Download Source Files
Today, I’m happy to announce the launch of our Premium subscription service for readers looking to get even more out of this great site! In addition, I have a few other updates to the site to announce, as well as general site news!
As you know, we have been selling PSD files for tutorials for some time now at $2.50 a pop. These file sales are being disabled now and are being replaced by our new Plus subscription service at $19 a month. That means each PSD file comes in at about $.80, which is a much more reasonable amount.
Subscriptions also mean a more consistent revenue stream for the site, which is great as it’ll help us build the site up. Because we’re committed to paying very fair rates for regular, guest, and community contributors, and also because the site gets *so* much traffic, we actually spend more than $8,000 a month on the site. Needless to say, that’s a rather large amount, so Plus subscribers will be helping pay for both what we’re already doing and what we’ve got planned!
Members-Only Tutorial and Layer Styles
In addition to the PSD files, you’ll also receive periodic extras with a Premium membership. Currently, the two extras that are available are a bunch of layer styles and also a special members-only tutorial. I’m quite proud of this tutorial and think it has a lot of practical application. It’s called How to Photoshop a Product into a Slick 3D Environment and shows you how to place a mobile phone into an advertorial style environment created in Photoshop. You can see the image below:
Learn more / Join
You can read more about the Plus membership, including our 100% money-back guarantee, and more reasons why it’s worth joining, on our Join Psdtuts+ Premium page.
And a Few Extra Updates
The Psdtuts+ Premium system isn’t the only thing we’ve been working on. I’ve also added a “Most Talkative Users” down in the footer to link out to the Web sites of people who leave the most comments each month. I figure it makes the site a bit more communal and nicely replaces the text link ads (that we’ve ditched now).
Also I’ve started an extra Photoshop Resources section to provide links to useful stuff like other tutorial sites, fonts, stock photo sites, and generally anything relevant. It’s still pretty thin, but I’ll be adding more links in the coming weeks.
Finally, I’ve added a new footer to the posts with a live Digg button on every post, as well as links to StumbleUpon, Delicious, and the usual suspects. If you enjoy a post, please do give us a vote/save on your favorite site. The traffic we receive really helps the site thrive. We’ve been very fortunate to have been on many of the sites in the past. So to everyone who’s ever sent a vote/save this way, thank-you!
Did You Notice All the Extra Posts?
For a long time, we were only putting up 7 or 8 posts a month. In February, that number tripled up to 22 — that’s a lot more tutorials, and thanks to the awesome Sean Hodge, more articles, roundups, and inspiration posts!
My aim is to get the site to seven posts a week, though that’s going to take a bit longer as our February costs were also dramatically larger than previously :-) Still, we’re on our way to daily updates here!
What’s Next?
So what’s next for Psdtuts+? Well, in case you hadn’t noticed, we don’t like standing still, so here are a bunch of things we’re working on:
- Those forums I’m always talking about are on their way (Thanks Arik for harassing me about that :-) )
- We’ve got some exciting guest tutorial writers working on posts — including the fabulously talented Nik Ainley himself
- I’m going to be making changes to the “Write-a-Tutorial” system so that contributors can send in just an image first to see if it’s worth putting in more time for. We’ll also be upping the payout to closer to the regular contributor rate
- I’ll be upgrading the Photoshop Resources section to have a search function, much more content, and better organization
- I’ll also be upgrading the User Link Feed to be a bit more usable. Currently, you have to click the links twice from RSS. Now that we’ve got close to 200 people subscribed, I should probably fix that (sorry it’s taken a while!)
After that, who knows! Video tutorials would be cool, as would a really elite Psdtuts+ wallpaper section, and I have some other ideas that I’ll keep secret for now until I get through the current to-do list!
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Very nice. Worth the money.
This is soo sick! I am in!
Looking forward to it guys!
Keep Rocking!
Aloke Pillai
I am going to sign up because PSDTuts is a great site. Thanks – this is exactly what I was looking for.
But I’d like to be assured that PSDTuts will be around for a long time.
EXCITING! As a student i generally can not to pay for my tutorials, but I am soooo going to sign up to support this. A fantastic photoshop tutorial every day, who can ask for anything better than that.
i have that phone, unlocked. and it’s the best phone i’ve ever seen, played with and owned!
