Saturday, March 6, 2010

Tutorials - To Pay Or Not To Pay?

That is the question I am posing to you out there. You see, I grew up in a house where my parents hobby on the weekends was to go to garage sales. My mother would get the local paper on a Wednesday and go through it, cutting out the garage sales and putting taping them to a bit of paper in the order they were going to go to them. Obviously if I don't have to pay for something then that is great. Or if I get a good deal then I'm over the moon. My hobby when I was a teenager was going with my friend to the local thrift stores on a Sunday when they would have an extra 20 to 50% off certain tag colors. I admit to being frugal though I stop short at the idea that I'm cheap. I've spent enough money over the years on concerts, sports and travel. I'm just like most people in that I prefer a bargain.

So, my question is do you pay for tutorials? It could be any kind - jewelry, sewing, crochet, knitting, paper crafts. Don't get me wrong I just bought a really, REALLY cool peyote stitch tutorial last week so I'm not adverse to the idea of it. I guess my problem is when I see (in particular) chainmaille tutorials that are for weaves that are already out there online somewhere for free. Nowadays if you do a search for "free X tutorials" you will find what you are looking for no matter what it may be. In fact, one of my most favorite sites to visit is Glitter Glow Beading as she has a great list of tutorials and it's broken up into groups, look over to the right if you click the link.

So give me some opinions. Am I being a real cheapskate or are you like me and it would have to be a super special tutorial to spend money on?

11 comments:

  1. If a tutorial offers something extra than what I could get for free, I'd pay for it. But if it's nothing different, I'd choose free every time. I wouldn't call myself a cheapskate either but I really, really hate to throw away money!

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  2. Nope, I wouldn't pay for it. I would search to the end of the internet searching for a free one. If I couldn't find it on the internet I would either try to figure it out myself or maybe even visit the library to see if I could find something. I'm very cheap...lol

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  3. I think it is worth paying for a unique tutorial, one that is hard to do on your own. But having said that, thanks to the internet, there are tons of free tutorials although not always easy to find.

    I actually collect and write about free jewelry making tutorials - I am listed at the end of Glitter Glow Beading's list of resources. I also write my own tutorials as means of contributing to a generous community.

    My inspirational and information jewelry blog:
    http://www.beadinggem.com

    The hub page where I group all my past tutorial posts into easy to find categories.
    http://hubpages.com/hub/JEWELRY-MAKING-TIPS

    Enjoy! Pearl

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  4. Not usually, because for every tutorial you will find for sale, a careful search on google will give you the same type of tutorial for free:)
    111

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  6. I have enjoyed GlitterGlow's extensive resources myself. I have learned a lot from many of the free tutorials to be found on the internet. However, I did decide to invest in a couple of beading books that had more extensive information on stitch variations that I wanted to learn. I have never actually bought a tutorial online, but I can't say that I'm against it - I just have found so much free information that it hasn't seemed necessary at this point. I must admit that I am amazed at the fact that so many people do post free tutorials online and don't charge for all that hard work. I wrote one simple tutorial for my own blog and it took forever - so I can really understand why someone would want to charge a small fee for all their hard work.

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  7. I've purchased a couple tutorials, one for jewelry and one for knitting. I try to find free ones and I happen to be pretty good at figuring out how something was made by studying it. So, the tutorials I bought were for things I couldn't quite figure out on my own.

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  8. Beause you have been a good friend, an inspiration and I love your blog, I am awarding you the Sunshine Blog Award. Congratulations!
    http://trusk4u.blogspot.com/2010/03/sunshine-blog-award-2.html

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  9. I tend to go for free tutorials - and have started making free tuts myself for others on basic weaves. I would pay for some tuts, however, but it would have to be pretty advanced! Plus, I enjoy making up my own patterns over using someone elses.

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  10. I produce tutorials myself. The work behind can be tremendous. So i will charge for a small fee. But for simple design that does not involve expensive materials or labour hour, I will then post it for free. I post them at my blog at www.handmade-jewelry-club.com.

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  11. I've also bought tutorials about beadweaving and wire wrapping. But tutorials about how to do something on the computer, no. I won't... {:-D

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