Today I used the corporate I counseled to shop for my company emblem. If I get a finished product before you create a decision, I`d be happy to point out you the results, and post my impressions of the design method.
See first of all I would like to know where are you from? If you are from USA or UK or Australia than you can find a local logo designer company because if you want to know what kind of works is on going on your logo design than you can go to their physical location and check all the things.
Like you, I have used the Contests section here and had a great logo designed. But now I can't post there, so I use fiverr.com. There are some amazing designers on there. Sometimes I hire 3-4 people and then choose the best design. Would prefer a contest, but that's just not possible at the moment. I think it's a bit short-sighted of DP, because they are driving traffic away to other websites.
Search Fiverr for "Logo Design" and make sure you sort by "rating" Lot of great designers there - especially for $5
Fiverr is a good one to begin. And there are many Freelancer site like Odesk.com, Freelancer.com. Or you can offer your service to many great company outhere.
Seriously for logo design Fiverr is your best option.You CAN find good graphic design work for simpler projects there, as long as the person offering the gig has good feedback.
the best thing i think you can do is learn photoshop and create some designs yourself...this way you can do some creative things on your own and make some money on the side for some that done want to...of course it is always easier I know to just have someone do it for you...which i do for lots of things so if thats the case...I guess fiverr