Thanks guys, great to hear the membership’s off to a good start and a few people have signed up already! Yay!
@Stevi3: We sure will be around a long time, with the amount of effort that’s gone in to the site so far, we sure aren’t stopping now!! :-)
How about making the “write a tutorial” feature a bit more usable? Like adding a WYSIWYG editor…
I’m not a WordPress guru, but I think you could let the contributors use WordPress’ default posting system and their posts would be saved and unpublished until (if) you decide to publish them.
“I’m going to be making changes to the ‘Write a Tutorial’ system so that contributors can send in just an image first to see if it’s worth putting in more time for. We’ll also be upping the payout to closer to the regular contributor rate”
Even better — include a user system for wordpress, user submits/sends the final result of the image, image is accepted, user becomes contributor and has the ability to post (an) article(s) that will be initially unpublished.
This would also be sort of a community feature of the site.
Oh, and the users that are also ‘contributors’ could have some distinctive mark under their names when commenting (like forum ranks).
That would be cool! I’ll investigate more on how users work in WP, I’m not that familiar with user levels and what not!
man this is extremely expensive. $9/month is unfair escpecially when you get member exclusive tutorials.
@thebeat: It is a little expensive, but the regular content on the site won’t be affected at all, think of it more as something extra you can subscribe to if you choose to. You’ll still get lots of great, free content here!
118 dollars a year? man.. i can’t swing that. i have a wife and kid.. i’ll just read along with the poor folks…
God damn I love this site…now you are forcing me to shell over my $9 bucks! Damn YOU…..do you take Visa? HAHA! Just kidding! This will be well worth my 2 Starbucks coffees a month!
Good to hear that progress has been made on the forums, considering I have been waiting forever for them :D (Just kidding) I Cant wait for them to go up!
Thanks Collis!
This reminds me of when revision3.com tried to make one of their shows for subscription-only members. A lot of people complained and they ended up just releasing them to everyone. Many people won’t want to subscribe, but will at the same time feel done-in. Perhaps a better idea would be to have tutorials released a few days earlier for subscribers, rather than separate subscribers and non-subscribers completely.
Just a suggestion, what you do with your site is not really my concern, regardless as to how many people disagree with subscription-only tutorials.
Anyway, I enjoy and appreciate the tutorials that are available to everyone.
I love this site!!! Hopefully one of these days I’ll be able to contribute one of my own personal tutorials. Anyways I like the $9 a month subscription. Question? What stops me from paying $9 for a month downloading all the tutorials stopping my subscription and then six months later doing the same thing again. Man, Collis I’m more of a business man but I’d hate to see you get ripped off by some person who decides to pay $18 bucks for a full year of tutorials. Again I love what this site is doing. (They are by far the most in depth tutorials on design and layout)
Suggestion: One time fee of $49+ for the full year much like http://www.bamagazine.com Or at least make them pay three months at a time.
Well whatever happens I’ll definitely start-up sometime.
Thanks!
Honestly I will subscribe only to support the great community psdtuts turned into and for the extra articles, if any, as I’m not that interested in psd’s
You guys keep the quality of the tuts above average and you will see that 9 bucks it aint much
woot!! i just signed up :)
psd tuts rocks
great ;) thanks guys ;)
You guys are doing a great job here. I think you are going to change a lot of designers with this amazing project.
I am looking forward for the forum. ;)
@thebeat is right, 9 bucks per month is quite a lot of money, but I’ll think about it and if future PLUS tuts would be highly helpful maybe I’ll change my mind.
PDF version of tutorials will be available for download for members?
Very nice updates, looking forward for some more great tutorials!
Maybe you can add subsrciptions for ex. 3 months, 6 months, year
yeah…
i guess you’ll focus on the content for members…
just don’t forget the poor, please!
Yeah 9$ is a bit harsh! Especially for people outside the US. For me its 400 Indian rupees!
Well – the PSDs to work out cheaper if you were buying every single one. In my opinion, the fun thing was trying things out yourself.
The tutorials are generally so well written that you don’t particularly _need_ the PSD.
I wish you well with the new subscription model. This site is very good indeed, and perhaps this will annoy you, but the subscription fee does seem a little steep at the moment. Think I’ll see how things develop before I dive in.
