Seeing as most businesses have a limited marketing budget, a new and attractive option for webmasters and small businesses might be to use crowd-sourcing.

Unlike hiring a freelance professional to do the work, you can put it to the crowd instead! They can write your code (like at www.cambrianhouse.com), give you ideas, advise you in certain areas (like at www.innocentive.com or www.linkedin.com) and even design your website for you (such as at www.sitepoint.com/contests)!

Aside from the obvious benefits such as price, competition and the chance to advertise your project – you don’t have to pay for the designs you don’t use. To top it off, you can define a strict creative brief for your crowd of designers to abide by.

Despite the fact I haven’t used it yet, the quality of the content produced at Sitepoint.com seems to be quite promising. Just take a look at this contest for an Autism site.

Not only do the designs look professional, but at the cost of a few hundred dollars, it seems to beat the prices of a LOT of graphic designers out there.

Has anyone actually tried one of these services out? Or have you been scared off by something? I know submitting your work to the internet can publicise it to your competitors but for many people I can see it being a fantastically viable option. Checkout Crowdsource for more alternatives.