I have been appalled and frustrated with 99designs since I first heard of them. In fact, upon discovering them I promptly started writing a post titled, 99 Reasons to NOT Use 99designs. However I realized that the sensationalist approach of that post would probably just further alienate both sides of the argument.
I then started a more detailed and thoughtful post, Why You Can’t Crowdsource a Craft, to explain why I thought sites such as 99designs were harmful to the web design profession/community. (Which I’ll probably finish eventually and publish here, but that’s a while from now.)
Today I came across an especially poignant article by Anthony Zinni at Positive Space Blog calling out 99designs on their use of propaganda to advertise that participating in design contests makes you a better designer. (The graphic accompanying the post is spot on too.)
I encourage you to go read Anthony’s article and the comments as well, especially Anthony’s follow up comment.
He makes two solid points in his follow up comment (linked above) that I think you have to address if you’re participating in design contests and have regular client work. I’ve quoted them below.
- Are you able to charge your normal rates [to the same clients whose contests you’ve won] for follow up work, or do they assume contest level prices?
- …
- How do you justify your rates for normal projects if you participate in contests where the clients determine what the appropriate rate for services are?
Commentary
A sad day for designers… It could stem from a lot of designers who are un-trustworthy and who cant win the trust of their client. Hence the reason a client would want to try to keep their options wide open.
Could be somewhat painful as overseas companies discover this kind of system.
Looks like this approach may proliferate, unfortunately.
There’s another site in private beta called crowdspring (http://www.crowdspring.com) that follows this model of crowdsourcing design.
PS. I love your WP theme design…gorgeous. :)
Aaron: Agreed regarding untrusting clients, a product of a young industry I would hypothesize, as people try to capitalize on ignorance for financial gain. Hopefully over time it will get better, of course sites like 99designs don’t help at all!
Lena: Wow, thanks for the link. Glad you like the WP theme too!
I laughed when you said capitalize on ignorance. I have thought of ways to charge for teaching people to use ctrl+c & ctrl+v…
I imagine that the “capitalizing on ignorance” you are referring to is when the product is not beneficial to the purchaser, but sold as if it is?
Maybe… Just maybe 99designs is the hard swinging pendulum that is needed to get the industry to correct itself?
Re: “capitalizing on ignorance” Yeah, basically what you said. Over-priced, under-valued, unusable products being sold as solutions.
Interesting thought on swinging pendulums… Maybe if enough people have bad experiences it will push them towards more professional (and better!) design processes. Is that what you mean?
Oh, and that’s really funny about Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V.
Hey, I DO charge for teaching ctrl-c!
99 isn’t alone in their business model. They are a directory that aims to deliver intense price pressure on providers. Early adopters @ 99 (the designers) saw some actual success and so did end clients, but as use of the directory grows it dilutes the value. The designers face more competition. As time goes by the end clients will actually wind up seeing more and more ’stolen’ design work as the usual spammer-type characters show up and start trying to game the system without actually producing anything. Only the hungriest designers will go there.
Most directories provide a similar function and your participation grows THEIR business, not yours. Way back… yellow pages and even DMOZ did the same thing. Currently, Etsy is growing a great place to NOT sell craft arts.
Newness fails… eventually. Charge full price.
Good points, Kevin. You’re right, in the end it’s about 99designs growing their business, but without helping others grow their own.