Writing an eBook is something I’ve been interested in doing for a looooong time, and I’m a compulsive newsletter-signer-upper, so signing up to this one to get a free eBook on how to write an eBook just seemed to make sense. eBooks the Smart Way by Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income.

Actually, just read his whole blog, it’s awesome.

I recently had cause to build a review site where reviews were a separate node rather than a comment or just a little widget, and the node being reviewed needed to show an average rating.  I knew Fivestar could do this, but it would have taken a lot longer to figure out how without coming across this fantastic step-by-step tutorial (PDF).

Disclaimer: The tutorial covers two main scenarios and I can only vouch for the first one, but it worked perfectly so I’ve no reason to suspect the second will not.

When I first started out honing my design skills, Photoshop tutorials bombarded me from every direction. Pretty soon it became apparent that anyone not using Photoshop for web design must be some sort of noob, since everyone else was doing it. Why would it be so popular if it wasn’t the best tool for the job?

I upgraded from the free (and awesome) GIMP to Photoshop in 2007 and was immediately confused and frustrated by tiny things that, to my mind, were essential for any web designer. Luckily I had a friend who ran his own web design company and I asked his advice.

“How do I tell how big something I’ve drawn is in pixels?”

“How do I draw a rounded rectangle that can actually be resized if needed?”

“Is it really supposed to be this hard to go back and change stuff?”

And so on, and so on. It turned out that a lot of what I in my naivety thought should be standard features were not, and more shockingly that many people couldn’t even understand the need for them. I persevered, and became vaguely competent yet still just as frustrated as ever.

Then I was introduced to Fireworks. Imagine the typical scene where heavenly light descends from the clouds to illuminate the hero and a choir of angels sing…it was exactly like that. Within about an hour I’d mocked up my first site layout, marvelling at how easy and intuitive everything was. A lot of Photoshop users say they’re too used to it to change, but I took to Fireworks like a puppy to a carelessly discarded slipper. I’ve never looked back.

Different software has different uses, Illustrator is for (shocker!) illustration, Photoshop is for the shiny effects you can’t do anywhere else (as well as photo work, obviously) and Fireworks is for website layouts. Mix and match all you want, but don’t try to bludgeon one into doing everything itself.

For a start, my first WP theme for the site is still in production. The marketplace upload rules are very strict and include such things as comprehensive help files with every upload. They also have high aesthetic standards that a lot of new authors struggle to meet. Since I’m obsessed with getting things just right, this has meant a lot of redoing certain parts of the code, adding new theme options, and generally struggling to finish everything off.

I’ll take the easier option, please

In the meantime, my attention turned to Graphic River, which is more focused on (obviously) graphics such as web design elements and stock illustrations. Now here was a market where the items didn’t take quite so long to create. I turned first to the category in which I felt most comfortable, web elements, and realised that although there are a lot of navigation menus available on the site not many of these are vertical.  Investigating the GR forums, I found many examples of graphics that had been declined for sale and was convinced I could do better than the majority, so away I went.

I work in Fireworks mostly, so after freaking out over whether my PSD version was “right” and writing up a far too in-depth user guide, I uploaded the menus and held my breath, leaving a pleading note for my reviewer to ask for feedback on my very first file (they usually just send a copy/paste reply depending on whether your file is accepted or declined). The following morning I awoke to a wonderful sight! I was officially a GR author, and my reviewer had sent me a very nice reply congratulating me on being one of the “very few” to get their first file accepted!

<insert mental image of me doing happy dance here>

A few days and no sales later, I was nevertheless hard at work on my second planned upload. This was an attempt at something a bit more different, and the 12 seasonal RSS icons are featured in my portfolio here because the end result was just so cute. If possible, I was even more nervous about this upload than the last. I only recently got to any sort of vaguely proficient level in Illustrator so it was a nice surprise when this was also accepted for sale with no questions asked.

Considering it isn’t rare for authors to be repeatedly declined, especially on their first uploads, 2 for 2 is a pretty good result so far.

Will they actually sell?

My first item went up less than a week ago. Unfortunately I fail at advertising (makes me feel guilty!) so I’ve yet to achieve any sales, but the warm glow from being accepted in the first place has yet to fade. The point is, even if these don’t start selling until this time next year they will always be there, 24/7, with no work involved from me. Passive (potential) income, FTW.

Some of the rejected uploads posted on the marketplace forums by disgruntled authors probably do deserve to be accepted. The majority that I’ve seen however seem to lack polish, or blatantly copy their concept from top selling files instead of providing something different. Rather than the marketplace standards being too high, I think a lot of wannabe author’s standards are too low. That said, there are a fair number of said authors who take rejection as a challenge to do better and improve their skills, which is the best way to look at it.

In case any of this sounds like bragging, I’ll point out again that I have zero sales so far. If I can reach 10 at some point, I hereby pledge to run around in the street yelling about it and post the proof on Youtube. Nothing like helping a girl make a fool of herself, is there?

Part 2 of this series will be published after some pushy marketing, and hopefully some sales. Please excuse the fact that I’ve used affiliate links in this post, you can’t blame a girl for trying.

I’ve used Photoshop and the more unfashionable (yet tons better for designing websites) Fireworks but the only experience I’d really had of Illustrator was once upon a time when I downloaded some free vector art and opened it up to change part of it from pink to green. The time was right to learn.

After a few false starts and some frustration with the gradient tool it was time to get on with things and make something ambitious and pretty. In stepped this tutorial over at Vectortuts+. In it we learn how to create a gearbox, settings-type icon (please forgive the Mac look, and bear with me) with surprising ease. The author explains each step clearly and while it’s true that I stumbled a few times through my own inexperience, I was always able to get back on track and my version of the icon looked really rather nifty.

Over the last few days I’ve done a few of these Illustrator tutorials and this is probably the best so far for both clear instructions and a truly impressive end product. The one downside is that exact dimensions aren’t given so it’s difficult to get your version looking exactly how it does in the picture, but as you can see I managed close enough.

This amazing series of screencasts turned out to be exactly what I needed. jQuery for Absolute Beginners is exactly that. At no point did I feel that the host assumed a higher standard of knowledge from me, which tends to be a problem when trying to find tutorials on a new subject, and he even based episodes on questions from past commenters who were confused about something or had a specific example they wanted to duplicate.

Best of all each episode is short and to the point, so you won’t feel overloaded with new knowledge. I did the first 8 in one day and then played around a bit on my own to let things sink in, but you could do the whole series at once or an episode a day depending on how you prefer to learn.

After the first few episodes I was able to understand and modify a downloaded jQuery plugin that had seemed like gibberish earlier that day, and I’m a slow learner.  The series is a few months old as I write this, so I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on the author’s website (though it’s apparently not updated very often). I can honestly say I’ve never found a tutorial on this subject that was explained so clearly and by someone so patient, and I’d definitely recommend these to anyone who wants to dip a toe into the confusing world of this jQuery we’ve been hearing so much about.