Fifteen years in the past, I used to be an indie iOS developer, creating my very own easy apps like these:
It was a enjoyable and thrilling time, however there was one large problem—iOS was nonetheless model new, and good documentation was arduous to come back by. Studying the platform typically felt like piecing collectively a puzzle with out all of the items, and most of the time, I discovered myself feeling caught and, frankly, just a little silly.
To make issues simpler—not only for myself, however for others going through the identical struggles—I made a decision to start out a weblog to doc what I used to be studying. And with that, raywenderlich.com was born!
The Humble Beginnings: A Weblog and a Small Crew
Once I first began the weblog, I made myself a deal: I might write one tutorial every week. The plan was easy—spend sooner or later every week writing tutorials and use the remainder of my time working by myself apps.
That labored for some time, till I began polling my readers about which subjects they needed me to cowl subsequent. Most of the time, they’d select topics I hadn’t but explored for my apps. This meant further analysis on my half, and shortly I discovered myself spending greater than my allotted day every week writing tutorials. It was starting to take a toll on the time I wanted for my very own initiatives.
I spotted I wanted assist. So, I put out a name for authors to affix me, and I used to be fortunate to have some superb folks reply.
Collectively, we started crafting tutorials utilizing this easy, but efficient course of:
- My spouse, Vicki, would create any crucial graphics and art work for the pattern initiatives.
- Every creator would write a primary draft.
- My pal Fahim Farook would tech-edit every tutorial.
- My pal BC Phillips would do an English-language edit for every tutorial.
- I might do a ultimate edit and overview to make sure the whole lot was polished.
By collaborating this fashion, we have been capable of produce a ton of top of the range tutorials. As our staff grew, we added extra tech editors, editors, and artists, and by the tip of 2014, we regarded like this:
The Energy of Group: From On-line Pals to a Actual Household
All of us shared a deep ardour for making apps and instructing others do the identical. As we collaborated and hung out collectively, we turned extra than simply colleagues—we turned mates. And alongside the best way, we had a ton of enjoyable.
I’ll at all times keep in mind our day by day hangouts on IRC, the place we’d make memes and giggle collectively. One in all our favourite actions was slapping Charlie with a trout:
Then there was Tammy, who at all times led the best way with creativity and humor:
We liked pulling off April Fools’ pranks too. One yr, we “found” an undocumented thermometer contained in the iPhone and launched a Thermometer App Starter Equipment to measure your turkey’s temperature (amongst different issues). To our shock, lots of people tried to purchase it. :]
Every Christmas, we’d all come collectively to create a tacky Christmas tune with geeky iOS-related lyrics. They have been at all times a bit amateurish, however at all times a lot enjoyable. One in all my favorites even featured the notorious “Mic Dance.”
For us, it was by no means nearly creating nice tutorials—it was about making recollections and having enjoyable with a gaggle of mates.
Breakthrough Moments and Large Adjustments
Whereas we have been having enjoyable, we have been additionally constructing a enterprise. Alongside the best way, there have been three key turning factors that actually formed the journey.
The primary turning level got here after I determined to shift all my focus to raywenderlich.com, leaving my very own app improvement behind. This resolution was sparked by our first guide, iOS 5 by Tutorials, which ended up incomes over $150K—far past any of our expectations. It was an enormous success, and we realized we wanted to create extra books for the group.
One other main turning level got here in 2014 with the discharge of Swift. I keep in mind sitting within the viewers at WWDC, feeling a way of panic: “Oh no! Our total weblog and all of our books are in Goal-C, and now they’re out of date. What is going to we do?! Rewriting the whole lot appears unimaginable.”
However then I took a deep breath, steadied myself, and thought, “No, we will do that—and it will likely be enjoyable!” We absolutely embraced Swift, updating all our books and tutorials to mirror the brand new language. My cousin, Ry Bristow, even made this music video to seize how we have been feeling on the time:
The ultimate turning level was once we switched from particular person guide gross sales to a subscription mannequin, providing video programs and on-line books. This transformation offered a a lot steadier and extra dependable revenue stream, enabling us to develop and increase our content material. We have been capable of dive into new subjects like Android, Flutter, Unity, and extra, making a wider vary of assets for the group.
RWDevCon: Bringing the Group Collectively in Particular person
One of many issues I’m most happy with throughout this time was organizing RWDevCon: a dwell, in-person convention targeted on interactive, hands-on tutorials.
All of it started with a suggestion from a couple of staff members that we must always run our personal convention. I agreed, probably not understanding what I used to be getting myself into!
I nonetheless keep in mind how nervous I used to be earlier than the primary RWDevCon. Vicki and I took the stage to present some opening remarks. As quickly as we stated, “Welcome to RWDevCon!” the group erupted into applause and cheers. We weren’t anticipating that stage of enthusiasm—what felt like an outpouring of affection and appreciation. We checked out one another, smiled, and all of a sudden felt our anxiousness fade away. We knew proper then the convention was going to be a hit.
Placing on the convention was an amazing quantity of labor for your complete staff (I’ll at all times be grateful to everybody who participated and put up with me!). However regardless of the challenges, Vicki and I couldn’t have been happier with how the whole lot turned out. It was such a pleasure seeing everybody having enjoyable and interesting with the occasions. These are days I’ll at all times cherish.
