(Image source: jeffmorinart.com)

To give a naturally personable and approachable feel to your marketing efforts, it can be valuable to make use of cartoons and cartoon-like visuals. This can be very effective both online and offline, making good use of humor and caricacture to lighten the mood. However, most people are not very skilled in this style of illustration.

Thankfully, just as there are freelance writers who specialize in different types of written content, there are artists who are cartooning experts. They can be great for the creation of mascots, single-frame comics, and so much more. Here is a selection of 20 such freelance cartoonists that can accept your outsourced design projects.

1. Jeff Morin
Website: Jeff Morin Art
Specialties: Humor, cartoony comics, vector art
Samples: Portfolio

2. Geoff Olson
Website: Geoff Olsen Words and Pictures
Specialties: Political commentary, social commentary
Samples: Portfolio

3. George Coghill
Website: George Coghill Illustrator
Specialties: Bold cartoons, mascot design, commercial illustration
Samples: Portfolio

4. Kevin Duffy
Website: Kevin Duffy’s Cartoons
Specialties: Public relations, advertising, newsletters
Samples: Portfolio

5. Joel Watson
Website: HijiNKS Ensue
Specialties: Full color cartoon-style illustration
Samples: Portfolio

6. Denis Blandford
Website: Denis Blandford
Specialties: Portraits, business cartoons, satire, caricature
Samples: Portfolio

7. Kev Brockschmidt
Website: Kev’s Cartoons
Specialties: Science fiction, comic strips, religion, humor
Samples: Portfolio

8. Dan Gibson
Website: Daily Cartoons
Specialties: Caricature, humor, boldly colored cartoons
Samples: Portfolio

9. Kenny Velez
Website: Kenny Velez
Specialties: Comics, illustrations, storyboards, detailed realism
Samples: Portfolio

10. Kevin LeBlanc
Website: Ink Monkey Sweatshop
Specialties: Comic strips, humor, murals, logos, animals
Samples: Portfolio

11. D.J. Coffman
Website: Will Draw Anything
Specialties: Caricatures, greeting card art, spot illustrations, avatars
Samples: Portfolio

12. Jamie Sale
Website: Jamie Sale – Cartoonist
Specialties: Character design, comic strip art, general custom cartoons, modern style
Samples: Portfolio

13. Starline Hodge
Website: Candi Comics
Specialties: Comic strips, simple drawings
Samples: Portfolio

14. Sergio Ordóñez
Website: SOS Factory
Specialties: Logo design, mascot design, comic characters
Samples: Portfolio

15. Richard Deverell
Website: Richard Deverell
Specialties: Greeting cards, children’s books, politics, humor
Samples: Portfolio

16. Jim Huber
Website: Jim Huber
Specialties: Editorial cartoons, humor, political cartoons
Samples: Portfolio

17. Dan Danglo
Website: Dan D Toons
Specialties: Character design, gag cartoons, comic book penciling
Samples: Portfolio

18. Lee Healey
Website: Freelance Cartoonist
Specialties: Comic strips, caricature, funny characters
Samples: Portfolio

19. Jerry Emerson
Website: Emerson Art
Specialties: Caricature, magazine cartoons, gag cartoons, character creation
Samples: Portfolio

20. Vicky Liu
Website: Vckystxx.com
Specialties: Stick figures, comic art, comic strips
Samples: Portfolio

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(Photo: kryczka / iStockphoto)

If you’ve got a design project in mind, going directly to a freelancer is often the best choice. While other options, such as crowdsourcing, are available, a good freelancer will be able to work with the ideas you have for your project and can meet the exact specifications you need. Furthermore, the act of choosing a freelance designer and the tasks that go with it can help you clarify what you want from you project — just looking through a portfolio can offer a wealth of ideas. Here are 25 freelance graphic designers that will get you started in finding the help you need.

