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So you think you've built the best page around? What better way to emphasize that fact to your WebPage Visitors than by posting an award logo right on your site! Just imagine the PR value of an award seal right on your homepage for all who access your WebSite to see. Consider how much easier that would make it for you to justify to your family all those late nights you've spent sitting in front of your computer neglecting them. If you want to help build and maintain regular traffic to your site, an award seal is a great tool, not to mention a great source of personal satisfaction as well.
So how does one go about getting one of those coveted award seals? Are there web sprites that surf the 'Net constantly, just finding great sites upon which to bestow awards? The answer to that one is "NO"(unfortunately). One must apply for them. If you try using a Search Engine, you will find a number of awards sites, but there are a number of sites with an entirely different focus that happen to give awards for related sites or sites with a specific type of content. It can take many hours of surfing and less than fruitful results before one can turn up an array of awards awards for which one's site may be eligible. Here at I-Net Promo Central, we've made that task easier by supplying you with the Awards Worksheet. We ask that you download this page and view it in your browser so as not to take up too much of our own bandwidth. This will also make it easy for you to put notes in the appropriate table cells, such as "When an award was applied for", "Any status info that is known to you", or "Awards for which your site does not fit the criteria". If you view this page in your browser while you are connected to the Internet, the links to the various sites will work. We also include a Revisions Page that we update bi-weekly. You will want to check back on that one. Listed below are some tips to help you win your coveted award.
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One of the first things you want to be sure about is: Does your site really fit the criteria of the award? It takes time for reviewers to look over the sites of applicants, and nothing is more bothersome than a WebSite that is disqualified from square one. If you visit the pages listed, you will find that they spell out their criteria quite specifically. Secondly, follow their rules. Do not bother them with e-mails asking about your award status, especially if they specifically request that you do not do so in their award guidelines. Do not submit weekly to a site that only offers awards once per year. This will not win you "points" with them. Consider this also: while publicly slandering a site or webmaster on a WebPage may lead to legal hassles, you never know what someone might tell acquaintances in a chat room or private e-mails.
Be ORIGINAL. Someone has certainly already done a site on your favorite hobby or special interest or field of work. This does not mean you should scrap your idea, but look for ways to do it differently. Is there a way you can be updating your WebSite more frequently than many related sites do? Can you offer information from a wider variety of sources than others do? And what about presentation? Do all the pages in your site have a consistency of appearance? Is it easily navigable? A table of links to all areas of your site should appear on every page. A site map of some kind should be available from every page on your site. Don't forget about original graphics. You will definitely want to be using the latest Graphics Software and creating original images and animations. Of course, one must also consider balance. Too many flashing, blinking pictures, and thin content, can also turn off a reviewer, in addition to any potential repeat visitors. Jazzing up your site with advanced JavaScript features may also be a good idea, but be CAREFUL! You don't want someone to find a series of error messages when they are reviewing your site.
Finally, you want your pages to have a quick download time. If you are using a lot of images that you just don't feel you can delete from your site, visit The GifCruncher On-Line, or any one of a number of on-line image optimization services that are available to you. It also helps browsers to download pages faster if you have used the HEIGHT= and WIDTH= attributes in all of your IMG tags. Try eliminating white space from your HTML documents. Get rid of unnecessary carriage returns. While they may have helped you to organize tables, forms and the like, they can increase a document's size and therefore load time. Many of the advanced web editing tools offer a compression feature that removes white space and will remind you if you have left out any attribute tags. For creating dynamic, exciting, yet compact graphics and optimized web pages, we highly recommend any of the high-quality products offered by MacroMedia, the developers of Flash Animation and DreamWeaver Web Authoring Software.
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In conclusion, remember that no matter what the content of your site, there is probably an award for which you qualify. We wish you well in your award submissions and pursuit of design excellence.