Ask the Experts, Question 10:

What can I do to entice top webmasters to apply for my award?

by Dave Selig, Webmaster, Ultraweb Awards
14 July 2002

Print Version

Wally Gross, Webmaster Surfers Choice Internet Awards

Editor's Choice

Webmasters of high quality sites are certainly aware of the benefits a recognized and credible award can bring to their own sites, but they will be extremely careful about which award sites they apply to. So, it would appear that the first order of business for any award site owner who wants to increase applications from high-end websites is to establish both recognition and credibility for his site.

Recognition and credibility come in two forms — instant and time branded. The former is achieved by creating a high quality website, such as the Webby Awards or the Maestro Awards, to name just a few. Both of them exude commitment to their purpose, and their superb aesthetics result in both recognition and credibility. Applicants immediately see that earning their awards will be worth the effort (and the fee in the case of the Webby Awards).

To this writer a domain of its own is a must for any serious award program. Credibility and branding are hard to achieve behind a subdomain on some free hosting service. The Webby Awards and the Maestro Awards have their own dedicated domains, of course.

Both these award sites are also time branded through many years of providing exemplary services. This branding is a function of time, persistent marketing and the provision of high quality services. Spend some time visiting them and it's easy to realize why they are two of the very best the Internet has to offer.

Having said all this, it's still critical that webmasters of high quality sites see a clear and immediate benefit to earning any award. What is your site doing to meet this need? Here are a few services you can offer for the benefit of your award winners:

This is only a short list and I am not saying that all of them are necessary to attract owners of top-notch websites, but you must provide services that clearly market your winning sites. If you have created an award site that presents a unique approach or offers something that others don't, then sending out a press release is a proven attention getter if it's done right. Both you and your winners will benefit from it.

Does your award do for a winner what an academy word does for a movie? Or what an Espy does for an athlete? Or what winning a Major does for a golfer?

Perhaps your award will never achieve this type of recognition. It takes many resources, which may not be available to everyone. However, making the effort to achieve these lofty ideals will raise your award to a higher level, and the benefits to you and your award recipients will be well worth it.

Geetha Thirunakkarasu, Webmistress
Geetha's Web Design Awards (program closed)

Top webmasters want to win awards that are difficult to win, so don't just give your award away. Establish a high standard and make them earn it. Your evaluations should always be honest, and your list of winners should reflect your high standards.

Your own website should also meet the standards you establish for your award. If your criteria states that content is important, then your content should be interesting and well presented. If it focuses on design, then your site should be perfectly designed. Set a good example and your award program will become more credible.

Get your program rated by good rating organizations. Keep improving it until you achieve a high rating. Higher rated awards are usually more difficult to win, and they are highly valued by the top webmasters.

Dunja Zeyss, Webmistress
Dream Worker Award

The best way to entice top webmasters to apply for your award is to have a well designed program with clear criteria and a beautiful award graphic.

Webmasters who have already earned a lot of prestigious awards, like the highly rated ones at AS! or the WTA's, are normally harder to satisfy. Their sites are really good and they are seeking recognition from awardmasters who are setting high standards of web design.

They're not applying to "average" award givers for their awards. The top webmasters are only interested in receiving awards from awardmasters who are creating websites and award programs that are examples of high quality web design.

So, create an excellent award program with a high standard of design and a beautiful award graphic. If you do this, the top webmasters will apply for it :-))

Malcolm Hemming, Webmaster
Red Dragon Wales Award

Mmmm. The fox is well and truly in the henhouse over this one. My first reaction would be, who are the Top Webmasters? The question is not quite definitive enough. Do we mean Awardmasters or Webmasters?

If we mean Webmasters, I feel we will never entice them. They are Webmasters and Webmistresses who simply do not wish to be bothered with the rigmarole of applying for awards. As one very good website author said to me, "I am more interested in putting up a website that is a benefit to the web community than being awarded for doing so." Bang, that's the end of that. Heck, I'd love to have had my award on that site. It was very, very good.

If we mean Top Awardsmasters and Mistresses of AS! or Webs Awards, I don't know. Personally, I ask the question, "Do I want to display that award on my website?" Is the award graphic of such quality as to make me want to read the criteria? Is the criteria of sufficient standard as to make it worthwhile applying?

With regard to the very top sites of AS!, we will never get them to apply for they are a clique. Rightly so. Look at their sites. Most of them only apply for awards among themselves and the higher echelon of AS!