1. Barry Harley
Website: TerraGenesis
Specialties: Sustainable designs
Samples: Portfolio

2. Jeremiah Tolbert
Website: Clockpunk Studios
Specialties: WordPress, authors and publishers
Samples: Portfolio

3. Phelan Riessen
Website: Digithrive
Specialties: Web design
Samples: Portfolio

4. Todd Adkins
Website: Born To Design
Specialties: Branding
Samples: Portfolio

5. Travis King
Website: Green Tea Design
Specialties: Web design
Samples: Portfolio

6. Melissa Ek
Website: ekMEDIA
Specialties: Logo and web design
Samples: Portfolio

7. Raffi Darrow
Website: R-Design
Specialties: Sustainable design, branding
Samples: Portfolio

8. Lara J. Kisielewska
Website: Optimum Design & Consulting
Specialties: Branding, marketing materials
Samples: Portfolio

9. Jason Holland
Website: Jason Holland Design
Specialties: Branding

10. Lifeline Design
Website: Lifeline Design
Specialties: Marketing materials
Samples: Portfolio

11. Becky Davis
Website: Becky Davis Design
Specialties: Small businesses
Samples: Portfolio

12. Nickel Fish Design
Website: Nickelfish Design
Specialties: Marketing
Samples: Portfolio

13. Derek Mantz
Website: Derek Mantz Design
Specialties: Branding
Samples: Portfolio

14. Sibyl Edwards
Website: digital utopia designs
Specialties: Rich media
Samples: Portfolio

15. Kate Tallent
Website: Kate Tallent Design
Specialties: Marketing materials
Samples: Portfolio

16. Andy Stratton
Website: Andy Stratton
Specialties: Web design
Samples: Portfolio

17. Spencer Cross
Website: Tokyo Farm
Specialties: Branding
Samples: Portfolio

18. Kostandinos Baltzoglou
Website: Kostandinos
Specialties: Illustrations
Samples: Portfolio

19. Megan Prusynski
Website: Megan Prusynsk
Specialties: Sustainable design
Samples: Portfolio

20. Aaron Ellison
Website: Aaron Ellison
Specialties: Web design
Samples: Portfolio

21. Emily Gonsalves
Website: Emily Gonsalves
Specialties: Illustration
Samples: Portfolio

22. Diane Call
Website: DIANE CALL design
Specialties: Branding
Samples: Portfolio

23. Christy Lai
Website: Colorcubic
Specialties: Branding
Samples: Portfolio

24. Mitch Goldstein
Website: Hypothesis
Specialties: Print design
Samples: Portfolio

25. Rachael Arnott
Website: Scots on the Rocks
Specialties: Branding
Samples: Portfolio

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(Image: arcoss / iStockphoto)

If you’re unfamiliar with the practice of crowdsourcing design work, check out this post and then zip on back.

Since first reading Sean Johnson’s excellent post on how to crowdsource designs last April, I’ve had the experience of running several design contests. 99designs has been my preferred venue, but there are others out there such as crowdSPRING and LogoTournament.com.

So what has my experience taught me? Here I share:

1. Talent hub. If you need an ongoing designer, crowdsourcing is a great a way to identify global talent. Most of the contest participants are freelancers or small design companies.

2. Not the best-of-the-best, though. Don’t open up a contest thinking that the world’s top designers are going to participate. By in large, top designers don’t need sites like 99designs to serve as an income funnel. Positive word-of-mouth keeps these folks so busy they sometimes have to walk away from work.

3. Exceptions to #2. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a top designer who is competing for pride or self-improvement, or using the site as an initial marketing tool to showcase his or her work. Often times top designers from international locations will compete for the mighty U.S. dollar, but that’s not always what you want…

4. Careful with cultural differences. If your website, for example, targets a national segment of the world, such as the U.S. sports market, non-national designers might not be able to capture the cultural subtleties that are critical to creating a unique, relevant user experience. Can you overcome these barriers? Assuming language isn’t an issue, yes you can, but be prepared for serious overhead. If you’re confident that you know the best way to implement design concepts down to the pixel, and are willing to sacrifice your time (the monetized value of which might be recouped by lower cost of labor, however), then by all means.

5. Actively recruit designers from the community. Because the talent pool can be limited, carve out some time each day over the course of your contest period and talent-search designers from other contests. Send an invite to the those that look good, especially ones competing in the same design category as your contest and who possess a high contest award win rate. (A good win rate is anything above 15%.). Expect about a 20% invite-conversion rate; although, that gets even lower the later you are in your contest period. Designers usually need a few days to submit a design; they’re probably vying in multiple contests.

