They do, and that’s hardly a question…

Well, I’m married and I work from home. So, I spend tons of quality time with my wife and son, which is great. My role as editor is a full-time job, but leaves plenty of time to do things in the evenings and on the weekends.

These would be questions for Collis, not Sean.

What is your typical day like? (How much time do you spend on the site?

Nice one…

I touch on most of these questions in the interview http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/inspiration/interview-with-psdtuts-and-vectortuts-editor-sean-hodge/

ah yes, this would be helpful

I don’t currently train in “real life,” but it’s something that long-term I may get into.

I like to read, draw, and miscellaneous nerdy stuff. I watch way to much TV. My son has cartoons on alot. Spong Bob is on right now. I like more investigative, and thriller shows, like CSI. I watch loads of movies. I really like thriller/supernatural/sci-fi films. I play basketball and go to the zoo beach and things like that.

This story is covered in the interview http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/inspiration/interview-with-psdtuts-and-vectortuts-editor-sean-hodge/

Alinedi – I know this is something they’re considering, and likely working on in our development area.

Right, the mac/pc question could be nice to know.

Yah, I’m a Mac guy. This question is covered in the interview http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/inspiration/interview-with-psdtuts-and-vectortuts-editor-sean-hodge/

Ya I had the same experience…I just want to know what you guys are looking for cause I sent it something and it got turned down and then later I saw some really (Im not gonna say horrible looking stuff… Ill just think it.) And I couldn’t understand where my error was. Maybe I’m missing the big picture.

And I yes I did bear all a few thing in mind….It would have been easy to follow very clear and straight to the point..I did everything right…..I think!

Hey guys, I cover this in the interview http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/inspiration/interview-with-psdtuts-and-vectortuts-editor-sean-hodge/

Good question. In all honesty it is a bit of a chore. It isn’t nearly as fun as designing. But it is a good job and I’m really happy to be helping put together great learning material for people. I cover this a bit more in the interview. Thx.

Yah I definitely learn from the tutorials. Not nearly as much as someone who goes through step by step and does the tutorial, but I learn new techniques, how pros go about their workflow, and other tips along the way when editing.

@Tim Smith – that’s kinda a huge question. Here are a few tips though, follow Problogger.com and some other blogs on blogging. As with anything follow some blogs you identify with and try to pick apart what works. Also, it’s kinda crazy how much quality information there is on running a blog available for free. Just digest it over time, experiment, and keep growing as a blogger and editor.

Corey, nice one.

We work with lot’s of people with specialized skills. We don’t often hire people full-time though. It really doesn’t matter your age or educational status, but rather what role we’re looking to fill and if you’re domonstatable skills are a good match.

FTW!

good one!

My dad is a machinist. He runs a small machine shop in Oregon. It’s a difficult job. I remember having helping him out at the shop, metal chips and coolant spraying in my face, while pressing a drill bit through 1000s of exactly the same metal cogs. He does have one computerized machine, but much of his work was done with lathes, which is muscle intensive work. I feel fortunate to work on a laptop.

My stepfather is a retired attorney. He worked in the insurance industry in Connecticut for years mostly running teams that created legal docs and researched legal issues.

RJ, I got hooked into Illustrator and Photoshop early on in my design education. So, I’ve always used them. I really don’t know the ins and outs of GIMP or Inkscape, but I certainly have nothing against them. We use Wordpress, which is open source and I’m a big Drupal fan.

It really comes down to familiarity for me. And I really love the interface and growth of Adobe products. I know they can be pricey for students, but for pros it works out fine. I don’t usually upgrade with every release though, often I upgrade every other release. You can certainly work with open source software, and if needed make the jump to commercial software if necessary in the future.

I really can’t compare the programs well because I just haven’t used those. We do publish Inkscape tuts sometimes on Vectortuts+. This site is really focused on Photoshop though. Thx.

@kevinsturf – They really are similar tasks for each site, so I’ve developed a rhythm over time where I work on both sites throughout the day. So, they don’t really feel like separate endeavors – even though they are.

Also, I rely on our writers for the strength of our content. I mostly plan, communicate, edit, and manage the sites. The amount of work is sometimes hard to maintain in a regular work week, but I’ve gotten faster over time.

