Is there any use for graphics tutorials and PHP courses here?

[carlos123]

Hi everyone,

I am relatively new to this forum but I have question for you all.

I am in the web development business and am building my business by focusing on offering my services to individuals and companies in the San Diego area. All well and good.

But...my eventual goal (perhaps sooner rather than later) is to break out into offering my services to those that might want to use my skills over the Internet at large.

Toward that end I have been thinking that it might be good for me to offer something of value to those forums that I am member of including this one...as a way of getting who I am and the services I offer before more individuals that might have a need for them.

So I am wondering if there might be an interest here in either getting some GIMP tutorials worked up by me and offered here for creating web graphics, maybe a course in basic PHP programming for non-programmers, or other such a thing?

I am not sure how something like that would be worked out in practice in that I would probably want to base such things at my site and not just upload them to this forum but I am flexible on this. It's been my experience that such things are picked up by the search engines much quicker off something like a forum as opposed to my own web site so maybe it would be good to upload the gist of such things to this forum as stickies or something instead of having them based at my site. I don't know.

Viral courses maybe. Lot's of possibilities.

So I guess a more fundamental question for me is...how can I get my name and what I do out before more people on this forum for example while also offering real value to forum members?

I am open to ideas if anyone has any?

I do see some fantastic potential to increase my business while offering great value to social sites like forums where I am allowed to do such.

Carlos

[Lynn Terry]

Hi Carlos,

Great ideas. Here's what I would suggest.

Create some basic tutorials here at the forum for a few things you specialize in as a service. Then set up a Special Offer in our special offers section, and link back to that in your signature, or at the bottom of the post. That will generate interest & business, plus inbound links to your special offer.

You can then take those same tutorials, expand on them and convert it to PDF, and offer them as a free download at your site to build your mailing list.

[carlos123]

Thanks for your input Lynn! Will do.

The problem I have now is finding the time to do it all.

I just went to Jonathan Leger's site and signed up for his newsletter after reading about how you read every word he says and was reading some of his stuff and began to realize that I have sitting under my nose the very topics that could grow me a list.

A PHP course for non-programmers.
A graphics creation course for your average person who is not a web designer.

All kinds of issues that I could pick in that regard.

While most people would not actually go to the extent of doing things themselves there would be value in reading my stuff. I have found that most tutorials on the net are woefully out of date and hard to follow or are way too involved and filled with terminology that is hard to follow. There is no question in my mind that I can do it better than most of what is out there.

Open source programs like GIMP are notorious for leaving gaps in their documentation that makes it hard to get up to speed on using them effectively. Learning to use GIMP took me forever because of that.

By giving away or otherwise making such tutorials and courses available for free, perhaps even virally free, I should be able to generate quite a bit of interest in my site and perhaps in my services. Not to mention building a list.

Lot's of potential. My problem is going to be focusing myself on that which will pan out to potentially be the most productive. Your suggestion is a good start I think. Something that will add value to this forum and add value to my business for a win/win to us both.

Now it's just a matter of finding the time.

Between a course on PHP programming for non-programmers and using the GIMP to create web graphics which one do you think might be more useful to readers Lynn? To you?

Are there other web development topics that might be of general interest to anyone here and that I could build a course around?

Carlos

PS. Lynn...although it would be great to hear from you directly again please don't feel a need to respond to this post yourself if your time is tied up on other things so while my question is directed at you above it is likewise a question for anyone who might care to tell me whether a course on PHP or one on using the GIMP might be more useful to them.

[Lynn Terry]

Thanks Carlos.

I think graphics would be a good start. You could offer the free how-to guide or quick course, and also a special offer on your services.

[carlos123]

Graphics it is then. I can't promise anything real soon as I may be too busy in the next couple of weeks to do much but you never know. I might find some time in there somewhere.

Thanks again for your input and for letting me be a part of your forum.

Carlos