Post: #21

Hi, Mikey. No it's not intrusive at all. I can understand why you might say $5000 month by December is unrealistic. I know I could have chosen a much smalller goal like $25 a month by December but frankly that goal has no balls. It's not motivating or inspiring. I chose $5000 because I find it exciting. Even if I fall short of my goal I think I will still be doing pretty well.

I'm looking at adding advertising and possibly releasing an ebook in the next few months. I'll be keeping everyone on the forums updated as I go along.

Post: #22

I have been thinking of changing my domain name. Mostly because my current domain is a .net and "draweveryday" may not be descriptive enough. I have thought about buying the domains step-by-step-drawing-tutorials.com and stepbystepdrawingtutorials.com. These domains are a mouthful but are more descriptive of what the theme of my site is. I might get them later today.

Post: #23

Matt, what about some variation of "howtodraw"? Seems to me, that those words are often used for drawing tutorial search in google.

Post: #24

Hey Matt, have you gotten the domains yet?

(06-20-2012 05:33 PM)mikey Wrote:  The accountant side of me would like to see if there's anything (on the planning side) that I can help address to help you reach your second goal. (I'm a management accountant by training).

Hey mikey! That's very kind of you to offer to help a fellow member. What do you do as a management accountant?

"If you want to get something you have never gotten before, you've to do something you've never done before."
Personal Excellence - For people passionate about achieving excellence in life

Post: #25

Hi, Vellata and Celes.

No I haven't bought any domains yet.

I would LOVE to have some variation of howtodraw but they seem like they are all taken. HowToDraw.com, LearnToDraw.com, DrawingTutorials.com, EasyDrawingTutorials.com, FreeDrawingTutorials.com are already taken. I have searched for a ton of others as well but most are taken. Most these domains are either dead links or it's hosted by one of those domain squatting companies that will charge me a small fortune for the domain.

I want a domain that tells people "I will teach you to draw" or "I have drawing tutorials for you". I have come up with a few that are not yet taken but I'm not too enthusiastic about any of them. These domains are still available:

StepByStepDrawingTutorials.com
step-by-step-drawing-tutorials.com

sketchbooktutorials.com
sketchbook-tutorials.com (this one isn't too bad)

effortlessdrawing.com

fundrawingtutorials.com
fun-drawing-tutorials.com

Post: #26

DrawingTutorialsMadeEasy.com
Learn2DrawTutorials.com
How2DrawTutorials.com
ProfessionalDrawingTutorials.com
DrawingLessonsForYou.com
EasySketchTutorials.com
BestDrawingTutorials.com

All of these came up as available. I also like sketchbooktutorials.com and fundrawingtutorials.com.

---

and
DrawingTutorialsByMatt.com

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
Find me at My Studio Blog or My Facebook Page

Post: #27

Hey Matt! I understand your issue regarding getting an appropriate domain that is still available. I had the same problem myself when getting domains in the past years. In the end I decided to get a .co for PE since .co is a brand new category of domains and the name I wanted was available there.

Just my 2 cents, but please don't go with StepByStepDrawingTutorials.com. I think a general rule is that when it has more than 3 words, it's just way too long. Draweveryday, even with the .net, is still better than that. Also don't go with hyphens in domains. Darren Rowse from Problogger owns digital-photography-school.com (I believe that's the domain) and he mentioned recently that he regretted getting it with the hyphens, but it is what it is and he just has to live with it. That site is one of the biggest sites in the world (it's some 6-7 times bigger than problogger.net, which is already a massive site itself). I can easily see how adding hyphens to a domain name makes it much more complicated (imagine trying to tell someone about your domain in conversation; even when typing it is not very convenient). (I know I'm not being much help here with regards to coming up with new domains, but I just wanted to call out regarding going with domains of more than 3-4 words and using hyphens.)

"If you want to get something you have never gotten before, you've to do something you've never done before."
Personal Excellence - For people passionate about achieving excellence in life

Post: #28

Kimberly! Where have you been hiding?! We were about to organize a search party and get blood hounds to look for you.

Thanks for looking up some domain names. That's really nice of you. I thought about choosing a domain with "for you" or maybe having "mattsdrawingtutorials.com" but it just didn't seem snappy enough.

I am now considering sketchbooktutorials.com. I like it because it indicates that the site has drawing lessons, it isn't too long, and it's a .com. I will likely stick with draweveryday.net for now. I am beginning to like sketchbooktutorials.com more and more though.

Thanks, Celes. I always thought .co was an interesting choice for the domain since it's uncommon. You know about these tings better than I do though and everything appears to have worked out well. I just prefer to have a .com address.