Alex, good one! Yah, there have certainly been times when I’ve fallen behind.

Fortunately, I’m really up to date now and planned well ahead with content, which is a great feeling. One the bonuses on the job is that I’m mostly working on content that’s for a month from now, and not today. It means I can really pace my day however I please, take breaks whenever I want, as long as everything keeps getting done.

Last night I couldn’t sleep and was working on things at 3-4am, which meant I was able to communicate with Skellie in real time while she was working, because our timezones are opposite. Usually we have a day lag time between our email correspondences.

@Mark – I’ve always been as interested in writing as I am design, so when I got into blogging about design it was really a good fit for me. In college I took loads of English lit classes, travel writing courses, creative writing courses, and even poetry along side the History and Design courses. I actually spent way too much time in college and had enough credits that I could have almost got a degree in either History, Literature, or Graphic Design.

Psdtuts+ didn’t launch in a pro way really. Like most blogs it has humble roots and certainly took time to grow into a leader in Photoshop instruction.

It started as Collis’s Photoshop tutorial blog, but it really stood apart from other blogs from the beginning by the quality of tuts he was posting. He also kept at it with improving the design, which along with our backend team he still handles.

Once he decided to outsource some work, it really started to add professional long-term positions, which have helped it grow immensely. They blog slowly transformed into a commercial endeavor, which meant we were able to hire loads of awesome artist/writers to make high quality tuts for the site. As well as bring in pros that can focus on things like blog growth, management, as well as people for highly specialized tasks.

This is a good one too!

On Psdtuts+ it’s about 40 a week, though it varies.

@marion – My wife has this arena happily locked down (:

I’ll say my income is better than when I was freelancing and it’s certainly more consistent, which is one of the benefits of this position.

Posh! or maybe Sporty… at least Sporty could sing! Posh could not sing!

I can’t remember their music or exactly what they look like anymore. A few years ago though I probably had a favorite.

Yah, I don’t do much freelance work anymore. I work on these tuts sites full-time. And sometimes even put in a few extra hours developing content. I still practice design though and certainly read up on topics alot.

Last I heard Tuts+ was WordPress and the marketplaces were custom written, in Rails I believe.

@Arron – Yah, we’re running Wordpress. I’m not personally involved in the site design, maintenance, planning of future growth, or any of the backend. Collis has a book out on Wordpress though http://rockablepress.com/books/rockstar-wordpress-designer/ and he does send mockups over for us to check out before launch, which always blow me away. I think we’re on V4 for the Tuts+ site theme now. Lot’s of improvements and refinements in the design over time.

I love these kinda questions. Although it would likely create a paradox, I’d go back in time and kick the crap out of myself right before I made a really stupid decision. Then I’d say “You’ll understand soon enough!” to myself lying on the ground in pain. Or just say something nonsensical to keep the ass kicking mysterious.

you can find tons’ of text effects tutorials arround the web, try harder; and try to read something about design principles in a book (those made of paper). the science behind text effects is pretty simple, ad a drop-shadow here, some layer blending options there, ad some texture and gradient overlays…, the best way to do great designs is to get great ideas and the great ideas comes when you do more things when your computer is off. so take a look at your environment, learn the basics of layer fx in psd and begin trying to emulate reality, if you can’t acchieve it (because is very hard, also for me) in the meantime i’m shure you will learn a lot of usefull things and begin creating your own text effects!

@Austin – We’ll definately be adding more text effect tutorials. Alex Beltechi is really interested in this area, and has more tuts on this subject coming in the future I’m sure!

I think the adding in 3D renders of text and photo-manipulations to your text effects can really take it visually to a higher level of sophistication, though keep in mind concept is really important as well.

@Randy – I was about 23 or so when I got into design. I think I was 25 when I got into web design. I may have the ages wrong, but I certainly wasn’t an early achiever. Psdtuts+ and Vectortuts+ get most of my attention. Most of my other websites I struggle to find time for. Some of my favorite sites are: Sitepoint, Abduzeedo, and a bunch of design blogs. I also read Problogger quite often. I find things through Twitter alot also.

