One of the most common questions I’m asked by readers starting out with blogging is around blog design and how they can get an affordable but unique blog design.
The irony of this is that I’m a self confessed dud when it comes to blog design. These days I hire others to do custom designs for my blog – but of course this doesn’t come cheap.
A recent survey here on ProBlogger showed that 79% of readers here use free themes or design their blogs themselves – but what if you want something more unique and/or don’t have the ability to design a blog or tweak a free theme?
I had all these questions buzzing around in my head recently when I paid a visit to local design marketplace site 99designs. I didn’t expect anything to come out of the conversation but what did come out of it excited me because it could meet a need that I see many of our readers having.
What 99designs have put together is a way to run a competition to have a new WordPress blog design created for your blog for as little as $369.
Now before I go any further – $369 is out of many bloggers leagues – but it is certainly a cheaper option than hiring a designer for $2000-$3000 to do a custom job for you. It’s not going to be for everyone but is sure to be an attractive option for those looking for a mid priced design.
The process to run a competition is simple. Here’s how 99designs describe it:
1. Set your budget and requirements
Tell us your budget and what you want designed, and we will post it on 99designs.com
2. Designers will create designs just for you
Designers from around the world will compete to create the best looking design just for you. Most projects get over 20 different design concepts to choose from. Rate the designers you like, eliminate the ones you don’t like.
3. Choose your favorite design
Pick your favorite design as the winner. Show it off to your friends! The winning design is yours to keep forever.
4. We code and install your theme (optional extra)
Through our partner, Thinktank Media, we’ll have your new WordPress theme up and running on your blog in 5 working days. Our themes are coded on the Sandbox theme, so they’re compatible with both WordPress.org and WordPress.com blogs!
They also have a 100% money back guarantee if you run a competition and don’t find a design that you like.
Keep in mind that what you’re running the competition for is the ‘design’ – to have it coded and/or installed you either need to choose to pay extra for these options or do that part yourself.
I hope those of you looking to find a new design for your WordPress blog find this useful! Check it out here.
That is a very smart idea – provides an excellent service and gives designers a chance to showcase their work. While also giving people the opportunity to get a unique blog design created for them at a very low cost – will be interesting to see where this goes!
I do see vividly in my dreams how I’d like my blog to look, but that HTML gets me all fetched up when I try to go in there myself. 99Designs sounds like a dream team and their site examples look super-hot.
I like this idea, but I’m not sure if I’d ever make use of it personally. I rather like the challenge of learning to design/tweak my own WordPress themes. I feel that changing my blog’s look myself really motivates me to write the content to keep up.
The way I read it, $369 simply buys you the graphics. The PSD to WordPress is going to cost extra.
It’s just so sad that this is promoted as good ideas for all designers… :/ Say no to spec work!
Hey Jeffrey Tang,
I used to think like you until I really got into it. First people surfing the net can quickly see if something is made by and ametuer. You may think your site looks cool because you made it but truth be known it stinks. Plus when the designer is working on the looks you can spend your time focusing on writing good quality content!
Thanks,
Troy
I’ve used 99Designs for several recent projects. A few were blogs, and one was an online to-do list application. I recounted my experiences here: http://thewellrunsite.com/2009/07/09/crowdsourcing-a-new-site/
In short, I was delighted with the results. My feeling is that the designers on 99Designs are a cut above what you may find on some other services. I highly recommend the site.
I think i’ve got a aways to go before I’ll start to think about paying for my blog designs. I’m not against doing it, but I’d think its important to make money before you spend money.
So you’re paying a fraction of the cost of custom work for multiple designers to do custom work for you, only one of whom is presumably going to be paid (and at cut-rate)?
I know these kinds of contests go on all the time, but please bear in mind that they’re ethically questionable at the best of times, and proceed accordingly.
I’m from a small community of graphic designers where this type of design contest has recently been the topic of a heated debate.
We look at it as spec work and the majority of us feel like it is demeaning to designers and damaging to the design/client relationship.
