Sites That Get It

Occasionally I’ll come across sites that truly “get it”.  These are sites that had me at “hello”, or “welcome” or whatever the opening line was.

Today I want to go over SpoonGraphics. Although MarketingJewish is a blog about, uh, Jewish marketing, this is not a Jewish site (at least not that I know of) but I’m reviewing for demonstrative purposes, so I figure its still “allowed”. This is not a plug for SpoonGraphics, as I’m not getting paid, he doesn’t advertise with YidSense and I don’t know the guy behind it. I just feel this is a great case study.

History:

The man behind this website, Chris Spooner, is a designer. He started a blog in 2007 called blog.spoongraphics.co.uk “as a personal design related blog, originally to experiment with the WordPress application and to give myself a digital playground to practice and develop new techniques”

How he became popular:

Chris started posting sharing his knowledge by giving away free stuff – design tutorials, vector graphics etc and people started talking about it. And soon there was traffic – lots of traffic. And there were subscribers – lots of subscribers.

[MJ Note: Giving away free stuff does not always equal traffic. What he gave away was something that people tend to keep to themselves – trade secrets. This helped him establish his blog as a resource. His vector graphics and tutorials were useful to designers and non-designers alike. Chris’ tutorials also helped to him to establish himself as an expert in his field and thus the man to turn to for your graphic design needs]

How this affected his life:

“In September 2008 my blogging shenanigans had provided me with some great exposure as a designer, and generated a good base revenue that allowed me to leave my position as a designer at a local studio and begin my career as an independent designer. I’m now living the Internet lifestyle with a mix of constant creation of blog posts, tutorials and design project insights, as well as the opportunity to create design work for some cool clients from around the world. I’ve seen a mass of opportunities through the increased exposure blogging has provided, such as inclusions in various high profile websites and publications, appearances in magazines and a position as a co-author of an exciting design related book.”

[MJ Note: See ?!!! What did I say? ]

In 2009, Chris decided to branch out and open up a second website called Line25– also design oriented. But this time the focus was on web design – not just “stam” design.

Line25:

“Line25 is the drawing board of creative web design, a place where ideas and inspiration are drafted out into articles, tutorials and roundups of cutting edge web design.”

Just under two years old, Line25 has nearly 60,000 subscribers. This site is beautifully designed (not surprising), easy to read and exceptionally helpful. The advertisements are not intrusive and contextual. Navigation is a breeze and advice is plentiful. The site is divided into three segments:

Articles: “in-depth overviews and observations of web design trends, roundups of useful resources and interviews with some of the most prominent figures in the web design community.”

Inspiration: “The frequently updated inspiration category is home to the Line25 Sites of the Week series which presents a bunch of the best website designs every Friday. It also features collections of design examples based around a specific theme or style.”

Tutorials: Once again, Chris went with what works – sharing his knowledge free of charge: “ The tutorials on Line25 cover web design processes from Photoshop mockups to complete website builds, as well as a range of helpful hints for building websites with WordPress.”

I’m still critical by nature, so I must point out something. This is not a little thing, so listen up. On Line25 (as opposed to blog.spoongraphics.co.uk), there seems to be one thing missing: I haven’t seen him respond to user comments in a long time.

I’m not saying that he never responds to comments, and I’m definitely not saying that he doesn’t read them. But I haven’t seen responses. To be fair, 90% of the comments seem to be along the lines of “great job Chris” or “Beautiful design” or “excellent tutorial”. This is probably why it hasn’t affected him too badly, but it’s not ideal. Throwing in a “thanks” or “my pleasure” would certainly help engender a feeling of respect.

Still in all, I love the site; I love the design; I love how he built his business by sharing his knowledge and experience. I love that he made me a fan.