Ridiculously Priced Contests

Personally, I respect all your views as I believe, some of you are thinking from a real designer's point of view but for a university student like me who works part-time in a logistics firm, entering contests over here is merely a time pass for me as well as an instant way of filling my pocket with some bucks. In addition to that, this is even a platform for me in getting my skills enhanced, regardless if i win or didn't in that particular contest.

However, I do agree that some real/full-time designers would feel offended with the contest price offered as well as the lack of feedbacks given over here. To those concerned, 99designs would be the best place for you guys. =)

Cheers.

 

Thanks for all your views, i agree with most of them.. But i think that low prices are leading to lack of interest from designers with capability, and sooner or later, dp will have to shut the contest section down..

 

I viewed your "recent posts" and these are your two most recent submissions:





Do you honestly believe these should be worth more than $20?

You guys should know that the reason the contests are so low is because the quality of the submissions are horrible! Sure, there are some designers like cameoanderson and lefty, that pump out AMAZING designs that should go for a LOT more than they ask. But normally the submissions here are very low quality.

Right now I'm searching for a quality logo guy for 2 projects, and a PSD site designer for one. The problem isn't finding a designer, it's finding a GOOD designer. I'm willing to pay a few hundred for a good logo, a lot faster than I'm willing to pay $10 for a horrible one. If you guys look at my 99designs account, my last contest I paid $390 to the winner.

Work on your photoshop skills then start charging the big bucks.

Good luck...

 

Well to be honest some people that offer logo design isn't exactly up to par. When someone offers $25.00 for something, they don't expect genius designers to apply. Just average designers. Problem is there are tons of sites where you can custom make your own logo for $75 upwards and a person has a choice of a variety of designs, fonts etc.

So if someone wanted a logo to be damn good, they will offer more money. Simple as that. For the rest of the people who do not have the money or the time, will offer what they can afford. Not every website is used to make money you know. So why should someone offer to pay $100.00 for something that they can create themselves. I know some people can't. but I know I can design my own things so when I outsource I have a habit of knowing how long it will take me and therefore I am less inclined to offer a ridiculous amount when my site is just a hobby site.

Sometimes see it from other people's view as well. If you are really unhappy then just visit http://99designs.com/ and enter the contests there. These are for professionals only. So you would fit in there.

Or alternative visit www.sitepoint.com and pay $10.00 and get yourself listed and display your portfolio. If you are good enough you will get people that will use your services. Simple as that.

There are always alternatives, just look for them. If you are a good designer, you should already be making money and therefore there shouldn't be a problem with paying money to advertise your services.

Sure some people on DP are damn brilliant and then for every one extroardinary designer you get 20 average ones that either use copied content from other sites or even worse, find illegal sharing sites and get free ripped logos from there and just add the text. Nowadays, I personally won't pay much for a logo since if it is the case, I want to know that I wasn't royally screwed over. If I had a site where I profited from, I would use a proper designer and pay them their worth because in the end I would expect them to design something unique and not copyrighted. I'd probably get them to sign a simple contract as well to protect myself and that is how things should be done.

Plus I would do my research and expect the designer to have a website and portfolio. That is just my personal opinion.

 

guys if you donl't like the price how about don't enter the competition...!

and also, for example, the minumum wage in phillihpines is like £5 a day, so if you offer that as a prize and they enter, that is alright money

 

Most of the prizes offered here are pretty cheap. I mean low! Most of the time I will now look for contests at 99 designs they have better prizes and some guaranteed contests too.
Sometimes I still come here and check for illustration, cartoon mascot kind of contests. Because I love to do that kind of work. And if I have nothing else to do then it is still worth it for me to check here.

