Site News

Note From The Editor

on Aug 18th 2008 with 124 comments

Jeffrey here. I have a few things that I’d like to go over with everyone – as well as some questions. If you don’t mind, take a couple of minutes and leave a comment with your thoughts.

We’re Looking For A Staff Writer

We’re currently looking for one more person to write a weekly tutorial. Here is the catch; I’m looking for someone unique. We’ve got PHP, WordPress, and jQuery covered. I need someone to cover everything else – from Flash to Ruby. If you think you have the goods, Email Us and we’ll talk! The pay is $150 per tutorial.

What Do You Want?

I’d like to know what sort of tutorials you are craving? The community determines what we post, so please leave a comment with your opinion. Personally, I’d like to see more frameworks and libraries covered – like Ruby, ASP.NET, Drupal, MooTools, etc. I’d like to post some more Flash tutorials as well. What do you want?

Quick Tips: Stay Or Go?

My plan is to have a full tutorial every morning (Central Time) and a quick tip in the evening. Are you enjoying these quick tips, or would you prefer that we focus more on the full tutorials? Personally, I enjoy five minute tips. My days are busy and allow little time for deciphering long tutorials – although I try to make time whenever I can. P.S. On my personal site, I, just today, rolled out a series of “Two Minute Video Tips” to be posted every day during the work week. Be sure to check those out if you enjoy such things.

Premium Service Is On The Way

We are currently working to bring a “premium” members service to NETTUTS. For $19 per month, you’ll gain access to many features – TBD. Once again, my question to you is: What would you expect for your $19 per month? Personally, I’d like to see exclusive video tutorials. Other ideas might be t-shirts and/or a magazine subscription? This is all speculation right now, but your feedback will help us a great deal!

One Last Request

Over the next week or so, I’m going to be compiling a massive list of the best web development books available – as voted by you! Please take a few seconds to vote. After I’ve received all of the submissions, I’ll create a posting that details the top ten or twenty!


Thanks, everyone!

 
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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://rafyta.com Rafyta

    How about a global tuts membership for a little more higher fee?

  • http://duhhblog.wordpress.com Duhh

    In my opinion Flash is a whole different TUTS site than NETTUTS, I would prefer to see more ruby tutorials now that big sites like Twitter are starting to use it.

  • james

    I’m guessing there are a lot of people here (like myself) who are xhtml/css people and are looking to learn PHP/MySQL and Javascript. I like the tutorials the help transition the web designer into the web developer.

    I would LOVE to see case studies of complex web sites. Or, I’d love to see a step-by-step build that includes everything one might learn here: valid xhtml/css layout with javascript enhancements, a CMS and some PHP/MySQL back end.

    One thing I never see anywhere is tutorials on server management. I would love to read about Apache administration…ESPECIALLY security related tuts.

    Finally, I’d like to third or fourth the FORUM suggestion. Tutorials are great, but I find learning from discussions is even more helpful.

    Great site as it stands, though. Definitely one of my favorites.

  • james

    Oh! And e-commerce. I don’t know where to start when trying to add a shopping cart to an existing website. I’ve used pre-built template based services, but how would one add “add to cart” type functionality to an existing design?

  • http://www.mikewhobikes.com MikeWhoBikes

    Video tutorials would be great! I’d be interested to see a series of tutorials on jQuery, working from the basics up.

  • http://www.miketorosian.com Mike T.

    I love the PHP learning regimen, that is something hard to come by and I am really looking forward to that, I am a bit disappointed that round 2 hasn’t come along yet, but I think that is a great tutorial for a site like this especially for someone like me who is eager to learn PHP.

    Flash is another biggie for me, especially with ActionScript, I think I read somewhere that FlaTuts was under construction? I would LOVE to see a site like that within the TUTS family, I think a lot of people out there are like me who really love the results you can get with Flash but are a bit intimidated by the construction and ActionScript that goes behind them, and for me a good AS resource has been hard to come by, so a very well put together FLA site would be great in my opinion.

