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Miscellaneous News and Ramblings

Miscellaneous News and Ramblings

on Aug 6th 2009 with 111 comments

There are several announcements and questions that I have for all of you. If you don’t mind, please take a moment or two to look over this and let me know your thoughts!

Tutorial Writers Needed

I’m hoping to find one or two more (bi)weekly writers for Nettuts+. Your duties would be to:

  1. Submit a tutorial each week on PHP, JavaScript, HTML, or CSS. For the first month, you’ll need to email me your tutorial idea before beginning.
  2. Follow the formatting guidelines listed here.
  3. Make any tutorial revisions that are requested.
  4. Submit an invoice each month to collect your mula! I’ll pay you $200 per tutorial.

PLUS Writers Needed

As many of you know, we also offer a PLUS service which offers much higher quality tutorials and/or screencasts on the same topics listed above. Due to the fact that we charge a small membership fee, we’re able to offer our authors much more compensation. Depending on the quality of the submission, I can offer between $250 – $600 for a finished tut + screencast.

FAQ

I don’t want to waste my time writing/recording just to be one of a hundred different choices for you guys. Is it worth my time?

Yes! The problem is that EVERYBODY thinks that. Realistically, I might receive a few submissions; but certainly not 100+. So take the initiative and get writing. If you use proper English, plenty of images, choose an idea that will appeal to our community, and explain yourself well, you have an EXCELLENT chance! :)

Does the subject matter have to be advanced?

Of course not. Our community is made up of individuals with varying skill levels. Even a basics PLUS tutorial will work – just as long as it’s high quality!

Covering Frameworks More On This Site

You might have noticed in the last month that I’m placing a greater emphasis on framework-oriented tutorials. Examples:

My question to you is…do you like this? Would you prefer that we move in a different direction, or cover a specific framework in more detail? This brings me to the next order of business…

ASP.NET From Scratch: Video Training Series — Author Needed

I need an experienced ASP.NET dev — specifically one who is current on the latest advancements in the framework (ASP.NET 4.0 and such) — to submit two tutorials and screencasts per month to our site. In exchange, I’ll pay you $500 total. This series should teach how to get started with ASP.NET from the very beginning, and then work its way up to a working web application. If interested, please email at nettutsblog@gmail.com with your credentials.

A Little Over a Week Left to Enter the PHP/JS Competition!

Don’t forget. The authors of the three best submissions to these categories, between now and August 14, will receive prizes and exposure, courtesy of CSSRockstars.com and us. Refer to this posting for more details.

Interested?

If you’re interested in any of the writing options listed above, you may submit your first tutorial here. Within the description, please note that you’re interested in becoming a (bi)weekly writer.

Thanks, everybody! Have you noticed that we’ve crossed 45,000 subscribers!? A year ago, we had about 10,000. Not too shabby, thanks to all of you!

P.S.

Are you aware that in the next week or so, Envato will be celebrating its three-year anniversary? Hmmm.. I wonder if we have anything planned…


 
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I'm the editor of Nettuts+, and love making the process of building for the web as easy as possible. Also, I'm finishing up my latest book on Laravel Testing! If you want be friends, say hi on Twitter.  

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  • http://www.dailyd.de Way

    My very problem with this fantastic form of earning money is that im from Germany and i dont have a paypal account, so how do you deal with international writers?

    Im very interested in writing one or more tuts for nettuts+, especially jquery in combination with php and mysql.

    • Arik

      Paypal doesn’t support Germany? I’m right next to you in Holland I got one.

    • http://www.newarts.at Drazen Mokic

      Hey, i am from Austria and i have a Paypal account and i know some friends from Germany they have one too. It works ;)

      • martin ansty

        I don’t think he doesn’t have one *because* he’s from germany, just that he doesn’t have one *and* he’s from germany

      • Chris Simpson

        ^^^

        http://www.paypal.de -> signup -> problem solved ;)

    • http://www.dailyd.de Way

      Problem solved! I didn’t know the simplicity of getting a Paypal-Account.

