Professional Web Design – our first eBook
The book contains a selection of our best articles about professional Web design and the business side of web development. It contains 10 already published articles and 2 exclusive, newly written pieces. The book costs only $9.90.
This e-book contains a selection of the best articles about professional Web design that have been published on Smashing Magazine in 2009 and 2010. The articles have been carefully edited and prepared for the PDF version; some screenshots and links were removed to make the book easier to read and print out.
- Download a free PDF sample (0.5 Mb),
- Download a free ePUB sample (ZIP, 0.4 Mb),
- Download a free Mobipocket sample (ZIP, 0.6 Mb)
This book presents guidelines for professional Web development, including communicating with clients, creating a road map to a successful portfolio, rules for professional networking and tips on designing user interfaces for business Web applications. The book shares expert advice, and it also helps you learn how to respond effectively to design criticism, use storytelling for a better user experience and apply color theory to your professional designs.
Buy now and download PDF right away!
Everybody who buys the book supports Smashing Magazine and helps us to keep producing free high quality content. This book is not protected by DRM. It is available exclusively here, in the Smashing Shop. Please respect our work and the hard efforts of our writers. If you received this book from a source other than the Smashing Shop, please support us by purchasing your copy in our online store.
Table of Contents
On 242 pages you will read:
- Harsh Truths About Corporate Websites (Paul Boag)
- Portfolio Design Study: Design Patterns and Current Practices (Vitaly Friedman)
- Creating A Successful Online Portfolio (Sean Hodge)
- Better User Experience With Storytelling (Francisco Inchauste)
- Designing User Interfaces For Business Web Applications (Janko Jovanovic)
- Progressive Enhancement And Standards Do Not Limit Web Design (new article by Christian Heilmann)
- Color Theory for Professional Designers (Cameron Chapman)
- Is John The Client Dense or Are You Failing Him? (Paul Boag)
- How To Identify and Deal With Different Types Of Clients (Robert Bowen)
- How To Respond Effectively To Design Criticism (Andrew Follett)
- Web Designer’s Guide to Professional Networking (new article by Steven Snell)
- Group Interview: Expert Advice For Students and Young Web Designers (Steven Snell)
Please also spread the word on Twitter and share on Facebook. We appreciate your support!
seraph
March 23rd, 2010 7:27 pmI just bought both printed books recently, hope that contributes to your financial aid.
strider
March 23rd, 2010 8:11 pmsmashing helped my brain : me need to help smashing’s pocket. so bought the book.
one suggestion: start more printed books at low production costs.
Shane
March 23rd, 2010 9:19 pmWhen I first discovered Smashing Magazine, I was instantly hooked and I visit here quite frequently. You just seemed to be right on the mark about so much within the broad category of “design” that it was hard not to refer to you to my friends or to refer to your many articles for solutions to your problems.
Perhaps I am naive, but I don’t see this as a cash grab and you guys seemed to have appeared out of no where and were an “smashing” success (pun most definitely intended) and that couldn’t have been cheap. I am sorry to hear about your money problems but this page and giant response is a great way to show the community your intentions. I only hope that the community reciprocates that same good will back upon you. :D
Take care, Smashing Team!
Shane
Krishnakumar
March 23rd, 2010 9:59 pmI just purchased one, but could not see it in my account. What should i do ?
Frank
March 23rd, 2010 10:45 pmPurchased! You help me a lot in my business, glad to help you now.
I hope this campaign will bring a lot of money and I can still access your great web site.
By the way: Your printed book is mine, too! ;-)
Neha
March 23rd, 2010 11:57 pmHey Guys,
Smashing Mag has been one of the best things to happen to designers all over the world. You guys have been great at passing on very useful advice, awesome inspirations and helpful freebies. And after all this I can’t see why you would be called greedy!
I just bought the ebook…. I don’t know what I’d without you guys!
Please carry on the awesomely great work!