 

very interesting discussion going on here!
well, let me first introduce myself. i am a newbie designer who is just looking to make some pocket-money during the vacations (yes i am a student). for someone like me, $20 for a contest is actually pretty good money (i don't live in the US, if that says anything ). plus, the contests help me
1. practise my skills for real logos, and hopefully get feedback
2. help me build my portfolio, so i can one day do pro bono work

so looking at it that way, i am not too p*ssed off by the "low" prizes, unless they want vector stuff. $25 for a vector logo would be pretty low.

i can understand why the designers feel it is low, though. i have known designers charging more than $300 for one logo, and by that standards $20 is ...well...cheap! but then again, those are professionals. for newbies like me, $20 contests are probably the best way to start off. at least i have more chances of winning against other newbies than again professionals


but the main problems for guys like me are:
1. many of the CH's just disappear. i keep waiting for them to announce a winner, but most of the time they either get a logo from somewhere else, or just design their own...at least that's what they claim.
2. most of the times there is little or no feedback. if i am not going to win, i would at least like to know how i could improve for future contests. a CH saying "nah...not my style" just doesn't cut it.


well, those were just my two pennies

 

You guys, I fail to understand why you are all targeting my designs. I just got into this business and am still learning all the features and how to do things. I don't feel that it's right to target me in this conversation. Not that it's anyone elses business but I have one several contest on another site and have made more money there, than ALL the contests that I have entered here. My earlier work, which is what those are, are not that great but I don't think it's fair to target me in this discussion. I am not the reason you are all mad!!!

 

Hi NemesisQaine,

I think they were just trying to explain you nothing els, i do agree with you every one starts like that and then they build on, i would say keep practicing on low prized contests and then once you think you have improved then submit your entry's to higher prized contest, hope you understand what im trying to say , i hope to see you in the near future as good designer .

Kind Regards,
CHsajid.

 

yea i don't think nemesis's designs were being targetted....they were just used as an example to show that they aren't worth more than $20 (this, by the way, is NOT my personal opinion. i cannot even see any of the images since they are hosted on photobucket. so don't blame me.....)

my designs aren't worth more than $20 either, and i have no problems admitting this i already mentioned this is my previous post.....

i still see some contests worth $80+ so i don't think that's a prob.

in any case most of the CHs of $20 contests are fine with raster images since they need it for a website only. a pro designer can always head over to 99D or do freelance work

 

Totally agree with u here (ok, I dont live in Philihpines, here is about £10). Im more that happy to get $5-$15 per logo/banner- im novice and i dont ecpect more. I hope that one day im going to be much better and start doing logos/banners for $20-$50 if not even more.

If some of u people here think their design is so good, better find some designing company to work for like my bf's friend, or find clients who are willing to pay hundreds $$$ for logo.

 

Hi all!

I have to say I understand your complaint, but this man here is right. I do have to add a couple more points to this as well.

_Professional Designers that are lucky to have a job should not be designing for 10$

_A free education has it's price for amatures that did not pay 40grand to learn what we know

_Disabled people that may no longer be in the work place, but still love to design and do what they used too, are so lucky to have web hosts such as these sites. To be able to carry on thier passion!

_Mothers that can afford to be at home because there husband is working his but off to provide for the family, may still do what they love while commiting to the social standerds of survival

- Another note,,,,,I love what I do and I am lucky to have found this site to help others that want something that they dont know how to do for them selves.

-Thus go away money grubbers...there are other places for you...Go to WORK IN THE REAL WORLD...IF YOU ARE SO REAL

 

Yes your designs are worth more than 20, no matter how you look at it, this is how the world percieves and connects with a business. That in its self is worth more than 20$ no matter the skill level of the designer.

Look at road signs....u guys dont know what your talking about.

 

I'm new, and only put up my first contest yesterday, $35 for a logo. I'm also buying non-contest logos from someone else for a much cheaper set price. I'm not as concerned about those ones. So, I'm paying enough to attract a number of designers in this contest, maybe a bit higher than the average for a logo contest here but right around the average.

This site is generally viewed by the buyers as a place to get inexpensive work done. And that is the type of buyer it attracts. I don't think that people come here thinking they are going to get the Mona Lisa. But, some of the submissions are very good.

