What do you guys think of 99designs?

I'm an amateur designer looking to make a bit of extra cash and I was wondering what you guys think of 99designs?

 

I don't think you can make money on 99designs but you will get more experience

 

i am a designer as well. i am not on 99designs yet, i think its very competitive and you need a lot of pro skills to earn. Just practice and practice till you last

 

I agree with Froomple. Just keep at it, make things for free just to practice, make a design a day for fun, that kind of stuff. I started out in graphic design 4 years ago and only in the past year have I really started looking good (more of a side thing for me)

 

Being a designer myself, I'm not a big fan of spec-work (contests, crowdsourcing, and the likes) as it requires you to invest time (and time is money) without a guarantueed payment. Also, I think, it devalues the market.

 

yaeh, i agree. 99designs just for fun like crowdspring and designcrowd.

 

for making extra cash, you can join some good bidding portals like, Elance, odesk, Guru, Freelancer.

 

Spec/Contest work is the BANE of the design industry, and promotes Subpar design... and Devalues the industry as a whole...

have a read: http://www.no-spec.com

Do it because you LOVE design, not the money... if you do it for the MONEY, you won't make any...

 

freelancer is suck sites, its only for premium membership.
Odesk to many bullshit.
i think Elance and Guru is the best.

 

i agree with you, do it because you love it.

 

Offer your services for sale here on digitalpoint or look elsewhere for other like-minded IM forums with BST sections. Or try the freelance job-sites. Take anybody's criticisms of these sites with a large grain of salt. Try each one for yourself. Try them all, make up your own mind as to which is best suited to you and your goals. Develop a business-like approach and persist.

 

good money, but also big rivalry with other designers : )

 

It's very competitive. If you have time to spare and are not desperate to make money, you can certainly invest time and effort into entering contests. Otherwise, as an amateur, you probably won't gain anything from it (other than experience).

 

Moree experience=more money.

 

Agreed, amature designers make amature mistakes and you get amature results. Pro's do it right.

 

ı don't see

 

Ditto... And the quality of submissions have gone down lately (from what I've seen)... So maybe you'll win 1 or 2

 

i don't love 99design, not at all. I would also suggest to use a freelance site. I freelance at Peopleperhour and have created a few Hourlies to provide services. I choose Peopleperhour because i can get jobs faster and now with Hourlies you can get clients and work simply by selling your Hourlie! Hope this helps. Good luck

 

After you will spend some time you have a chance to win and after more time on 99designs you will see how your designs become more professional. In the other hand many good designers consider that 99designs and other corwdsourcing websites does not have any respect for designers. Good Luck!