A logo is not just a mark – it reflects a business’s commercial brand through the use of shape, fonts, color, and / or images.
A logo is for inspiring trust, recognition and admiration for a company or product and it is our job as designers to create an identity that will do its job.
Keep in mind-
1.    A logo must be describable
2.    A logo must be memorable
3.    A logo must be effective without color
4.    A logo must be scalable i.e. effective when just an inch in size
Simple logo is better: A complex logo can be difficult to reproduce and more importantly, difficult to remember. Better to have a simple logo for your main design,
Your logo is to appeal to your customers, and should be created with them in mind. You may be the most conservative person on the planet, but if you’re trying to market to the hip-hop crowd, your sensibilities are probably different than your ‘audience’. A logo that you ‘like’ probably won’t appeal to them.
A tagline is the phrase or few words that describe a company, or the company’s mission. Generally stated, taglines are featured under the logo (or in circular logos – around the logo). It’s always better to have that ever-so clever tagline as a separate element that you can add when appropriate.
The most important part of your logo project is the design itself. In the initial stages of any design the colors are of secondary importance.
If people can’t read your logo, it’s useless to have one. This sounds like dumb advice again, but it’s easy to get caught in creating letters or distorting a font until it becomes unreadable. Always stay aware of that when working on your logo.
Well… this one goes along with the first tip. First, photos are not vectors. Photos also don’t scale, have no branding value and are hard to adapt for any use.

Here are some LOGO Templates:

Credit: http://www.templatemonster.com/

Sources:

http://www.thelogofactory.com/

http://www.davidairey.com/

http://www.designer-daily.com/

Photo Credit:

www.survilagediminas.com/