Our First Anniversary!

Time really does fly by. Exactly one year ago today, our CEO, Collis Ta'eed, launched Nettuts+. 322 postings later, we have the honor of writing for 34,000+ RSS subscribers. Though I wasn't here at the very beginning, I do remember reading that first "Launch" posting - completely oblivious to the possibility that I might be running the site in just a few months time.

To celebrate, let's browse through some of the notable postings/events from this last year.

Day 1: April 21, 2008

After the massive success of PSDTUTS, it seemed like a good idea to branch out into tutorials on other subjects. Since one of the most requested types of tutorials has always been for web development, that seemed like a logical place to go. And so today I'm happy to be launching NETTUTS!
- Collis Ta'eed

Editor's Choice

• Build a Sleek Portfolio Site From Scratch

  There’s nothing like building an entire site to show you a good overview of how a CSS layout should work. Over at PSDTUTS we’ve got a tutorial where you design up a sleek, high end web design. In this tutorial we’re going to take that PSD file and build it with some nice clean HTML and CSS.

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• 7 Crucial Tips for Designing and Maintaining a Large Site

  Projects vary in scope and size, and the challenges they entail vary likewise. As a lone web designer, the biggest job I am responsible for is FlashDen. Along with thousands of active members all chatting, uploading and buying, the site processes large amounts of money and large amounts of traffic.

  Designing, redesigning, maintaining and working with developer team has given me some useful insights and tips for making life easier. And since today we’ve launched my latest redesign of the site, it seems like a good time to write up my top 7 tips!

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• From PSD to HTML, Building a Set of Website Designs Step by Step

  Today I’m going to take you through my entire process of getting from Photoshop to completed HTML. We’re going to build out a set of 4 PSD mockups of a website that eventually will become a WordPress theme. It’s a massive tutorial, so if you’re going to follow through to the end, make sure you have a few hours to spare!

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• Can You Hack Your Own Site? A Look at Some Essential Security Considerations

  Version one goes gold! Visitors are landing from every corner of the globe. You know there are likely to be a few teething problems, I mean, this is 1.0.0.0… all those zeroes are meant to allow us a little grace right?

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• Solving 5 Common CSS Headaches

  CSS is a relatively simple language to learn. Mastering it, on the other, can prove a little more difficult. Compensating for various browser inconsistencies alone can produce a migraine. In this article, we’ll demystify five of the most head thumping issues that you’ll encounter when building web applications.

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• Build a Newspaper Theme With WP_Query and the 960 CSS Framework

  WP_Query is a powerful tool to control what comes out of your loop. Today I’m going to teach you all how to use it to make a 3 columned newspaper theme that has all your main blog posts in the main column, and off to the side a set of posts with a certain category. We’ll be using the 960 CSS framework for the basic layout and reset of our theme, it will chop a lot of work off what’s needed!

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• 10 Principles of the CSS Masters

  When it comes to CSS, there are lots of resources and supposed “expert tips” on the web. These are from unproven, self-proclaimed “gurus” who have no street cred in the design world. While they may have valid points, how is one to know whether a CSS tip is a valid resource or just an untested hack?

  Instead of relying on unknown sources for advice, let’s look deeply into designers who have excellent design backgrounds and have walked the walk. These CSS tips are gathered from some of the most respected designers on the planet. They have the portfolios to back their advice up, so you’ll know that each tidbit of advice is of the highest quality.

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• Build An Incredible Login Form With jQuery

  One struggle that still remains today in web design is displaying all of the redundant information on every page. For example, a login form. What if there was a way to easily make the content accessible on every page, but keep it hidden until needed? Well you can, by making a top panel that when clicked, will reveal its self and its content. But we need to make this look nice, so we'll also animate it.

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• 20 Excellent AJAX Effects You Should Know

  There are a few special techniques or effects that can spice up just about any web page. These are the top 20 Ajax effects that every web developer should know. They’re essential parts of any web developer’s toolbox. If you haven’t seen them yet, you no doubt will in your future web development endeavors.

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• How to Convert a PSD to HTML

  I continue to be amazed by how well Collis’s “Build a Sleek Portfolio Site From Scratch” tutorial continues to perform. It’s been months, yet it still posts strong numbers every week. Considering that fact, I decided to create a screencast that shows you exactly how to convert a PSD into perfect XHTML/CSS.

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• The 20 Most Practical and Creative Uses of jQuery

  There have been plenty of posts on the number of awesome jQuery plugins and where to find them. However, sometimes it is best not to rely on third party plugins and resources. Do it yourself the old fashioned way! Today, we will have a look at 20+ creative uses of jQuery in modern day websites and applications; sure to inspire you for your next project.

