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What I learned from failure, an extensive article on things to consider whilst running a tutorial orientated website
This article comes from the personal experiences I had whilst starting Twodded - a ‘quality tutorials’ section of the Pixel2life tutorial listing website. The aim of the site was to provide the users of Pixel2life with consistent quality tutorials and to set a standard for websites in the community to follow.
Twodded flopped because of a number of mistakes on my behalf in terms of management and communication. In this article I want to share what I have learnt from this experience so that others do not make similar mistakes.
Keep in mind that not all of these points will necessarily relate to your tutorial orientated website and that this article will be expanded on with another entry at a later date – so if you wish to help expand the following article please leave your additional points in a comment below . This is also a huge read so bare with me, and feel free to read in parts instead of one big sit in.
Try specialising in a specific area instead of generalising in everything
With Twodded I set out to cover a lot of different areas so that I had a wider audience. Whilst doing this I took on tutorial writers that had knowledge across several areas and therefore could write tutorials for several categories for the site. This can be good for quantity, but isn’t necessarily good for quality.
Writers that you bring aboard will generally be great with one or two categories and good with several others. The option I took was to get the writers to write for whatever they could, therefore absolutely destroying the ‘quality tutorials’ standard I wanted to set with the project. It’s important to get people to write for what they are great at, not what they are good at. This enhances the end product of your tutorials, and your site on a whole.
Sometimes it is better to specialise in creating tutorials for one program (say Adobe Photoshop), for example you contact Adobe about being an official resource for tutorials on Photoshop - are they going to accept a website specialising in Photoshop tutorials or are they going to accept a website that covers tutorials in fifteen programs including Photoshop? The same goes for users looking for Photoshop tutorials, they are much more likely to trust a specialist website.
If covering more than one category, don’t let a category go without tutorials for a long time
Simply put – every tutorial category you cover is an audience. If you choose to have someone write for C++ but they never write again – make sure you’ve got a back up plan for that category. Make sure there are long term plans for any categories you cover with your tutorials as every category you have tutorials for will mean one more audience wanting and waiting for more tutorials to read.
Too many writers means too many problems, be prepared and available
Management is key to running a tutorial orientated site and the more writers you have working for you, the more you need to manage. To run a great tutorial website you need for each of your writers to: be motivated, be flowing with ideas on what to write next and to be comfortable and happy in their environment. All whilst making sure they like you and see your vision in the site you are running.
You have to understand that not all writers will be happy with the environment you have set out for them and there will be problems. You have to be easily reachable and ready for your staff to approach you. Be the perfect boss.
Hire staff you know and trust, not just anybody
Following on from the previous tip, my advice would be to keep writing teams small. Managing and motivating a small team is a lot easier than managing a team of twenty writers. A smaller team also means that you will be working as a small group of friends and get to know each other very well.
Keep in mind that a motivated team with belief is a team dedicated to writing the best they can every time and not just when they feel like it.
“How to for Dummies” books are successful for a reason
When having your staff write tutorials (and whilst writing tutorials yourself) make sure that everything is explained to the point of a user that hasn’t touched the subject beforehand can understand the tutorial. Every user that reads a tutorial is someone you can drive back to the site – and making them understand the tutorial perfectly is the first step to getting them to come back.
Advertisements are supposed to support content, not become it
Whilst managing a tutorial orientated site it is very easy to ’sell your soul’ to advertisers by placing advertising income ahead of your tutorials and sometimes even your users. For the mass majority of people running tutorial orientated websites advertisements are a necessary annoyance and probably the only source of income. Sometimes we also forget that people are here on our sites to read a tutorial, and not to see which adverts are relevant to the tutorial the user is currently reading.
At Twodded the advertisements are above and below the tutorial related content. This means they are out the way and are letting the user get on with what they are doing. I have seen a lot worse however, such as advertisements every 2-3 paragraphs that look like plain links and advertisements that are placed so integrated with the start of the tutorial that you didn’t even know the first paragraph existed. These for me are examples that shouldn’t be copied and for me, you should think about your users first when thinking about placements of advertising – and not the money it’ll bring in.
