i don’t know why, but designers tend to flake. and this can really mess up your project if you’re not careful.

you hire a designer to do graphics work if you’re not artistically inclined. and they can be cheap if you have an ordinary job, like a logo design or a book cover.

but they use a dirty trick to make you entirely dependant on them. so you have to keep hiring them every time you want to change the tiniest thing.

and this isn’t a big deal if the designer is reliable. but they rarely are.

case in point, while recording one of the Authority Shipping & Handling lessons, i remembered an experience with the designer who worked with us on the Super Traffic Machine DIY Kit.

i gave her the list of items for the checklist stickers so she could size and design them.

when she submitted her work, she sent me JPEG files.

while JPEGs are nice to look at, they aren’t made for editing. i knew i’d probably change my mind about some of the checklist items as we worked on the manuals every month. so i asked her to please give me the Adobe In-Design source files.

to be fair, i don’t think she was playing tricks because i always paid her well. and she regularly designed for me.

but she told me it would be complicated to edit the stickers on my own and she’d be happy to do it for me every month, at no extra charge.

for the first three manuals, she kept her word.

but eventually, she became increasingly hard to reach. and we were pressed for time and had a printing deadline.

frustrated, i sent money to her Paypal just to get her attention.

how much?

double what she charged for all the designs in the first place. she didn’t ask for this. i did it on my own because i couldn’t afford to have her flake with 5 manuals left.

i realised that even though we had an agreement, she probably overestimated her enthusiasm for the project this long after submitting it. which is why i paid her more.

at last, she responded and was grateful and even offered to return the money. but i insisted she keep it and she made the necessary edits.

a couple of months later, i needed her again for the same task, and she disappeared.

this time, i could not get her attention at all. even sending her money didn’t work.

i have enough technical skills to replicate an existing design if i really need to. the trouble was i didn’t know the custom font the designer used. it was gonna be hideous if i made a new sticker that didn’t have the same font as the rest. our students are supposed to place these stickers onto a poster displayed on their walls.

after a great deal of hacking and searching, i finally figured out the font and reproduced an edited sticker.

but i learned from this experience to NEVER hire a designer without agreeing in advance that they submit source files AND custom fonts. and i’d be willing to pay extra to avoid being in this position again.

this is just a tiny preview of one of the lessons i pass onto you in Authority Shipping & Handling.

an experience that, had i not been so resourceful, would have screwed up my product, wasted my team’s time, and cost me a fortune!

if you just took this small piece of advice, it would save you time and money, not just when creating your own product but when designing ANYTHING.

imagine what else I’ve got for you?

I’ve got piles of more helpful lessons i happily share with you in Authority Shipping & Handling. you’ll find the information very useful, particularly if you’ve never created and sold a product online before.

but you need to hurry.

there’s only ONE day left to get this excellent training for free. i don’t know how long after I’ve written this you’re reading, so you’ll have to check if there’s any time left on the page i’ve linked below…

https://yaghilabs.com/authority-sh/

you’ll also find the details about what else you’ll learn in Authority Shipping & Handling. and how to qualify to get it.

if you’re a past Super Traffic Machine subscriber and want Authority S&H for free, too, you’re welcome to join again. the button on the page linked above will automatically recognise that you’re reactivating Super Traffic Machine.

Good luck!

~jim