Looking for Tips and Tricks?

 

As of writing we have 77 members. That’s approximately 3 new members each day, although I’d be the first to admit that those figures may be slightly skewed by an ‘announcement’ email I sent out to all subscribers of the site (meaning that we had mass sign up for a couple of days). I’m no longer accepting subscribers, instead every time someone registers for an account they are automatically signed up for a ‘New Content’ and a ‘Monthly Newsletter’ email. This approach is far more informative to the user, and makes for some easier administration this side too. All users can unsubscribe anytime they want, I think it’s very important to have those kinds of features in an online community.

 

Another thing that’s new are the forums. Accessible through the top menu, the forums give me and others users the ability to communicate on a less specific level than if we were talking on one of the tutorial threads, or on a blog post. I’m interested in all users of the site, so feel free to introduce yourself on the Introductions forum. There’s also some general chat space, and a tutorial wish list section. It would be great to hear what you want to see in the future as I do take suggestions and ideas on board when creating future content.

 

Last but not least on the ‘new features’ checklist is the aforementioned Tips and Tricks section. Originally posted to the Forums, I decided to move these to the main menu bar at the top of the site and give them their own pages to really promote them the best I can. There’s two up already: Brush Hardness and Switching Between Tools and there’ll be plenty more coming soon. Again, if you have any ideas for topics or articles then start a thread in the Tutorial Wishlist forum and I’ll do my best to make something.

 

Looking to the future, I’ve just got done recording a new tutorial on the Burn Tool and have a couple more planned and almost ready to record. The September newsletter will be out any day now and I’m hoping to promote the site over the next 4-6 weeks. I also want to write a blog post about some of the free open source software I’ve used to create this site and the tutorials, as well as a rundown of all the modules I’m using to run the site (which will hopefully appeal to anyone with a web development perspective).

 

Enjoy!