6. Money attracts, unfortunately. No getting around the laws of economics. If you want the best designers and a lot of them within the community, jack up that prize amount. Be forewarned, though, that you still might not get what you expect.

7. Group think. One of the touted benefits of crowdsourcing is diversity of thought and, thus, creativity. The problem you can run into is that multiple designers quickly start to converge on a single concept. There may be ways to hide the design submissions, but I’m unaware.

8. Solitary flashes of creative genius are rare. The best and most-creative designs usually result from one person’s creativity feeding off of another’s. Asynchronous feedback mechanisms stifle this magical process. I’m not aware of any sites that offer live communication with the designer.

9. Tendency to downselect. Anytime you crowdsource from the damn world you’re going to get a lot of results. This can be more of a curse than a blessing. The best design results are teased out through continuous 1-on-1 feedback. That takes serious time. Consequently, your lazy inclinations quickly force you to pick one or two favorites and just focus on them. And because you end up investing so much time into a couple, and they into you, you feel obligated to pick one of your “initial favs,” even if a slightly better designer arrives late in the contest. (Or maybe I’m just a softy?) There’s a second consequence to downselecting. Designers downselect buyers — they bail early if they don’t get feedback. Why participate if you don’t pay attention? The problem is that I’ve seen designers whose initial submissions were hideous. And, then, later on absolutely submit a prize-worthy gem. Good design work is like good writing — it’s “80% editing.” You’re the red pen.

10. Avoid holiday contests. Maybe I was the opposite of smart on this occasion, but don’t open up contests over a major holiday period. *Tumbleweed*

The upshot? Sometimes the traditional route to acquiring your design needs is the best way to go.

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(Photo: jsmith / iStockphoto)

Persuasive presentations can win you new customers and funding for your ideas. Thoughtful presentations can establish or enhance your reputation as an expert in a specific field of study or line of work. Similarly, a poor presentation probably won’t win you anything and might even mar your credibility.

Microsoft PowerPoint is the number one tool for constructing and delivering media-based presentations. It’s also the most abused. Sitting through a poorly made presentation, or one where the presenter is reading from the slides, is pure torture.

Seth Godin, the grand master of presentations, has blogged extensively on how to use PowerPoint effectively. Here’s a list of some of his posts:

• Nine Steps to PowerPoint Magic
• The Best Presentation
• How to Make a PowerPoint Chart
• The Three Laws of Great Graphs
• Two Elements of Great Presenter
• Really Bad PowerPoint

Presentation-making isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, though. Even if you are bestowed with heavenly PowerPoint skills, like Seth Godin, the process of building a slidedeck can be downright tedious and time-consuming. If the content itself doesn’t cause you issues, the design and formatting probably will. In a world of imminent deadlines, orbital expectations, social pressures, and critical resource needs, you hardly need — and can afford — these sort of problems. You just need a kick-ass presentation. And this where professional PowerPoint jockeys ride-in to the rescue.

Hiring PowerPoint pros can be an expensive proposition, though. So you need to use them strategically — when you most need them. If you need to deliver a pitch to some VCs or to the Board, for example, you need one on your side. Some jockeys are so experienced that they’re able to offer valuable input on the actual content and structure of your presentation.

Most PowerPoint professionals provide three kinds of presentation services:

• Design — Includes the use Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Macromedia Flash in the presentation. Also includes custom template designs, audio and video implementation, custom images and graphics, modules, and standalone flash presentations.
• Production — Involves slide production, presentation makeovers, and use of images, animation, diagrams, charts, and graphs.
• Editorial — Transforms information supplied by you into content for the presentation slides. Also includes, copywriting, story boarding, content editing, and script writing.

So if you’re looking for the services of a PowerPoint pro, one of these ten should do:

1. i3mm

• Description: Owner Scott von Feltd has made presentations for CXOs, startups, and Wall Street analysts. He can help craft and polish your content as well as offer tips on how to present effectively.
• Sample Clients: Serves clients in a number of industries, including Legal, Pharmaceuticals, Financial Services, and others.
• Pricing: $125/hour.
• Turnaround Time: 10 simple text slides in one hour.