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• 15+ Tips to Speed Up Your Website, and Optimize Your Code!

  Once you’ve been coding for a while, you begin to take something for granted. You forget just how smart you really are. How many hundreds of keyboard shortcuts have we memorized? How many languages have we learned? How many frameworks? How many hacks? To say that web design/development is an extremely tough industry is putting it lightly. Next, add in the fact that much of what you know today will be considered obsolete in a few years.

  Today, we’ll be looking at a crop of tips and tricks that will help beginners speed up their development time, and code more efficiently. You’ll see a mix of quick time savings tips, as well as specific coding tricks to increase your web application’s efficiency.

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• Create a Custom WordPress Plugin From Scratch

  This tutorial will describe the implementation of a Wordpress plugin starting from scratch. The plugin will connect to an external OSCommerce database and display random products on your Wordpress site. It also implements a configuration page for the Wordpress admin panel.

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• Building the imgPreview jQuery Plugin

  We’ll be featuring the winner of our “Screencast Competition”. Created by James Padolsey, this video tutorial will demonstrate how to build a relatively advanced jQuery plugin from scratch.

  A big congratulations goes out to James. He’ll be receiving $200 cash, a 1 year subscription to TUTS+, and $100 worth of credit at our Envato marketplaces.

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Video Collections

• WordPress For Designers: Video Series

  You asked, and we responded! Due to high demand, we’re launching a new video series that will run alongside the “Diving into PHP” screencasts. It is our hope that these two series, viewed back-to-back, will turn you into a dynamite PHP/WordPress designer.

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• Diving into PHP: Video Series

  Today marks the beginning of a brand new series that will show you EXACTLY how to get started with PHP. Just as with the “jQuery for Absolute Beginners” series, we’ll start from scratch and slowly work our way up to some more advanced topics. I hope you enjoy it.

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• jQuery for Absolute Beginners: Video Series

  So everywhere you look, you see “jQuery this” and “jQuery that”. For the last year or so, this library has been the darling of the Javascript world. But do you feel that you just can’t seem to learn the dang thing? Do you hate how the existing tutorials assume that you know WAY more than you actually do? If this rings true for you, I can help.

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• RegEx for Dummies

  Welcome to my new video series, “Regular Expressions for Dummies”. Over the course of ten videos or so, I’m going to teach you how to use regular expressions in your Javascript and PHP applications. As always, I’ll assume you know absolutely zip. If you haven’t already, subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow me on Twitter to stay up to date on new releases.

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• The Best PSD to HTML to WordPress Video Series Available

  Since I began running Nettuts+ nearly a year ago, the number one tutorial request I’ve received is for a PSD to WordPress screencast. Today, we’re releasing a complete series on our Plus site. Over the course of fourteen videos, I will personally teach you how to take a PSD design and convert first to HTML, and then to a dynamic WordPress site. This was a massive undertaking; I hope you’ll consider signing up if it interests you.

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Okay, okay - I cheated a bit. Some of these videos were posted on our sister-site, In the Woods. Oh well, editor's right!

Important Announcements

• Rockstar WordPress Designer On Sale Today!

  In the last few years WordPress has been growing as an essential tool in the web designer toolkit. Between regular blog themes and the increasing number of themes that turn WordPress into anything from a portfolio site to a shop, its use as a general purpose CMS has made it a staple of web design tutorials and galleries.

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• Nettuts Gets a Makeover

  If you follow our sister blog PSDTUTS, you may have noticed that last week we updated the design to a new theme - version 4 to be precise - and we’re thrilled today to give NETTUTS a similar makeover!

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• Net.tuts+ Plus Program Now Open and Triple the Value!

  Memberships to our long-awaited Net.tuts+ Plus program are now available. Now you can get even more out of your favorite web development site. In 24 hours we’ll be adding our first Net.tuts+ video lesson, an advanced jQuery plug-in screencast, but first we’d like to tell you a bit about the Program.

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• Meet the New Tuts+

  Today across the Tuts+ network we’re rolling out some changes to our brand and how our sites work together. These changes include a rebrand of our logos, a shift from multiple domain names to a single top level domain, a universal Plus membership, a Plus Affiliate Program, updated Plus interface, a Twitter Tuts+ news stream and a new tutsplus.com site complete with a rearrangeable dashboard. In other words, a whole bunch of stuff!

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Thank You

Everyone - thank you so much for sticking with us over the course of this last year. We've strived to become the ultimate resource for high-quality web development tutorials. I hope we've met that goal in your opinion. Year two will be bigger and better; so stay tuned! Thanks again - and tell your friends.

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