One great tutorial, or one great set of tutorials will bring more traffic than 50 poorly written tutorials
The Twodded team had many great writers, the key great writer being Tiago Dias. Tiago wrote a series of three tutorials on how to build an MP3 player in Flash which received twice as much traffic as other tutorials on the site. Each part of this tutorial he wrote brilliantly with the full source code available for download at the end of each tutorial for the user. He also took feedback from readers of the tutorials to see what advancements they’d like to learn and then constructed the following instalments of the tutorials with these in mind. As a result of this the instalments that followed previous entries into the series grew in popularity and the series itself became semi-famous in its own right.
What did I learn from this apart from the fact that Tiago is an utterly brilliant writer?
- Real communication with your tutorials readers can give you an almost unlimited amount of ideas
- Following up tutorials gives the user something to look out for, and makes it easier for the user to learn something gradually
- Sometimes one tutorial isn’t enough, and there’s room to expand this into a better outcome for the user
Always be ready to offer support to people that don’t understand something
Whilst being an excellent writer, Tiago also responded to over a hundred requests for help with the tutorials. As a result of him responding to these readers about the tutorial and helping them, the site grew in popularity – especially Tiago’s tutorials.
I’m not going to list the amount of websites that have forums for their tutorial help and have people saying ‘Look it’s right here, you’ve just got to read’ and ignoring the user. If you help that user out and support them like a friend, they gain respect for you and your site, and will most likely bookmark to return at a later date..
Be prepared for trouble makers
Whilst bringing up this bad example of commenting, it’s important to note that you should handle these trouble makers accordingly. If your writer is responding like this to users that need help on his tutorials, consider lending some advice on how to reply to the situations. Possibly even hire staff to deal with the users in need of help to take the load off your writer’s mind.
Lead by example
One thing I got wrong at Twodded is that I never wrote anything. I never wrote the great tutorial standard I demanded from staff and I never wrote consistently like I demanded from my staff either. This was by far my worst mistake, as potential writers will be inspired by an owner of a site writing a great tutorial and will be motivated to match that quality and possibly even out do it.
On the other hand if you’re a very bad tutorial writer then maybe you have things to learn from the staff you take on board. But please don’t go overboard asking your own staff for help, there’s nothing worse than a boss that knows nothing about what your doing.
Learn from your mistakes
I think it’s evident in this article that I have learnt from my mistakes whilst running Twodded. Learning from your mistakes is possibly the best thing you can get out of failure in any walk of life and will only improve you in future situations.
This tutorial has a second part by the name of “More things to consider whilst running a tutorial orientated website“. Feel free to expand your knowledge of things to consider by reading it :)
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What Articles would you like to see me write?
Thought there should be a space for everyone to request articles, so I created one.
I’d prefer these articles to be based around the tutorial world itself (writing a tutorial, tutorial sites etc.) rather than PHP, as I just don’t have the time to write a PHP tutorial the way it should be done at the moment.
Let the ideas flow
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21 ways to make your Flash based site suck
I’m not a fan of ‘Flash based’ sites and the main reason for that is barely no-one does them properly. So here’s a list of 21 ways to make your Flash based site suck, so that the next time you build a Flash based site you can really hit that nail on the head.
1. A useless splash page is a requirement
If you’ve got a Flash based website and it doesn’t have a next to pointless splash page that tells us nothing it just isn’t a Flash based website to start with. Try adding an “abstract” render with lots of bend modifiers and bright stars… and set it in space… lots and lots of space.
2. The “none Flash” version of your site must contain Flash
“None Flash” is an industry standard term for “use as much Flash as you can” or “a very sucky replica that doesn’t work in any browser”. You don’t want to be doing things that aren’t industry standard do you?
3. Make your site pop-up in a fixed size window using JavaScript
This is a requirement of any sucky Flash based website and if you want to make it that little bit worse please add scroll bars.
4. Always have an animation to “introduce” us to your site
There’s nothing more effective than a poorly animated, or better yet, extremely long “introduction” to a Flash based website to turn a user on. Not only do we enjoy watching it every time we come to the site, but we love it when the skip button doesn’t work.
5. Pre-load everything at once
To make the 5-10mb pre-loading worse, please add a flashing piece of text that spells out LOADING in the middle of your template. By the way, we don’t want to know how much is being loaded, how much has been loaded OR even see a loading bar… those are just ‘flashy’ and not informative to us users at all… right?