      So let the dices roll, I will soon start writing….perhaps tomorrow.

      • anonymous

        I think the fuss was that he just wanted to say he was from Germany, like everyone needs to move out the way for him :¬|

    • Davit

      Ok, now I’m not from Germany, but I’m from Georgia (you know the country fighting with big and great Russia, or perhaps with “Mr”.Putin). Well, the problem is that we definitely do not have paypal support here. And do you support any other payment gateway? Like MoneyBookers for example (truly not bad one)?

  • http://vasili.duove.com/ Vasili

    I would love to be an author, I’ll email you later about it. I haven’t forgotten about the competition, I’m still working on my script. I hope I have enough time to finish it! :)

  • http://www.wesbos.com Wes Bos

    A contact address would be great! (would tweet, buts its down right now)

    • http://www.digitalvaldosta.com Josh

      I had heard something about twitter is down, but I use the plugin in Firefox called Ubiquity to tweet and it works fine. I even have the most recent posted on my page.

  • http://www.massimilianosgarra.com Massimiliano Sgarra

    I love framework oriented tutorials !!!
    Pls continue with this !!!

    In particular i prefer CodeIgniter (Jeffrey Way series is great) and another video series of CakePHP.

    In future also Rails and Kohana (like CI) is well appreciated !!!

    Tnx a lot for all

  • http://www.imblog.info Muhammad Adnan

    Jeffrey ,
    I have lots of ideas for Tutorials and PLUS service too. I’m good in Asp.net too.
    but the problem is my English Grammar. I’m very disappointed today after i reading ur email reply.:(

    I wanted to weekly writer too.

    though with these issues ,I’m still working on my script for competition.

    • http://www.imblog.info Muhammad Adnan

      I forget to tell , framework video series are great.
      don’t stop this..

    • http://www.newarts.at Drazen Mokic

      Hey dont be disappointed, i have submitted a Tutorial Idea too some days ago and it was rejected. Thats not a reason to give up or to think you`r too bad or anything like that.

      Some of the guys who published successfully tutorials before also were rejected the first or even the second, third time.

      It depends on the timing, what the reader want and which topic is focused at the moment. Sometimes 2 or more guys(girls) will publish the same tutorial or the same topic and then the others will be rejected.

      Keep writing and you will do it, dont worry ;)

    • http://www.circuitbomb.com Dustin

      Don’t give up, just because English is a secondary language for you. There are a myriad of resources you can use on the net to strengthen your English writing. Use online spelling, grammar and punctuation checkers before submitting, so you catch spelling and structural errors.

      Even though English is my native tongue, with 4 years of English in High School, I STILL use these resources, especially for academic assignments.

      • http://www.imblog.info Muhammad Adnan

        @Dustin please let me know these resources that u use. thanks 4 cheering me.

    • http://laranzjoe.blogspot.com lawrence77

      me too Muhammad Adnan. i too know some concept in ASP.NET/C#.NET but my problem is my English Grammar.

      Who the hell invented English… :cry:

      • http://www.enatom.com enatom

        @lawrence77: muhammad adnan has a point, but you’re just an idiot.

  • http://www.franconerd.com Jean-Francois Messier

    What about tutorials, documents, etc in other languages ? English is a well-known language, but there are other great languages in this world, some of them being spoken by many millions of people. I’m French, from Canada. Here, we are 7 millions, but french is also spoken in may European countries. What about accepting submissions that could be translations of existing articles ?

  • Sohaib

    I’ve the same problem as Way. I’m from Pakistan and I can’t make a PayPal account. I’d love to write for you guys. Please do something about this issue

  • http://markpopkes.com Mark Popkes

    I would love to see some Code Igniter tutorials. As soon as my finances get straightened out, I plan on becoming a Plus Member. This site is great. Keep up the tuts!

  • http://blog.davidrojas.net David Rojas

    Yes, we like frameworks tutorials, and yes please keep the CodeIgniter series!

