Profitable Web Designer with Shannon Mattern

Grab our free course to help women web designers stop undercharging and overdelivering and create a consistent, full-time income at https://webdesigneracademy.com/freecourse August 2026 Income Report: Why We (Temporarily) Closed the Doors on Web Designer Academy This month Erica Nash and I get into the real numbers behind August... $25,640 in revenue, $15,318 in outflow, and the big decision we finally tested after ten years of keeping Web Designer Academy open all the time. We walk through exactly where the money came from, why we closed the doors and moved to a six-month cohort model, and what happened in the first two weeks that made this experiment feel like a success before it had even officially started. In This Episode: The full August 2026 revenue and expense breakdown, and where the money actually came from Why we closed Web Designer Academy's doors after a decade of being open all the time What changed inside the program to make a six-month cohort work (and why the price stayed the same value, just split differently) Early wins from our first six-month cohort, including a student who sold a high-ticket package before the program even started Why Shannon stopped setting arbitrary success metrics for business experiments The mindset shift around time and capacity that's opening up space for what's next Resources Mentioned: Web Designer Academy — waitlist now open for the next six-month cohort, opening February 2027 Next Level Mastermind Package Matrix™ Method 90-Day Shift Private Coaching Related Episodes: Episode 212: Ditching Hourly: A Web Designer's Guide to Value-Based Pricing with Jonathan Stark Episode 209: July 2026 Income Report Episode 191: How To Choose the Right Web Design Business Model Shannon Mattern is a Pricing Strategist, creator of The Package Matrix™ Method and the founder of the Web Designer Academy where she helps experienced women web designers book higher-paying web design projects, charge more with confidence, run projects without overworking and burnout and break through to their next level of income and freedom. • For Web Designers: https://webdesigneracademy.com • For Service Providers, Consultants & Agencies: https://shannonmattern.com • Instagram: @profitablewebdesigner | @shannonlmattern

Get our free course to help women web designers stop undercharging and overdelivering and create a consistent, full-time income. Web Design Templates, Courses or Clients? Why You Don't Have To Choose with Olga Dorovskykh from Applet Studio Olga Kolgusheva, known professionally as Olga Dorovskykh, is the founder of Applet Studio, a Squarespace template shop and design studio she runs with her husband Roman. In this episode, Olga breaks down how she juggles templates, courses, and custom client work all at once, the real numbers behind growing a profitable template shop, and what she's seeing right now as AI reshapes SEO, affiliate marketing, and how web designers get found online. In This Episode: Why Olga refuses to pick just one business model, and how templates, courses, and client work support each other The real numbers behind growing a template shop, including her 100 blog post breaking point How her templates became a direct source of custom client leads What happened when AI started eating her blog traffic and affiliate income in 2025 Why commercial landing pages are outperforming blog posts for AI visibility How EAT signals across other platforms are changing web designer visibility Why service-based web design isn't going anywhere, even as AI gets better Resources Mentioned: Applet Studio Free Digital Strategy Workshop Web Designer Academy Package Matrix™ Method Related Episodes: Episode 191: How To Choose the Right Web Design Business Model Episode 114: How to Sell Squarespace Templates with Kate Scott Episode 184: Answer Engine Optimization: Your Next Revenue Stream As a Web Designer Olga Kolgusheva (Olga Dorovskykh) is a former journalist turned Squarespace designer and the founder of Applet Studio. Website: applet.studio. Instagram: @applet.studio. Shannon Mattern is a Pricing Strategist, creator of the Package Matrix™ Method, and the founder of the Web Designer Academy where she helps experienced women web designers book higher-paying web design projects, charge more with confidence, run projects without overworking and burnout and break through to their next level of income and freedom. For Web Designers: webdesigneracademy.com For Service Providers, Consultants & Agencies: shannonmattern.com Instagram: @profitablewebdesigner | @shannonlmattern

Get our free course to help women web designers stop undercharging and overdelivering and create a consistent, full-time income at https://webdesigneracademy.com/freecourse Ditching Hourly: A Web Designer's Guide to Value Pricing with Jonathan Stark Jonathan Stark, known as The Ditching Hourly Guy, joins Shannon Mattern to explain why hourly billing punishes you for getting good at your job, and how he builds every proposal around three value-based pricing options instead of a single hourly quote. In This Episode: Why hourly billing creates a mismatched incentive between you and your client The Why Conversation: the three questions Jonathan asks before he'll ever discuss price How to respond when a client's desired outcome is outside of what you can control Why every proposal should include exactly three pricing options (Goldilocks pricing) How Jonathan built his business through writing and podcasting instead of social media Why AI makes positioning more important, not less Resources Mentioned: Value Pricing Calculator Hourly Billing Is Nuts Ditching Hourly Podcast Jonathan's Daily Newsletter The Package Matrix™ Method Related Episodes: Episode 189: How To Price Custom Web Design Projects with Shannon Mattern Episode 90: Profitable Proposals and Processes with Cass and Amanda of Foxtrot Branding Episode 164: The State of Web Designer Pricing in 2025 Jonathan Stark is a former software developer turned pricing consultant, known as The Ditching Hourly Guy for his mission to rid the world of hourly billing. He's the author of Hourly Billing Is Nuts and the host of the Ditching Hourly podcast. https://jonathanstark.com Shannon Mattern is a Pricing Strategist, creator of the Package Matrix™ Method, and the founder of the Web Designer Academy, where she helps experienced women web designers book higher-paying projects, charge more with confidence, run projects without overworking and burnout, and break through to their next level of income and freedom. Websites: webdesigneracademy.com | shannonmattern.com IG: @profitablewebdesigner | YouTube: @profitablewebdesigner | LinkedIn: shannonmattern

