A couple of year ago, I was in need of someone to design a logo for one of my sites. There are a number of avenues that I could have chosen to meet my design needs but for various reasons I settled on a small logo design company. What I got in the end wasn’t quite what I was looking and the whole process was pretty much a waste of time and money. One thing that I put it down to was that the designer could not quite visualise my vision.

When I came across 99designs, my mind went back to my failed attempt at getting a logo designed. After reflecting on that attempt, one thing I thought would have been good was having pool of designers working on my project. If I had known about 99designs back then, it would have been the obvious choice for my design needs. The main reason for this is the crowdsourcing nature of their service. It would have given me access to a different designers all submitting concepts for me to chose from.

In a nutshell, 99designs is a creative design marketplace where designers submit concepts based on client needs. The client then chose’s the concept that best fits their needs and the winning designer gets paid.

• client posts a design contest that includes specifics of what they are looking for and how much they are willing to pay for the design
• designers start working on the project and send concepts through to the client
• client provides feedback on the concepts and designers make necessary tweaks to get the design just right
• after a few days the client chose’s a winning design from a large pool of concepts and the winning designer gets paid
• client receives the final design and the copyright to the work

Their services are not limited to just logo designs. They have designers that can cater to all of the following design needs:

The fact that you get to select the best design from concepts submitted by multi designers increases the chances of you getting what you want. Since there are number of people working on your project, the chances are much higher that there will be someone who can visualise exactly what you want and design it for you. An added bonus with 99designs is that if you aren’t happy with what you get, they have a 100% money back guarantee. You’ve got nothing to lose and a great design to gain.

Many of you are skilled at a number of things involving computers that you do as a hobby. This can include things (word choice) such as graphic design, web design, programming and so on. You may have been at whatever it is for a while and perfected it or you may just have natural talent. You may want to consider getting yourself set up and selling your services online.

There are a number of freelance websites where you can list your services and get found by people who need to get a particular job done.

Elance which has been running for a few years is one of the leading freelancing platforms. Elance works on a bidding system where providers bid on projects. As a service provider, you will need to build a profile which will include your experience, skills and portfolio. From this point on you can go out and look for work. Clients may also ask you to bid on projects that they have open. If your bid is selected you accept it you can contact the buyer to discuss the project details and start working.

Buyers pay for services rendered through the Elance Payment System from where they will be available for withdrawal. Depending on where you are in the world, you can withdraw payments via Automated Clearing House, cheque or wire transfer.

There are fees associated with using their services. There is a monthly membership fee which is dependant on the membership plan you choose to use and the services you provide. These fees range from $11/month to $199/month. There are four membership plans which include Courtesy, Limited, Professional and Select. The higher the plan you choose, the more access you have to membership benefits and a higher monthly bid allotment. If you exceed your monthly bid allotment you are charged $1.50 per additional bid. They also charge a project fee which is a percentage of the transactions and ranges from 6.75% to 8.75%. One draw back that I see with their service is that you may not end up making much for projects if your bids are low and you have to pay monthly and transactions fees.

If Elance does not seem like a viable option to you an option to take into consideration is Bizreef. They are a new company that got up and running this year and already has 25,000+ providers signed up. They run on a system very similar to Elance. You list your services and you can wait for people to find you or you can bid on projects. They seem to lean more towards buyers seeking out service providers and if they can’t find any then they can open a project and wait for bids to come in. One big point of difference between from Elance is that it is FREE to list your services or bid on projects.

After sign up, you go on to fill out a service profile where you list all the services you will offer and wait for business to come in or go out and seek it. Bizreef has more categories in which to list your services which is good as the service that you have to offer may not be listed on Elance. Another good point about BizReef is that they offer 18 currencies and you could get paid out in your own currency. Payments made out via cheque, Google Checkout, PayPal or wire transfer.

The other side of the coin is that you can use Elance to find a professional or BizReef for Anything you need! You can find someone to get a job done at a price that you can afford. This will also save you the time and trouble of looking around for a place to outsource your project. The great thing about these services is that money is paid in escrow and only paid out once a project has been completed and the buyer is satisfied with the finished product.