    Beyond that I think you guys are doing a great job, I would also suggest more training regimens like the PHP one, for those of us who are in the beginning phases of learning development, with so many different things out there, it can get a bit overwhelming, at least to me.

    Hope this helps you out in some way, thank you for all the great sites.

  • http://www.polarmedia.ca Rene

    1 – Keep it free for us readers, or as free as possible please !!

    2 – I would reallllllllllly like if you can do some tutorials on completing a web site… I am talking here of taking our design, puting them in xhtml/css AND creating the template file that will drive all our site’s page !!!

    3 – I like your job.

  • http://thedailyapp.com Tommy M

    Also, I would recommend some beginner tutorials on Ruby on Rails.

    New developers and designers are quick to learn PHP but RoR has yet to see a boom in popularity. Most new developers will see that 37signals is making some great stuff with it and would probably like to know how to do the same. (I am one of them)

  • http://www.furleydelphia.com Furley

    CakePHP

    it’s a piece of cake to bake a pretty cake.

  • http://www.furleydelphia.com Furley

    @benjo we don’t need downladable goods. there are other places for that. this is a tuts site. there should be quality tutorials here.

  • Jeff

    I’d like to see more advanced PHP tutorials. Making things look nice with jQuery is all good but it’s really of no use if you don’t know how to create sites that utilize databases, template engines, etc.

  • http://jimdavis.org Jim Davis

    Two things come to mind. First, as web designers we are responsible for finding solutions to design and usability problems. Perhaps a client that wants 20 large photos of Rover on the same page, or a client that wants 50 pages but has no clue how to organize all the information. I would like to see articles on solving design and usability problems.

    Secondly, how about some articles that tackle developing a site from finding inspiration through adding the final touches and code cleanup. Perhaps use an old site designed with nested tables and image slices and show a step by step overhaul.

    Keep up the good work.

  • Bryan Grajales

    We’re tired of the “premium” tutorials, they’re all private if you dont know sometimes its hard to pay 9 dollars i know its nothing but 9 dollars can be something more important for the family otr the house that a website…

    now, in psdtuts, netuts, and vectortuts, the tutorials are now private the newest tuorial you put in psdtuts is private until you sign up, who will be intesrested in a private tutorial?

    sorry, but a website that teaches private stuff is not a good option…

    now you’re just like or pay the 9 dollars or you dont get nothing from us!!

    thats kind of stu…

    Think about it…

  • http://acomment.net mohsen

    I really like to see more professional flash tut here. Why don’t you guys make another tut site for flash? e.g. flashtuts.com

  • Gregory

    First off, great site. Definitely keep the constant updates coming.

    I would recommend adding a “Experience Level” to each tutorial. Sometimes I’ll get really excited about an article, only to find that it’s aimed at someone with a very low experience level. Also from the comments, it seems like the tutorials aren’t advanced enough for experienced users, and are too advanced for beginners.

    A lot of the WordPress/jQuery tutorials don’t seem to be tutorials as much as really well documented code. I think the more generic, the better.

    And lastly, I think there should be some design tutorials, as well as some more higher concept tutorials (for example an article about MVC, or CSS best practices, etc).

    I’ve had a few people show me sites they’ve done, and I’ve recognized the effects from here (mostly the jQuery stuff, in my opinion). It seems that people are copying and pasting code rather than truly learning. So rather than a tutorial telling people how to make something specific, what about an indepth tutorial about what you can do with the “Traversing” functions in jQuery, etc…

    Either way, great work so far- keep it up!

  • http://www.softronikx.com Shantesh Patil

    ASP.NET tutorials would really be great. ASP.NET is really easy to get into and rapidly start developing applications in. Plus Microsoft has done a great job by releasing free express editions of their IDE to get you started with .NET programming. I would love to do a few starter tutorials for ASP.NET if required.

  • http://www.apostropheart.com/ Mike

    A premium paid membership site will not induce me to part with my cash although a monthly quality video tutorial (a la Justin at Cartoon Smart) would.

