800 is pretty good to have out of the starting gate. The number one hardest thing I've found in self-publishing is to build a good following or email list. I'm around 500 subscribers at this point. That's after about a year of working to build the list. Kickstarter is a good idea I hadn't really considered. Thanks again. oh and if you want to check out my books, head over to mattlambert.ca
Thanks for your post. I've also written a few code book but only have sold on gumroad. I'm going to try out amazon and leanpub as other sales channels to.
Question... did you have a large email list when you were selling your pre-orders? How did you get the word out? Just product hunt?
Is it not just making things more complicated to put some CSS separate and some at the component level? Sounds like a nightmare for a designer who comes in to the game that didn't design the app.
I'm not saying breaking CSS into separate files is a perfect solution (this is what I do), but at least it allows you to have everything in one place so anyone can pick up and customize.
I work with some pretty complicated enterprise CMS systems and they are already terrible complex. Last thing I want to do is start spreading CSS all over the app.
what happened to a clear division between js and css? In my experience many developers want nothing to do with css, they want a designer who can code to handle that
container-fluid is no longer valid in Bootstrap 3.0. Also, in previous versions of Bootstrap it still included a small right and left margin around the container. It just doesn't apply a fixed width to the container. If you want your carousel, background, etc... to bleed right to the browser edge, you need to work outside the container class.
1. Figure out a model for advertising online that people will actually engage with.
2. better/simpler ways of delivering content that will finally kill the print industry. Not just converting a magazine to a digital format. A unique take on content delivery
3. in the world of the internet of things finding a way to sync and make devices cross compatible
Another niche for the html/css guru that is still valid is the ability to really customize something like twitter bootstrap. Anyone can throw together a site using bootstrap but actually wrangling it to look unique is another challenge in itself. You really need to understand css inheritence and how use the real power of the framework. Not to mention using 3rd party bootstrap plugins and customizing their look and feel to fit your theme. The ability to skin any framework or cms that has templating is a valuable skill to have.
You make a good point. There isn't really anywhere to go from my current position if I don't pick up more javascript. However, I'm currently happy in my role.
I'm a HTML/CSS guru, with an intermediate understanding of javascript. I work for a massive tech company and I'm the only ones with these skills in my office. I've been doing it for about a year and most of the developers I work with haven't worked with someone like me before but they really enjoy it. The way I have differentiated my skill set is by having a background in visual design and ux. In any decent app or website, there will always be a need for someone to translate the actual visual design into front end code. Backend developers either don't know how to do this or aren't interested in doing it. Therefore, I think there will always be a place for people with my skill set. However, I am working on my javascript skills to make myself more valuable. I do have a good understanding of programming concepts though (eg: loops, mvc, some database stuff, etc...). This allows me to talk to the backend guys, and even though I don't know exactly how something works, I understand enough to get my point across. That is where the real value for the other devs comes from. Someone that understands the principals but specializes in something they can't do or care about.
Personally, I learn better by doing. There are some great free courses available over at https://tutsplus.com that are quite good. I also found the http://onemonthrails.com pretty good for beginners. However, that one is a paid course, but it's pretty cheap