From what I have read there will be many new domain name suffixes introduced over the next few years. These will be things like .blog, .store, .book and even .apple, .amazon and many others. It will be interesting to see how this affects websites.

After thinking it over I have already decided that stepbystepdrawingtutorials.com is ridiculously long so I won't be getting it. I only considered getting it with hyphens because I thought it would be easy to read. It is confusing though not to mention it just seems tacky.

Post: #29

Hey Matt, yeah I personally would prefer a .com as well. The only reason why I got a .co is because .co does suit the identity of PE that I'm going for. (.co here can represent community as well, which is what I'm building here.)

Have you thought of [adjective]drawingtutorials, like awesomedrawingtutorials or kickassdrawingtutorials, etc? I'm sure you already thought of them but perhaps most are not available. I think sketchbooktutorials.com sounds great (though I don't think it conveys the bigger theme of drawing which your site is about I think). I thought Kim's DrawingLessonsForYou.com sounds like a great idea.

And Kim has been in the forums all along! Just that she has been very active in 30DLBL and 30BBM forums (which are private) so perhaps it seemed that she hasn't been around.

"If you want to get something you have never gotten before, you've to do something you've never done before."
Personal Excellence - For people passionate about achieving excellence in life

Post: #30

Ahaha Matt, don't worry, I am still here. I check on everyone's updates here all the time, but things have been a little crazy lately. Like Celes said, I was doing the 30BBM course but after that, my father-in-law went in for a quad bypass surgery (he's recovering now). And this week, my father was admitted to the hospital as he kept falling and couldn't breathe, so they are trying to find a blood clot that they think is in his lungs. Its a little stressful here... Needless to say, I think my paintbrushes have dust on them again.

I was also going to say something about the dashes but chickened out, so I'm glad Celes said it instead. I'm not a fan of them either. I once made an email address years ago and added dashes between each word. I thought it looked cool and was easier to read. Instead, I instantly got complaints of "It's too long!", and people didn't know what I meant by "dash" until I wrote it out for them. It became very frustrating very quickly so I just went back to my old one.

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
Find me at My Studio Blog or My Facebook Page

Post: #31

Celes, I have thought about some variation of drawingtutorials.com. I thought about getting fundrawingtutorials.com. The only thing that has held me back is there is a website called easydrawingtutorials.com and I feel like I would feel like I am stepping on his toes if I got something so similar. It would be like if another personal development writer started a website called realpersonaldevelopment.co. Still it is a good domain so I very well may go with FunDrawingTutorials.com.

I will probably choose one of these domains:

FunDrawingTutorials.com
AwesomeDrawingTutorials.com
SketchbookTutorials.com
DrawingLessonsForYou.com
YourDrawingLessons.com
FunDrawingLessons.com

Also I have been thinking about TheBestFuckingDrawingWebsiteEver.com. It's only $12.99 from GoDaddy!

Kim, I'm sorry to hear he is sick. I know know how nerve racking it can be when a family member is sick. I hope he gets better and I hope 30DLBL helps you work through the stress.

Post: #32

StepByStepDrawingTutorials.com sounds pretty explanatory considering you said you want something to suggest from the first read that you're going to "teach people how to draw",but as you said, it is indeed pretty long.

And even though you mentioned you're not very fond of neither of the names listed above, I think that effortlessdrawing.com is pretty good

I have to admit, I've never been confronted with such a situation since I do not own a site of my own, but I can imagine that -at a certain point- it can get frustrating. Hope you'll get a domain name which you like and which truly represents your goal/views.

"You were born an original, don't die a copy." ~ John Mason | You can check my blog here

Post: #33

Hi, Lina. Nice to see you around!

I had thought about effortlessdrawing.com before. I thought the title had a great promise but I decided against it since it is misleading. Learning how to draw well takes a lot of effort so I don't want to promise people that learning to draw is easy.

I'm still paralyzed by analysis. I will make my decision by the time I get back to creating content for my website in August.

My top choices are:

SimpleDrawingLessons.com
MyDrawingLessons.com
FunDrawingLessons.com
DrawingLessonsForYou.com

Post: #34

(07-10-2012 08:27 AM)Matt Wrote:  I thought the title had a great promise but I decided against it since it is misleading. Learning how to draw well takes a lot of effort so I don't want to promise people that learning to draw is easy.

Indeed, it took me months to get to draw a decent graphite portrait so I get your point.