6. If not, don’t pre-load anything
As users we don’t like pre-loaders as they ’slow us down’. Try creating a huge file size and not having a pre-loader, it makes us feel all tingly inside when we guess when the site will load.
7. Make sure that after 10 minutes of waiting, at least one more thing needs to be loaded
Make it the first thing we click on too. Make us really want it!
8. Always use a template
“Isn’t that a template?” - why yes it is. “Isn’t that used on this site, that site and that other one?” - why yes it is!
9. “Techno techno techno techno!” - make sure every piece of graphic on the site is overdone
Lines! We love lines! Why isn’t there more lines? Seriously, give us more lines or I’ll send someone round with a copy of ‘Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring’ and make you watch it 15 times in a row with no toilet breaks.
10. Make sure nothing is compressed
We will wait 20 minutes to avoid that difference in quality only a 800% zoom would show us.
11. I shall not anti-alias my text
Readable text isn’t something users want, just ask all those people without screens.
12. Use circles for buttons
Yes circles are practically pointless as buttons, but they sure are curvy.
13. Make sure everything has a roll-over
Please don’t deprive us of this wonderful entertainment. I can from the bottom of my heart say you would be bringing down the web on a whole by removing these. If your site has less than five roll-overs you just aren’t doing it right.
14. Scrap the one click standard and go for five
There’s nothing more I like than clicking, and when I click on a button but have to click five times to make it work – that really makes my day.
15. If you have forms, make sure they are the default 500kb components
Think of default components as the oompa loompa’s in “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”. You don’t want them to go without a job do you?
16. If animating, always use at least fifteen flashes
KA POW! KA BLAM! It’s just like being in a Batman movie… and we all want to be in a Batman movie.
17. Use as many transitions as you can between content
Every time I see the text float in from the right or the left it makes me want to use Microsoft PowerPoint. And no-one should think of using Microsoft PowerPoint.
18. When tracing bitmaps, always leave the original source files to increase size
Small file size? That’s just for amateurs.
19. Make sure any music tracks aren’t compressed
It adds to that loading time, which gives us time to exercise our eyelids.
20. Music should always start over again when we switch page
“Check, check, check it out”. That pause was intentional and adds to the song – yours just ruins the site and your user’s opinion of the music being played.
21. And finally… make sure there’s very little point to you building your site in Flash
Make it look just like a normal site. Really surprise that user with the 15 minute techno remix of MC Hammer’s “Can’t touch this” when they first click a link. Even better, wait for them to let their guard down and show that video of you dancing to the latest Britney Spears CD in your underwear.
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15 Ways of ruining your tutorial, a beginner’s guide
I thought the tutorial writing world needed to know really how to write those bad tutorials, and how to do it properly. I can’t get enough of bad tutorials and love it when I see 40 “tutorials” in a row rejected from the same website. Here’s to you old pals…
1. Always start with ‘This is my first ever tutorial” or “I just learned this yesterday”
An opening paragraph can be the maker or breaker of a tutorial, and for me to read that you’re new to whatever subject you’re trying to teach or that you’re new to writing tutorials doesn’t really fill me with confidence. Use your opening paragraph to outline your tutorial and what you will teach, not to persuade users not to read on.
2. M15pe1 eev3ry w0rD wr0ng
Yes you’re ‘l33t’, but we have the power to call your mother and tell her you’ve been a bad boy. Eat that with your cereal before school.
3. Make ads more important than the tutorial/content itself
Simply put, when a reader is actually reading the tutorial you’ve written, they actually want to read the tutorial… not ads about Viagra and fetish websites. Advertisement are alright to support the tutorial but don’t let it get in the way.
4. Save all your images poorly
The fuzzy feeling should be inside us when we read your tutorial, not all over the image we are trying to view.
5. Go one step further and host them on a free image host
It comforts us to know you’ve gone through all the effort of paying $10 a month for a host… it really does. It means that you’ll be around longer than the refresh of a page.
6. Always use pixel text and fonts below 9px in size
“Whats all those white lines going across the content area all about?”
7. If you’re going to use dark text, make sure you use a dark background or if you’re going to use light text, make sure you use a light background
Honestly… who can read light red on light blue?
