Well, last night I decided I was really tired of all the brown on brown of Psdtuts+ and I chopped up and WordPress’d the new design and voila it’s live! … well mostly live. Still have some kinks to iron out …
Less Ads
One of the first things you may notice is that advertising on Psdtuts+ has all but disappeared. I’ve removed Adsense, stripped back the banner ads to a single spot (as of 1st December, it’ll be a rotating one through the new Miiingle), ditched the affiliate banners, and shuffled text-link-ads to the footer. Why you ask?
Well aside from the fact that it’s much cleaner, in the next month or two we’ll be moving the site to have a subscription section. Subscriptions will cost $8 a month and the sample PSD files that are at the end of every tutorial will only be available to subscribers. Additionally, I’m looking at putting together some video tutorials for subscribers as well (though that remains to be seen).
The reason for this is largely that bandwidth has become something of an issue. We use Amazon’s S3 service because the site gets Dugg so much and most cheap webhosts (and some expensive ones) would fall over serving that many images and zips at once. But even with S3′s cheap pricing, bandwidth for file downloads alone is over $400 a month. This is what you get when you give 20mb files away at the end of tutorials that see 15,000 visitors a day :-) So once I get a payment system running, the sample PSD files will only be available to paying subscribers. I think this will make for a good long-term solution for the site and will allow us to afford to pay for more tutorials on the site. And don’t forget the tutorials themselves will always remain free!
Legibility!
As you might remember, I began designing up a new version of Psdtuts+ after receiving lots of criticism about the brown on brown color scheme when I wrote a tutorial about Web design. It was a good excuse to start redesigning, and the new site is much cleaner and more readable. I think it looks better too, though I am bracing for people to disagree in the comments.
Gravatars & Flickr Stream & User Links (soon)
Additionally I’ve added Gravatars to the site so that when you comment you can have a little picture appear next to you. It’s really easy to get a gravatar, just sign up for a free account and it associates an image with your email address. Then when you comment here (or on other sites using Gravatar) your picture will appear!
There’s also now a Flickr group you can join to share images you’ve made using or inspired by Psdtuts+ tutorials.
And tomorrow I’ll finish off the user link feed so that anyone can submit links to tutorial sites, inspiration sites, and so on to appear in the sidebar. The links will be moderated for quality of course, but it’ll be an extra way for people to interact with the site.
We could also get some forums, I suppose, though there are probably lots of other Photoshop forums around. Does anyone think Psdtuts+ forums would be a good idea? If there’s demand I’ll install some!
Increased Payouts for Tutorial Writers
Finally we’re increasing payouts to tutorial writers from $75 to $125p/tutorial. The rules for submission and acceptance are the same, but I hope that this will provide more compensation for all those Photoshop stars out there as I realize it’s a lot of time you need to spend. ou can learn more about the rules and criteria on the Write a Tutorial page.
You may have guessed that we are slowly building a team of Photoshop stars to keep this site going in to the future long after I have run out of tutorial ideas! So if you’re interested in writing on a consistent basis for Psdtuts+, then please let us know when submitting! I’m very excited to expand the team and hopefully you’ll get some publicity out of writing for the site too as our audience is growing quickly.
Onwards and Upwards!
Anyhow so I hope everyone likes the new site. If there are any bugs or kinks you notice, please let me know in the comments and I’ll get them sorted out pronto!
Oh and you’ll be happy to know that I have no less than 7 tutorials waiting to be published. Now that the site is up, we can get back to posting!
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Nice, but previous was better :)
Great site! I have to admit though, I did enjoy the darker version of this site better however. Change is good though. Keep up the great work!
Too bad the nice brown layout is gone…
Awesome! Just AWESOME! I really like the new design! :D
Keep it up!
Hey there, love the tuts and the new look. I like the spoon but should it be flipped to frame the logo rather than leading the eye into empty space? I’m just a cartoonist not a designer but this kinda leapt out at me. Keep up the great work, as a design newbie I’ve found it very helpful.
I visited this site nearly every other day. But to pay a subscription, I don’t think I will be visiting now. I would rather see ads than pay money to download files. Nicer design, but you just lost at least visitor.
:-(
Regarding the subscription amount, there are so many websites now moving to the monthy subscription site. I already subscribe to vitalist for tracking to do items and Flickr. Vitalist is a robust application and it’s only $5 month. I much prefer Flickr’s yearly charge. Then you can just pay once per year and it doesn’t eat at you every month. I might pay $20 a year here but I would not pay $8/month as I don’t download examples every month. In fact I don’t download examples often but might still subscribe for a one time or at least once a year reasonable fee just to support you. But another monthly bill? No thanks. I can do math and $96 per year is way too much.
The design looks much better!! Great Job!!
Also, at $8/month you’ll likely see a lot of people signing up for one month, downloading all the PSD files, then unsubscribing. $20/year seems reasonable but again I still wouldn’t pay it.
Remove the PSD files altogether if they’re costing that much. I think they tempt people away from actually completing the tutorial themselves anyway.