Simon Turesson
March 24th, 2010 1:30 amIs there much information/learning about colors and colormatching?
Frank
March 24th, 2010 2:14 amBought the book… thought this was also a printed version…
PDF is fine too :P
Mike829
March 24th, 2010 2:37 amI bought the e book and will soon be purchasing the Smashing Book itself. Hope you guys do better financially, I love this site too much for it to disappear.
I LOVED the idea of shirts, I definitely wouldn’t mind sporting a Smashing Mag shirt.
And as whether or not this was a good idea? I loved it. I sometimes go back to reading posts from the site in which searching is a hassle and bookmarking?…I have waaaay too many of those.
NOW…I have some (if not most) of my favorite posts on my laptop while I sip on a drink or in my pocket, on my iPod touch on the bus/train.
So thanks a lot! And I hope the book is a great read as everyone says! (I’m sure it will)
Claudio
March 24th, 2010 2:38 amwould’ve been nice if the book was available also as printed version. but to support you guys i bought it (together with sashing wordpress).
Dan
March 24th, 2010 2:44 amHi,
The site is one of the most usefull resources on the web. I’ts also a great example of how to combine social networking via Twitter and a website blog.
I don’t think subscription is the way forward in todays climate. However I understand you need to have creative ways to generate income. What better way than to ask your readers? I have a couple of ideas;
1: Sell some SM tee shirts.
2: Sell all the freebies on a single CD/DVD/Download.
3: Sell your WordPress theme. I’d gladly pay £25.
Keep up the good work and a great site.
Regards,
Dan
Gabriel
March 24th, 2010 2:47 amHow about a little fundraising? A new investor?
I’d strongly disagree with switching to a paid business model as acceptance among current readers would be highly unpredictable and chances of a possible loss of interest are high. We’ve seen companies go down after such a move too many times…
I wish that something nice happens to SM soon! Some funky money-guy/gal suddenly realizes he/she can’t live without supporting SM or anything :D because we can’t live without SM… :)
Cheers,
Gabriel
John Doe
March 24th, 2010 3:42 am#1 Tees are a good idea
#2 Ur forum isn’t visible enough: why don’t u link every article to forum posts (a bit like “related posts”)?
#3 Premium content shouldn’t impair free visitors: the example of PSD files for premium vs plain theme for free is good => dont make it premium or nothing
#4 Among premium features why not developing a live platform: premium users are identified when connecting to the site and are put in contact with other premium users to share comments on articles etc.
Last: your image is your most important asset. Please dont ruin it. The community will always be there.
My 2 cents
chris
March 24th, 2010 7:33 amdid you guys steal the ‘order now’ button from amazon?…
is it really that bad out there?
Sierra
March 25th, 2010 7:05 pmI was wondering about this too.
Alex
March 24th, 2010 9:00 amI have to say this was a dickish move on part of the Smashing Mag. I love your publication and wouldn’t mind donating money and will pick up one of your books, but please, respect your audience/community!
From reading the above article, it looks like your management has made some very poor decisions and planning, otherwise you would not be in this situation. Look at addressing those issues first, perhaps hiring someone who can do proper planning before throwing a bunch of money on various projects and then crying poor.
Cheers.
-Alex
Zak
March 24th, 2010 9:54 amI would buy it, but I bought the SmashingBook and felt very disappointed. I’ve got this site white listed on my adblock, but thats about the end of where I’ll be putting my money on SmashMag without seeing everything I’m getting first.
Mike
March 24th, 2010 12:22 pmAdd this e-book to the Smashing book and sell it digitally at a modest price. If you print anymore books use lower quality paper and a larger format! Possibly update the content of the Smashing book since it’s been a while since it’s been out. Your publication is extremely useful to me and many many designers, but I have to agree with many of the comments about poor business decisions on your part! Seriously, even just a donation link would probably help you guys immensely!
netmau5
March 24th, 2010 1:14 pmYou guys still have my 30 bucks and never sent me the book even after multiple inquiries. I hope my donation helped you out…
Franco
March 24th, 2010 1:14 pmHi, try to study the Envato’s model. Goodluck from Italy!
maryam
March 24th, 2010 2:37 pmI am so sorry to hear that, I just bought it , it’s a great collection by the way keep it up.
