You already know that Envato runs marketplace sites like ThemeForest, GraphicRiver, and CodeCanyon that help designers and developers get a jumpstart on projects through buying themes, graphics, and code to help out. You also already know that Envato runs tutorial blogs like Nettuts+, Phototuts+, and Psdtuts+ which also help designers and developers through teaching.
In a brilliant-in-its-simplicity move, Envato has combined these two worlds into the Tuts+ Marketplace. Now their premium tutorials are available à la carte. I think it’s a great move for them and for us! Now you can buy cool finished products that you like, but also get the detailed tutorial on how it was made.
This was not a paid review, but I do earn money from the fact that we are now selling Digging Into WordPress directly from there now. Everything is the same buying it from there as it is directly from digwp.com. Same price, same files, same free-updates-for-life.
This is awesome…as is your book!!
Definitely a great resource for people who don’t need all that a Tuts+ premium membership has to offer. Love Tuts+ and think everyone there is doing a fantastic job.
This is a good thing, especially if your not a premium member, being able to grab the odd premium tutorial here and there, but once one gets a few purchases in buy a membership is still the better way!
I hope this won’t stop the free tutorials we all rely on..
k.
Evanto is frikin awesome and you sir are an inspiration !
I wish you the best of luck with the book !
“This was not a paid review, but I do earn money from the fact that we are now selling Digging Into WordPress directly from there now.” OK, so they didn’t pay you directly to write this, but they do pay you when you sell your stuff there? In my book that equals a paid review. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but don’t try and pass it off so casually.
Every single author on any single of their marketplace sites earns money by selling things there, including me. To be honest, I make less money if you buy the book there because obviously they take their percentage. Is that formal enough?
I think your mention of tuts+ was very fair and transparent. Love your book, keep cooking Chris.
Yeah, if anything, he’s losing money when they take their 75-million percent of whatever you sold there.
Wouldn’t suggest replacing tutorials for Envato updates though. Envato does that very well nowadays. ;)
I agree with Tully. You should provide us with a 20-page legal brief detailing the nature of your relationship with this mysterious “Tuts+ Marketplace”. You should also require every user to read it prior to reading this post. ;)
I think that sounds reasonable. Maybe a 50-page EULA redirect splash page when you visit this site, in flash.
You’ll ruin all of the Apple product-users with all of those flash pages! (thanks Steve Jobs…) How evil, when you always preach cross-browser compatibility! ;)
/joke rant
Java Applet would be better.
stop being a stickler.
I think that it is a good idea to sell the book in that marketplace, should help publicizing and sales for it. I also realize that Envato will get their cut, that’s OK, but why not buy it direct from the authors? I guess if you don’t know about the DIW site, then the Envato site will serve as a source for the book.
I bought the book directly not long ago and am still going through it, lots of good stuff in it.
Al
An interesting idea, selling the book on the marketplace like that. I guess it’s a lot more exposure, neat!
I noticed this a few days ago, and it is a nice move although as a Tuts+ subscriber I don’t know if I will be bothered about renewing my sub after this…
In any case Envato is an excellent service, and it seems becoming quite a beast in the design world.
I never did buy DIW in print because of the shipping costs to the UK, but I just might get the pdf version now. Got some credit on Envato too… Bonus!
Yeah Envato.All over the place.Opensource Profit is great, isn’t it?
Can someone make an marketplace where developers/designers earn more then a marketplace?
Imagine you selling I-Phone on e-bay for 500$ and e-bay gets 60% of selling price!?
I don’t know man,it just don’t feels right!
“Premium Tutorials”?
Talk about contrary to the spirit of the internet. We should be giving away information that makes the web better for free, not charging for it.
I’m a big believer in open source code. Great things come from it. I’m also a believer in being able to make money from what you do and how you spend your time. Building a tutorial or writing a book to help other people takes tons of time and effort and if those authors want to charge for it, more power to them. As I’m sure you know, I walk both sides of this line. Most of what I do is free, some of what I do is not. Combined, I make a living.
I completely agree. Open Source !== Free and it never did. Open Source simply means, well, open source. The internet also never meant free ever. I mean, shit, you have to pay to even see the internet in the US and most other countries. The spirit of the internet doesn’t have anything to do with costs, it has to do with the ability to get any information and to publish any information. That is all. If the internet was totally free it would have never gotten anywhere. The fact that companies pay developers 70k a year starting is why its gotten anywhere.
(Not trying to preach at this point, just playing devil’s advocate. “I would defend to the death your right” to charge people to hear what you have to say. :P)
@Chris
I am a big believer in open source code as well, and I contribute my time and energy to some open source projects. But this isn’t about software, it’s about information.
There are costs other than time and energy involved in building a product. There are no such additional costs involved when all you are doing is sharing your experiences, in the hopes that it will help someone else who is embarking on a similar project.
@Oscar
I didn’t mean to imply that open source = free or that all things on the internet should be free. I am simply a believer in the principle that if I know something that can help someone else, I should freely offer that information.
你好，我测试
Josh you could easily apply the same theory to your own web design service and argue that charging for this is against the spirit of the internet.
Good copyrighting is a skill just as web design and development is, why shouldn’t authors have the right to make a living from their skills?
No doubt you’ve utilised some of the tips and tutorials available on sites like this to better your own business/career, seems a little hypocritical to me.
As I mentioned above (after your post, however), I don’t believe that all things on the internet should be free. Using my acquired skills to provide a service is not something I am willing to give away for free.
Telling others about how I used those skills so that they may benefit from my experiences, however, is something I am gladly willing to give away for free. And I have done just that, freely contributing several megs worth of how-to’s and FAQs to various web-centric projects over the years.
Authors absolutely have the right to make a living from their skills. This is just a particular category of information that I don’t feel our unique community should be charging for. It is still your right to charge for whatever information you produce, regardless of what I believe.
Have you ever bought a book to learn something?
Anyway, most (if not all) computer languages have doc that goes along with them that -will teach you- the language and they are… FREE.
I might be wrong, but I am sure they are charging for that was/is the Tuts+ network, which for the premium tuts you had to be a subscriber to see any or all of them.
Whereas this is now offering each individual tut for a price, cheap ones too from what I have seen in some cases, rather than asking each user to pay a monthly fee for tuts they might be interested in.
Although it might go against the grain from the Open Source view, I think they have actually made the individual tuts more accessible to everyone.
Hence, why I do not think I will renew my Tuts+ subscription from now on.
that’s good news
your WP skill has been admired by Envato
Can’t get details by this method.
I really love Nettuts+, i have for a while now. They post some brilliant articles. I’ll definitely take a look at the new site you mentioned. Thanks Chris.
Josh – I completely agree with you. There is a difference between making a living and just plain greedy – both in part of Envato and the seller. The very nature of the web since day one has always been to share information.
Seeing one of the most sold tutorials on that site is, WordPress as a CMS – Part 1, for $5.00 and that’s just the first part of 3. In my opinion it’s pretty sad. I won’t hide my feelings – tutsplus is one site I hope to see fail miserably.
Tuts+ marketplace is a great resource for people who don’t need all that a Tuts+ premium membership has to offer. We think Envato supports the development and design community, especially for some that don’t have the commercial expertise or network/community to earn them some extra money. They have the expertise and network to get products to people who are like minded and interested. LT
The tutorials are very good. What I disagree with, is having to buy all the images on top of the tutorial. It´s only once you have bought the tutorial, that they tell you this. Misleading.