8. If you’re going to use syntax highlighting, make sure it’s impossible to read
The colours are meant for a white background, if you’re not using a white background… customise the colours properly. If you’re using syntax highlighting on something as silly as a dark grey background then how are people supposed to see the code in the first place?
9. Keep it short and sweet
“Is that it?” You don’t want to be told that in bed and you sure as hell don’t want to hear it from somebody reading your tutorial. Now do what you did to solve the bedroom problem and put some effort and work into those tutorials.
10. Make sure you tell the user “we are going to use this, if you don’t know it, go and learn” at least once during the tutorial
If a teacher told you to go and learn wouldn’t you tell him to teach you in the first place? I sure would.
11. Promote your friends’ sites consistently
We only read tutorials to get more useless sites to look at and your friends’ tutorial sites let us know just which sites to avoid in the future.
12. Skip steps
“So we start with this and end with this, tutorial done”… Everyone is psychic nowadays so why teach them what they’ve come to learn?
13. Host it on a forum full of 500kb “animated” sigs that are the size of desktop wallpapers
Those sigs just bring life to the page and really shine through your professional side. In truth, if you showed anything close to a “signature file” in a professional interview they would send you back to your local grocery store for extra training.
14. ALWAYS give your tutorial a name that has nothing to do with the tutorial itself
Readers will hate you for giving them Britney Spears when they are looking for Oasis.
15. Finally, always complain to a tutorial listing administrator that your tutorial was declined at
Yes you thought it was a good tutorial, but we didn’t. Rejection is harsh but so is your site being labeled as ‘ran by that crazy guy’.
To end, I hope people writing all these bad tutorials see my point, and really start to actually listen to the complaints constantly left on their tutorials.
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A Selection Of The Worst Written PHP Tutorials Ever..
Yes thats right, here’s my selection of some of the WORST PHP tutorials i’ve seen submitted to Pixel2Life, ever.
These tutorials where NOT accepted to Pixel2Life and are NOT a representation of what the actual content on Pixel2Life, just a representation of the crap people like to think is worthy of being called a tutorial…
1. A tutorial on PHP commenting:
Heres how to comment using PHP
1. Using //
2. Using /* and */
3. Using #(Yes, that was it..)
2. Starting your first ever PHP file:
When I first started coding in PHP it was really tough but now i’m uber l33t man. Now heres how to start your first PHP file:
<?php
print ‘hello world’;
?>Look forward to more uber tutorials!
3. THE BEST EVER includes tutorial
To use includes simply include the following your page:
<?php include($page); ?>Now use the following to automatically set this include:
http://www.mysite.com/?page=index.php(Maybe I should use a root include and ruin your server? :)
4. And the best submitted tutorial ever…
Sorry you must be registered to view this forum
In closing, please when learning includes and echo’ing in PHP please do not think you are ready to write tutorials on how to use PHP.
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Adding GZIP Compression To Your Site Via .htaccess
Just thought i’d post this little tidbit of code for you. Paste it into your .htaccess file and it will enable GZIP across all pages in that directory:
php_value output_handler ob_gzhandler
Hows it do it? This line of code sets the output handler, or output buffer as ob_gzhandler. This sets the ob_start as “ob_gzhandler” so the code doesn’t have to be entered. Normally you would have to enter this in the PHP to do GZIP Compression:
// In the head:
ob_start(”ob_gzhandler”);
// At the bottom:
ob_end_flush();What is GZIP? GZIP is a VERY effective way of keeping your bandwidth down when having large HTML/PHP pages. What it does, is compresses the page thats being sent to the user viewing your site, when the user recieves this compressed version of the page it uncompresses the page, and views it in the full form.
But how much does this effect the user? It doesn’t effect the user at all, except for Internet Explorer 0.01 users still on Windows 3.11 of course..
And what about my server? Once you originally implement this, yes, you will notice changes in your processors activity. But after a day or two you’ll soon see the processor levels lower.
How much of a difference does it really make? The answer, is roughly 80-90% of your raw code file being sent to the user is removed.
A good case study for this is Pixel2Life, before: 160kb file output, after: 14kb file output. This of course is brilliant for the 56kers, which alot of us forget about.
Please note GZIP does not compress images, just the code being outputted
22 Comments »