2. Promptwise

• Description: Promptwise specializes in PowerPoint design and production. It focuses on corporate presentation design, high-volume production outsourcing, and single presentation projects. The company can cater to both big and small companies.
• Sample Clients: Oracle, Sequence Solutions, IBM Educational Services, and Griffio Consulting.
• Pricing: $250 and up for production services and $500 per template design.
• Turnaround Time: Less than 3 business days.

3. Distinction Communications

• Description: Jim Endicott, the man behind Distinction Communications, believes that every good presentation is simply a well-told story. Apart from offering design and editorial services, Distinction can also develop graphics, assess pre-made presentations, and help refine your overall message.
• Sample Clients: Honeywell, Pixelworks, and AIG.
• Pricing: Average project with 15-35 slides can cost between $2,500 and $7,000.
• Turnaround Time: 5-15 working days.

4. Whit McCullough

• Description: Whit McCullough provides design and production presentation services. Samples of his work are available on his website.
• Sample Clients: DRS Technologies and Unicorn Winery.
• Pricing: Available upon request. To get an accurate estimate include project type, estimated number of slides, and specific services required.
• Turnaround Time: Depends on scope and timeframe of your project.

5. m62 Visual Communications

• Description: m62 specializes in design and production. The company also strives to educate its clients and visitors through interactive media and sample presentations, which are available on its website.
• Sample Clients: AIG, BBC, Hilton, CitiGroup, Microsoft, and P&G.
• Pricing: Available upon request.
• Turnaround Time: Depends on scope and timeframe of your project.

6. PowerPoint Hack

• Description: Gary Reichardt runs PowerPoint Hack; he has experience in designing and producing sales, litigation, and lecture presentations. Services offered include presentation development, editorial, and graphics and animation.
• Sample Clients: ABN Amro Funds, ACNielson, McDonald’s, and Tropicana Products.
• Pricing: $45/hour.
• Turnaround Time: Depends on scope and timeframe of your project.

7. Effusion Creative Solutions

• Description: This company aims to streamline the production process with a focus on open client communications. It offers design and production services.
• Sample Clients: Sage Advantage, Hanger, Tilt Media, and Mark Taylor Photography.
• Pricing: $2,500-$3,500 for small and mid-sized organizations.
• Turnaround Time: Depends on scope and timeframe of your project.

8. Propoint Graphics

• Description: This company specializes in design, production, and editorial services and possesses extensive experience in corporate presentations.
• Sample Clients: Showtime Networks, AT&T Media Services, The Princeton Review, and Tesco.
• Pricing: $250 minimum for a standard presentation.
• Turnaround Time: 3-5 business days for standard slides. 5-15 business days for flash presentations.

9. Enso Creations

• Description: Enso offers PowerPoint design and production services.
• Sample Clients: None available.
• Pricing: Available upon request.
• Turnaround Time: Depends on scope and timeframe of your project.

10. PresentationPoint

• Description: This company specializes in design and production services and asks its clients to concentrate on the content of the presentation while it takes care of the rest. The company also offers free PowerPoint templates.
• Sample Clients: Philips, LG, Nikon, IKEA, Microsoft, IBM, and Rolls-Royse.
• Pricing: Available upon request.
• Turnaround Time: Depends on scope and timeframe of your project.

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(Image: head-off / iStockphoto)

When you’re putting together a blog, outsourcing some of the writing is a good place to start. But you can outsource far more — from the actual setup and design of your blog, to SEO and marketing, there are a wide range of blogging professionals ready to help you. To help you get started, we’ve compiled a list of 50+ blog service providers — browse through their sites, look at their portfolios, and see which professional fits your blog’s needs.

