You obviously have very limited knowledge of the importance of a good business branding these days. Companies are willing to pay into the xxxxx's for a perfect corporate identity. It is more than merely an 'emblem'. I don't have a guilty conscience simply because charging $20, as you seem to think is the maximum we should charge, is not worth my time and effort. You see, if you are to create anything in the design world you generally need to plan it out and research exactly what the client wants and needs first. This takes time. You then need to draw up a number of concepts, all differing greatly while managing to get across their business. This, again, takes a lot of time and effort. Sure, $20 is enough for some text with a few photoshop filters banged on it. Like you say, how hard is that? But please don't generalise so much about something you are clearly lacking in knowledge about.
IMO Opinion, if i have nothing else to do i will enter contests, regardless of the price, obviously not low as $5, but i figure it is a chance to practice skills, and i might as well enter, i have a better chance of gaining some some profit, no matter how small or large it be, rather than sitting browsing forums or playing games etc.
I am new in the designing section of DP and what I have seen here, is there are some new designers which would be working for any price. On the other hand, some very good designers (the older members and making only professional logos), work for the contests with higher price range. Its upto you to decide. A higher price "attracts" everyone, while a mediocre price (35-50$) can have a mix of designers and a low price would be having only the new comers work.
FWIW, a couple of days ago I paid a land-based company £60+VAT (approx. $137) to come up with a few designs for a new logo. OMG - they are terrible. I could've knocked out better in three minutes. I won't be bothering again - for the same amount I could have posted here and got a far superior selection to choose from.
Nope - and I probably should have. Thing is, when I've needed logos in the past and not wanted to do them myself, I've always gone directly to a land-based company and never had shoddy work before. It's only a week or two ago that I decided to give digitalpoint a try. I think in the future DP will be my starting point.