Half a decade. That’s how old CSS-Tricks turns today. That means it’s time for the annual state of the union as we’ve done on it’s 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th birthdays. That reminds me. Obligatory stock art fireworks:
Kickstarter
The big news for CSS-Tricks right at this moment is the Kickstarter for the redesign is closing today. I timed it to end on CSS-Tricks birthday for a super double celebration.
When I was preparing it, I was fairly sure I’d make the $3,500 goal. That number was a bit arbitrary (there are no real fixed costs to this project), it just represented about one month of expenses for me. I thought perhaps it’ll hit $10,000 and that would be amazing or maybe it’ll go nuts at hit $20,000. So the fact that this will wrap up around $80,000 is pretty crazy. I am trying to replace a very good job with my own projects, so this is all the proof I need that it’s possible. Hearts to you all. Oh, and the money will be well used – a lot will be re-invested in the redesign project and this site in general.
Summertime
The summer is such a crazy time of year. There is always so much going on. This time of year I always go to a couple of music festivals.
Last year at this time I went to those festivals, then drove back to my folks house in Wisconsin in my VW Westfalia Vanagon (I’ve since sold that and got a truck and popup trailer instead). I left the van and my dog there and flew back to Florida where I was living at the time to pack up my house and move to California. Wufoo had been acquired and I was pretty much the last of the team to get out there and start working at SurveyMonkey. The next week, my buddy drove the van and my dog from Wisconsin. I spent the whole year working for SurveyMonkey which was fun and rewarding work. Great group of folks.
This summer will continue to be very busy. I’ll be furiously working on the redesign. My sister is getting married. I’m headed to BarCamp NOLA and UX Mad. I’m driving back to California after a few months in Wisconsin. I’m doing the CSS Summit. And who knows what else!
The Big Three
In May, I left full time employment to deeper pursue my own projects. I’ll be focusing on my the big three this year:
CSS-Tricks: v10 Redesign. Building the private access area to distribute the screencasts and such (Kickstarter thing). Finish the almanac. Increase the volume of writing (and all content production).
CodePen: Work like crazy on it to get it out of Beta by fall, meaning the bug list is squished and it is in good shape for growth. Figure out some monetization stuff including pro accounts (we have some really juicy features in planning). Figure out some marketing and promotion strategies.
ShopTalk Show: New site design. 2.0 season with big batch of fresh guests. Keep steady schedule with Dave trying not to miss any weeks. Sprinkle in as many rapidfire (all Q&A, no guests) shows as we can.
Being totally off on my own now I would expect to be feeling some worry or at least uncertainly, but I don’t feel that way at all. I have a solid plan for the year and plenty of work that I can’t wait to get started on each morning.
Birthday Happy CSS Tricks! Make mine a double! :) Great Site!
I’m super excited about the whole kickstarter project – also I cannot wait to have the swag (awesome hoody).
Thanks for all your hard work Chris. This site has been invaluable to me over the years.
Wow already five o_O Happy birthday!
Congrats Chris. Glad to see you are getting some awesome kickbacks from the site that has helped so many with their web careers, myself included.
Happy birthday CSS-Tricks and thanks for all the work !
Happy CSS-Tricks Birthday! Thanks for all the help over the years!
Happy Birthday CSS Tricks! Congrats on the kickstarter success! Nothing more than you deserve!
Congratz Chris!
Not only does CSS-Tricks help us all beyond belief but the community on the forums are absolutely amazing, always someone willing to help you out.
Happy Birthday CSS-Tricks. And here’s hoping for many more!
Many congratulations !!!
Add the festy of all festies to your list… Burning Man!
CSS-tricks have’nt helped me a lot yet, but it’s gonna do soon, for sure. I’m excited that you are going to write more content :)
came across this site during the 1st year, I think, stayed ever since, I have learned a lot from this site
thanks for everything Chris and good luck in your upcoming ventures
Al
Top site Chris, it’s been said before but you really do an excellent job and are a constant source of inspiration to all of us!
Hope this year treats you well and you achieve all you have set out to achieve!
C♥♥
Congrats on your Kickstarter project. I’m so happy to see how much interest that sparked! I think this going to be a great year for you and CSS-Tricks!
@Chris… I know I’ve read you mention about “monetizing” a private area before in other posts. This post mentions “private access area to distribute the screencasts” – please assure us that this means only the “kickstarter” screencasts and not all those great screencasts that you’ve done through the years (and hopefully will continue to do) which put you on our “radar” and kick-started your rise to fame among men and women of good will everywhere – or at least those of web development proclivity. High quality free screencasts are actually a trademark of yours – and for what it’s worth, as far as I’m concerned you can feel free to use the portion of the $ that I donated to the project to let the general public in for free and continue your precedent’s. Perhaps others may feel the same way as well.
The free screencasts now will be free forever and many more free ones to come (forever). Yay!
Happy birthday css-tricks from brazilians designers.
Long life to css-tricks!
Could you still make those screencasts available at a later date to the public? Like 6 months after it opened or something.