Deepak Chopstick
March 24th, 2010 3:46 pmI just spent $9.95 on your book. I’ve definitely earned that many times over from the articles on the site so I’m happy to help out.
Keep up the good work
Thanks.
K
Paulo Custodio
March 24th, 2010 4:24 pmI can´t express how sad it makes me to see you guys pinned down. Purchased the ebook, hope somehow it helps.
This website is one the very best out there, and I always look forward to seeing what it brings to the table.
I hope all those guys that complained realize what a serious blow would be to see SM go under. Put those comments aside, and join us in saving this gem.
Anita
March 24th, 2010 5:03 pmDespite feeling the quality of posts has decreased, I enjoy and get use from SM. It isn’t unusual for me to visit everyday. However, the site seems to vacillate between presenting itself as a blog and presenting itself as a business, which is both confusing and doesn’t do much to inspire confidence. This latest stunt is a PR nightmare, and while it’s perfectly fine to admit the site is in financial trouble and ask for help, waiting until you have to do something drastic is the sign of poor financial planning, as well. When I read what you’d done, redirecting traffic, I couldn’t believe it. Honestly, the mind reels that you might think that was a wise way to go about asking for help.
Here’s a business truth to consider: For every 1 person who complains, there are at least 10 who are dissatisfied and may never return, but choose to simply walk away. I know you’re getting a lot of positive feedback, here, and it’s good to know you still have people supporting you. However, do not make the mistake of disregarding or writing off the negative comments. I’ve been reading your blog for several years, and every time you make a PR blunder, people comment saying they’re not going to use the site anymore. Why? Because they trusted you, and felt you abused that trust. If this site is truly a business, you need more than notoriety and traffic. You need user loyalty. These are they people who will encourage you and promote you for free, and they are invaluable. I’d wager that had you simply made a post asking for help rather than redirecting all traffic, you’d have gotten a lot less negativity and more support from passionate people. Your readers want to be loyal, but you have to respect them.
Get some help with your financial planning, and please, please get some help with your PR. I have no doubt that you could read up on good PR practices for free with a little savvy surfing or a trip to the library.
Dr. Girlfriend
March 24th, 2010 6:05 pmI totally agree with you, Anita. You summed up the situation perfectly. It’s always a pleasure to read your well thought out posts.
Elizabeth Kaylene
April 6th, 2010 11:22 amAgreed, completely. My jaw hit the floor when I read that they redirected every article to their book page.
Mateus Pinheiro
March 24th, 2010 6:06 pmMy mother once told me: “Help who helps you”. And mothers are always right.
I’ve done that by buying your Books. I have Smashing Book and this new one, that i will start reading right now :)
If. in a parallell world, there was no Smashing Mag, there will be no Mateus as a Web Designer, for sure.
Thank you for everything! I hope that buying this I can, even if it’s just a little, help who helped me in so many ways that I can’t list here.
If you ever need some help, please contact me, I will be the first one to stop everything and help you the ways I can.
A big brazilian Thank You!
Mark
March 24th, 2010 6:54 pmWhile we all love you and what you do this post is kind of funny.
So you’re telling the community to help you because you grew too quickly?
In retrospect its not so simple as you’ve stated but to sum it up:
1) Your bought an office
2) You hired people on salary
3) You acquired “more resources”
4) Your buying talent to get better quality
It’s pretty hard for me to feel sorry for you it’s actually kind of sad and shows bad decisions and planning on your part.
Slow down and think about this before you ruin something good!