Get our free course to help women web designers stop undercharging and overdelivering and create a consistent, full-time income at https://webdesigneracademy.com/freecourse Ditching Hourly: A Web Designer's Guide to Value Pricing with Jonathan Stark Jonathan Stark, known as The Ditching Hourly Guy, joins Shannon Mattern to explain why hourly billing punishes you for getting good at your job, and how he builds every proposal around three value-based pricing options instead of a single hourly quote. In This Episode: Why hourly billing creates a mismatched incentive between you and your client The Why Conversation: the three questions Jonathan asks before he'll ever discuss price How to respond when a client's desired outcome is outside of what you can control Why every proposal should include exactly three pricing options (Goldilocks pricing) How Jonathan built his business through writing and podcasting instead of social media Why AI makes positioning more important, not less Resources Mentioned: Value Pricing Calculator Hourly Billing Is Nuts Ditching Hourly Podcast Jonathan's Daily Newsletter The Package Matrix™ Method Related Episodes: Episode 189: How To Price Custom Web Design Projects with Shannon Mattern Episode 90: Profitable Proposals and Processes with Cass and Amanda of Foxtrot Branding Episode 164: The State of Web Designer Pricing in 2025 Jonathan Stark is a former software developer turned pricing consultant, known as The Ditching Hourly Guy for his mission to rid the world of hourly billing. He's the author of Hourly Billing Is Nuts and the host of the Ditching Hourly podcast. https://jonathanstark.com Shannon Mattern is a Pricing Strategist, creator of the Package Matrix™ Method, and the founder of the Web Designer Academy, where she helps experienced women web designers book higher-paying projects, charge more with confidence, run projects without overworking and burnout, and break through to their next level of income and freedom. Websites: webdesigneracademy.com | shannonmattern.com IG: @profitablewebdesigner | YouTube: @profitablewebdesigner | LinkedIn: shannonmattern

Get our free course to help women web designers stop undercharging and overdelivering and create a consistent, full-time income at https://webdesigneracademy.com/freecourse Systems architect Diana Wei Fang, founder of The Finer Points, joins Shannon to explain why buying another tool never fixes a business problem, how to standardize your systems without losing what makes you different, and why she believes small businesses built to last are the key to real systemic change. In This Episode: Why so many creatives struggle with invoicing and follow-up, and why it has nothing to do with talent The real reason tool-hopping between platforms like Honeybook, Dubsado, and Notion never solves the underlying problem How to standardize your systems without losing what makes your business yours Why the average small business lifespan dropped from 91 years in 1919 to just 14 years today What AI can (and can't) do for your business systems How Diana built The Finer Points from scratch for under $500 Resources Mentioned: The Finer Points: https://thefinerpoints.co HoneyBook: https://www.honeybook.com Web Designer Academy: https://webdesigneracademy.com/web-designer-academy-program-reg/ Related Episodes: Episode 185: How To Scale a Web Design Business with Sarah Noked of OBM School: https://webdesigneracademy.com/how-to-scale-a-web-design-business-with-sarah-noked-of-obm-school/ Episode 177: Why Doing It All Yourself Is Slowing Down Your Web Design Business with Bailey Collins: https://webdesigneracademy.com/why-doing-it-all-yourself-is-slowing-down-your-web-design-business/ Episode 98: Finding Your Biz Besties with Katie Lynn + Laura Grace of Mushaboom Studio: https://webdesigneracademy.com/finding-your-biz-besties-with-katie-lynn-laura-grace-of-mushaboom-studio/ Diana Wei Fang is the founder of The Finer Points, a systems and process architecture studio helping purpose-driven entrepreneurs build businesses that last. Website: https://thefinerpoints.co | Instagram: https://instagram.com/thefinerpoints | LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/thefinerpoints Shannon Mattern is a Pricing Strategist, creator of The Package Matrix™ Method and the founder of the Web Designer Academy where she helps experienced women web designers book higher-paying web design projects, charge more with confidence, run projects without overworking and burnout and break through to their next level of income and freedom. For Web Designers: https://webdesigneracademy.com For Service Providers, Consultants & Agencies: https://shannonmattern.com Instagram: @profitablewebdesigner | @shannonlmattern