In short spec work (short for speculative work) is any job for which the client expects to see examples or a finished product before agreeing to pay a fee.
There’s passionate discourse from both sides of the arguments, but I just wanted to point out that from a professional designers standpoint it’s not cool.
http://graphicdesign.about.com/od/career/f/what_is_spec.htm
I would say that sites like 99designs should not be used because they devalue the work of real designers. You would not get anything really good, because the designers have to actually DO the project, just for a chance of being paid. Such a ripoff.
Very interesting contest idea. If I wasn’t such a do-it-yourselfer, I would be very interested.
I say it’s worth putting in the time to learn to tweak free themes yourself, especially if you’re planning to have a few blogs.
This is great! The site seems like a great way to skip the entire painful & time consuming RFP process. I don’t know why, but I’ve had really bad luck in the past hiring design agencies and freelancers.
Their work never lived up to what I saw in the portfolio, and I got invoiced thousands of dollars for work that I didn’t even want to use — and don’t even get me started about missed deadlines either.
I agree with needmoney.com. That way you can make changes yourself immediately instead of waiting for a designer.
I prefer to tweak around my blog’s theme myself. Set the theme layout you like from other bloggers’ theme and design it on your blog. As for my blog layout, it looks pretty much similar to darren’s theme because I really think it looks very profesional and easy for the readers to look what they want.
The iPhone Blogging
Interesting concept. Not sure I’d ever use it, but the competition approach is one to keep in mind, not only for information or services you need, as in this case, but also as a way to interest others in sharing information. I’ve also used that type of approach when pitching the media on stories. Positioning the pitch as a competition, or a contest, or a survey, generally garnered more interest.
I like Shoemoney running a contest on his site for a business card design and the winner gets free cards from the company sponsoring the contest. Shoe doesn’t pay a thing and gets 500 designs. Sweet!
Yeah, a lot of free themes are extremely versatile. You can do a lot with them providing you spend time trying to.
Whoa. Promoting spec work? Gutsy…
$369 for just the design? Whoa!! and one must shell out extra $$$ for the theme. Wonderful :|
I used 99designs recently for a logo. I used them simply because I could not afford any of the quotes from the designers I approached directly. No amount of “it devalues the industry” and “spec work is evil” can solve a simple budget issue.
99designs contests have their ups and downs. I’d say to anyone who wants to try them:
– read some other contests design briefs and make sure you write a good one for your contest
– comment early and often, give designers lots of feedback, tell them what you like and don’t like about a submission
– don’t be afraid to ask for variations of things you do like (eg “I like that design but can you show me it in green”)
– be prepared to see some awful submissions, eliminate them and say why so that other designers can steer clear of similar designs
– be prepared to wait days before something even resembling a good submission appears, don’t get disheartened early on
If you build it they may come. But if you build it with their help there is a better chance that they will come.
Great idea to get highly customized and attractive themes according to my taste.
I’ve been using the same blog theme for a long time. Maybe I should change my blog design =)
Too costly for me… maybe in future !
As a webdesigner and webmaster I have to say that I like your blog and your articles but this one…
This kind of sites like 99designs should be prohibited. They are totally devaluating the webdesign industry.
10, 20 designers will work on a project and will not be paid.
This is ridiculous. Nobody works without getting paid.
I saw many times one designer that comes with a concept and them this concept is copied by other designers and the one that first introduced the concept didn’t won. But the concept was copied by the winner.
It’s really not good.
I think if someone wants a professional theme for a wordpress blog they can just buy a premium theme. It’s much more affordable then $369.00.
This is really not the way to go for a cheap design.
There are some talented beginners out there who will work for $369.00.
One can also get a webdesigner from other countries. There are countries in wich $300.00 even $200.00 is a lot of money.
Hmmmm. It’s disappointing to see spec work being promoted here, Darren. Sites like these take advantage of designers, with many “contests” going un-paid, even though they’re supposedly “guaranteed”.
