Forum Moderators: phranque
He got an award from a magazine he pays huge $$$ for advertising, so they gave him a "best product page" award. The magazine is not the most important one, but it has a good sounding name and the graphics for the award looks nice. Also they gave quite a lot of big, big companies awards too (which they probably didn't care about) but could display their logos along with the other big-advertising-bucks-awards on their page thus adding "credibility".
So I want an award too. If possible, for free :-) Any chaps or magazines or blogs or websites or directories or whatever there desperate enough to give "awards" to anybody who can't run fast enough to avoid them?
Is that really worth it?
luckydude
If you act now, I'll even throw in this slightly dull, yet handy, set of Ginsu knives!
;)
Instead of a meaningless award, how about a testimonial from a customer? Or a quote from press coverage (if you have any)? Maybe a quote from an industry expect who's friendly to you might work... Think outside the (award) box!
Yeah, I know, it sounds silly (and it actually IS silly), but in order to compete with a competitor, I need (at least) one award for my website.
That's like saying a baseball team has to win the World Series before it can compete with another team that has. Hooey.
If the only difference between you and this competitor is that one of you has some award, maybe a better idea would be to figure out what you could offer they don't/can't. How can you present your services better? What makes you unique? What are some very happy clients that would make for a rockin' portfolio?
My site HAS content: Google has currently indexed 844 pages including several mailing lists hosted on my site (company related mailing lists in 3 languages both for end customers and for the press). My page rank was 6 for the frontpage and 5 for almost all other pages - but I changed my CMS a few weeks ago and even though I did permanent redirects all inner pages have PR0 now :-(
Yes, there's customer testimonials too. Lots of them. With source. There's even a random bullet phrase from the customer testimonials displayed on each page reload.
There's a press archive with press releases. There are lots of product pages, and even more background infromation / white-paper pages.
And if I try to step aside and take a critical look at the site through somebody else's eyes: my site DOES look better and offer more than my competitors.
Nevertheless: you go to a tradeshow or a seminar - and people talk about the Award this guy just won! Even does print advertising with it! They don't talk about his products - they talk about this award. Crazy, I know. But here we are...
Yes, I also thought about creating my "own" award - making a shiny logo and putting it up. But if anybody bothers to find out, this would be a big discrediting of my site.
So, after we all had some fun - any serious ideas?
So, after we all had some fun - any serious ideas?
Nope, can't think of a one.
You can't easily buy a link from CNN or the BBC. But, if you do a good job you might just get one. That makes all the difference in the world, and you got something for free that millions of dollars probably couldn't pay for.
He got an award from a magazine he pays huge $$$ for advertising, so they gave him a "best product page" award. The magazine is not the most important one, but it has a good sounding name and the graphics for the award looks nice. Also they gave quite a lot of big, big companies awards too (which they probably didn't care about) but could display their logos along with the other big-advertising-bucks-awards on their page thus adding "credibility".So I want an award too. If possible, for free :-) Any chaps or magazines or blogs or websites or directories or whatever there desperate enough to give "awards" to anybody who can't run fast enough to avoid them?
Awards that are worth having are either voted for by the public, or come from sources such as magazines with a decent circulation. There are a some rubbish awards out there that are nothing but an excuse to get you to link to them. Concentrate on your customers, and the right kind of kudos will come to you.
I agree with all the comments on this forum. BUT, IF an award really is that important to you. 'then do a search afterall on the NET for Awards and you'll come across a webmaster's awards group to which quite a number of award giving sites belong. Of these (100s?) there ARE those hokey crappy places that'll give an award to just about anyone, but then there are those who really DO put you through a stern process and are pretty tight about their award systems. 'although it all depends on whether your site really is All That.
Another thing to consider is the HipClicks
....formerly: Website of the Day mention at USA Today. Go to this page: [usatoday.com...]
and look for "Hip Clicks" I got my sites mentioned there once, but it took months for the review.
The payoff was Sweet since It brought 3 times the usual traffic over a 2-3 day period. 'and the page actually is archived, meaning it'll still appear in the SERPs.
