Awards

Awards are nice to receive after having put a lot of effort (or not) in your site. If you haven't got one yet for your killer design, you are at the right place. You undoubtedly have seen several sites around the net showing off their nice, shiny awards. Then you wonder: "Why haven't I got an award? My site is at least just as good!". The truth is, you can't receive an award, if you don't apply for one. Those other sites don't get their awards straight out of nothing, they've applied for it!

There are numerous award sites available on the net, with most of them legitimate ones, and others which look more like link-exchanges. Some award site only allow non-commercial sites, while others only allow corporate websites.

Read through the criteria of each award website carefully, some only accept non-frames sites, or any java-applets. A lot of people miss out awards because they didn't read the criteria fully. If you were planning to get some extra hits with your new acquired awards, you will probably need to have a superb site(a good site anyhow, to get an award), since the most prestigious awards are usually only showcasing the winner(s), which often leads to more hits. If you're just planning to show off to your friends with your award, well then, you're having the wrong attitude towards webdesigning, in my opinion.

If you haven't won, don't be discouraged. Web design can be fun and profitable, so don't let it get yourself down, see it has a challenge to learn more and improve your site.

Here are some tips on getting yourself an award:

• don't spam the award site with numerous requests
• no adult sites
• make sure the site is finished, so no "under construction" signs
• get your loading time down, nobody wants to wait an eternity for your website
• no broken graphics and 404 errors
• have some content, unless you're running a link-exchange site
• write out your name, website URL, title, etcetera out in Notepad, and just copy and paste everything in your browser, that saves you a lot of time if you're applying for multiple awards

Some award sites to get you started:

• http://www.coolsiteoftheday.com - one of the most prestigious awards, if you win this one, you'll get some hits for sure
• http://www.awardsites.com
• http://www.netguide.com/aboutus/aboureviews.html (Link no longer exits)
• http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/webfaq.htm (Link no longer exist)
• http://www.awardsites.com

Well, this was my first piece of creative writing. I hope this was informative as well as a bit of entertaining (don't want this to be a pain in the back to read) =). Until we meet again.

Cheers,
Kang He

Be the first to write a comment