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What’s the value of a logo? Ask a company like Nike and you might say millions of dollars – but the truth is that, in 1971, Nike paid $35 for their logo. These days, the going rate for professional logo design is between $150 and $1,000. Those prices are coming down as the Internet provides a wealth of logo design contest sites and logo crowdsourcing sites, though!

Here are over 50 logo design resources I found online, from inspiration to awards, to contests and crowdsourcing, to blogs and history sites. Enjoy!

Crowdsourced Logo Design resources:

Crowdsourced sites have distribution networks of graphic designers who can submit logos. The winner is awarded the money. (Great for you… not always great for the designers!)

1. Astada – launch your own contest from $150.
2. Crowdspring – crowdsourced from $200.
3. DesignContest – launch your own contest from $250.
4. DesignCrowd – crowdsourced from $150.
5. Digital Point – post your own price and requirements in these forums.
6. eYeka – crowdsourced contests where you name your own price (upscale pricing and prizes).
7. 48hoursLogo – crowdsourced design from $79
8. Guerra Creativa – crowdsourced design from $150



9. GFX Contests – contests from $100
10. Graphic Competitions – competition from $1,000
11. Hatchwise – contests from $100
12. LogoMyWay – contests from $200.
13. LogoTournament.com – contests from $250
14. 99designs – crowdsourced designs from $211
15. MycroBurst – crowdsourced from $149
16. ZenLayout – contests starting at $250

Professional Logo Companies:

Agencies who provide logo services generally guarantee that their work is unique and work to match your logo to your overall brand.

1. Affordable Logo Design – packages from $45.
2. BusinessLogo.net – packages from $99.
3. BXC – branding company, request a quote.
4. Chillink – a marketplace for unique logos from $199.



5. Design Outpost – designs from $125
6. 4 Dogs Design – branding and design, call for quote
7. Infinity Logo Design – designs from $89
8. Kobia Interactive – submit for a free quote.
9. Kristian Andersen – branding agency.
10. Inkd – professional design packages from $99
11. LogoBee – designs from $199
12. Logodog – designs from $245
13. Logo Factory – logo designs from $395
14. Logo Design Team – packages from $149
15. Logo International Design Agency – contact for quotes
16. The Logo Loft – packages from $99.
17. LogoMagic.com – packages starting from $269.
18. LogoNerds.com – packages starting at $27.
19. Logotion – packages starting at $250.
20. Logoworks – from HP, designs from $299.
21. Marvel Logo Designs – packages starting from $49.
22. My Logo Design – designs from $149
23. The NetMen – design starting from $149.
24. STUDIO7DESIGNS – request a quote
25. Vistaprint – pre-made and automated logos starting for free utilizing their services.

Logo Inspiration Sites:

Perhaps you’d like to try to create your own logo or find a few inspiring ones to refer to! Here are some great resource sites for logos.

1. Blog-omotives – from branding consultant Jeff Fisher
2. Famous Logos – a website dedicated to bringing you some of the best news, reviews, and information related to the logo design industry.
3. iconic logo designers – a site dedicated to the best logo designers in history.
4. Logo Bliss – logo design inspiration and gallery site.



5. LogoPond – Logopond showcases the best in identity work from around the web. Logo artist from all development stages and areas of the world frequent this site.
6. Logo Blog – Logo Blog is dedicated to being the web’s premiere resource for logo design.
7. Logo Design Blog – Logo Designer Blog is a blog focused purely on branding, logo & identity design.
8. Logo Design Love – Logo Design Love is a website (and now a book) devoted to logos from graphic designer David Airey. Be sure to check out David’s post on 5 resources to download vector logos!
9. Logo From Dreams Awards – a blog with monthly submissions and a monthly winner.
10. Logolog – Logolog is a blog about logo design.
11. Logolounge – news and trends on logos.
12. Media Bistro – annual logo awards site.

Tips for your selecting your next logo design:

• You get what you pay for! Professional logo designers understand that, aside from communicating your brand, a great logo resizes well, looks good in gray scales, is unique and attractive, and works well to develop a web site around.
• Your logo isn’t your brand, it’s a representation of the brand you wish to present to the public. If your company hasn’t developed a branding guide or a brand marketing strategy, contact a branding agency that can help you. This often includes developing a logo for your company.
• Make sure that you are guaranteed an original logo. Some of the design contests and crowdsourcing sites are having problems with designers utilizing existing logo designs to make new ones. If this should happen to you, you should be able to get your money back. Be sure to utilize Google Image search to try to identify these cheats and report them to the site.
• Ensure that the cost of the logo includes delivery in a graphics format (typically vector – AI, EPS, or PS) so that you can use it for online, print, or any other needs.

This post was written by Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr is the founder of The Marketing Technology Blog. Doug is President and CEO of DK New Media, an online marketing company specializing in social media, blogging and search engine optimization. Their clients include Webtrends, ChaCha and many more.

Did you know Douglas Karr's book is coming out in August? You can pre-order Corporate Blogging for Dummies now on Amazon. Check out our new site, Corporate Blogging Tips, to find out what events that we'll be speaking at.

Got an event? Let us know that as well - we're looking forward to going on tour later this year.

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You can believe all the Forrester reports and eMarketer statistics you want, but the truth is when research firms survey people about social media, they normally ask social media people. Citibank asked more than 550 small business owners across America several questions about Internet and social media use for their companies. The survey, which wasn’t conducted by a social media-friendly company using social media tools to ask questions of a social media-adept audience, came back with some results many would find surprising.