  • http://www.newarts.at Drazen Mokic

    @Jeff

    I peronally love CodeIgniter and do a lot of things with that Framework for Customers and just for me. So i would appreciate it if you keep focusing on CI.

    Its really nice of you to, i hope so, open some guys the eyes with saying that “everybody is thinking that the is one of 100″.

    @All

    I think its a good idea for every potential author to have his own blog. So if the tutorial he wrote was rejected he can publish it on his own blog and get some readers.

    Btw @Jeff: I asked that by twitter but i did not get an answer. I dont see any SEO (Search Engine Opt.) tutorials here, aer some needed? I am just suprised that nobody published one.

    • http://vasili.duove.com/ Vasili

      Agree 100% with your second point (the blog). :)

    • http://blog.davidrojas.net David Rojas

      I submited two weeks ago an article about SEO and it’s been accepted, it’s now on queue to be published on themeforest :)

  • http://www.freshclickmedia.com Shane

    In previous requests for tutorial submissions, ASP.NET’s omission was quite glaring. You’re now asking for tutorials. What’s prompted the decision?

    On a general note, nettuts is a daily read for me, and I’d like to say congratulations on its continued success!

  • http://www.circuitbomb.com Dustin

    The framework tutorials/ series are marvelous, they’re very helpful and intuitive. I don’t think you should sway far from framework content. My reason for mentioning ‘not to’, is even though the official websites are awesome resources for a framework, getting a ‘well said’ lesson can help people who don’t know where to start, or just have a hard time understanding the the basics in a user guide. Everyone has their preferred way of learning, and it’s great that Nettuts and the other tuts sites respect that.

    I want to submit an article. Though I have this ‘malfunction’ that when it comes down to someone asking me to write about a specific subject, or I say “Hey I think I’ll write about [insert subject here]” I immediately get writers block. Anyways, I want to though, so perhaps here soon.

  • http://UnleashedEffects.com Ben Williams

    you should have a place where people can ask for tutorials. Like I would like to see one on how to make a sick contact forum

  • hari

    What about some e-commerce tutorials.

  • http://www.moxiedisplays.com Mike

    Someone should make a tutorial on making a tutorial. Something that shows their workflow. I personally sat down to write a tutorial one day and once I started I realized it was going to take me forever to code, take screenshots, write out the tutorial, etc. I imagine some of the frequent writers have some methods to speed up workflow.

    • http://www.circuitbomb.com Dustin

      Somewhere around here there is a post on creating great screencast tutorials, it may not just be about actually writing one, in which case, the formatting guidelines would be a great start.

      Study tutorials already on the site and get a feel for how they are laid out. :)

  • http://andrewburgess.posterous.com Andrew

    Question: when you say “biweekly,” do you mean two tuts a week, or one every two weeks?

    The framework tuts are really good, and should be in; but I don’t think they should replace tuts that teach how to do it ‘from scratch.’ For example, I really liked your screencast on raw AJAX requests (http://net.tutsplus.com/videos/screencasts/how-to-make-ajax-requests-with-raw-javascript-part-2/), because it taught just that: raw javascript. So, I like both types, and think they should be balanced.

    • http://net.tutsplus.com Jeffrey Way

      I mean that you could write one tutorial per week…or one every other week.

  • Meshach

    @Jeffrey, what about the Diving into PHP series @ themeforest?

    What happened to that?

    • Christy McGrory

      Yeah I was looking forward to that aswell. Did someone back out?

  • Lee

    I’d love to see some sort of tutorial about “thinking like a web programmer”.

    As a designer I have trouble conceptualizing a programming solution from start to finish.

    Mid-level PHP stuff would be great too. Tutorial series regarding PHP always seem to stop RIGHT after they talk about arrays.

  • Chris

    Java tutorials anyone?