“At what point you start to monetize the site?
When did you start to see real income from the site?
was it hard getting money at the beginning with not so much content?”

Another good one!

@Ariel – My role on the site has never been as the one responsible for money, except for having a budget to work with. Skellie the Tuts+ manager is responsible for that. I cover this a bit more in the interview http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/inspiration/interview-with-psdtuts-and-vectortuts-editor-sean-hodge/

I mention how the budget works in general and how we run on negative returns often for quite some time before new Tuts+ sites become successful.

If they did that it would be PSD Minus.

@Ricardo – Except for occasional contest winners, I can’t image this would ever be free. My personal opinion is that the cost is really low for the high-quality content members get.

Also, we already release free tutorials on the site. For every Plus tutorial released, we also release an average of 3 free tutorials, as well as articles and other material on the blog. We have well over 200 free tutorials on the Psdtuts+ blog.

The fact that this is a successful and growing commercial endeavor means we’re here for the long-term and will continue to provide high-quality content in the future.

@Rick Bross – Most of my Dev books are based on Drupal. It’s just my personal preference for CMS, though it’s not what we use on the Tuts+ network. That’s Wordpress.

I’m currently working through an awesome Druapl theming book: http://drupal.org/node/442298

@arnold C

My inspirations are vast, and change all the time. I cover that a bit in the interview http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/inspiration/interview-with-psdtuts-and-vectortuts-editor-sean-hodge/

When things get messed up it can be hard to fix them of course. Sometimes, things become “emotionally tough” when they don’t work out well. It can be a challenge to separate this emotion from the simple act of doing. Most issues no matter how daunting are just a matter of breaking them down into smaller achievable tasks. Once you’ve done that, then just bang them out until you’ve fixed whatever got messed up.

@Stephen – I cover this quite a bit in the interview http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/inspiration/interview-with-psdtuts-and-vectortuts-editor-sean-hodge/

And yah, there is a certain percentage of content which I work with brand new authors. This is always a risk from an editorial point of view, but it’s also turned out great with some artists.

Our typical ratio is 1 Awesome Plus tut each week, 1 and often 2 tuts from our regular writers that are consistently putting out high quality content on a regular basis. And then there is often 1 tutorial from someone lesser know writer that has proposed a good idea for a tut. Sometimes there are 2 of those, but usually it’s just 1. Sometimes these tuts hit a home run, and other times they turn out good, but not great.

I give some tips on sending in tut concepts in the interview, but to an extent there is just alot of concepts sent weekly and not everyone can make it to publication. It also takes alot more time to work with a new author, and so there is only so many of those I can publish each week.

@John – I think we’re considering numerous avenues for possible growth with the Tuts+ network, but I’m not sure where a video tutorial site is on that list. I actually am not a video guy, so I really don’t have a recommendation here.

I don’t know the exact number, but it’s quite a few. Just count the number of artists that post each month and you’ll see that alone is often more than 30. We’ve also got a backend team, management staff, and some specialized tasks outsourced to quality people, which we keep adding as time goes on.

For example, Roger Byrne http://twitter.com/styletime took over the Twittering for Psdtuts+ and Vectortuts+ recently, which is a huge help. This frees me up to focus that time on content. Every person we add to do a specialized task makes the site run all that more efficiently.

@wpheroes – That’s really a question for Collis and our site design and backend staff. Thx.

@mits – This is really the handi-work of Collis’s brain. You might want to follow him over at the Netsetter. He talks about his business ideas there http://thenetsetter.com/blog/

@BigBrov – Yah man I’m sure we can get an interview with Collis at some point. Emil going to work on that. He’d be able to give some info on that.

and dont forget this one
Who is your favourite Spice Girl?
LOL…..haha

I disagree…

I think written tutorials are better. You can see text better with net building tutorials and they’re helpful with copy/paste stuff like color hex # and I’m sure they have great SEO benefits and lastly I can’t thumb through a video.

@Modisana – Yah, cheecky comments add some flavor to the flow of ideas in the comments, as long as it doesn’t get too out of control. People haven’t asked any funny questions that have struck a cord with me yet. Unfortunately, I don’t know too much about JayZ. He isn’t one of my favorite rappers – even though he flows awesome.