    The web is flooded with wordpress and css tutorials, how about covering some of the other cms’s? More php and javascript would be appreciated and if you do build a forum, that would make a great tutorial. bbpress?

    The quick tips is a nice idea but the quality so far has been poor. Two of them teaching non validating code and a couple so basic as to be insulting. Css reset and multiple selectors? Come on!

  • http://www.codethirteen.com/ Paul

    I’m with Dayton Nolan on this, plus I also mentioned it earlier this week:

    The other TUT sites are all pushing out high experience level tutorials. It’s what makes them stand out from the crowd. This site has also done some great tutorials, but is lagging behind it’s brethren in my opinion.

    First of all, you’ll never please the whole crowd – so my advice would be to stop doing tutorials for specific libraries unless you can do the tutorial and then translate it to a couple of libraries to please most viewers.
    For example: a gallery script in javascript and then have an example of how to work it for scriptaculous, jQuery and Mootools. If you don’t do that, most viewers are immediately put off it I reckon, as most experienced coders already have a favorite library and won’t be budged by one tutorial.

    HTML/CSS? Over done and way too simple, go search google and you’ll find anything you want. Unless it is something brand new, leave it out of NETTUTS—again, I feel you should be aiming at a higher level.

    My thoughts on what you are aiming at:

    Unique, high-level and versatile tutorials that lead to the viewer being able to understand the subject matter and accurately reproduce the example—which should be cross-browser compliant and accessible, as for full time developers, those two are now bread and butter requirements for any project.

  • http://www.freshclickmedia.com Shane

    Firstly, I think that nettuts is a great site. I’ve learned a thing or two here.

    We’ve certainly had an emphasis thus far on WordPress and jQuery. Nothing too wrong with that – they’re popular and there are lots of people who crave information on them, but a bit more variety is certainly wanting.

    Definitely keep the tips – a post doesn’t have to be long to be useful, and hey – like @Paul said, you can never please the whole crowd at once. Some tutorials have been of no interest to me, and others have taught me nothing, but that’s the way it goes.

    In some ways, I believe that the guys over at vectortuts and psdtuts have an easier time of delivering great content. I say that because it’s quite hard to find decent photoshop/illustrator tutorials on the internet, and those sites that provide tutorials are often plagued with adverts and popups.

    Nettuts is a great little site, and I hope it continues to flourish.

    My suggestions:

    1) CMS tutorials such as Expression Engine.
    2) ASP.NET – see how that goes down with people, though I’d be interested to know how many of your readers would show an interest in that one.
    3) General PHP security
    4) Using Python for web development.
    5) Not too keen on a premium service.

  • http://enhance.qd-creative.co.uk James

    @Shane – I agree with your remark about PSDtuts and vectorTUTS. The problem is that there already is a lot of great webdev content out there… NETTUTS has to somehow differntiate itself, either by offering different content, more in-depth content or something like the premium service… Otherwise we’ll just end up as another fish in the pond!

  • Robin

    I’d like to see more Ruby and more Perl, there are quite a few very useful frameworks for both that are worth covering. I don’t see the point in covering Flash much, it’s been ages since I’ve seen much of interest come from Flash, it’s become a lot less useful with current browsers.

  • nisjnev

    Would like some tuts on the Zend Framework!

  • http://www.anti-pixel.net anti-pixel

    i agree with james…nettuts needs more in-depth content and less of those little tips that we all know and have read on many sites before…

  • http://radialvoltage.radgh.com Kay Hwee

    I personally find the quick tips a GREAT idea.
    I would love it, considering how i don’t really have much time to read long tutorials.
    Of course, long tutorials are appreciated too as they are much more informative.

    On the other hand, i don’t prefer the idea of a premium service, as i myself am not earning money yet.

    Yours Sincerely,
    -Kay Hwee

  • http://None(Yet!) Thomas Drake-Brockman

    I think that you should have video tuts for premium but not restrict any of the other tuts. You shouldn’t make downloads or any of the tuts that you currently have premium only.