-concerned
Aidan
March 24th, 2010 8:28 pmIt’s never easy to run a company. We all learn through experiences and mistakes. Why are we focusing on the mistake rather than the solution?
Speaking of mis-managed companies, have you look at AIG? Lehman brothers etc… Such powerful and financial strong companies do have faults and mis-management too.
It’s now how we should stay strong together and tied over this crisis.
SM did not point a gun on your head and force you to support them. Do it on your own accord and conscientiousness. Thanks.
Alyssa Roll
March 24th, 2010 9:22 pmI do want to state how appreciative I am for the customer service support from the Smashing Book. I pre-ordered the book and there were some delivery problems. I’ve never had any problems with anyone before except for my LCD screen on my macbook. The customer support Apple gave me wasn’t helpful or resourceful at all. They weren’t focused on keeping my business or have my best interest in heart. Smashing Magazine did. Yes, it was just a book- but an amazing book at that.
I really hope the financial situation get better as I know there are many other designers and developers who absolutely love this site. Smashing Magazine is a great resource for the entire web community, growing and developing together. And I know we can all only hope our community grows.
When I get money on my Paypal account, I will definitely purchase this. The amount of information I’ve learned from this site- or been directed to other sites from this site is worth well more than $10. Thanks Smashing Magazine, for doing what you do.
Hein
March 25th, 2010 12:43 amBought the book, keep up the good work!
venu
March 25th, 2010 1:48 amOnline painting exhibition and sales is the right idea to overcome this situation.
Peter
March 25th, 2010 2:19 amVery sorry to hear about your situation and also for being so transparent with your users.
I have been reading other comments and some people have some great ideas about freemium models which could work.
If I understand well, the problem you are facing in part was due to the book publishing. That was a new venture for you, and the idea was good, but you got yourself in overhead costs that you were not controlling.
My advive will be to keep it simple and keep it small, sell content as you are doing now with PDF ebooks instead of printed costly books.
I will definitively buy your ebook to help you out of this situation.
Vlad
March 25th, 2010 2:24 amI would consider buying the book if it was a printed copy :( not a fan of eBooks sorry
leka
March 25th, 2010 2:39 amHola,
Me encantaria compralo, pero mi duda es: hay la versión en español?
Por cierto, smashingmagazine.com es brillante y me gustaria seguir contando con vuestro contenido.
Saludos,
Leka
Brian
March 25th, 2010 5:18 amPlease make this available in Print like your other book I bought!
Robbie K
March 25th, 2010 11:30 amI have been a reader for over 2 years and i’m sorry to hear of your problems. So in support i will buy your book (printed version) and advertise the (e)book(s) on my websites.
I and many more would hate there not being a smashing magazine to go look at every couple of days :)
Ibrahim
March 25th, 2010 1:43 pmI would buy this if it is the smashing book I need it and I can’t wait that long for the printed copy due traveling. I’m thinking about this one too but the smashing book is my 1st priority. I hope you could consider this please.
ado
March 25th, 2010 2:56 pmJust bought the ebook and printed book.
Keep up with the great contents guys!
Jonathan Lau
March 25th, 2010 3:51 pmHey guys, keep up the good work. I know it’s a tough time for everyone. I will show my support!
The sky is falling
March 25th, 2010 9:33 pmYou guys are being way too shifty. First a plea for help to stay afloat and now you are saying you’d appreciate the help but it’s not necessary.
This is a great blog with great resources, but there’s no need to be shifty. But up front and be honest and the community will have your back.
Erik
March 26th, 2010 12:24 amKeep up the good work. You’re my ultimate source of inspiration, every day again! So of course I have bought the book…
And all the people who are complaining: if you know better, why don’t start yourself a better site without support… I bet you are giving up in a month.
Why is everybody so negative about you asking for some sort of support, I don’t understand… No one is having a job just because. No it’s because you get paid for it, so you can have a (sort of) living. I bet most of people who criticize you are the people who are asking an hour rate that’s about ten times bigger than the price of this e-book (and maybe aren’t even worth it).