Video tuts are great. @praeter design mentioned some of the benefits of written tuts. When Skellie had the idea of combining video tuts on top of one of our written tuts each week, I really wasn’t a hundred percent behind it at first. Probably because I didn’t have much experience with it.

It’s proved to be super successful, and adds another dimension to the tutorials where you can actually follow along and see exactly what someone does. I think both formats have there benefits and we’ll keep putting out Video tuts. Gavin is doing a great job and it’s certainly an area we could grow in the future.

Brilliant… I ask my kids baby-sitters the same question!

I don’t think I’m much of a survivalist. The death of the internet in the wake of this kind of apocalypse would probably kill me itself.

How many tutorials u reject and how many are now in a pending state and what are all your upcoming ideas to develop those two sites??

If money ruins out (suppose) then how will you pay 150$ for a tut?

When will you give torrents of all video tutorial in psdtuts and in vectorttuts????
I except the torrent here… It saves the bandwidth too!

2. Who disturb you well when u edit the posts are u are in work?

I will give anybody $50 if they can translate this sentence…

that’s a good idea

Yes a video interview would be good.
And I hope the coming tutorials won’t just be in Torrent format.
I can’t access Torrent from here.
Maybe we can think of some other alternative.

A video interview is a good idea, but I decided not to do it this time around. Maybe in the future though.

I think the rifle did it.

@Jack – I think when I was younger that happened, but I’ve been humbled by loads of failures and life experience. I certainly appreciate every small success I have, although it’s often placed within the larger view of things. I’m not super old, but I’m 33 so not super young either.

@Diego SA – We just launched Cgtuts+ http://cg.tutsplus.com/ and I think Skellie is looking into a Photo tuts site. These are both exciting because these skills compliment Photoshop skills so well. I’m not sure what the other plans are right now.

you must study a lot, do a lot, and find the way to begin billing for what you do, when the people pays they allways want the best quality in the shortest time possible (and sometimes in less time) and to have it done you must find the solution for them needs, so you force yourself to learn.

The other thing i think is a “MUST” to be creative in PS is to know as many keyboard shortcuts as you can (is almost impossible o learn them all) so you begin not o focus in the software but in your masterpiece

@VergioSFX, good questions and they get covered in the interview http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/inspiration/interview-with-psdtuts-and-vectortuts-editor-sean-hodge/

@Gabriel Rocha – This is a successful commercial endeavor. It provides income to lot’s of artists and helps supplement their other income. For me, my role as editor is full-time. My time is split mostly evenly between Psdtuts+ and Vectortuts+ and I touch on some of these questions more in the interview http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/inspiration/interview-with-psdtuts-and-vectortuts-editor-sean-hodge/

With collaborators it’s been a combination of me recruiting artists and working with artists that have contacted us through our tutorial submission form. It isn’t a blog where it’s just myself and my friends putting together content, though some of those sites are great. I have certain become friendly with the artists I work with on a regular basis. It’s great to learn from them and share in this endeavor.

@Scott – I really don’t draw a blank. I have way more ideas than I could possibly create. For me it’s more a matter of making time and saving energy to design.

Also, research is an important part of any project you tackle and should help smooth any creative blocks you might encounter. My creative blocks are usually more feeling lazy, than lacking ideas. That being said, I’m inspired by loads of artists work, sites, and everything around me.

I think a sketchbook is a great tool to start using, then you can go back to it in the future and be inspired by your own visual scribbles, and it helps find what really interests you.

Palusko, this happens daily. I come across new techniques, visual concepts, techniques, and workflows that are awesome while editing the tuts all the time.

@Cap_Pro – When I look for artists I usually go to sites like Behance. I kill lots of time on Twitter and find artists there, finding links to loads of blogs. Our user link feeds often turn me on to roundups that lead to new artists work.

A couple of my favorite design blogs are http://vectips.com and http://abduzeedo.com/ and I find artists through those types of roundups. Like the weekly Vector roundup Rype does has led to me finding artists and commissioning them for tuts. Those are a few sites, but there are lots more. It’s actually kinda random sometimes as well.

