How to get a unique blog design on a budget

I am a business owner, husband, and father who has recently taken up blogging in some of my free time. Being a very technical person, but not always the most creative when it comes to designing graphics I started searching for ways to get nice website and blog designs on a budget. There are many sites where you can buy themes and templates for WordPress, but I was looking for a way to get a truly original design without breaking the bank. While it is ok to buy pre-made themes starting out, at some point you will want your blog to have its own unique design the helps communicate your message.

After quite a bit of searching I found Design Crowd. It is a site with over 70,000 designers worldwide. The way it works is you submit a brief that describes what you want designed and any specific details such as general color palettes you like etc. When you setup your project, you will be asked to name your budget. A basic logo starts at $240 and a small website design starts at $340. Once you complete your project setup, you may browse designer portfolios and invite designers to your project. In 24-48 hours you will usually start getting designs. As designs come, you continue to give the designers feedback to get it just right. When your project reaches its ending deadline, you pick the design you like and the money is released to the designer. Design Crowd offers a 100% money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. Thus far, I’ve been happy with the results I’ve received and haven’t found the need to get a refund.

There are a few things to consider when setting your budget, the higher your budget the better designs you will get. I generally don't start at the minimum budget allowed, but usually increase it so that the designer will get $300-$400 out of the project. After all, as Christians it is important to pay someone what their time and skills are worth. Also, don’t expect the first designs received to be the best it is an iterative process.

I have used this on a couple of websites that I am creating and it is working great so far. I hope that other bloggers and Christian web master's out there find this useful. You can also watch the short video below for a quick overview of how Design Crowd works.