1. Michael Martin (Pro Blog Design) — Design
2. Aaron Brazell (Emmense Tech) — WordPress, Plugins, Social Media, Theme Customization, Maintenance
3. Michael Martine — Consulting, WordPress, SEO
4. Telian Adlam — Design, Consulting, Marketing
5. Alister Cameron — SEO, Consulting, Monetizing, Social Media, Marketing
6. Brad Spencer — SEO, WordPress
7. John Wiseman (Blogging Squared) — SEO, Development, Design, Analytics, Maintenance
8. Ms. Crafty — Setup, Consulting, Management, WordPress, Theme Customization, Monetization
9. Jaclyn Schiff — Blog Consulting, Social Media Marketing, Content Development
10. Michelle Wolverton — Social Media, WordPress
11. Erin Blaskie (Business Services, ETC) — SEO, Marketing
12. Bill Erickson — WordPress
13. Chris Garrett — Content, Social Media, Development, SEO, Design, Analytics, Community Management
14. Sarah Lewis — Design, Setup, Consulting
15. Rich Brooks (Flyte) — SEO, Design
16. Brian Oberkirch — Social Media, Development, Design, Podcasting, Analytics
17. David Peralty — Development, Content, WordPress, Social Media
18. J. Angelo Racoma — Consulting
19. Randa Clay — WordPress
20. Raj Dash — Consulting, Setup, WordPress, Management, Marketing, Analytics
21. Dee Barizo — SEO
22. Judith Kallos — WordPress, Setup, Marketing
23. Praval Singh — Content, WordPress
24. Xavisys — Design, SEO, Content, Plugins
25. WebDev Studios — Plugins, WordPress, Design
26. Eddie Tejada — Plugins, WordPress
27. Michael Pollock (Solostream) — Design, WordPress
28. Twothirty — Design
29. Tinker Priest Media — Design, Consulting, Podcasting, Plugins, Setup, Maintenance
30. Peter Flaschner (The Blog Studio) — Design, Setup, Plugins
31. Tammy Hart — Design, WordPress, SEO
32. Brian Gardner (Studio Press) — Theme Customization, Management, Consulting, WordPress
33. studionashvegas — Custom WordPress Theme Development, Social Media, Design, Consulting
34. Jeff Mackey (SIX15 solutions) — Development, Management, SEO
35. Ponticlaro — WordPress
36. Ivan Minic (Pixelita Designs) — Design, Maintenance, Setup
37. Philippe Alexis (No Diamonds Web Services) — SEO, Plugins, WordPress
38. Mike Schinkel — Custom WordPress Plugins, Integrating WordPress to Other Websites
39. Jonathan Dingman (Fireside Media) — SEO, WordPress, Plugins, Consulting, Theme Customization
40. Lisa Sabin-Wilson (E.Webscapes Design Studio) — Design, Setup, Maintenance
41. Design Disease — Design
42. Mark Jaquith (Covered Web Services) — WordPress, Plugins
43. Dana Rockel (ContentRobot) — WordPress, Plugins, Designs
44. Matt Downey (45royale) — Design, Development, Maintenance, Analytics
45. Brian Groce (Watershed Studio) — Development, Maintenance, Podcasting, Setup, Theme Customization, Consulting
46. Alex King (Crowd Favorite) — Plugins, Design, WordPress
47. Vladimir Prelovac — WordPress, SEO
48. Jesse Gardner (Plasticmind Design) — Design, MovableType
49. Mihai Bocsaru (PRO IT Service) — MovableType, Marketing
50. Chad Everett (Everitz Consulting) — MovableType
51. Mark Bloomfield (The Yellow Llama) — WordPress, Design, SEO, Content
52. Creixems — Design, Setup, Plugins, Theme Customization, WordPress
53. Blog What? DESIGN — Design
54. Unique Blog Designs — WordPress, Design
55. Moxie Design Studios — Design

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(Image: Leontura / iStockphoto)

If you’re trying to build an online presence for yourself or for your business, you almost certainly have asked this question: “Who will make the website?” Often one of the most difficult parts about building a website is quite simply finding someone to build it. There are definitely a lot of web developers on the Internet. So many of them in fact it’s actually quite difficult to figure out whom to hire. As a freelance web developer myself, I’ve had the opportunity to meet and learn about some of the best. Here are 25 of them. Take a look at these developers’ portfolios and see if you like their style.

I hope that this list helps you find your own web developer. Be sure to leave a comment and let us know of other highly-skilled developers who should be on the follow-on list.

