The picture above is a header image for one of my music-related websites. I decided to dabble a bit in Photoshop and out it came after 10 minutes. Not bad huh?

I started with Paint Shop Pro, which is very easy to use but unfortunately sneered by the artsy-fartsy designers. I only switched to Photoshop early 2006, but I admit I know only 10% of what all those buttons do.

Not that I really need the other 90% anyways, in terms of running a business on the Internet. Designing, mixing and experimenting with colors is something I enjoy doing – that’s why I “attempt” to design the ebooks covers and header graphics for all my websites.

When it gets a bit more complicated though, I usually hire out.

Small pleasures in life, but I dont want designing to get in the way of what I should really be doing: marketing.

Unless you enjoy doing a certain part of your online business, outsource it. You simply cannot attempt to do everything yourself. I learned that with my first product failure.

Obsessed with the non-critial parts of the product, I eventually ended up with a gramatically correct ebook and beautiful website.

The only problem: it didn’t sell.

When I look back at the entire project all I can do is smile. Maybe failure is a better teacher than success after all.