    I would like to see more CSS and full site creation (ie. PSD to (X)HTML + CSS).

    No quick tips however make some of the tuts bigger (ie full site creation tuts)

  • Jon

    I greatly enjoy your site but would never pay $9/month for material that I honestly could find elsewhere.

  • Steve

    Would love to see Ruby on Rails tutorials. I would also like to see a more comprehensive tutorial on how to design and code a wordpress theme. This doesn’t have to include the photoshop part, but merely how to slice the design and put it together as a custom wordpress theme. Although, the photoshop design could be part of the tutorial on psdtuts.com.

  • Steve2

    There is no way that you can offer premium content which can’t be found elsewhere — in some form — on the net. And there’s just no way I’m paying $9 month.

  • http://www.1pixelbrush.com Dan

    Usability and and UI at the developer level would be great and well needed in the community.

  • Lene

    I’d like to see more WordPress tutorials. You already have some great ones, but I’d like to see more.
    Thank you for great content.

  • Robin

    Looking at the replies you can already tell your users have varying degrees of skill – beginner to expert. I’m more of a print designer (yeah we’re still out there) and consider myself more on the entry level side but I appreciate all the tutorials you publish on NETTUTS ’cause it gives me something to look forward to understanding and achieving.

    What I’d pay $9 a month for, no committment. Building a complete CMS, and I’m not talking about intergration of WordPress. Most of the books and tutorials out there teach you, but I’m yet to find one that incorporates design and programming, like so many HTML/CSS tutorials do.

  • http://timschmidt.us Tim

    I say keep the Quick Tips for sure! They’ve been really helpful… and quick.

  • http://laminbarrow.com Lamin Barrow

    I’d definitely like too see javascript tuts that do not use frameworks (Jquery, mootools etc) and also CSS and ASP.NET.

  • http://www.mohdesign.de Marvin O. Hassan

    Yeah keep them quick tips coming.

  • David

    i love the quick tips, can we keep them about?

  • Dan

    What I want:

    PHP & PHP/MySQL tuts. I’m still suprised how few there are considering how popular the language is. I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m not going to use a CMS until I know how to make my own. I’m trying to teach myself via shotty tutorials on other sites and messing around with the TBSource code.

    Quick Tips:

    <3. Need I say more?

    Premium service:

    I’m torn on this. I strongly dislike monthy fees, but at the same time I don’t feel I would be let down, content wise. With that said, the content would have to be excellent- much better than it already is- for me to dish out money every month.

    I would also like to +1 for the global membership thing. Maybe $9/site or 15 for two, etc. I don’t know, that’s your job..!

  • http://www.miketorosian.com Mike T.

    For those saying all Tuts should be focused at a higher level, I have to respectfully disagree, there are beginners (like myself) who visit this site in the same way that mediocre to advanced developers do, and for that reason I think that tutorials should cater to users of all skill levels.

  • http://www.aaroninflash.com Aaron Hall

    That sounds great!

    I don’t mind having:

    1) more CMS tutorials (you already have tutorial about how to add cushyCMS in it, I’m not exactly sure what’s the limitation are but what about try different CMS?)

    2) more css (for buttons, layouts, forms, etc.)

    3) misc such as dead state button, contact form, etc.

    4) how to add shopping cart (I assumed paypal is the easiest way to do it??)

    5) not too sure about wordpress tuts (not too fond of it)

    6) keep the tips and the tuts every morning!! :) Most important of all!!!!

  • http://www.r1designs.net Michael

    I’ve been in the web design and development biz for 10+ yrs now, and am always learning something new.

    I love the quick tips and tuts. I don’t care much for video tutorials, I prefer to be able to sit back look at the code and go, “OK, I see it now.” In fact I think I’ve ever only watched 1 video tutorial.

    It would take something pretty amazing to get me to pay for a premium service. A really good mag ‘might’ do it, but at a subscription rate of $108/yr it would have to be an astoundingly amazing mag.

