Are you afraid to involve other people in building your websites? Don’t be.

Recently I worked out a deal with an artist to lease his work. It was a very, very good deal. Had I custom commisioned this work without letting him know what it was for it probably would have cost me thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of dollars.

This wasn’t just a good deal for me — it was a great deal for him too. Because he agreed to help me out now thousands of people are being exposed to his work and his name.

It is clear to me that this guy is going to be successful in his career. When I first started looking for an artist I e-mailed many. I told them I was looking for commision work and would pay them up-front. Only two artists ended up sending me work. The other guy gave me his art for free — because I told him about the site.

I am more than happy to help people who want to help me. As a website publisher you have the ability to reach audiences that are unreachable to the average person. That is your leverage. Don’t under estimate your site’s value — it goes far beyond the average CPM Adsense or Fastclick gives you.