I’d love to see it all but I can’t pay for it (I’m 16). Is there any way this would be possible?
Hello Chris,
Thanks for all the help over the past years, and a Happy CSS-Tricks Birthday!
Congrats Chris,
thank you for all your cool (responsive) tuts over the last years, I’ve learned a bunch here ..
Keep up the splendid work, cheers & ciao!
Thanks for establishing, maintaining and planning further with css-tricks. By the way I didn’t know that you are the man behind CodePen. Also a great project and especially very helpful for me as a relatively new web developer.
Thank’s for your work and have a nice summer time (hopefully better than in Germany ;-))
Greets,
Andreas
Congratulations. Hope for many more years. Greetings
Happy Birthday and congrats on the kickstarter project Chris. This site has been invaluable to me over the years, use the money I put up to by ya self a steak dinner :) Better yet, get a surf and turf.
Inspirational.
Congratz on such an awesome milestone (5 years in web time is huge)! Your sites and style are such a positive inspiration to us all.
Keep it up bro.
Thanks so much.
Happy Birthday CSS Tricks!! and congrats to you Chris. You are doing an exceptional job with this site. I am so glad I have found it.
Chris, I am a big fan of you. Good to know that css-tricks turned 4. Great work throughout. Keep rocking in future.
Congratz Chris! … well deserved.
I am a donor to your kickstarter and I have no problem with you spreading a little of that 80k to ALL your projects!
Them T-shirts better be KICKAZZ!
I know the site will be :)
happy birthday and many more :)
i am 3 hours too late for the kickstarter project :-( I just went to donate $25 and it’s closed!! is there any way i’ll be able to get access now to the screencasts??
Happy Birthday to my favorite web design website. If you ever make it back to Wisconsin, Chris, let us know! Some of us are still stuck here. (:
Hey Chris,
I can’t pay anymore to be able to access the private area to watch/download the screencasts. Is that possible anymore?
Ali
Never fear! When the private access area gets built over on CSS-Tricks, there will be a way to sign up and get access to the videos from there. Stay tuned =)
Oh great! I had the same problem. :)
But please no credit cards. Everything is better than that.
Wait…. so 5 years ago instead of going to the beach and celebrating July 4th with beers you launched a new website.
Awesome!
Good job Chris! Congrats and many many more!
Congratulations, not just on your 5th birthday, but for all the great stuff you do for everyone. We appreciate you and wish you a prosperous 6th year.
Hey Chris,
Congrats again. It is such a blessing to work at something you love and to have your year planned out with projects and a salary is great!!! I have been working on my own for 6 years now and I have loved it. It has been rewarding and challenging and it has made me a better businessman, creative and man. Just like you said, I wake up every morning excited to go to work. I am about to redesign my online presence and the screencast will be a big help with that. I wish you luck and look forward to walking with you on the journey. Peace.
Seth Hall
This is going to be great fun!!
Thanks so much Chris for turning your job change into an opportunity for all of us to learn.
Looking forward to version 10!
All the best Chris! You are my inspiration, I feel lazy hearing all the things you are planning/doing. Can’t wait for the Kickstarter redesign to start, it will killer, no doubt. Oh, and happy birthday CSS-tricks!
Happy 5th Birthday! CSS Tricks is an invaluable asset and I am glad to see you doing so well.
Congrats on the Kickstarter project success!
Where in WI are you from? I’m in Eau Claire.
wow man, thats honestly amazing. I hope to make my site as successful as yours one day.
Chris, congrats to the fifth birthday of CSS-Tricks!
I wish you all the best with all your projects.
CSS-Tricks helped me so much over the last couple years, same with your other projects like digwp, your video-screencasts, your great (e-)book and your personal help via email! – Chris, thank you so much! You’r a rockstar!
Congratulations, it’s well deserved. You’ve been a huge contribution to the web development community over the years. Digging into WordPress is one of my favorite WordPress dev books. I think it’s great that you are going this path – it just opens up room for you to have that much more of an impact on the development community.
I regret to miss the chance of missing kickstarter . I couldnt catch it before closed.
Nice work and good luck ;)
Congrats Chris,
Happy 5th birthday of CSS tricks.
Thanks for providing us very useful stuff.
wish you good luck :)
A very happy birthday to CSS Tricks!
Happy birthday! LOVE your site!!
Great!!! Happy b’day to css-tricks :)
Be birthday happy! Keep up the good work. :)
Congrats on the Kickstarter funding! You deserve it. Goes to show if you’re doing amazing work and creating communities around it the sky is the limit.
Best of luck – excited to see the progress as it happens.
Happy birthday CSS-TRICKS and thank you Chris for keeping this site up!
A (somewhat belated) Happy Birthday CSS-Tricks! A truly brilliant site which I have both used myself and recommended to many. Congratulations on setting out on your own, Chris. I wish you the very, very, very best of luck with your projects going forward, although they will no doubt be awesome. :)
Ronan
The most important site on the net for any and all web developers :D
Happy Birthday CSS Tricks! You ROCK!