1. Richard McCoy
Areas of Expertise: Design
Sample Work: Live for the Outdoors, All Saints, Hello Cruise

2. Contemporary Multimedia
Areas of Expertise: Design, Development, 3D Animation, Flash Design, SEO, PPC
Sample Work: The Complete Retreat, CM Unity

3. Hamza Kahn-Cheema
Areas of Expertise: Agile Web Development, Ruby on Rails
Sample Work: China Dialogue, White Jewel

4. Bali Web Design
Areas of Expertise: Design, Database-driven App Development (ASP, PHP, Ajax, MySQL), Flash Animation, Flash ActionScript, Maintenance, SEO
Sample Work: AB Telecom Solutions

5. Adrienne Palmiere
Areas of Expertise: PHP, MySQL
Sample Work: Brokerbuzz.com, RoomSaver.com

6. Robert Geake
Areas of Expertise: CGI, Perl, PHP, MySQL, E-Commerce, HTML/XHTML, SEO
Sample Work: Brogdale Online

7. Jenski
Areas of Expertise: Design, Database-driven Apps, Java, HTML/XHTML, ASP, PHP, CSS, SQL, MySQL, JavaScript, C/C++, DirectX
Sample Work: Blue Stream Design

8. Andrea Gambedotti
Areas of Expertise: Flash, HTML, Graphic Design
Sample Work: Check out his personal page.

9. Olexiy Merenkov
Areas of Expertise: PHP, Perl, MySQL
Sample Work: Premiere Litho, ElBuenHabano.com

10. Stanislav Pavlov
Areas of Expertise: Design/Redesign, Development (PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, XHTML, CSS), Logo Design
Sample Work: KubanPC

11. Jim Callender
Areas of Expertise: Development (SEO, CSS, W3C)
Sample Work: See his portfolio.

12. Ben Robertson
Areas of Expertise: Design/Development, Maintenance, Copywriting, CMS, E-Commerce, Internet Game Design (Flash)
Sample Work: Athena 3D, Biowaste2energy

13. Jules Gravinese
Areas of Expertise: Ajax + SEO, Web 2.0, ColdFusion, CMS, Extranets, E-Commerce
Sample Work: Museum of Western Colorado, Emergent Success

14. Colin Miller
Areas of Expertise: Design, App Development, Maintenance, Database Integration, CMS, E-Commerce, Flash, SEO, Graphics
Sample Work: Open College of the Arts, Royal Society’s 350th Anniversary Campaign

15. Henry Hughes
Areas of Expertise: CLI, Apache, SVN, OOP, MVC, PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, XHTML/CSS, ActionScript
Sample Work: World Gold Council, Idea Creative Consultants

16. Chris Wheeler
Areas of Expertise: PHP, XHTML, CSS, JSP, ASP
Sample Work: Beeleaf Consulting, Gridline Engineering Limited

17. David McDonald
Areas of Expertise: XHTML, CSS, User Interface Design, Usability, Accessibility, SEO, W3C Standards Compliance
Sample Work: BHP Billiton, Victorian Detective Services

18. Lucía Otero
Areas of Expertise: Design/Development (CSS, Graphics, XHTML), WordPress, Ad Banners & Wallpapers
Sample Work: Wallpapers2003, El oasis de los postres

19. Paul Silver
Areas of Expertise: ColdFusion, PHP, SEO, Google Search Appliance and Mini Integration, XHTML/CSS
Sample Work: Simply Cleaning

20. Panurgo Design
Areas of Expertise: PHP, MySQL, Flash
Sample Work: Germat, Wilkok

21. Josh Huckabee
Areas of Expertise: Design, Ruby on Rails, Drupal
Sample Work: Drupal OpenID URL, MIT Simile Web Widgets

22. Özgün Koyun
Areas of Expertise: Ruby on Rails
Sample Work: VizURL, Halkina Vukati

23. James Sadler
Areas of Expertise: PHP, MySQL
Sample Work: AxelMusic, Fido

24. iBuildSite
Areas of Expertise: Flash, E-Commerce
Sample Work: articlezilla, SellYourWeddingDress.com

25. Steven Lucy
Areas of Expertise: Design, Various Programming Languages, Web-based Databases, E-Commerce
Sample Work: Gravityspot, Chicago Archive of Indigenous Literatures of Latin America

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