Hi, I agree that the site should remain free. The PSD files are also important because if you don’t say understand how to get a certain effect for a certain design, you can refer back to the PSD. However, like Spencer Lavery said if it tempts people from completing the tutorials, remove the PSD files and give more longer instructions on how to get certain effects. Good job with the excellent tutorials, and keep them coming!
Ciao
Wow..2 days not visiting psduts now have a big change!..I LOVE IT :) . you guys rock
Hey, i’m willing to pay $8 amonth..please provide video tutorials that we can download it.
Thanks
Brilliant redesign. Very attractive, clean and easy on eyes. Good work guys.
Hey Collis,
I’m a bit late to the show, but I thought I’d come with my constructive comments, and share them with you.
Firstly, I love most of your design work. You seem to make ordinary elements just stand out.
However, there are a few areas where I feel it could definitely be improved.
1) Your default content are text size is far too small. I find it strange that you would make the comments easier to read than the content. Not only is the text too small, but as with a number of your designs, the content area is much too wide. If your font size was at least two sizes larger, you might get away with it. Something needs to give here. I know it can be changed by the user, but, let’s face it, most people either don’t bother, or they don’t even know it’s an option.
2) The footer links lack structure. To me, they look like an after-thought. But you’re a designer my friend, everything has its place, and purpose ;)
I think those are the only (what I’d consider) major issues. I don’t mind the left aligned look. The whole thing looks very clean, and polished.
Please take this as constructive. I only mean well, and I’ve only bothered to comment like this, because I appreciate your work so much.
….. to much white, its hard on the eyes, other than that nice site.
Peace
CR.
i actually liked the brown version better than this
Sorry, I don´t like the new design. All the “white” designs are too common. The brown one was definitly standig out.
I guess I’ll add my 2 cents to the chorus. I do agree with the majority that the dark site was better and more eye catching. It made the tutorials stand out more etc.
I know bandwith costs money, and I’m not opposed to paying for content, but not for a few psd files. I do have some suggestions on what id defintely be willing to shell out a few bucks for.
1. If you have a few high quality video tutorials added a month
2. Maybe subscribers get layer styles, gradient, high quality brishes added each month
3. Maybe subscribers get downloadedable resources like some stock photography or textures created by your group of professionals
4. Maybe subscribers get a high quality psd web template a month
Basically something high end, that no other site/service does. There ARE a lot of tutorial sites on the net, but none that Ive been able to find that are high end. That combined good design with good graphical skills that this site has ample of. A was a subscriber to NAPP, which charged me 100 bucks a year which gave me access to a PRINT versions of the magazine, a PS portal with resources and video tutorials. The problem with that is it wasnt advanced enough for my tastes. I still learned some stuff, but I don’t think it was quite worth my 100 bucks, or basically 8 bucks a month. In my eyes a 100 bucks a year for a few psd files and maybe a video tut a month isnt really worth it. But the things I mentioned I would be more than willing to shell out cash for high end tutorials and content.
In the meantime while you prepare your subscription model you can charge 50-99 cents to download the psd file for that lesson. Or figure what the bandwith is and add a little bit for profit. The psd files arent just useful for learning since they have the source files and layer styles included with them. I think by offering the right content you could fulfill a need that I dont think is being addressed in the PS community.
I should defintely add though the site is awesome AND an AWESOME resource. I havent been able to find a site of it’s ilk anywhere around. The tutorials you offer are easy to read and well layed out and arent silly “HOW TO CREATE A BEVELED BUTTON”. I really do think you’re your way to building an AWESOME creative resource and an awesome community site. With the right premium features I do think you’d have a viable pay-for model.
I actually liked the brown better, it stood out. This layout and style just looks like every other boring looking wordpress site on the net. No offence. If possible you should center the page so that us with large widescreen monitors don’t see half a screen with content and the other half without. :)
Loving the new design, The whitespace is really good.
Hello Collis,
sorry to write it here, but – is there a way how to contact you via e-mail? I didn´t found your e-mail address anywhere. I have some questions about publishing on psdtuts….Thank you for your answer.
Sorry to say I did like the brown better then this. Too many white “clean” sites out there already. This might have something to do with the layout falling apart in my IE7 on 1440*900. Sorry for using IE btw, just formatted harddrive and haven’t gotten FF yet :].
Anyway, nice work with the tutorials and I hope you will be able to make a buck or two from it. You’re doing a great job!
Thanks.
Is it just me, or have less people started commenting on the tutorials since this redesign? The past few have not gotten that great of response as the ones before the redesign have? Maybe just assuming things, but just a though.
Oh, and I seemingly commented in the future:
Sonny Gill
December 14th, 2007
I really love your tutorials… I’m a certified fan of yours…
Upir, the one e-mail address I found is psdtuts@freelanceswitch.com, but when I try to send a message I always get a delivery report from gmail… I can’t even submit a tutorial – they have borken e-mail address.
nice design, nice tutorials =D
i am new to your website, just came across it three hours ago and has been reading the tutorials for close to 3 hrs.
your website is very attractive, can’t take my eyes off the tutorials.
Thanks for sharing :-)