jpfitness

Mark putting $2 or $3 on a credit card isn't really worth it....... to be honest I would rather pay a yearly sum as Welles suggested
to work out how much to charge be realistic on how many "books" you would write in a year....... times that by $10 canadian and there is your fee - if you were to break it up into terms there are 4 terms in a school year a book a term = 4 per year $40 per year make the options for term payments or yearly payments then everyone is happy

what you have to remember Mark is that everytime someone pays by paypal etc you are charged from that payment most are $1 for processing then 2 or 3% (at least we were) therefore paying per tute is not worth it for you :B
just a thought
sfm

Rantin Al

I would not object to a 'Full Access Yearly' subscription. (Or 2 x six monthly as an option.)
Individual tutorial billing sounds like an administrative nightmare.
Rattling up small denominations on the Visa is a bit of a pain.

Have you considered file size for the PDF's and download time, for 56K'ers. (Like me.)

Complete set of tutorials on CD could be an option, although that would be a future option as you have still to write them!

Would you put up open 'tasters' to preview what individual tutorials contain?

Heck! The tutorials which are already posted here have got to be worth a reasonable running cost 'donation/ contribution'.

Sorry no great ideas, just observations really.

Go for it Mark, you ain't a charity!

Al. (What' $ Canadian > ? Sterling anyway? Approx. BTW)

MisterMister

Mark, you could do something like Al Ward has set up on his site, ActionFX - charge an upfront fee for total access to the goodies. He also has a free section.

Make it like a monthly or annual charge, maybe a one time annual payment of $20 gets you into the special section with all the tuts, etc.

Blinky2004

More good thoughts, thanks guys. [righton]

Ok lemme see...

Welles...
Yes i AM going or would create a "special area" for this venture. It would still be a part of my normal site, but be an "addon" to it. Access would only be gained through an onLine registration/payment form.

Sue...
I agree, i don't think that would be worthwhile doing. I just thought i should mention it.
You have the 'books' concept confused though Sue. As seen in that tute list i posted at the beginning, for example "3D Interface Design" has 4 "chapters" each comprised of individual tutorials. I was thinking to charge $10 CAD/'chapter'. Which works out to $40/'book'.
There is a LOT of indepth info in these tutes, and since the entire lot takes a long time to write/debug... at present i'd see myself only doing 2/year. But this could change too depending on the specific subject matter covered.

Al...
As mentioned, no specific details have been worked out yet... this is still at the alpha stage. But yes, annual, bi-annual, quarterly, & monthly subscriptions could be possible.
Plus i like the idea about a CD. However, since this special area would be run with PHP i'd hesitate to provide anything other than the PDF versions of the tutes on a CD. It wouldn't really work any other way.
BUT... i COULD create a special Flash interface whereby each 'chapter/tutorial' could be accessed quickly and read through while the CD is running.
Again... more on that kind of detail will be worked out later on.

Doug...
Ya i know Al...we were hosted together on the old i/US.com Website for a few years. I haven't been to his site in a long time... every since we had to vacate the i/US server. I'll have to checkout his new home.
Thanks for reminding me.

To be honest though... writing tutorials of this size & depth is a lot more involved than recording an Action. So $20 for access to the whole body of work would not be worth the time investment.
But as with the rest of this, pricing is still undecided.

Thanks again guys this is getting much more crystalized now. I'm starting to see "shapes" in my head. [honesty]

Ashcat

Another question or maybe I'm going to far/deep and is this not what you mean but I ask it anyway: the tutors are made for PS activity only?
I mean: no Illustrator or other Adobe products has to be used?
Everything what is in the tutor will be possible by just using PS? No filters or other actions who are not standard by PS?
Auch, ;\ hope you understand me, sometimes it's hard to explain what I mean and translate in into english too...
Bye
Ashcat

Blinky2004

Nothing but good ol' 'native' Photoshop is used guys. I don't "do" tutorials that need outside help from 3rd party plugins. I leave that to the other Photoshop dudes on the Web.

Joy Foraker

Mark -

What you offer is incredible information for the serious graphic designer. I believe the example of using Mark's site as a successful marketing model is good. Obviously it is profitable for him because it has been going and growing for some time now. What you offer is far more sophisticated. I bought Mark's cd early on because it was the only one available.

I think your price is too low. I'd suggest 20$ (plus freight and handling) for download and also ship a cd to buyers. I always insist on receiving a cd with my download due to fear of crashes.

I would recommend you just jump in and do it!

You will have the extra cost of running a shopping cart. If your current server supports SSL- your only extra charge will be a gateway's monthly charge and a few cents per transaction.

MisterMister

Well, that's $20 per person, times that by how many pay to get your tutorials.

Blinky2004

Even MORE good thoughts Joy. Thanks. That's stuff to consider for sure. Especially the SSL setup and whatnot. I haven't thought that far ahead just yet.

I have a few friends that write shopping carts so i'll have them to bounce things off of.

Doug...
Yes i realize the math appears to work in my favour. But you're talking about accessing ALL of the tutorials for an entire year... for $20. That just doesn't "feel" appropriate. But like i said before... this is something still on the drawing table.

Guys this info/advice/suggestions is just great. I'm lovin' all this great input from you bunch. Thanks a whole lot for helping me with this venture. [righton] :} [honesty]

mmagikman

This is just my .02 worth.

A sample/description of the content is a good idea. Some people are only interested in certain areas of PS.

I like the idea of a subscription fee...by the month/6 months/1 year or for a "book" or whatever. It keeps the transactions down and saves everyone time and money. Maybe $x.xx for each tute and for 10 tutes a special savings?

Downloadable PDFs is a quick and easy way to get the info. on your computer or print it out to make your own book. A CD, for an aditional fee (to cover mfg. cost and mailing), might be an option to think about.

I know most of this has been covered by others, but I thought I'd voice my .02 worth to help you get a feeling for what we would like to see.

Please let us know how this monumental project progresses.