    • http://vivalacollege.com Kevin Urrutia

      YES :)

    • Arnold

      NO!
      … AJAX and jQuery screencast

    • http://www.evanbot.com/ Evan Byrne

      Java really has almost nothing to do with web programming…

      • Samuel Pushpak

        Oops! Who told you that??
        With java you can do complex web development. Infact the true potential of Object Oriented Programming in the area of web can be realized using Java.
        Just Google these words:
        Java EE, JMS, Enterprise JavaBeans, servlets, portlets JavaServer Pages, web service technologies (spring framework is working wonders now for big IT firms).
        We can even build Rich Internet Applications (RIA) using JavaFX.
        SCWCD – Sun Certified Web Component Developer: This is the test conducted by Sun Microsystems on the subject of developing web applications using Java.
        And definitely I’d love to see tutorials on using Java to build web apps. But I know there’ll be less audience, considering the fact that it’s tougher than PHP and ASP.Net.
        Peace!!

  • http://seich.martianwabbit.com Seich

    I personally prefer pure php tutorials rather than using frameworks. ^^ But framework tutorials are okay if that’s what everyone else wants.

    Maybe have some Intermediate/professional level tutorials for php.

  • Josh Devda

    For the first month, you’ll need to email me your tutorial idea before beginning – means you won’t pay anything for my idea ?

    • http://net.tutsplus.com Jeff Way

      No – it means that I’ll need to sign off on your idea first.

  • http://twitter.com/abcoetzee Abraham

    I’d like to write tutorials, love nettuts, but we in South Africa (and I know there are a load of other countries as well) can’t receive money via a PayPal account.

    So are there any other means by which we could arrange with you to receive payment for successful tuts? (i wouldn’t mind carrying the cost of the international transfer to my bank account, etc.)?

    Thank you kindly

    • Arnold

      I got the same question also…

  • http://www.importzehdesign.com/ José Henrique

    I sent my tutorial and received a response wich the tutorial has been aproved but he not published and You not warned what happened. I was very disapointed.

    I have other ideas to tutorial, mainly about drupal. But after this event I lost some trust in NetTuts.

    • http://www.jeff-way.com Jeffrey Way
      Author

      I can’t remember exactly, but I believe I emailed you about this. Your grammar was the problem.

      • jaded

        I wrote a tutorial that you said you’d publish as well and it never made it. I believe the last response was something about finding a spot for it even though it was approved. This was probably six months ago. I gave up after that.

  • Justin Christensen

    Personally I would like to see the continued coverage of frameworks but I’ve been looking for a javascript training series somewhere on the net… Does anyone know where I could find some high quality training series videos? (Methinks Jeffrey should put together a “Diving Into Javascript” series)…

    • http://www.jeff-way.com Jeffrey Way
      Author

      Heh. Only so many hours in a day. I have the jQuery for Absolute Beginner series…but that doesn’t really cover raw JS techniques.

      • Justin Christensen

        Could you maybe recommend a good book or an online tool to better explain Javascript to me (I’m a coding newbie and I’m still struggling to wrap my head around OOP)…

        And if you have anything that covers the other parts of client scripting (the DOM, AJAX, etc) I’d be open to suggestions on those topics as well.

        Sorry to be so demanding :)

  • Dejan

    I love the CI tuts, and hope they continue to more advanced level.
    I would like to see more Kohana tuts as well

  • Abhin

    Hi Jeffery
    I wanted to know that apart from PHP, javascript and CSS do you accept tutorials on JSP/ serlvlet , Mashups and python. I am interested as biweekly editor as per News on NetTuts. Is it allowed to give tutorials of widgets that are on Themeforest loaded by Me but not identical but concept is same.I can give screencasts on JSP/servlets, Struts from starting to advance.

    • http://www.jeff-way.com Jeffrey Way
      Author

      Not really. We can occasionally post a Python tutorial; but the main problem is that there simply isn’t enough of an audience for those types of tuts.

  • Cody Robertson

    I’d be willing to write. I just really don’t know what topics to cover. I’m pretty strong PHP wise, but I don’t prefer using frameworks.

    I was wanting to do a Client Manager tutorial. I think I sent that to you Jeffery with other ideas.

    Just throwing that out there.