So again, thank you for your work!
Elizabeth Kaylene
April 6th, 2010 11:27 amI think people are complaining more about the method that was used, rather than the fact that they were asked for help. It was a bad move to redirect all articles and pages to the book for a whole day. Several people have said that if SM had just been up front and asked, they would have had no problem donating or buying the book. Not only did the redirect offend their users, but they also cost themselves; none of the ads on the regular articles and pages were viewed for 24 hours!
I’m not going to criticize their business model, because I have a business and I know how scary it can be when you’re starting off. Everyone is allowed to make mistakes, but we should all be more aware of how we are treating our users — AKA our customers.
Tim
March 26th, 2010 2:55 amJust ordered the book. Keep up the great work!!
MyW
March 26th, 2010 3:06 amBought the 3 books in the shop =)
Didn’t read the e-book ’cause I don’t like pdf books (and still think 10$ for a pdf is an “OMAGAD price” lol), just bought because I know you’ll earn more with this format (If think you get something like 7 or 8$ per books ?) but I can’t wait to receive the Smashing book, I wanted to buy it for ages^^
Keep up the good work !
Angel
March 26th, 2010 4:45 amI just buy ebook, trhis is very useful for me
thanks
J Pancras Gomez
March 26th, 2010 5:40 amWhatever Smashing Magazine. Whether you guys communicated it badly or the way it should be communicated, I am not bothered. Please keep up the good work and as a reader I will do whatever I can to help you guys out to give me and others good resources.
Ben
March 26th, 2010 6:31 amThis is a terrible way to sell a book, or anything for that matter. You have a site about how to effectively design websites and even blog about how to market goods and services online and your reason I should by book is to “help you out?”.
That’s just poor practice. Your potential customers are not a charity. You should focus on telling me how it will benefit me, how it’s benefited others like me, and why I should buy it. It worked with some of your other publications, it should work with this one as it’s likely a solid product.
MyW
March 29th, 2010 11:15 amYou can’t say that… You’ve got to be aware that SM is not selling goods, but is a FREE access blog that serves the community. As they are providing professional content for free, they are not an e-shop… So they can ask for help to their readers… A lot of design -or whatever- blogs show a “donate by paypal” icon but SM chose to not use this & to sell some content as books instead and I think It’s fair… I would never donate by paypal, even for SM but if I can have some professional content as a book, I will do it, SM is not a company that provide a service (webdesign, code solutions etc.) but a blog wich help us for free so, yes, they can =)
siteworthy
March 26th, 2010 9:20 amJust purchased the eBook. I appreciate the information you provide and the quality of this site.
Neeraj Kumar
March 26th, 2010 9:41 amNo offense… but I think this was ( or can be ) a marketing stunt pulled out perfectly…
Alavri
March 26th, 2010 5:39 pmYes this was definitely a “stunt” but it was the exact opposite of being executed “perfectly”
Neeraj Kumar
March 28th, 2010 2:07 pmlol!!! yeah right…
someguy
March 26th, 2010 11:11 amSeriously, what a fucked up PR stunt is this ?
i am pissed off now.
Katia
March 26th, 2010 1:21 pmWhat’s happening with you?
I found it fair to buy your book because you give us great ressources, and it was nice to help you back. And then you announce that’s not really true, it’s just a way to sell your book!
I feel betrayed.
Either that’s so incorrect, or you communicated the worst way ever!
I hope that’s the second option.
But I cannot help it, I’m still a little angry…
Charlie
March 26th, 2010 3:02 pmIt’s really hard for me to feel sorry and give money to a company who is/was on top of the top of the game because you made poor financial decisions. What a joke!!!!
“We wanted to give more back to the community so we hired more and bought office space”…..well I’m pretty sure that the whole reasoning of that was to make more cash…was it not?