No matter how you slice it, in a contest, MOST PEOPLE DON'T GET PAID. It's the nature of the beast. So, unless a really high prize is offered, the average wage for doing a logo in a contest is cheap. Even if someone offers $200 for the logo, if 30 people enter, the average wage is under $7 for designing a logo in that contest. $200 may be a really good price for designing a logo, but the average is still cheap, and the higher the price, the more people will enter.

For a good designer that has as many clients as he can handle, it's not a great idea to enter the contest - unless you are doing it for marketing purposes. I know people here have entered contests then gotten straight out design jobs because someone saw a losing design but liked it enough to just hire the designer. You can build a business by showing off your talents here in low price contests.

The other point is that some people just like entering contests for the 'game' of it. Go over to Worth1000. There are a lot of contests there with no prize money and the entries take a lot of time to put together. Many of them are very impressive. So, when you say that the prizes offered on contests are too low for the effort, for you, that is probably the truth. For someone else, it may simply be a bonus for doing something they love.

The market will end up finding its own pricing. In this case, most of the pricing seems to be low. In other markets (like 99designs), the pricing is higher. I used this site because I didn't want to pay the prices at 99designs, and, in return, I'm ok with getting less entries of higher quality. If I was working on a project for a Fortune 500 company, I'd probably go over there to get it done. If your skills are up to the task, and you can win enough contests at a higher paying site, then why would you enter contests here? You shouldn't. But, there is a place for the lower priced market just as there is a place for the higher.

 

Just a quick recommendation here - I havent checked your iTrader so I dont know if you've used him or not before but I've had a lot of dealings with Watari and have always been really impressed with his work, and his 'after sales' care. Hes an excellent designer.. definitely one of the best on here (in my opinion anyway).

I do agree that some of the entries in contests are pretty bad, but for all the bad ones I believe you get just as many good ones. I always try to offer reasonable prize money (in comparison to others) and as result I think I get pretty good designs.

I'm definitely happy to stick with DP for my designs anyway... as long as they keep designing, I'll keep coming here and paying a fair price As soon as people start believing that I'm not paying a fair price then I guess I'll soon find out because the good designs will drop off... and then I'll increase my prize money

 

This is from one of my faviourite designers Gary Simon He wrote this article.

resource: http://how.todesignyour.com/blog/webmasters/design-contests-are-93-fail/

Samir_designs

 

many of us who want to buy logo design services are start-ups with a tight budget. I don't think that participating in a contests here or over at 99designs is really a good way to make money. the high prices attract many competitors, so your chances of winning get slimmer.

A $25 logo contest may like this one http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1365505 may attract only about 3-5 contestants and one of them will be a winner. so your chances of winning are 20%-30% instead of 7%. just my 2 cents

 

good point.

I have stopped entering contests.

 

I just joined this site, there are really active contests here that are held very often. Being only 15, these contests are great for me because it's money, im not old enough for a real job so any extra cash is great. But i can see the problem for graphic designers that make a living out of it. The prices are extremely low for what they deliver, and to all you contest holders, if you up the price, the chances of getting a better entry will increase.

 

I don' t want to bore you with repetitions of what has been said already and don' t want to sound negative all the time, so, wouldn´t it be nice to have certain basic standards, let´s say "premium contests"? And what would your wishlist for this look like?

Here are some ideas:
- it should be stated IN ADVANCE if PMs are allowed or not, the CH should be informed that accepting PMs increase the risk of receiving a ripped off image.
- there should be a fixed dead line, having 48 hour contests and reserving the right to close it early is ridiculous.
- the name of the website in question should be revealed so in case there´s no winner declared everyone can verify if indeed no submission from the contest was chosen.
- everyone should declare that he or she isn´t using stock images of any kind and that he can provide a vector image
- it should be stated whether the contest holder is the actual buyer or if the latter one gets to see all submissions

I believe this isn´t too much to ask for, just common sense and I believe the offered prizes would rise under these circumstances automatically.