  • http://asrar.ca Asrar

    What about classic ASP? It’s better than ASP.NET for a lot of things, namely, development time, portability and learning curve. ASP is a lot closer to PHP than ASP.NET is.

    • http://www.jeff-way.com Jeffrey Way
      Author

      Wow – never heard that before. Not in a million years will I post a classic ASP tut on this site.

      • http://asrar.ca Asrar

        lol, I didn’t think so – the only reason I mentioned it is because you mentioned ASP.NET – a pretty convoluted programming language if you ask me. Have you ever tried porting an ASP.NET application from one server to another? It’s a freaking nightmare.

      • Kel

        ASP.NET is a programming language?

      • http://www.freshclickmedia.com Shane

        @Asrar – ASP.NET is a framework, not a language. But you knew that, right?

      • http://asrar.ca Asrar

        @Shane

        I did actually. But you missed my point.

        http://asrar.ca/2009/08/asp-doesnt-suck-heres-why/

    • http://laranzjoe.blogspot.com lawrence77

      @Asrar
      Old is Always GOLD….

    • http://zettersten.com erik

      holy macro old asp… serious?

    • Kel

      I’m afraid I need some examples of how classic ASP is in a million years “better” than ASP.NET for — well let’s just start with development time. I used classic ASP for 4 or 5 years and then ASP.NET since 2002, but I want your opinion.

  • john

    i would love to see more code ignitor and kohana! thanks jeff you rock

  • http://www.stephen-ainsworth.co.uk Stephen Ainsworth

    I was going to compain about the lack of good tutorials recently.

    I guess its up to us to get off our own backsides and do something about it.

  • Joseph Wilson

    Keep the framework tutorials coming! PLEASE! Both PHP and Ruby frameworks. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere…the CodeIgniter From Scratch series is AWESOME!!!! I’m really looking forward to seeing that one completed. :D

  • Greg Stiffler

    Unlike most other commenter here, I don’t care for framework tutorials at all. It kind of sucks to see a cool concept tutorial posted, but find that it’s not for a framework you’re using.

    As far as types of content, I would love to see more tutorials geared towards the corporate world. I’ve seen a few tutorials that got me thinking of ideas for projects my organization would be interested in.

  • Ethan

    Another cheer for frameworks! These types of tutorials really help graduate entry level concepts to a broader perspective and that REALLY helps grow the masses. Soon I would like to help out by demonstrating more OOP materials. Time is short with little ones, but I will give soon.

    I have been a +subscriber since I found NETTUTS not primarily for the education, but read daily and firmly believe in the principle behind this site. Not to date myself, but there was a time that you had to pour over book after book to gasp different concepts/solutions. Sites like these help us as a creative pool to conceive innovative solutions. I am personally an advocate of sharing what I have learned and the lessons others have taught me out of the kindness of their hearts.

    Keep up the good work. I’ll keep subscribing/reccomending and soon contribute. Kudos!

  • N Parsons

    Just wanted to say this site is really a pleasure- definitely bar-raising quality. I enjoy framework tutorials, but my favorite is skill related tutorials like ‘Secure your Forms with Keys’ or ’10 Tips for New iPhone Developers’. Thanks, keep up the good work!

  • Ray

    I’m really enjoying the Codeigniter tutorials. Can’t wait until the next one!

  • Andrew Steenbuck

    I’d love to write some more tutorials. But I always have trouble coming up with ideas.

  • Evan Jones

    Always in the mood for e-comm and SEO tuts. Keep up the good work JW

  • http://www.prop-14.com Randy

    The framework series are great, but it kind of requires a good understanding of oop. I suppose it is hard to please users of every skill level, thus you may not get a clear answer on what type of articles to focus on from this post.

    My personal opinion is that money is tight for everyone right now. Clients want all this control over their site content, yet can’t pay for extensive coding of a custom CMS for example. This brings up possibly more articles on using WordPress. Creating your own quick start WP template system that you can modify easily, covering the best plug-ins and how to use them, etc.