& last but not least, if your site(s) is something that'll appeal to local gov't or major cultural organizations, then I'd get on the ball quick and start writing. Such exposure as a link back from one of them is in my opinion even better than any silly award. If you haven't already, then You could even begin considering giving free exposure to worthy non-profits in your area. Doing such things usually makes the "Good Will" come around like boomerang back to you, but again, we've no idea what your site is about.
hehe, if it's about sex or something like that, then disregard all of the above.
I understand it's general policy around here not to disclose what site in question one actually asks about. If you want to know, sticky me.
We manufacture and sell solutions in the 15K$ to 35K$ range worldwide - sometimes direct, sometimes via partners. The competitor in question mostly sells local, but this exactly is where he is giving us a hard time.
We ARE pretty good in local and federal authorities, but in my country they are pretty strict in NOT linking to non-governtment sites. Being a corporation is practically a no-go for getting a kink from a local authority or federal site.
Actually I DID do a web research in the meantime. It turned out I used all the wrong keywords before, because I looked for sites in my country resp. in my native language. It was only when I posted to the forum that I thought about international awards. Actually there are quite a lot of award giving sites. For "safety" I applied with two of we-give-awards-to-everybody sites, but there were a few others which give the impression to take it seriously. Since I believe my site IS good I applied with them as well.
Again - for everybody - if you want to know what the fuzz is all about - sticky me.
Not sure if that is of any help to your specific needs.
Well, as I mentioned in an earlier post in this thread, I applied "for safety" with some easy-to-achieve award programs, but I also applied for more thoroughly checked awards.
I have to admit, I'm a bit more relaxed now. Psychology is a strange thing.
However, I started to get doubts on the whole process. I'm still convinced that an award can not harm but having looked behind the scenes it looks pretty silly. And I'm beginning to worry that I might start an arms race with my competitor on who is going to get the most of these plaques. I'm not finished thinking about it yet...
Valid html? Then add a 3C tick logo to show that --
[validator.w3.org...]
(They've got an XHTML 1.0 tick at the bottom of their page)
Meet usability criteria? Then add a Bobby gong:
[bobby.watchfire.com...]
That'll put you right up there with some of the big guys.
pmkpmk, I know you are European-based, so maybe there is an association in Brussels that you are a member of. If you speak with the marketing manager there, they may be willing to give you an award. Especially if you offered to design it yourself and then let him/her get the glory for offering it out to other sites in your niche. Then again, it is probably extra work that they don't want to do.
Cheers,
Colin
I just recover from a nasty pneumonia I got at CeBIT and only now saw your post. Thank you for the compliments on my site - my two team colleagues (one intern, one regular designer) will be glad to hear them.
The Brussels-Idea is a nice one, even though we are not memeber of any association there. However at CeBIT I got approached by a magazine editor and they want to actually arrange for a shootout among several products. It's the very first time this will be done in our special industry (even though it is pretty common for other products) and I'm very confident that we will score high in this.
The award-discussion in mind I talked this editor in handing out some sort of plaques, medals or certificates for the top products to use in advertising/web. His magazin is a leading publication in this area, so any certificate/award they are going to hand out will be rather prestigeous.
In the meantime, I have received a few other awards. For one award I had simply to prove that I had top-10 ranking in at least 2 major search engines for a searchphrase I could pick myself. One had no special focus and gave me a "silver" award for site design. However the last one had the criteria of both a structured and non-intrusive design as well as search engine friendliness. I got a "silver" from them as well along with a long list of remarks and tips on how to further improve.
Thanks again for all the helpful - and all the funny - rmarks in this thread.
Are you seeing results against your competitor yet? Increased traffic, interest, etc.?
Also, we need to do the aftermath of CeBIT first - there have been some new movements. I'll update the thread once I make the awards visible.
Better Business Bureau [bbbonline.org] online reliablity and privacy programs.
Oh, they also link to you.
MM
pmac: Nice, but no use in Europe, am I right?
moneymancn: Your are absolutely right - and I have quite a lot of these on my site. The "award-thing" is just one tiny puzzle piece and not THE one and only important thing.
