6 Steps To Write An Approved Tutorial! [Updated]

[Sw1tch]

Alright, Here Are Some Tips On How To Write A Tutorial That Will Be Approved.

1. Text > Images
Write your tutorial in a text editor, or this Post New Thread text box. Add the images of completed steps or specifications via the [img]and[/img] tags. Now think how much easier that is, then splitting up one huge image into 3 pieces. Now, if you find a spelling error, or that you missed a step, you can hit the handy Edit Reply button, and change the spelling error, or add your missed step. With images you'd have to find your psd, make the document bigger, find the sp you made, add the missing step, then go back and upload the three pieces again. Google and Yahoo favor text over images too. People searching for a grunge tutorial, wont find it in a page where all the text is in an image, and there’s literally no "Grunge Tutorial" text anywhere. Having a text tutorial hits a lot more Search Engine Keywords then an Image Tut.

New!
2. Title and Objectives
Give your tutorial a title. And I don't mean the thread title. Make the title nice and big in the actual tutorial so you know what tutorial it is and what it does.

Also, add objectives (or at least a description). These are really handy. A lot of times I'm browsing tutorials and the titles just aren't enough. So add some objectives, like "In this tutorial you will learn: etc and etc." And if it has multiple objectives make a list. So it really helps to know when you open a tutorial, what you will be expecting. The title usually doesn't give you enough information.

3. All Steps
Don’t finish it later. Don't make it a two step tutorial. Don’t ad to be continued. We want to finish the entire tutorial in one sitting and most of us in less than an hour. We want it quick and we want it in front of us. All tutorials should be in one post, in one topic. Make sure the tutorial is easy to follow, and that each step is covered. We do not want to be left in the open with a transition like, "just render clouds then set to overlay." You should phrase it as Filter-Render-Clouds, Then At The Top Selection Box On Your Layer Palette, Set to Overlay. Most people wouldn't know how to render clouds or change the blend setting.

4. Outcome
Post the outcome of every step. When you read a tutorial you want to make sure that we're doing it right. Once you read a step, you look at the tutorial to confirm that we did it correctly. If you skip an outcome, and go three steps without one, we don't know what we did wrong. When you’re making your tutorial, just save a jpg of every step along the way.

5. Final Outcome
We want to see how this looks. Post the final outcome at the top of the tutorial. Why bother running through a whole Tut only to have it half done or not what the final image shows. I personally have gone through some tutorials where the final image is a wonderful sig, and the actual tutorial only tells how you would make the sparkles in the background. If that was the case, they should have only showed the sparkles. Same thing here, if the tutorial makes a grunge background, the final outcome should only be that. You could make a post in addition, saying, "Here is my sig I made with the background from this tutorial." That lets the person know there are more then those few steps to having a great outcome like you showed. We want to know what we're making.

6. Embed All Images
Instead of posting links to images, post a [img]and[/img] handle around them. We do not want to click 40 links to see each step. One page, that’s it. Linking to the images will most likely have users press that little x on the top of the window. Showing the whole Tut on one page is what we're looking for.

Now that you've written your tip top tutorial, you can reward yourself. Ask for comments, or ratings, ?/10. Ask for an Instant Message about how good your tutorial was. And now, you can ask for Karma! Say K+ please or, Karma Appreciated or anything around that. Link to the favor! Make clicking K+ Appreciated give you Karma.
Here’s How to Do That:
Find a previous post you made, right Click the [+] in [+/-]. Click "Copy Link Location". At the bottom of your post, press Ctrl+V. Now before the link, add [url=and after add ]. Now after that add something like K+ Appreciated. And finally, after that add "[/url]" without quotations. The final Code Looks Like:

Code: Select all

[URL=YOUR PASTED CODE]K+ Appreciated[/URL]

Thanks for the quick read, now you’re sure your tutorial will be approved.

[mysterious]

ill try that.thanks

[Illuzion]

Very helpful. Just the right info i needed.