  • http://www.amycullen.net Amy

    I’d love to see a tut on how to add commenting to a site (not WP or any other blog software where it’s a feature you can enable or easily add-on). I have a client that wants commenting but can’t find much for a beginning coder to be able to accomplish it.

    I second an article on adding a shopping cart would be great too, as well as securing a page for cc info or something like that.

    If you need CSS articles I’d be up for writing some, but it looks like you’ve already got it covered. :)

    Thanks for the great site, I especially love the tips as they are easy to make time for.

  • oisean

    I would like to see Drupal tuts and overviews and tutorials on the PHP 5 frameworks, in particular Qcodo and Kohana.

  • http://www.outoforange.com Jay Reynolds

    I think you should go for an all out “Tut’s” Premium Membership. I’m predominately a print designer, but I love learning about web related info. I can’t justify paying $10 for 2 different tuts.

    I like the Quick tips as well. It’s like a “cookie” a tasty treat worth of learning.

    Thanks for all the great articles. It has been very helpful.

  • http://www.armed.nu Bendikt Myklebust

    I think that having more articles on php(OBO Programming) in generall, and more about developing your own stuff rather then to use other stuff. :) And sure more jquery / other ajax stuff.

  • Lee

    Some Joomla Tuts would be great!

  • Miles Johnson

    Ive seen basic PHP, nothing mind blowing or exciting with PHP yet.

  • Dead.Pixel

    I would like to see some tutorials on how to make/implement flash menus similar to the starcraft2/Diablo 3 websites.

    (off topic, but may we see a flashtuts.com soon?)

  • http://www.richanomix.com Richard Neary

    Though it has already been stated numerous times, NETTUTS is a great site with some excellent tutorial and community thus far.

    As well everyone is saying there are too many jQuery, CSS, and WordPress tutorials. Yes, those are obviously the categories most the tutorials fall into, but they are just as much part of the web as anything else. I would not want to see the tutorials on these subjects start to disappear simply to make room for tutorials of another kind.

    As far as branching out into other areas of the web. PHP, Ruby on Rails, Adobe Flash, and ASP.net are still definitely areas which need to be covered. All of which are very popular mediums for which to make a website. Apart from coding/scripting languages there are other parts of the web that could easily fall under this site’s range of tutorials such as: SEO marketing, user experience, and accessibility.

    With that being said each tutorial shouldn’t be created to please everyone because it never will. So more advanced level tutorials and even step-by-step per tutorial should definitely be something to look into. Although, if there hasn’t been much popularity in the category being written for I would advise the author to provide links and resources for those reading it. Therefore, even if the tutorials more difficult on an opinion-based level, any reader viewing the topic would easily have ways to understand what’s being said.

    For the quick tips and tutorials I say keep those alive for sure, they are extremely helpful and I can’t see any reason not to keep them coming.

    And lastly, membership. If and when there is a membership fee implemented into NETTUTS It would certainly have to provide some really quality content or resources that simply can’t just be found by Googling. For example: If you where creating a tutorial on how to develop a website from PSD to XHTML/CSS and then integrating it in WordPress. Providing the WordPress theme along with the source code once completed would be something worth 9 bucks.

    All-in-all NETTUTS is a great site with some excellent resources. I can’t wait to see what instore for it over the net couple of months.

  • http://www,lonelyschnozz.com Tyron Love

    I would personally pay $9 a month for a premium service. I don’t subscribe to many premium sites, but I like Nettuts a lot and would want to support it.

    I’m more of a usability, SEO and web copy writer kinda web designer, so Nettuts helps me out a lot on the technical side of things:) Quick tips must stay and there should be a couple of tuts on “White Hat” SEO, usability, content quality etc… as well as tutorials on “short cut” web stuff for us non programmers.

    Books that are swell: “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug and “Hot Text – Web Writing That Works” by Jonathan and Lisa Price.

    Thanks for the great site, guys!

  • http://Photographdaddy.com Matt

    My vote to keep Quick Tips

  • http://hiphopmakers.com/ HipHopMakers

    More wordpress tutorials please. They help me the most.

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