I keep seeing more and more designers that get scammed. They send the design and they never get the payment. There’s not much they can do except to say out loud the name of the guy who scammed them and leave a negative rating for the buyer.

If you got scammed i’m sorry to hear that. If not trust me you don’t want to get into a situation like that! Especially if we are talking about amounts above 50$.

Recently my friend Ben got scammed because he did the stupid mistake of sending the PSD file before getting paid. He never heard of the buyer since then.
To avoid being a situation like the one mentioned above and to smoothly sell your designs you need to follow some really simple steps and make them as rules and follow them(like in Transporter movie,really) :

1 - Never change the deal - For example if someone hires you to design him a directory and when your half way trough he tells you to design a forum instead either tell him to go find someone else or tell him how much extra it will cost

2 - Provide portfolio - When applying for a job(if the customer doesn’t contact you) make sure you provide a link to your portfolio and references. It can really affect a potential customer’s decision after seeing some of your previous work.

3 - Ask the customer as much details as possible - I usually ask about the niche of the site, the desired color combination, the structure of the theme and ad optimization. In this part of the chat make suggestions regarding the informations you asked and always sustain it!(for example: “it would look better if you would place a 468×60 ad in the right corner of the header because the CTR would be bigger and you would fill in a potential empty space”)

4 - ALWAYS watermark the preview you send the customer - Photoshop saves the previews in a high quality format which can be sliced up just like a PSD file and coded. Make sure the watermark’s opacity is 10-25% and appears in a way that the design is clearly visible but the watermark is visible also.

5 - Interact with the customer as often as you can - If it’s possible to chat with him using an IM client than ask him feedback every time you make a more important modification. If your talking via email than email him the watermarked design for revisions(it would suck to make the complete design and in the end not get paid because the customer doesn’t like it)

6 - Set the price before everything - You set the price before you start designing. That price doesn’t change no matter what. If the customer is satisfied with the theme he has to pay the set price. I heard that some designers ask more $ once the design is finished. If the customer really needs the design he will pay the extra fee, but trust me he will never hire you again.

7 - Respect the time frame - If you tell the customer the design will be finished within 48 hours including revisions than respect it! Providing the design at time may be vital to the customer, and if he sees that you passed it he will start getting grumpy and he will have an other reason not to choose you next time.

8 - Keep it original - DO NOT USE ELEMENTS FROM OTHER THEMES!(Except icons and text). Yesterday a guy told me that he downloaded all the template monster collection from a warez forum so he can get inspired from them. If you do this than the design won’t be unique.

9 - Check for Bugs - Check and recheck every bit of your theme for bugs. Even small bugs cna ruin a great design

10 - Most important one - NEVER and when i say never i mean NEVER send the design before receiving the payment! This is the easiest and most common way designers are scammed! Tell the customer to send the money to your paypal/moneybookers id and only after receiving the money send him the design.

Also remember to provide support for your designs. This means that if the customer will require in the future some minor modifications do it without asking any compensation(money). This doesn’t apply at major modifications. If you respect the customer he will respect you.

I really hope this guide is useful to you and will help you decrease the chances (%) of getting scammed to a value below 10%.