Cheers – Shane.
man this is extremely expensive. $9/month is unfair escpecially when you get member exclusive tutorials.
No problem, anytime you need someone to harass you, just shout! :P
Sorry, the “extra”-content is a bad idea.
It’s too expensive and there’re other great tutorials on sites with free content.
The downloadable psd-files are the money not worth, because you wont learn anything by just looking at the files.
HELL YEAH!!…… I’m in!
Hey guys, great to see something like that :) Already signed up and can’t wait for the stuff you provide :) Keep up the good work :)
Awesome! :D The site really starts looking like something :b
I’m sorry but this is bullshit.
If I want to buy a PSD files for a couple of dollars I will. But paying a over $100 per-year when I have no idea if the upcoming tutorials will be of any interest to me? I don’t think so.
You say its better value but I doubt that very much. I see maybe 2/3 tutorials per month that I really want to follow up by paying for the PSD.
This is a terrible idea. I hope you at least allow non-subscription users to buy one-off files sometime in the future.
Couple of things (PLEASE TAKE THIS IN CONSIDERATION)
1. I can’t do PayPal, I live in Peru.
2. I want to register, just to see all content, even tho I hardly have time to follow a tut anymore.
3. I’d like to see a yearly fee, even if there’s no discount.
4. PLease show in the regular site all the “final shot” of the tuts. I guess everyone wants to see what they are missing. You might come up with something that someone really needs, and bam, you got a suscriber.
nice idea =)
Awesome! Signed up straight away! Only a few quid, cant complain at the quality of designs you guys put out!
I am a web/print designer and I constantly use your site to improve my work quality! Even though I have 3 years experience in Photoshop. I am still constantly learning new things, tips and tricks etc.
There are too many Photoshop tutorial sites, all have exactly the same tutorials and most are extremely poor quality which most people could probably do in MS Paint! lol
Good luck to you all, looking forward to the forum too! :P
I’m in the “can’t afford it” boat, but I see how it makes business sense, Collis. As long as the free content doesn’t change, PSDTuts is still a daily visit from me :)
I just signed up. Please keep up the good work and provide more wonderful tutorials. Yours have been very helpful so far and I trust that they will still be now on.
lol u guys finally alerted the pirates for it.. :D
lols just kidding keep up the great work.. :)
Nice Collis! Great move! Is $9 a month really that much guys? I pay 6 bucks a DAY on cigarettes hehe. Also besides the awesome layout of the site, they only allow top quality tuts which make for a top quality site! I know I will be signing up pretty soon!
You guys should also make a PDF of the tutorial for off line reviewing.
I think this is a fantastic concept and great new direction for the site. As I’ve been frequenting the site over the past two months, my superiors have noticed a drastic improvement in my design skills. I owe that to the great tutorials here. Your tutorials always have a great “real world” application factor to them, and they aren’t the silly special FX stuff that typically frequents online Photoshop tutorials.
I’m going to hold out for a little more depth to the Plus system, then I’ll be in. $9 a month isn’t expensive, it’s just a matter of priorities. I think my meals at Chipotle run close to that amount…
Eight thousand a month? Sorry but there’s no way you’re paying that much, please don’t try to trick people.
Well now you’ve done it! You’ve gone a joined the anarchists! If my wife finds out I’m spending $9/month here, she’ll force me to cancel my Netflix to make up for it. It’s PSDTuts or Netflix. I’ve got to side with Netflix for the time being.
don’t need the psd files myself but thinking of paying for this great site tho! some tutorials are totaly awesome and others are quite lame but i still love this site. so i think it’s worth the support.
oh and.. you should totaly make that tutorial request feature for members! should be some kind of voting system – like u select few things that are interesting enough to be tutorialized and people would vote which one they would like to see best.
Everything sounds quite good.
How dose the monthly payment system work?
Do I need to pay each month using paypal or would you directly debit the amount from my account?
Thanks
Haha, I just bought the first month to see the “3D product” tutorial.
“I’m in the ‘can’t afford it’ boat” rofl. What can you afford?
As I’m in England, this only costs me £4.50 a month, which is cheaper and worth a lot more than a Deviant Art subscription, for example, so well worth the money.