Having said that, surely it is the prerogative of everyone to apply for whatever award they wish. Whilst my award programme is not rated with AS!, I still rate it as a good one. It has to be. I have two evaluators, Gary and Debbie of Scoff and Scuff in Canada, who have an AS! 4 rated award programme. I have a feeling they would not evaluate for me if they didn't like my programme.

In closing, perhaps it is a pity that those highly ranked sites do not apply for unrated or lower rated awards now and again. It would be such an encouragement for the Awardmasters. As the old saying goes, "with a little encouragement from little acorns do mighty oaks grow."

Jerry Tucker, Webmaster
JerryD's Online Award Program

What can you do to entice top webmasters to apply for your award? First and foremost, check out each of the "Top Award Sites" thoroughly to see how their award programs are set up. They were developed over a period of time by experienced award givers, and they are good examples of how to set up a program.

Most webmasters do not like to go from page to page just to get to the application form. Don't have more than 4 or 5 pages for them to read. Instead, place a menu at the bottom of your award program with links to the other pages, such as ethics, process, purpose, tips, and so forth. Let them know that they will be able to return to where they were in your program after they read these pages.

Also, they don't like to look for passwords. If you want to entice top webmasters to apply for your award, then avoid using passwords and try not to bore them with "must read every page of your award program" just to get to your application form.

Raven Bren, Webmaster
Raven Awards (program closed)

There are several things you can do to entice the top webmasters, or any webmasters, to apply for your award.

Promotion: No one will know of you if you are invisible. Be sure to promote your program in search engines and listings. Consider having your award rated by a quality organization.

Promote your winners, too. Not only on the winners list, but also in newsletters, mailers, on your site, etc. Find as many ways to reward them as possible. You might also consider inviting webmasters to apply for your award. Don't be disappointed if they decline the offer.

Value: How valuable is your award? Is it given away, easily earned, or completely generic in nature?

If you said "yes" at least once, end your quest for the top webmasters right now. Hard as that may sound, these kinds of awards are not challenging to earn, and easily earned awards have little value.

A valuable award may be rated. Consider who rates it and what the rating is. This doesn't mean that a non-rated award can't be as valuable as a rated one. I know several awards that have no rating and are among the best on the Net.

Your winners list will speak volumes about the value of your award. It is better to have five of the very best sites on your list than to have 50 so-so sites.

Reputation: This goes hand in hand with an award's value. Not only is the reputation of the award considered, but the reputation of the programs' webmaster as well.

I've seen the "Greatest in the Universe" type of award. When I happen to mention one, I sometimes hear others say, "oh, that is the most corrupt site around. They only award their friends. They never judge every site fairly by their own criteria, or they change their criteria whenever they don't want to award an applicant."

Your reputation is on the line by the criteria you set out and how you follow it. Are there sites on your winners list that are clearly below your criteria standards? If so, you need to re-evaluate your criteria for you could get stuck with a poor reputation in the community.

These are the points I look for when seeking an award. Not everyone will desire the same things. Some may be into a stunning graphic or an award from a site that is much like their own. For example, a flash site seeking flash awards.

In the end, you probably won't entice every top webmaster. If you've caught a few and your winners list boasts some truly priceless sites, you can be happy with what you've accomplished. Good luck!

Wendy Sears, Webmistress
Assess Risk Web Award

First of all we need to define what we mean by "top webmaster." Generally the top webmasters are those who set high standards and maintain them. Sometimes these standards are judged objectively by awards organisations, and top webmasters receive accreditation that reflects their standards. On other occasions, webmasters are judged by their peers and the title "top webmaster" is attained as a result of a consensus of opinions.

So how do we entice such people to apply for our awards? Firstly, you have to set your own standards as high as possible and make sure you continue to meet them. I am not suggesting that to attract a top webmaster you must be using the state of the art technology — although it never hurts. At the very least, however, you should adhere to some of the more basic principles of design, such as consistency, functionality, and clarity.

Think to yourself, "would I want an award from a site with half the links failing to function and created by a webmaster who thinks a flashing yellow text on a fluorescent mauve background is the height of good design?" (Rushes off to upload a new background.) If your answer is "no," then why should a top webmaster be any more attracted to an award from such a program?

Secondly, and this may seem somewhat superficial, the award graphic itself may attract a top webmaster. Or, to make it sound a tad less superficial, a poor award graphic may deter the potential applicant. On the other hand, perhaps it's not as superficial as it sounds. This is allied to the issue of standards. A good awards graphic can reflect — or at least give the impression — that standards are being maintained.