They didn’t shock me. Wanna know what real businesses are doing with digital marketing? Here’s a few of the findings:

• 81 percent don’t (that means DO NOT) use social media
• 37 percent are not using their website to expand their business
• 84 percent don’t sell their products or services online
• 62 percent don’t use email for marketing purposes
• 65 percent do not use online advertising

We gotta long way to go, kids.

Yesterday I met with a marketing professional here in town. It was a great meeting and I truly appreciated some tough feedback I received about my corporate site. Simply put, I had put up a really crappy single page site 6 months ago and never got around to changing it.

I even had extensive work done with the assistance of Mark Ballard on a new site… flush with some great representative iStockphoto images. It was going to be amazing – if I ever had time to actually finish it.

Truth is, I’m not sure that I’ll ever have time to finish it. So… I cheated and found a fantastic theme that I was able to purchase and customize in a matter of hours. It kept me up until about 4 in the morning this morning, but the new site is simple, to the point, and provides all the information someone needs about what it is that DK New Media does.

I did violate one of my rules of design – putting the content with a white font on a dark background. That makes it more difficult to digest; however, I’m all about the glitz with this site and not really concentrating on visitors’ retention as much. This one page site is very unique (be sure to navigate and click through the services section).

There will be a partners section in the near future since that’s a large majority of my business strategy. Let me know how you like it so far, though!

This post was written by Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr is the founder of The Marketing Technology Blog. Doug is President and CEO of DK New Media, an online marketing company specializing in social media, blogging and search engine optimization. Their clients include Webtrends, ChaCha and many more.

Thanks for subscribing! download Doug's eBook on Blogging for SEO on us!

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Is there any truth to the recent rumours that a surge in soldiers’ protests on their conditions and the Iraq war in general have led the Pentagon to recently ban blogs and censor private emails?
I do find significant concern over the significance of such gestures as well as the possible ramifications of such potentially abusive actions from up-high but would like to hear your take on it.

A couple years ago, I remember when a blogger took Scoble on. The blogger invited Scoble to his event and then balked when Scoble requested travel and expenses be paid. Scoble responded online as well, and did a great job of it.

This week has been a tough (but very fun) week. I have Chapters due for my book, I’m completing 2 projects, and I’m still working with prospective customers. I touch a lot of people each week by phone, email, Twitter, Facebook, Plaxo… etc., etc. I’ve been scolded twice this week by readers who I haven’t responded to and one prospect that I underestimated the urgency on.

The prospect was my fault – I should have been tracking the company tightly. The readers are another story, though. I received a call where the lady said,

What is it with you Internet people – you don’t answer the phone, don’t answer email… don’t respond!

I didn’t apologize. Instead, I told her the truth. I have at least 20,000 new visitors per month to my blog, perhaps 250 comments (most are SPAM), and well over 100 requests. The requests are not requests for services, though. They’re simply readers looking for additional advice or information. I try to handle these via blog posts. I don’t always respond. In fact, I don’t typically respond.

Here’s an email that I just received today on the topic after I wrote my network and asked for their support in the Top 50 Indiana Blogs poll:

I’ve written multiple messages within your blog and sent you a number of different DM’s on Twitter asking for your opinions, ideas and suggestions on different digital marketing strategies and never once have I gotten a response from you. Being understanding, I know that you are a very busy man, with starting your new company and everything, which is why I never took your lack of responses personally (despite the fact that Chris Brogan, Beth Harte, Erik Deckers etc. have always answered questions for me).

That’s awesome that Chris, Beth and Erik have been able to keep up like this! I was up until 3AM and only completed reviewing and responding to email. I look forward to Chris, Beth and Erik’s advice on how I could possibly keep up with the number of requests that I get.

Yesterday, I was at the Masters of Business Online (fantastic event) and was flanked by 3 people… one was an associate, one was my Sales coach, and one was a customer. The associate and sales coach joked about me never answering the phone or emails they sent me. I looked at my customer and said, “Do I answer your phone calls and emails?”. “Yes,” he said, “… always… sometimes in the middle of the night! I think you work 24 hours a day.”

At times I believe the web and folks like Chris Anderson have done me and my business a great disservice. My landlord, my creditors, my utility companies, and vendors aren’t free. As a result, I can’t work for free. I must concentrate on:

1. Customers – these are people who pay for my products and services.
2. Prospects – these are companies with budget who are ready to become customers.
3. Word of Mouth Prospects – these are companies who have been referred to me by my network and my customers who know that a company has budget and are ready to become customers.
4. Other Requests – these are everything else… emails, form requests, phone calls, etc. These typically fall off my list because I’m working on 1, 2 and 3.

Am I missing opportunities because of this approach? Perhaps – that’s why I’m getting sales coaching here in Indianapolis. I have no idea. All I know is that “other requests” could take me months to review and respond… and I can’t afford to spend months doing that.

Readers are not customers. Subscribers are not even customers. That may sound harsh, but readers and subscribers are not paying for their subscription nor the information from this blog. I don’t have any service level agreement with readers or subscribers.

This blog is not a profitable enterprise and I’m not an Internet millionaire… far from it. I am working hard, though, to get it profitable. As soon as the blog pays all my bills, I’ll be glad to sit around all week answering my readers’ and subscribers’ requests. Until then… I need to go service my customers.

If you’d like to become a customer, reword your request. I joked with someone last night that I need to change my work voicemail to state, “Press 1 if you have budget!”. So… if you’re a reader or subscriber and looking for some free advice, please don’t get upset when I don’t respond. I truly am busy trying to pay the bills!

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