As you may have recalled I have had a bad experience with Elance with my delayed project/request. Recently I have been getting issues with banner arrangements and logos designed as well. So once more I looked to the forums for help and I received my 'multiple' buttons as final products and I am amazed at the work which is done within 1 hour or less!

In the past I never wanted to use cheap labor for poor quality, hence "you pay for what you get." Well lately I have been getting good quality logos from forums. I pay from around $5 to $25 for a logo design, ecover design, header graphic, buttons, etc.

So far I have been pleased with the results. I always say to use forums as a great networking tool. The forums I use for all these jobs is the very popular DigitalPoint. This forum is very high traffic and a lot of users on here are freelancers. These freelancers either create graphics, bring traffic, stumblers, diggers, logo designers, content creators, etc. Better than freelancers on elance!

Well it is very simple to get attention from logo designers and other freelancers as there are multiple threads within the forum itself. Every single freelancer is offering very cheap prices and its really good work. For example here are some images that were made from freelancers in the forum:

These are work from multiple users from DigitalPoint forum. I tend to use other freelancers on there for some content creation and traffic usage. I also use the forum to create relationships and nework with others. The only reason now that I use forums for graphics is because my graphics designer is busy with other freelance work. So when I provide him with an image I usualy have to wait 1 week, whereas the forums I can wait 30 minutes and pay cheaply for good work!

My reason for going to forums is because it is usually last minute requests, for example Google Slap Report was a last minute decision, I created the content and I needed a ecover for it. I just went to the forums, post my requirements and wait for the author to email me personally and I either approve or reject graphics.

Here are some aspects in which I do when purchasing from forums or buying service.

1. I look at the authors' or users' reputation
2. Small projects I tend to say I will pay on delivery - my reputation in the forum is pretty strong - as why most can accept
3. If it is a bigger project and they ask for half of the payment, I usually argue to 1/3 of the final, again my reputation in the forum is pretty strong as to why most can accept.

An author's reputation for a project is important because you want to see if they have a portfolio, no negative feedbacks, great work, etc. You want to research your author or freelancer before actually using their services, there are so many others in DigitalPoint which you may find a better or well known freelancer.