(07-10-2012 08:27 AM)Matt Wrote:  My top choices are:

SimpleDrawingLessons.com
MyDrawingLessons.com
FunDrawingLessons.com
DrawingLessonsForYou.com

From the list above, I guess you could go with "SimpleDrawingLessons" or "FunDrawingLessons" because, while they catch the eye of a potentially interested person, they don't make false promises (like you felt about "EffortlessDrawing").

"You were born an original, don't die a copy." ~ John Mason | You can check my blog here

Post: #35

(07-10-2012 08:27 AM)Matt Wrote:  I'm still paralyzed by analysis. I will make my decision by the time I get back to creating content for my website in August.

Hey Matt, you should most definitely take your time with this. It's important to pick the right domain name for your site. I changed domain names twice for my site and each time the site takes a hit in traffic (as you have to rebuild the SEO and backlinks for a new domain). Also, it's not like you're pending a domain name to start your site; you already have one. You can just build content for your site in the meantime as you mull over the decision; plus the process of working on the site will help you to get clearer on the domain you want to use. If you keep thinking about the name after several weeks, you know that it's the right one.

"If you want to get something you have never gotten before, you've to do something you've never done before."
Personal Excellence - For people passionate about achieving excellence in life

Post: #36

I like your top four choises, specially DrawingLessonsForYou.com and FunDrawingLessons.com.
As Celes said, take your time and pick the right one. When I have a important decision or choice to make, I often research a lot and give it a lot of thought , then at a point I stop and go with my instincts or "gut feeling", and it's often the right choice

Post: #37

Hi everyone. After taking a break from creating content I am getting back to creating content for my blog! I am still taking time to study anatomy as well as other drawing techniques on the side though.

My goal for August is to create at least 10 tutorials for my blog. I will be posting them here as I make them.

I am pretty happy with my productivity level today. As soon as I got home from work I began practicing drawing and didn't stop for about two hours. I then took 30 minutes to exercise. Once I finished with that I got to work drawing for my next tutorial and didn't stop working until after 10 pm. I didn't slack off and took very minimal short breaks. Now I'm taking 30 minutes to post here and relax before I get to bed. Like I said I am happy with how productive I was but at the same time it's frustrating that I don't have more time to work on my blog because of my day job. It will be a long transition period before I can follow my passion as a full time career. I will be working on my blog and stay at my day job until the end of the year. At them time I will evaluate my progress and then make a choice whether to continue with my current strategy or make some serious life changes.

Today I finished the drawings for my next article. I will be editing them in GIMP and writing the instructions tomorrow. Keep a look out for my article then. I will be sure to post it here.

Post: #38

How to Draw Scrat from Ice Age

My first tutorial for this month!

I'm glad I finished this one but to be perfectly honest I'm not too happy with it. It wasn't until I finished drawing it that I realized Scrat is a very ugly character and may not really make for a good drawing article. I think I did this drawing about as well as I could have but frankly he just looks creepy. Also the pencil lines are too faint in this drawing and should be much thicker. I forgot to use a thicker pencil when drawing this.

Normally is a drawing article wasn't as good as I hoped it would be I might trash it and start over. I don't think it would be worth my time though and I think maybe some people could get some benefit from this article. I'll just take what I learn from this lesson and move on.

I plan on creating a few more drawings of famous cartoon characters this month.

Post: #39

(08-03-2012 09:26 AM)Matt Wrote:  I'm glad I finished this one but to be perfectly honest I'm not too happy with it. It wasn't until I finished drawing it that I realized Scrat is a very ugly character and may not really make for a good drawing article. I think I did this drawing about as well as I could have but frankly he just looks creepy. Also the pencil lines are too faint in this drawing and should be much thicker. I forgot to use a thicker pencil when drawing this.

I actually really like it and think it looks just like him! I personally loved Scrat, and his "ugliness" is part of his personality. Being one of the main characters in Ice Age, he is easily recognizable. I think it's a good thing you are offering a variety of characters to appeal to the widest audience. I do agree that the lines can be a bit darker, but overall I think you did a good job.

Have you thought of doing a series of characters over time? For example, all of the main characters of Ice Age. This way, if someone wants to learn how to draw an Ice Age character but does not necessarily like Scrat, they will still benefit from your site because they can choose the one they want without having to go somewhere else to find it.

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
Find me at My Studio Blog or My Facebook Page

Post: #40

Hi, Kim. Sorry I took so long to reply. Thanks for the idea about doing a series of characters. I'm going to do just that. Also I will probably be doing it to coincide with a movies release. For example when the next Shrek movie comes out I will be making tutorials with the Shrek characters.

Nice profile pic BTW. And to think all this time I thought you were actually an elephant who was able to type...