How would an architect feel if they were hired to draft a floor plan but got paid for their time only if the client liked it? How would a group of construction workers feel if they all put together variations on a shed but only the individual who built the shed the homeowner liked best got paid?
If you really want cut-price design work but don’t want to sacrifice quality (as many do on these spec work competition sites), find your nearest college with a design program and advertise for a student willing to put something together for you. That way you can view their portfolio in person, work out a cheaper rate, and still feel morally sound by not cheating dozens of other people out of hours of work.
@Josh T:
You should agree your costs beforehand and a stepped payment plan (say 25% upfront, 25% midpoint and 50% upon completion). That way the designer doesn’t spend hours working for free and you don’t pay for something you don’t want.
You pay monkeys you get peanuts. If you’re working on a tight budget you’re better off using a free theme. The beauty parade approach just means the designers who are best at getting mock ups done will do well.
Obviously, you’d have to pay for the coding as well. WIll it be that much cheaper than just contacting a designer?
Oh my! This article is so wrong! I am designer, and I really dislike Spec work. What you are proposing is a spec project.
Please read: http://www.no-spec.com/
I read your blog to learn how to write better, but after reading this post. It seems you are not not understand, this article can hurt designers and wordpress themer feeling.
Hi…
This is nice topic which ll be very useful for their designs.
This article may accept by some of speific designers only and others will reject it..
This is spec work. Spec work is bad and promoting it is a surefire way to piss off designers. http://www.no-spec.com/
FYI this is getting re-tweeted all over the shop:
RT @DavidAirey: Disappointed to see @problogger promoting spec work: http://tr.im/uSXF (@SpecWatch)
Nice idea, but I’d prefer to customize myself.
That is a great idea! I wonder how much extra it would cost to have the project coded by a dependable coder.
I recently switched to wordpress from Blogger and I am extremely please with the move.
Additionally, I use the Thesis theme and I slowly building a working knowledge of what it takes to “design” things the way that I want.
Still, at some point I may wish to have my site “professionally” redone so that it is more appealing.
This looks great but I would caution beginning bloggers. If you don’t have enough traffic to make much money yet, you really don’t need a new theme. You need to focus on creating great content.
Its easy for me to get caught up and spend large amounts of time on little meaningless details.
Strange isn’t it – all the people commenting in favour that this is an amazing service are from the “buyers” side of the fence, mainly because its cheap.
The ones against it, myself included, are the designers -those that can see that they would essentially be working for free in the hope that they get paid at the end. And if they DO get paid, ie. get their design chosen, its a small pay day!
You wouldn’t do this in your 9-5 office job, so why expect designers too?
Gosh. This is really interesting!
It gives me idea. Cool =)
That is a nice way of getting a design like your requirements, a must do for those on a budget.
Wow! I have to admit that I’m completely surprised by this post and feel compelled to respond. Even as non-conforntational as I am, I can’t not speak up on this one…
I’m a web designer (who happens to specialize in custom WordPress themes) – and I’m with all of the other designers who have posted. While these design contests seem like they’re a cheap way to get a design, it completely devalues the (design) profession. We work VERY hard at making good designs and should rightfully be paid for our time.
By entering these design competitions, designers are essentially doing spec work – aka working for free in the hopes that maybe their design will be chosen. And in most cases, the prize is still not enough money to compensate for the time and hard work that goes into a solid design (whether it be a site design, logo design, etc.)
The majority of the people I follow on Twitter (and vice versa) are designers and I know that a majority of them are against these types of competitions (also called crowdsourcing).
There is a lot of great information on the no-spec.com web site that’s been referenced in other comments above. A specific post in regards to crowdsourcing with quotes from industry leaders such as Jeff Fisher can be found at http://www.no-spec.com/archives/creativepro-spec-work-and-crowdsourcing/
I feel so strongly against spec work and crowdsourcing that I now have an email template (canned response) that I reply with to anyone who asks me to get involved or promote their so-called design competition, which includes a link to the no-spec.com web site.
I realize that non-designers won’t see the harm in the competitions, but it’s something worth looking into and considering the ramifications for the designers who are basically being used for free labor.
