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Step 1

First of all we have to make a new file, so go File > New and set the height to 100 pixels and the width to 100 pixels with a transparent background (or white, it doesn’t really matter because we’ll be adding another background shortly).

Step 2

Now we are going to be adding a gradient for the background. Select the gradient tool from the tools window and set the foreground colour to #007dee and the background colour to #023f78. Select the radial gradient type of gradient and left click in the middle of the document, and drag to a corner and release. This has made a radial gradient in our document.

Step 3

Next up we are going to be adding a little strip along the bottom. We are going to do this by selecting the Rectangular Marquee Tool and setting the style to “Fixed Size”, the width to 100 px and the height to 5 px. Now click at the bottom of the document and this will create a box with “marching ants” around it.

Step 4

We are now going to be filling this selection with a dark grey. There are a number of ways we can do this, but the simplest is to go Edit > Fill, select colour and use the colour #252525.

Step 5

Now we are going to use the text tool to add some text in the middle of the document. Select the text tool and use the settings I have below (or a similiar font) and type in your initial.

Your avatar should now be looking something like:

Step 6

Last of all we are going to be exploring the layer styles, so go Layer> Layer Styles > Outer Glow.

Now your avatar is finished and should look like:

Proper English

Make sure that you use proper english and do not use abbreviations, this is so that your readers can understand you easier and it looks a lot more professional too Also it is a good idea to go through the tutorial once you have completed it so that you can check if there are any errors in it (typos, spelling errors etc).

Use Steps

Use clear, concise and logical steps in your tutorial. This is so that your reader can understand you easily.

Try to have a balance of text and images, try to have an example of what the reader’s image should be looking at at each step. Most tutorials have this covered which is good

Also make sure that you do not miss out any steps so that the reader does not get left behind you and confused which leads on to my next point…

Teach Not Tell

Teach the reader how to do something, do not just tell them how to. Make sure that your tutorial teaches the reader how to use the tools and techniques so they can create more stuff afterwards, rather than a specific thing.

A good example of a tutorial which teaches the reader is Using Light & Shade to Bring Text to Life by PSDTuts. This tutorial provides lengthy explanations of the techniques and explains about the tools that they use in the tutorial.

And an example of a tutorial which just tells the reader what to do is Technical Interface by MickM.

More…

If you would like to learn how to submit a tutorial check out my How to Submit a Photoshop Tutorial post.

To have a look at some more good tutorials check out Good Tutorials which has (mostly) good tutorials on it (most of the bad tutorials are filtered out through moderation).

Preparation

Before we we start submitting our tutorial we need to prepare a couple of things. Firstly the title, think up something that will catch the readers attention (they will be scanning through about 20 tutorials listed on a page and you want them to read yours).

Secondly the description of your tutorial. Write out a short (about 20-30 words) description of your tutorial so readers know what is going to be in your tutorial, don’t include things like “in this photoshop tutorial” because they know what they are looking at is a list of photoshop tutorials Be precise and to the point.

Lastly the thumbnail of the tutorial. This is often the trickiest part (well it can be for me) because you need to make a small 40 by 40 pixel image which represents your tutorial in the best way. Try and select a larger area, maybe 160 by 160 pixels and then shrink it so that you can see more of the tutorial. Your aim is to try and find the busiest part of the outcome for the thumbnail so it shows off what you get to make.

Submission Process

On the various different tutorial indexes out there, there is one main way to submit a tutorial – go to the “submit” page and follow the steps Some sites use RSS feeds for automatic submissions, but not any large indexes.

Most tutorial indexes will have you submit the tutorial and then your tutorial will go in a waiting queue where the site owner will review it (usually within a week or two) and decide whether or not it is good enough for his/her tutorial index.

Although Good Tutorials has tried a new method over the last few months where there is a select group of users who are moderators which go through the pending queue and rate which tutorials are good and which ones are bad. After 24 hours the tutorial will have either a high enough rating to reach the front page or will be denied and not shown on the site (except for your profile page).

Where to Submit

I have gathered a list of tutorial index sites, and have listed them below, with the larger indexes at the top. But also remember if you submit your tutorial(s) to a lot of sites you will get a lot of links coming into your site which is always good from a SEO point of view. If you find any more index sites, comment on this post and I will add it.

AnotherTutorialSite
Good-Tutorials
Pixel2Life
Tutorialized
PSLover

TotalTutorial
Tutorial Index
Tutorial Outpost
TutorialKit
Tutorial Center
FSTutorials
FreshTuts
Life2Pixel