    One last suggestion, you mention having 45,000 subscribers. I imagine we each have many clients. I find myself repeating the same things over and over to them. Do you think there would be a market to do articles geared toward end users like:
    How to use the admin panel of WordPress
    How does my bandwidth work?
    How many visitors can my host handle?
    (and so on…)

    I, for one, would direct all of my clients to these articles instead of typing it over and over. Everything is geared toward the web designer(rightfully so) but there is also maybe a market for the end user of a website?(45,000 x ?clients each?)

    • Monty

      Yea, the OOP throws me off, because I’m used to procedural coding. So, some OOP tutorials for PHP and other popular languages would be great!

  • http://designerweblinks.com chris

    i love this site , but im always disapointed that there is really never anything on ASP.NET, i only remenber one TUT so far. TMS Framework

  • Andrei

    I think you should post more Codeignater tutorisld, BUT FIRST you should explain the concepts of OOP programming so that beginners understand how the framework works.

  • http://davidfitzgibbon.com David Fitzgibbon

    The framework tutorials are great. Especially when there is a “From Scratch” series and then a few more advanced tutorials. These let us get to grips with frameworks quickly and try out what we like or dont like. I think they’re going very well!

  • leaase

    I would love to see some Zend Framework tutorials!!

  • Isidro

    Hi, im asp.net programmer discovered this fabulous site just a few days ago and I would like to see more post from asp.net

  • http://chrisberthe.com/ chrisberthe

    Yes, keep the CodeIgniter tutorials they’re great!

    Jeff do you have plans to eventually show how to create your own custom CMS using CodeIgniter (as you showed your own site in the first video)? Would make for a great plus tutorial :)

    • http://www.jeff-way.com Jeffrey Way
      Author

      Yes. After I teach the basics, we’ll move into an actual project.

      • http://chrisberthe.com/ chrisberthe

        Perfect, looking forward to it.

      • Guillermo Carrion

        Great! looking forward to it too!

  • Carlos Vidal

    Please keep writing framework-oriented tutorials, specially CodeIgniter ones.

    I’m from Peru and my english is not good enough to write tutorial for this site. on the other hand, Envato should consider opening a spanish site.

    English is a wall to knowledge for most of my colleagues. I have an advantage, just for knowing english.

  • Gavin Steele

    Off topic I know, but I need some help, when you buy a domain, do you do a private registration? I am buying a new domain from godaddy and they offer it free? can I still sell it later if i want?

    thanks

    • Andrew Steenbuck

      It means that they don’t publish information about the ‘owner’ of the domain name. That way when someone does a WHOIS search on the domain, they see GoDaddy’s (or another proxy service’s) information instead in the record. Basically its a way to protect your identity so people can’t peruse WHOIS listings and steal lots of information about you.

  • Monty

    Tutorials I’d like to see…

    +– More beginner jQuery tutorials, along with intermediate and advanced ones.

    +– Drupal tutorials.

    +– Javascript tutorials.

    +– mySQL tutorials.

    • Monty

      Oh, forgot one more tutorial I’d love to see:

      +– How to add e-commerce to your website with Google Checkout.

  • Ben R.

    I think the Framework tutorials are an awesome idea, and I hope they keep coming! I’ve especially been enjoying the Codeigniter series, and look forward to going through the Kohana tut.

  • Tracey

    Should we start looking at separating the tutorials into those for developers and those for designers and aim for one tutorial for each per week?

    Then perhaps once a month there could be a collaborative effort to show the process of translating a design into a fully functioning site, based on the lessons from the previous individual tutorials.

    I have just discovered Drupal and am totally blown away by its functionality. Therefore I’d love to see more tutorials on Drupal. Apparently there is a shortage of themes available so teaching someone how to create a theme, and implement it, could be worthwhile.

    I love nettuts.

    • http://www.enatom.com enatom

      I agree, cms tutorials are good, and tutorials utilizing different technologies like Adobe Air or other things that do not get a mention.

      aka Other things that are NOT PHP FRAMEWORKS

  • http://www.enatom.com enatom

    NO MORE FRAMEWORK TUTORIALS PLEASE.

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