I’d love to tell my bank who gave me the loan on my house ” Hey – I recently bought an expensive sports car – can you buy my diddle doodle so I can pay you back?”
What ever – give me a break!
Colin Léger
March 26th, 2010 3:40 pmSmashing, you guys rock, I visit your site often in a month. Free content, Great quality content…
So how are you making money? I ask myself
Did you realy think a book would fly off the virtual shelf when we can already get your info for free?
What else… Ads?
hmm maybe you should charge more for your ad locations and have more that…[counting on this page]…what, 12 ads? and always the same!!! Are they ads or your favorite links.
Look I don’t love ads either but if you are in finacial whoos, look elsewhere than your users. Newspapers are having a hard time selling ads, you shouldn’t!
You covered many, many, many web design and development topics and tips. With 400+ comments and counting, seems like there is one topic you never covered or STUDIED. Sales and money…
Sureveys? don’t remember seeing any… maybe I just missed them!
I support you, by coming to your site, using, learning CLICKING ON ADS.
So don’t ask me for money like I made the mistake.
I DO wish you the best. Take my comment as you will. Hope the last few people you hired had good new ideas, otherwise you have an imbalanced team.
cccccccccc
March 26th, 2010 4:25 pmSince the redesign you lot went downhill fast. This is like watching a car crash. Change your ads to dreamweaver and build-your-site-in-a-day offers. Your newfound community will eat it up.
Alavri
March 26th, 2010 5:36 pmI’m so put off by this that I don’t even know where to start.
So you lied to us about your financial “trouble” and now you are claiming that you weren’t asking for donations even though the text clearly said: “Today we need your financial support. Please help us by buying our new eBook …”
This event has really changed my opinion of Smashing Magazine. Ive removed it from my bookmarks and will no longer make it a must see site.
Sorry guys but I simply don’t trust or respect you anymore…..
Glen
March 26th, 2010 8:16 pmBought!
Don’t worry Smashing Magazine, everyone makes mistakes. Hell you lost my book too, but generously replaced it with tracked airmail. I <3 you guys/girls.
You are an indispensable portal for web designers/developers everywhere. Keep up the good work.
carl
March 26th, 2010 8:24 pmSorry for the hard times. eBook, paperback doesn’t matter. I support the smashing magazine 100% this is the best resource yet to keep me up to date with trends and best practices. Whoever is complaining obviously has too much time on their hands and don not understand that some of us need to make money to survive as well as provide jobs for others through self success. I honestly thought you changed to little of a price on the ebook and the book to make an honest profit. Profits create jobs for others. Furthermore please make an iPhone app that keeps us up to date with the latest post and charge at least 2.99 per download. Hard work and passion should be rewarded. Thanks for everything.
Bair
March 27th, 2010 10:07 amIf you follow Smashing Magazine for best practices…. They don’t even eat their own dogfood. Read the w3c guidelines, WCAG guidelines and maybe a blog thats been around for a lot longer than Smashingmagazine, is on par with the quality and content writers, and does not demand your money to act as a resource, read alistapart. It survived…
Don’t blame my complaining on having too much time on my hands, or not understanding marketing and business. If anything blame SmashingMagazine for having poor marketing and business skills.
I was responsible for ordering 10 smashing magazine books, for the designers and design-oriented developers in my company. In that sense you can blame me. I feel like I failed, and no more orders from me. I really hope they made a loss creating and sending those 10 books. They already act like they do, and me pumping about 200Euros into a site has caused them these finincial woes.
carl
March 26th, 2010 8:25 pmAlso, I purchased both, can’t wait for the next materials. Great work!!
