Edits 101: design tutorials, graded

A tutorial site for GIMP, Photopea, Affinity Photo and DaVinci Resolve, with its own brand and a plugin that grades every tutorial.

Client: Edits 101
Services: Web development, Brand building
Result: 374k monthly Pinterest views
Website: edits101.com

Edits 101 teaches design and editing in GIMP, Photopea, Affinity Photo and DaVinci Resolve. We built the site, the brand and a grading plugin, and run its search and social media. The work is ongoing; the first version took a month.

A short introduction to Edits101.com on a dark background with yellow and purple doodles

What went into it?

—Tools: WordPress and PHP, Photoshop and Illustrator.
—Areas: web design, development, search, social media, plugin development and the brand.

Edits 101 colours, black, pink, purple and white, and the DM Sans font

The 101 mark with a crown and a squiggle, on a construction grid

How do learners find the next tutorial?

By category. Learners use several programs, so we built navigation by category and a content structure that makes the next tutorial easy to find. Visitors stayed longer, and fewer left after one page.

Edits 101 website on a laptop and a phone

How is each tutorial graded?

A custom plugin scores each tutorial from 0 to 5 on four measures: practice (the time it takes to master), difficulty, scalability (how often you can use it) and functionality (how well it works). The average is the overall grade. Between 2.25 and 4.25 is the optimal design range: worth the effort, and practical.

For example, ‘How to track in DaVinci Resolve’ scores 4.5, 4, 4.5 and 4, an average of 4.25. Hard to learn, but useful.

How did Edits 101 grow?

Keyword research shaped the tutorials, linked to each other. Pinterest became a main source of visitors, with 374,000 monthly views. Instagram reached 10,700 followers and Facebook 5,600 likes, and YouTube holds 157 videos.

The site came through Google’s Helpful Content Update well. The March core update then cut traffic by 95%. Removing weak pages, fixing technical issues and putting the brand first has recovered about 65% of it.

Edits 101 Instagram and Pinterest profiles on phones

Edits 101 social media and search summary

What did Edits 101 teach us?

A consistent brand and content built around search drove the growth. A clear structure made the tutorials easier to use. Next come more interactive parts and more video.

Edits 101 stationery: letterhead, envelope, notebook and business card

Built by our founder as Building Persona, before Pembury & Stone.