You get what you pay for at the end of the day.
Paying < $100 for any kind of design work almost always ensures you receive a generic and sub-par design.
What a farce. I agree with ,Selene M. Bowlby.
*** You go Girl.
I definitely agree with the other negative comments, I too believe sites and methods like this facilitate unethical practices and spec work. Beyond devaluing our profession, I think another big point that many have missed is that it completely removes the creative/client relationship from the equation. There is little to know interaction w/ the “client”, aside from a short brief. How could a designer produce a truly quality, successful piece without getting to know a client, asking questions, and finding the deeper needs and meanings that may not be strictly stated? It’s design for design sake. Design that is just pretty pictures without any bigger idea, concept or strategy, sorely misses the point.
No one should work for free
The Vendor Client relationship – in real world situations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2a8TRSgzZY
I agree with David Airey and the other designers who have reSPECt for creative work. Speculative work would not fly in ANY other profession, why do people think its okay to do it with creative work?
Now if you will excuse me, I need to go get my car tuned up today… Hey! I know, I’ll hold a contest! With the mechanic who gets my car running the smoothest getting the prize of $500! Never mind they should have gotten $2,500, what great publicity me driving my nicely tuned car will be for them!
Not for me, I’m a “do-it-yourself-er” too. But great for someone who doesn’t have the time on their hands to do it themselves :)
Hi Everyone…Jason Aiken here from 99designs.com
Designers participate in projects at 99designs for a number of reasons…to make money and build a business, to gain experience and practice their skills, to build their portfolio, to get feedback from clients and peers on their work, and to make friends. Win or lose, designers get value out of participating at 99designs.
There are other ways for designers to find clients and get experience…all of which are valid. David Airey recently suggested that designers offer their service, free of charge, to Non-Profit organizations for example. My Fiancee works in Non Profit…and I can tell you yes they need lots of help! But the marketplace at 99designs is just as valid and provides a ton of opportunity for designers…it exposes them to a huge number of projects that they would not have been exposed to otherwise.
We have disabled designers using 99designs who have praised us for giving them the opportunity to attract clients without leaving their house. We have designers who are located in countries our even regions of the USA where local work is either unavailable or has dried up. One of our top designers is located in South Carolina…she has run a successful web design business for many years. Suddenly all the work locally began to dry up and she did not know what she was going to do…she was very worried about keeping the lights on.
She has been participating at 99designs for several months now and it has helped her keep her business running and grow her client base. As many as 1/4 to 1/2 of the projects lead to additional follow on work. There are designers in our community earning 100% of their income from 99designs referrals.
We think of 99designs.com not as the end game (as in you win a contest and get $300 and it’s all over) but as the start of “sales funnel” for designers. In the same way that design agencies do countless unpaid pitches, attend networking events in their own time or otherwise market themselves, designers on 99designs invest their time designing for the projects listed. Winning designers don’t walk away with $300 they walk away with $300 and a client relationship that they can leverage in the future.
Obviously…this is a very interesting discussion…but the bottom line is 99designs.com provides opportunity.
Cheers,
Jason Aiken
99designs.com
With regards to Selene, I totally agree that these contests only devaluates the designing profession. Though I understand that alot of designers want to get their voices heard through their coding skills, it is regrettable that they have to offer their services for a near-give away price.
Being an opportunist at times, I wouldn’t mind jumping on the deal because I don’t have the expertise required to design my own blog/template. I still use the Modicus Remix theme…its sad.
I really hope you’re reading all the comments designers have left on this post as they will enlighten you how wrong you are on this.
You should be ashamed of using your authority in such a fallacious way, by preaching spec work and supporting design crowd-sourcing.
Like David, I’m surprised to see this post here. As a designer I would never waste my time competing with a hundred other designers for the chance to make some money. If designers want to give away their time for a very small percentage chance that they’ll actually get paid then I guess they have the right to do so, but I would rather do other things with my time, and as you can see from the comments, most professional designers feel the same way.