@Dave

There are always more Envato sites in the pipeline. I actually don’t always know what’s next myself. Sometimes I get surprised when a new site launches. I did know about http://cg.tutsplus.com/ and look forward to watching it grow. I’m not certain which one will launch next after that, but Skellie is looking into a Photography dedicated tuts site.

@sriganesh – Sometimes it takes time for me to moderate the comments. It’s something 99% handled by me. I don’t always have time to moderate on weekends for example, but if I’m around, or can find time before I head out to do family stuff then I jump in and approve what’s there.

@sriganesh – I think every designer should have a blog. It may not be something you focus on gaining much money from directly at least at first. But you can use it to share the knowledge you gain, as well as track your progress as a designer and visual thinker.

GIMP Fail omg

@protorob – I appreciate your passion. Open source apps have really taken hold in CMS’s. Wordpress is awesome and I love Drupal myself.

I’m not an expert in open source alternatives to Illustrator and Photoshop. I bought the bullet and purchased this software awhile back and I saw a return in my freelancing business form it, but that was my own personal experience.

If the open source tools allow you to export to formats compatible with the major design apps, and most of all the workflow is adaptable to how your client does business, then it works fine.

My opinion is these are just tools. In my mind it’s like saying how fancy is your pencil. But reality is your tools and workflow need to fit your client’s and/or employer’s business and workflow.

Now if you’re a fine artist, then use whatever you want, but commercial artists and designers have to cater to their market.

@Matt – This is certainly something we’ve discussed, but isn’t at the top of the list for our current growth path right now. Skellie would know more about this, but I think we’re more focused on launching and growing the sites with the structure as is right now.

I know HTML/CSS. I know standards based design, but I do such a small amount of work in this arena anymore and haven’t been keeping up with this the last year, so my skills have really dwindled with their effectiveness. But I have a good strong core skill in this arena.

I don’t actually know much PHP, I’m certainly not a programmer. But I know how to Theme in Drupal to the extent that I can write really basic if statements and set up themes. I have a repository of code that I cut and paste, test, and know what it does as well. This is another dwindling skill though, that I don’t use enough anymore. Sadly, I don’t know any Javascript or Ajax and therefore am not a well-rounded front end designer.

I specializing more in creating the visual planning of the site, like visual wireframes, and design the graphics and template design, then I hand it off to someone to code. Having this background in html/css means I design sites that can be efficient cut up and coded. Before taking on as editor I was getting more and more work where I designed 90% of the time, and wasn’t coding much anymore.

Aside from design software, like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Fireworks, I use Coda mostly for coding and upload files – I even edit the tuts in Coda. There are a bunch of small Mac Apps I use for web design also, and Parallels for windows testing. There are too many to list here really.

I’m agnostic. So, religion or the concept of God isn’t important to me personally. I respect peoples faith though, as long as it isn’t forced on me. I’m more of a moralist and am more interested in how people interact socially, form and run people systems, like government and laws, and other worldy endeavors, than anything religious.

@ims – 99% of my communication as editor is through email. It’s extremely rare that I talk on the phone or chat with someone. I do interact a bit on Twitter though http://twitter.com/seanHodge and I enjoy that.

With gear, I really want an office. Right now my drafting table is set up in our dining room. I’m starting to look at houses and really want to find a place with an third bedroom that I can put my office in. My gear is pretty good, but I’d like to get a nice Wacom tablet to play with. For a purely fun gadget, I’d love to get a Kindle, as I read alot – that’s on my wishlist for sure.

tell about ur first crush, who is that lucky girl…..

My wife Karen and I met in college. She’s from Venezuela and was studying the English language. She’s only a year younger than me. I was running an international studies group, after I returned from studying a year in the UK, and I met her in that group. It was really exciting to slowly get to know her. We dated for about a year before getting married down in Venezuela. Unfortunately, I still only speak a little Spanish.

We’ve been married for 8 years now and have a son together. We married in Venezuela, lived in Connecticut, Venezuela, and Florida together at different times. Things are going great with our marriage. I work from home, when I’m not jumping over to the local WiFi spot coffee shop, so our family has lot’s of quality time together. We go to the zoo, theme parks, the beach, and all kinds of fun Orlando area Florida type stuff on the weekends.