Welcome to the first project.

I know you're excited to get started but

let me give you a few tips to make sure you succeed.

First, make sure you've read and understand all the project instructions

and the rubric for how the project will be graded.

This is the same rubric our project reviewers use when grading projects.

So, it's important to read each item and make sure your project meets or

exceeds the specified requirement.

Second, make sure your project files are in order.

Double check that you're not missing any files, make sure the files and

folders are named correctly, and that the files are well organized in directories.

Third, preview your work while you code, and check for any broken or

missing functionality.

Look for HTML and CSS validation errors.

Once you're happy with your project, be sure to commit and push or

sync your changes.

Finally, don't be afraid to ask for help.

You can ask other students in Slack to peer review your project

before you submit it.

You can also use resources like the Treehouse community to ask questions, or

use a search engine like Google to look up the problem that you're having.

Some of these steps might sound obvious to you, but everyone makes mistakes.

Before you start working on your personal profile page, let me show you some

examples of submissions that fall a bit short of a passing grade.

Three common mistakes we see are failed HTML or

CSS validation, image files that are too large, and missing content.

Let me show you an example of each of those.

First, here is a project that looks great from the browser.

A custom profile page and

background image have been included, and they don't exceed the limits, either.

In addition, the placeholder text has been updated to reflect the student's info and

not what was originally given in the starter files.

Links at the bottom point appropriately

towards the student's social network profiles.

But while the project looks wonderful on the outside,

where it needs improvement is in the markup and styling.

When I use an online validator for the HTML, I get an error,

and the only error is this one for a missing alt attribute in an image tag.

Switching to CSS validation, it looks like we get two errors.

There is one for an invalid RGB function on line 98,

and we also have a second error for a missing semi-colon on line 123.

Though HTML and CSS validation errors are some of the most common reasons for

not receiving a passing grade, they are easily detected before submission.

You have access to the same tools we use for validating your code, so be sure to

validate all of your each to HTML and CSS files prior to submitting your project.

Check the project resources for links to these HTML and CSS validators.

The next project also looks great and even more, the validation succeeds.

So why doesn't this project receive a passing grade?

Well, upon closer inspection, we can see that

the original profile image size is 999 kilobytes,

which is much larger then the 400 kilobytes size limit.

And the background picture is even larger at 1.4 megabytes,

when the size limit is listed as 1 megabyte.

Now even though the images display beautifully on the page

thanks to some well coded CSS, these large images would take

much longer to load on the page, especially on mobile devices.

Check the project resources for

tools you can use to downsize your images to fit within the requirements.

Finally in this project, none of the previous errors are present.

HTML and CSS are valid and image sizes fall within the allowable size limits.

But as you can see, there's some content that's in need of personalization.

And though it's possible that there are indeed other Janes out there that

have worked as a professional cook and

gardener, it's more likely that this text just needs some work.

So be sure to update your name, background and

anything else to align with you, not with Jane.

If you're not comfortable sharing personal information, just make something up.

We really just want to make sure you're comfortable

working with text in web pages.

Now, you're ready to succeed on this first project.

We're looking forward to seeing your submission.

And just to remind you, every project can receive an exceeds grade if you've

pushed yourself and tackled a few more challenging requirements.

I encourage you to go for an exceeds on every project.

You'll learn more and your portfolio will turn out even better.

Good luck and have fun.