Andy
March 27th, 2010 12:43 pmGuys, you’ve helped me become a much better designer over the last year or two and i’m forever in your debt. This maybe a PR stunt, but I like to think that you guys are a honest, hard working bunch of people and I believe that financial issues can haunt any size company. I hope you all pull through and keep up the quality work. Currently printing out my PDF as I type…
Rudra Saha
March 27th, 2010 3:10 pmIm not going to get into the reasoning behind selling this book, as stated in the posts above, but I’ll provide my thoughts on the book:
For anyone contemplating, or sitting on the fence, about buying this book… this is 200+ pages of awesome. Imagine being able to flip through SmashingMagazine’s quality articles in the comfort of your own pdf browser. This is especially helpful for people on low bandwidth connections – its not a big download at all! Finally we can own a book that’s actually RELEVANT to the design issues and challenges in today’s market. I try to be smart with my money but this was really worth the investment.
Cyndy Messah
March 28th, 2010 9:23 amBought it! Keep it up! :)
Vinh Le
March 28th, 2010 1:48 pmBought the printed book, wish it was in pdf though – but I can wait =)
Neeraj Kumar
March 28th, 2010 2:11 pmAnd also, I really think smashingmag should now officially publish an “errata” post to cover the things up…
Roni
March 28th, 2010 5:27 pmYes I do also wonder if perhaps this book wasn’t pushed hard enough and the store room is overfilled with a backlog of books that need ridding of. It’s the first time I have seen it – and I am a regular reader also.
I kind of feel if you guys were so strapped for cash you wouldn’t have just overhauled your whole site recently.
Was a hard push guys. There are plenty of ways selling some-thing other than crying poor.
Orange brains
March 28th, 2010 10:21 pmYou are doing a wonderful job all these days, its time for us to support you. I got a book and Would also recommend my friends to buy one.
Webmeister
March 29th, 2010 5:28 amSmashing Magazine makes a perfect job. I already got my printed book.
BTW:
Did you borrow the “order now” icon from Amazon? First I thought I can buy the book there.
Moe
March 29th, 2010 5:58 amhello smashing magazine i am so upset i order a shmashing book printed edition and i pay international air mail fees from February 18, 2010 for now i receive nothing and i dont know where to track or who to ask so please feedback me about my order number #100011473 on my email
but what can i do i love smashing magazine blog it the best of the best i will buy this pdf book now to help and support and if you need any kind of money support i can donate just coz of my love to you and you have good audience here in Saudi Arabia
cristi
March 29th, 2010 6:40 amOh, you’re going down because at least two reasons:
1. Published too fast articles and consumed the already found out there, and now you’re left with a simple choice, either publish rubbish just to get going, or decrease the numbers of articles of a period of time.
2. No one, and I repeat , NO ONE should stay this long on the market with only but a collection of articles. Eventually things caught up with you…
Cheers
Ke Chang
March 29th, 2010 11:08 ambought the eBook, like your transparent attitude too.
I think there are still many opportunities for smashingmag:
* redesign the page for more (but not disturbing) ads.
* the ads in your rss feed has not been changed since several months, you surely have many subscribers.
* cooperate with freelancing sites to organize some meetups, barcamps or conferences
* authorize translations of your content / book to other languages
* sell kindle books
* clone something like 37signals’ sortfolio.com
* organize design contests
…
Grüße aus Nürnberg, wünsche Euch eine frohe Ostern!
Jerome
March 29th, 2010 12:13 pmSmashing is a great resource for help and advice. Thanks and keep up the great work.
Sebastian
March 30th, 2010 1:05 amGot it! Thanks and I hope it helped…
SAJEERSTARLINE
March 30th, 2010 1:19 amHai SM,
I wish to buy this book.Am from Cochin-Kerala-india.
How can i purchase?What is the price in India?Can I buy this online?
Is its print version available??
Please give me detailed reply.
Thank you.
SAJEERSTARLINE
March 30th, 2010 1:23 amHai SM,
Can I have its print version? It can be a good asset if i have.
Bexxie
March 30th, 2010 6:22 amJust ordered the eBook after reading this post. You guys provide such valuable information to the web community. Information that has helped me learn so much! So it’s the least I could do. I hope things work out for you guys!