Thirdly, affiliations with certain award organisations may entice top webmasters. If the top webmaster is part of the same awards organisation that you belong to, then attaining your award may result in points being awarded to the webmaster. Sufficient points can result in accolades or accredited awards. This may be a sufficient inducement, or at least it can give pause for thought.

Three ways have been discussed above. In reality, however, the answer to the question "What can I do to entice top webmasters to apply for my award" should be "the same thing that would entice me to apply for an award."

Rob Ford, Webmaster
Favourite Website Awards

To entice top webmasters to apply for your award, you need to be a top webmaster yourself. You have to convince them through your award program that you know what you are doing.

Contrary to popular opinion, I firmly believe the award graphic itself is really not important. Many top webmasters are not able to display award graphics because their clients will not allow it. Some top recognitions no longer offer an award graphic because they are concerned that the graphics give the impression of a broader endorsement than they intended.

Exposure is one of the key issues to attracting top webmasters. I have often read how winning awards does not increase traffic directly. This is a myth, but it can apply to a huge majority of awards. The bulk of award programs do not receive high traffic because they forget that content drives traffic.

The main content of any award program is its winners, so don't hide them. Give your winners maximum exposure to drive as much traffic to them as possible, and publish new winners on a regular basis (FWA tries for a new latest winner every other day). Scouting for sites to award will pay huge dividends in the long run if your applications fail to give you a fresh and regular supply of winners.

If you are able to build a reputation for having a regular flow of top quality winners, you'll find that design and web news editors, site scouts and leading authorities in the target audience will come looking for content and winners for their own projects. This helps to promote your winners elsewhere, such as Yahoo for their "Pick of the Day." It's the snowball effect.

Top webmasters do not want to spend a long time reading criteria or looking for passwords, so keep things as simple as possible. Yes, you have every right to expect applicants to show respect and read your pages of criteria, DQs and self-tests. But if you want the top webmasters to apply, then you have to make it easy.

To summarize, top webmasters want exposure and recognition from a proven and well-respected source. Build a quality award program, make it easy to apply, and they will come looking for your award.

Míc Miller, Webmaster
Beehive Awards

To attract top webmasters, it helps to have the press endorsing your award. Try to get Vanity Fair to say your award is "better than the Oscars" or the Los Angeles Times to profess your program is "the only awards show for Internet sites that matters."

Next, get some partners to defray costs and help monitor your program by auditing the results to ensure fairness. PricewaterhouseCoopers and Neilsen//NetRatings are good choices, but avoid Arthur Anderson.

Having well-recognized sponsors for your program will impress top webmasters, lend credence to having a top-award program, and cover operational expenses. Try to get big-name sponsors, such as Hewlett-Packard, RackSpace and International Data Group who can also help by providing technical expertise and services.

Of course, having an impressive award graphic goes a long way in attracting top webmasters. Better yet, consider having a physical award. This is easier to do than you think. Just get an automotive parts catalog and find a part that confounds everyone and mount it on a base that can be engraved. I suggest a clear acrylic or crystal base as they are more elegant than wooden ones.

Top webmasters like to be grouped with other top webmasters, so make sure your winners' list is impeccable. Also, try to get some well-known sites as winners. Safe bets are Amazon.com, Google and Yahoo!. You will also want your winners' list to be regarded as "hip" and "killer," so you had better include some "avant garde" sites such as KaZaA, The Onion, and The Osbournes. And let's not forget about opportunity and broadening your award's audience appeal. These are easily accomplished by having two or three dozen award categories.

You will also need a short and sexy name for your award as well as a high-minded one for your organization — names that convey glamour and authority, respectively. Avoid names with "elite" and "prestigious." They are dead giveaways that you are a pretender, not a contender. "The Webbies" is a great name for an award. Since this name is already taken, try a different spelling. The same goes for your organizational name. If you were a top webmaster, which would you be more impressed with: The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences or the name of a flower?

Having a fun gimmick can endear your program to the world. This gimmick can be something as simple as limiting award-acceptance speeches to five words. Of course, acceptance speeches need a podium, so you had better plan on renting an auditorium for an awards banquet. This is expensive — even with sponsors — so collect hefty entry fees and promote your award everywhere you can. Hopefully, you are photogenic and will be asked to appear on Good Morning America.

Doing all this is a lot of work, as you can imagine, so make your award annual. This should increase your award's prestige and save your sanity.

Moral: To entice top webmasters to apply, convince them you have a top award.