I would definitely try 99designs. Its a contest based site, but contains many many professionals. I agree with you, as a designer myself i even get the opposite sometimes. Was working with someone or a logo, he gave me a great in depth description, I asked him if $30 was ok for the logo (which is extremely cheap), And he replies that $30 is way too expensive, and he was looking for a $2 - $5 Logo, Designs in dp is something that is getting really undercut.
The design selling/buying should be devided into two categories: 1: Cheap ass work where quantity is important. 2: Great work here quality is important.
I think that it is great that we have a community where beginners can dip into the industry and build a portfolio and make some extra cash. There are some very talented people here on DP - as with anything else, good talent is hard to find. I've had luck on SP's contest forum, and I have also had luck here. If you hold a $500 design contest on DP, my suspicion is that the good designs will come out of the woodworks to compete - I have seen some awesome designs on the higher prize contests - remember you get what you pay for. If you want high quality, put the money up and see what happens.
Hmm i thought you were talking about yourself. Thank you for correcting me PS: My personal max is half the money you say, until now at least
Well, people need to realise that DP marketplace suited for people just to get something done for their adsense/affiliates/cpa/etc. websites. Real quality aside cause in most cases it maybe not needed. Maybe it's ok if done in masses, except cases where you need to work lot of hours for peanuts. Looking for great design, software programing with real security etc. good seo/sem etc. shouldn't be hire here or to say it more correct - shouldn't be considering as a such source. Prices really African here for anything, nobody even in 3rd world don't sell for such. Let's take that $1200 example of design. This is definitely for some company selling something and whant something custom great and unique. And hey! It's still not much for that case! Even on low ball. Are there a need for this on DP ? Yes, but very rare. Persons ocasionally PM'ing me asking for SEO services, but more than often it's for some arcade or myspace or affiliate site
But not everyone is a company. I myself don't want to work in any bigger company. I like to do most of what is needed to be done by myself. Sure, i don't expect to do it faster or so, but I know, that I'll do it the best I can, and doing so, would be nice to see , that design (exmaple: wordpress theme) that I worked for over 8 hours would like sell for more than 100$-120$. I did saw some good ones WP themes that were sold for 20-30$ nad it makes me sada little. Won't You agree?
not to put down this forum and the members here, but I think if you are looking for quality and are willing to pay average prices, then you would do well do check out members belonging to some of the open source communities who take pride in designing valid XHTML and CSS standards compliant work. I belong to OpenDesigns.org and you will find many quality designers there.
Well, people who work like one man show capable to do up to mid $xxx per month jobs and few low$xxx. Don't forget about competition. It's hard instead to take 50 very low$xxx / 100 mid$xx per month to make it worth in money terms. That's what I am talking about and what works best for me/my friends and many good freelancers I know You work the same but get paid maybe even more and take a LOT less stress cause of just few customers.
Can anyone recommend a good freelancer place? I've been looking for quality WP designers but they're either not available/not responding or they have crappy portfolios.