Marko
March 30th, 2010 7:34 pmI just ordered printed WordPress book. I love this magazine – it gave me lot of usefull info that made me money – so I guess sending some back is least I can do.
It is just a slow season for all in the spring. I guess people like to go out now, so internet activity is low. It’s just us nerds now :)
Cody
April 4th, 2010 11:53 pmMake the Smashing Book available as a PDF and I’ll buy it today.
Chris Seckler
April 5th, 2010 11:22 amHow about making a professional web development book that focuses strictly on programming techniques to follow?
Stop
April 6th, 2010 10:34 amBegging
Hendrik-Jan
April 7th, 2010 4:42 amVery disappointed in Smashing. Quite surprised because I totally love the articles, the design, your approach etc. More than quite surprised, it just seems way out of character that this happened to you all. So I want to offer my insight below.
In your apology you write: “We prepared the eBook #1 in order to earn some money. ” That is a very casual phrase compared to the initial post that said: “Only sound financial conditions can guarantee the steady stream of high quality content which you are used to on Smashing Magazine. Today we need your financial support.”
If its true that the eBook was created to earn some money, then the initial post was a huge misrepresentation and quite frankly your apology was too soft for my tastes. It should have read:
“We very poorly communicated our objectives in selling the book. What we posted came across as a plea for help instead of letting you know about an eBook we were offering for sale. The two are very different messages, and we profoundly apologize for that. In the future we will be much more careful about our statements and formulations.”
That ends my insight. I can now move on and continue to be a big fan of Smashing magazine.
Anonymous
April 7th, 2010 5:07 pmHello! Must I ask, is the paperback version available?
Sonny_Pinoy
April 8th, 2010 3:15 pmSmashing Magazine has helped me and my office in great web designing.
If you can only make your books freely available here in our country (The Philippines) , I will get it right from the bookstore shelves.
I hope Smashing Magazine can wriggle out of its situation.
Enrico
April 12th, 2010 12:36 amBought! Great contents, but…
just a stupid tought, pagination is so simple and flat that it doesn’t look made by experts like you.
I’m not telling that you need to hire David Carson to do your guides, but please don’t follow the o’Reilly guidelines. You talk code, but you talk style and aestethic too and your audience is made by designers who love visually pleasant stuff.
So please, for guide #2 try harder! ;)
And… thanks guys! thanks for all the times you helped me with my work!
Cristi
April 12th, 2010 1:28 amBtw, you seem to make so many people that this is the best of the best. How interesting you should act as such. Let me then ask these:
1. Any one tried it out on Laptops where many of us still use 1024px?
2. http://validator.w3.org or http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/ . as last checked there were a bunch of errors and no compliance accepted. Take a look now before they act to correct that, although they didn’t care less in the last few years I presume :)
And this is just the surface scratch…
Devon
April 21st, 2010 5:11 pmSM is the only real professional web design / web development web site on the Internet. I don’t know what others are thinking but you should think of a professional members area. Maybe $10 dollars / 10 Euro / year for the members area. (WordPress add-ons exist)
Inside of the members area:
- Downloads (.psd files, icons, all the graphics you offer)
Free (people who don’t want to pay 10 bucks) users shouldn’t be allowed to download your quality stuff.
Of course $10 is VERY cheap… but most people look at the price and 10 bucks is OK for a teenager as well as for a senior…
So you should start up some poll and ask your users if they want to pay for a exclusive members area.
Tristan Wolhok
November 6th, 2010 6:47 amSeriously! I have already been looking yahoo and google for hours just for this and i also finally found it in this article!
nihar
May 16th, 2011 11:30 pmI thanks a lot to smashingmagazine
such a very very good web site
Daily i browse this site.
Domi
March 26th, 2010 2:13 amHopefully the guys will once screw your business up, so you can find your product on your warez site soon.
Except you failed to create a business so far…