“contest” type hiring/freelance sites

On a message forum the other day, a company proudly stated how they used a site called 99designs (or something like that) to get a logo made. The way the site worked was you put up your project, how much you were willing to pay (in this case, about $200), and designers the world over would submit designs – you pick the winner, and he or she gets the spoils.

Are you @#$%ing kidding me? What’s next… ”Dance for the money, lowly freelancer – I SAID DANCE”

To start, that’s not really a contest. That’s prettymuch slavery.

Secondly, the only designers that will do this are really low on the totem pole – the company was so happy that they had “182 designs to choose from”… except that all 182 kind of sucked. They would have been better off had they hired someone competent for $50-$75 an hour and worked with them – I’m pretty sure a competent designer could come up w/ a nice logo in a few hours time.

Here’s how I replied to them:

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 Not nuts about any of the logos (I see you chose one, so this is after the fact.). They all seem a bit amateurish, really. Like someone got ahold of Corel Draw and played with fonts and colors.

Personally, I think you could have done better finding a decent designer in the $50-$75 an hour range – the cost would likely have been pretty close to what you ultimately paid. Ok, maaaybe it costs you 4-5 hours time – we’re not talking bank-breaking money here.

To comment on the other area of the thread – cost / hiring / paying people / etc… I’m not for “contest” sites like that, and I do not think it’s a good business practice. Let me tell you why: I assume that whatever you are going to do you will be charging more than the buck-something you were so proud to get people to work for you for. (“We are 2 hours away from having to make our choice and there are currently 182 designs for an average of $1.16 per design!! Not a single designer in the world would be willing to work for that output. Overall, we feel this has been a good experience and investment on our part.”)

So essentially, you want stuff done for you cheap – like slave wage cheap. But you are certainly not going to be willing to work as cheap yourself, are you? Why, may I ask? You expect others to.

It’s a double standard that has no place in business. You simply don’t value the professional efforts of others. My .02 anyway.

Now, I’m not saying you can’t start on a shoestring or a budget or hire based on price. But sites like that border on exploitation. But to a certain mindset, exploitation is ok, I suppose. But it doesn’t speak volumes for your character as a business.

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anyway, that’s my thoughts on the issue. Not a fan.

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