend you, but I didn't get much out of that part.

Thank you again. I'm expecting more feedback as 16pixels.net improves. You've been a great help.

 

[HellVeN]

My goal isn't to offend or hurt you. It's to be honest and to give you my opinion.

I think the overal design of the page is far from spectacular, especially for a design site. It doesn't take huge amounts of skill to create a proper topper. Your topper here consists of pixelated text with shadow. And that's just not very professional if you ask me.
The site also lacks color, content and it's not particularly attractive. Others said it was comprehensive, well I think it could be a lot better. Boring is the word here. The simple fact is that most graphic sites are much more sophisticated.

You site lacks interaction. No forums, no news, no links etc...

The first thing I'd do is question your motives. Why you created this site, and if the purpose is solely, as you said, to be a database of links to external tutorials. And then I'd ask you if that is worth spending your hard earned money on. Are you creating this site as a hobby, or do you want more?

I feel that you really need to improve the design of the page. I don't know how experienced you are with web design but there's a lot of room for improvement. As it is the site is not visually appealing. You really need borders, separators, colors and something more complicated.

I see you coded the system in PHP. Are you also using MYSQL?

 

[HellVeN]

Here's some inspiration:

http://www.tutorialoutpost.com/

http://www.pixel2life.com/

Also have a look at all of Deviantart 's partners.

 

[snapperhead]

Ok. Thank you AsyLum and fatmuscle.
And thank you snapperhead, your comment is more than welcome and I'm happy you spent the time to write it.

I'll start with the subject of Google Ads, as I feel the need to justify their use and placement. I'm not going to try and prove wrong your post, but explain you probably missunderstood my intents.

I consider that I'm not forcing/tricking people into clicking them. And I'll give you my reasons.
Most people nowdays read what they are clicking on and I'm not masking the fact that these are Ads provided by AdSense, more than that I add one more line above the add in which i reenstate the fact that it is an add.

This site is financed entirely out of my budged and the income i've made out of google doesn't even add up to paying the bandwidth.
Google provides relevant ads, and after my site will be crawled by their search engine this relevance should increase.
Most people don't bother to read adds anymore, and sometimes miss something that might have been of interest to them.

What I'm trying to do is bring adds into their reading path. If they like something in an add, they'll click it if not they'll move on.

At this point i'm displaying 2 ad links and 5 tutorials per page. I'm not going to add image banners, pop-up windows and other crappy advertinsing methods that would bring some important cash, because as I said my purpose is not to get rich out of a site like this but to manage to pay the maintenace fees.

The level of ads will be reduced in a few steps as trafic coming to this site will add up to pay the fees. First I will place the first ad at the top and the second ad at the bottom of the 5 tutorials. The next step will be to leave just one ad.

Ok.... I managed to write a plea of not guilty here. So let's move on to the rest of your comments.



That is alread on it's way, together with a more comprehensive method of sorting tutorials and a Basic/Intermediate/Advanced tutorial rating.


That is probably the best feedback idea I got out of all the forum topics i opened so far. In 2,3 months i'll be switching to a more generous hosting plan. Meanwhile I've already started to write the code for it.
Thank you, I'll make sure to credit you and this forum in the about section when the feature will be released.

Regarding the platform issue... could you be more specific. Not wanting to offend you, but I didn't get much out of that part.

Thank you again. I'm expecting more feedback as 16pixels.net improves. You've been a great help.

sorry if I implied that I thought your were forcing people to click on ads...I wasnt. I meant that the placement of the ads so close to the actual links can mean that people accidently click on the ad and not the tute link (in the screen shot I took, the 1st link and the ad are so close that I did click on the ad thinking it was the link!!) . Thats what I menat by tricking. Sorry if this caused confusion

re platform issues. Be Mac and Windows friendly as well as being browser friendly. Your site renders strangely at times in Safari (ads/"ads powered by Google" are squashed ala the screen shot I took) and whilst I know that you are just listing sites that give away free tutes (you may want to ensure you have permission to do this in the manner you are as your site kind of implies that they are your tutes-should be clearer that its a virtual directory) but they should should represent a fairish balance between the two platforms (esp. given my comments re industry standards)

also agrees with Helvens comments re the look of the site...kind of contradicts the nature of what you are trying to do!!

but its a fair effort running a site (I know) so I hope it grows for you!!

 

[alessandra]

this is what i needed so much. thankyou! i am doing a flash webapge for 4unit english and am seriously confused cause i have never used it before!
your page is great!

 

[adriantabb]

One of the best feedbacks was from this forum, as it was part good part bad. I've been getting a lot of good feedback, but because i've been getting more bad feedback then I anticipated, i'm going to take a long break from advertising the site and chage it top to bottom.

When it's finished I'll come back here and ask you again for a review.
It started as a small project with the current layout. My friends encouraged me to go one step forward, and i almost made it right

Thanks again. And hope to come back here pretty soon with some new invites.