Are tutorials worth creating?

[freelancerguy]

I'm debating on whether or not to write up some tutorials on forums to share with the members. I've been searching the web and I can definitely see that there are some tutorials which need to be done. My question is, are tutorials worth writing on a forum and how would it effect activity?
I want to create great tutorials and have members view them and even unregistered members to say thank me. Does it increase my reputation?

What are your thoughts and do you think tutorials are worth creating?

 

[PTTed]

I'm debating on whether or not to write up some tutorials on forums to share with the members. I've been searching the web and I can definitely see that there are some tutorials which need to be done. My question is, are tutorials worth writing on a forum and how would it effect activity?
I want to create great tutorials and have members view them and even unregistered members to say thank me. Does it increase my reputation?

What are your thoughts and do you think tutorials are worth creating?

Hey freelancer guy...

I am a big fan of tutorials. I am not a huge fan of tutorials on forums though unless they are published as a response to a question someone is asking on a forum thread. If someone asks a question that catches my interest, and I can write them a short tutorial on what I am talking about, then sure, sometimes I will do that.

But, if your goal is to write a super detailed tutorial about a certain topic, you should do that on a blog/website that you own. I do a lot of those. If the topic requires a lot of depth to explain thoroughly then I will build an entire website around that tutorial. The type of website I build is a really small authority site. It covers that entire topic thoroughly using about a dozen or so blog posts. Then I monetize the site. Some of them, depending on the topics, are able to be monetized quite well. Others are nearly impossible to make any decent amount of money with. But either way you get a decent amount of targeted traffic and you are really helping people. So it is double worthwhile.

As a freelancer who is constantly looking for side jobs to make money with, then doing that sort of thing is right up your alley.

 

[Nytshade]

Yes sharing tutorials with your forum members and posting them on social media can definitely help increase your reputation. But for a forum focus on content that will encourage engagement and make guests register so that they can join the conversation. You can create a new thread with a subjective/controversial topic, share your views and then add a poll for instance.

Be creative on how you deliver your tutorials on a forum and always encourage engagement. Forums are mostly for discussions, you can do it but don't overdo it. Do it for a purpose/reason that will get people to discuss the topic, a reason that will lead into a sale or whatever your end goal is not just to get a Thank you.

Hope that helps.

 

[ProfMike]

There is a lot of competition in that space but if you find a niche and outperform your competition you can do well.

As for posting them on a Forum, I personally do not think that would work well, just based on my past experience. Forums are a great way to meet like minded people and direct them to your site for learning, but there is really no good way to showcase your tutorials on a forum.

Once you have your own site and start building a knowledge base of information on your subject, start pushing the site on like minded forums and social networks. If the tutorials are well written and cover good topics they will be successful. Many people int his industry never stop learning and are always looking for new information. We can't stop learning the technology changes so fast we have to keep up.

If you need any individual help let me know. I have been doing that same thing since 2007 and over the years have figured out many ways to break into a market that has a lot of competition.

 

[Dean]

Tutorials can be a great way to help people as well as build yourself a reputation in a good way. The tutorials will just have to be of a high quality and as complete as possible.

There are a countless number of tutorials out there on the web that are incomplete and missing important parts of the information. This is in part because there are people creating tutorials that are not knowledgeable in the field that they are making the tutorials for. So make sure that you cover things that you know about quite well.

If you can find a subject that you know about and can create a quality tutorial then you can do well and get a good reputation for being someone with great tutorials. Stick with what you know or have someone else write about topics that you don't know about.

Provide people something that they will learn from and get the information the need and they will appreciate that and you can build a good following.


Cheers, Dean.

 

[Maria Marketing]

Many tutorials that I have seen are of poor quality in both the audio and video so I think that if you can create a high quality tutorial then that would be well received. The only trick is to be able to find the right audience and market for them.

 

[ulterios]

Even though there are lots of tutorials out there to be found, most of them are low quality which is one reason why some people that make tutorials do not do well with them.

If you are going to create tutorials then you might as well do some quality work with them and build a good reputation around the web. It can take time to get a client base built up so unless you are planning to do quality work and stick with it, you might as well find something else to do to make money from.

 

[ProfMike]

I have to agree with Ulterios on his point on quality. Doing research for my classroom training I found that much of the information, especially the information on YouTube was out of date or incomplete.

To be fair much of that has to do with the speed at which the standards are changing. Things have begun to settle down a little with the implementation of the HTML5 standard and the changes to the CSS styling language. But more changes are on the horizon.

 

[Storm]

Well if you can create good tutorials then you might do well but I have seen WAY TOO MANY poor quality tutorials out there. Most of the time many that say they are quality tutorials are junk. Quality will get you repeat customers or clients and junk tutorials will get you chargebacks!

 

[ulterios]

Most of the time many that say they are quality tutorials are junk.

This is so true and I usually avoid the ones that have the word "Quality" in the title as most of these fly-by-night tutorial makers are just wanting to draw people in to either make a quick few bucks from junk tutorials or they are trying to draw you in for other purposes like promoting other services.

True quality tutorials can be hard to find at times. We do have an advertiser here on IMS that produces quality tutorials so I guess they will be easier for our members to find than people who don't visit the site.

 

[Storm]

This is so true and I usually avoid the ones that have the word "Quality" in the title as most of these fly-by-night tutorial makers are just wanting to draw people in to either make a quick few bucks from junk tutorials or they are trying to draw you in for other purposes like promoting other services.

True quality tutorials can be hard to find at times. We do have an advertiser here on IMS that produces quality tutorials so I guess they will be easier for our members to find than people who don't visit the site.

Yeah I know from experience. I have seen too many that said that they were quality only to find out shortly in that they were complete junk!