Award Sites

[wquinn]

What do you all think of applying for awards as a way to get more traffic? Is it worth the time? Which awards have you had luck with?

What about creating an award of your own? Has this generated a quantity of traffic worth the management involved?

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Wendy Quinn
Freestuff Frenzy
Freebiesamples

[Doug]

Critical Mass Award gets me about 350+ uniques a day on a consistant basis. I didn't even apply for it to my recollection..but the award and the link sure worked for me. It is considered a 4.0 level award, and the site is a top level links site. Most all the awards I've won..even at higher levels have not turned up many visitors..but ANY links anywhere (except FFA) are good for biz what?
Critical Mass is www.atlantic.net/~bdarl
Not a 'shoo-in' to win.. so good luck.

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Doug
http://www.MysterySea.com

[Chazhound]

I have researched the website award system
for a project I was doing last year.
During the process I found several interesting ways to use the awards for websites. I was awarded over 300 awards
during this project for two different sites.

Some of the awards have produced alot of hits and I still get about 4-500 uniques a day from award links.

My top traffic producing awards includes some of the top ones, like the Superb and Surfer's Choice, WebPix, Nem5, OD Cool Site Award, Jim's Tools Select Site, Hit Box Review Award, and The Argus Clearinghouse Listing.
Most of these are tough to get but you by no means have to be a design wiz. (I certainly ain't)

Many others produce tremendous hits but are more content specific like the Recommended by CoolFreebieLinks. A good listing in this example will get you about 100-200 a day.
I have one dog award which brings in about 400 hits a week.

Some awards don't bring you many hits but they sure bring a certain prestiage that is known and respected by alot of surfers.
Awards like the Key Site Award, The Learning Fountain, 2112 Design Award, and The Helpware Award from Internet Brothers, don't produce alot of traffic but sure look good on the mantle.

Awards are one way to reinforce your quality, integrity, and stability to your visitors.
A planned award submission strategy would benefit most websites.

Just my 2 dogbones.
Chazhound http://www.chazhound.com

[Chazhound]

O'yeah, forgot to add....
My two critical mass awards bring me squat http://geekvillage.com/ubb/frown.gif

Chazhound http://www.chazhound.com

[Steve_S]

Hello,

I'm locking and moving this thread to our new "Site Promotion Forum.

Please join us http://geekvillage.com/ubb/smile.gif

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Your Administrator
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[MagicMan]

How about going the other route? While the awards we win bring in small amounts of traffic, the awards we GIVE bring in huge amounts of traffic. Not only from the linked sites, but also from the people looking for awards. And if your site happens to be interesting to them, you got yourself another another regular. So, make up a cool looking award, set up your criteria, get rated by a couple of the larger award sites, and give them away. Just be warned, you will receive 40-50 award requests per day. And you have to go and review these sites and give the awards out in order to keep your rating, and possibly improve it. It's work, but well worth it in terms of visitors and conversions. Using the standard 3 of 10 rule, 50 people a day applying for awards equals 15 people a day who bookmark your site and will return.

[Chazhound]

Excellent point, MagicMan.
I know of a web designer who gives
away a five level award and most
his traffic and customers are
generated through his award program.
So it sure pays off big for him.

I have a little different route I take.
Rather than look at 30-40 websites a day, I
give out a Big Dog Award and now a Funny Dog
Award. Any dog can enter, offline or online.
This way I just have to look and select winners from my mailbox and browser once a month.
It is amazing how many people try to win the
Big Dog Award. Thank goodness as it takes about 50-80 pictures to get just one good enough to post.
Now I have regular visitors who bookmark just
to see the next set of winners http://geekvillage.com/ubb/wink.gif

It doesn't take near as much time and I still benefit from the return traffic and visitor participation.

This can be done at any theme related site especially postcard and picture galleries.

If I ever can find a script that will automatically run an awards program where I can just run it from my browser and auto emails, I will consider giving out a
website award.
(There's an idea for one of you adventurous programmers)

Warm woof,
Chazhound http://www.iStockCar.com http://www.FunnyPostcard.com

P.S.- I submitted my iStockCar.com site
for the Critical Mass Award yesterday
after reading the unique hits Doug received.
I received notice today that I WON!
I have it up so I will monitor the traffic it brings and report back. This makes my 3rd Critical Mass award http://geekvillage.com/ubb/wink.gif

Wish I could win some $$ awards http://geekvillage.com/ubb/frown.gif