The Winners
Someone has sent in their site to be reviewed as part
of your awards program. If you've done everything
correctly, this should happen several times per week or
even per day. You could review them as they arrive, or
you could set them aside and do it once a week or on
some other schedule. This is completely up to you.
Okay, so you review the site and it meets all of the
criteria for your program. The site has good content,
the links (at least those you checked) seem to work, the
HTML looks okay and, well, it's just a pretty good site.
What do you do now?
This depends upon how you are running your program.
I've seen some sites which simply send a very quick
email with the awards graphics and a simple link - and
that's all. Not very satisfying, really.
Then again, I've received awards from other programs
which go all out. I remember receiving a long email
which informed me I was a winner, went into all of the
exact criteria which I passed and failed, and left no
doubt in my mind as to why I received the award and
rating that I got.
So what do you need to do at a minimum?
- You need to inform the winner that he has received
your award.
- Congratulate him or her for their accomplishment.
- Attach their awards graphic or inform them as to
it's location.
- Request a link back if that's something you desire
from your program.
This is the bare minimum, and it will serve the
purpose nicely.
Personally, I like to send an email which
congratulates the winner and says some good things about
his site. For example, I might mention that the page
about their pet was especially cute, the article on how
they survived some disease was meaningful or the
gardening tips were especially useful. The point is
simple - by including such details I'm showing that I
did actually look at the site, which makes the award
more meaningful.
I prefer sending plain text messages as opposed to
stationary or HTML. Yes, I know that stationary looks
great, but not everyone can read them. All email clients
can read text messages.
It's a good idea to attach the graphic directly to
email message, as well as to include a link where it can
be picked up if, for some reason, the image is not
received properly.
I've found an email similar to below hits upon all of
the necessary points.
Hi Sally,
Thanks for applying for the Excellent Site award.
Your site has met the criteria for the award and has
won! I found your site is indeed excellent and I
thoroughly enjoyed my visit. I especially liked your
page about Sammy (your dog) - it made me laugh. The
photos of your children are a nice touch (cute kids)
and your choice of background images is good.
Your award image is attached. Please link it back
to
http://www.internet-tips.net - this is not a
requirement but it would be appreciated.
Some URLs which you may find useful:
http://www.webs-best-awards.com/index.htm
Description of our awards program in detail
http://www.webs-best-awards.com/excellent.htm
Excellent site award home page.
http://www.webs-best-awards.com/excellent.htm
The criteria common to all of our awards.
http://www.webs-best-awards.com/awards/Excellent_sample.jpg
You may also pick up the award image here if you wish.
One thing that I do NOT recommend is to inform your
winners about any negatives or give them ay criticism. I
know from personal experience that these kinds of
comments detract from the thrill of winning an award. I
prefer to just tell my winners the good news and leave
it at that.
Some sites use a scoring system to figure out who has
won the award. In those instance, I would also recommend
that this score NOT be shared with anyone - again, no
need to take anything away from your winners victory.
That, in a nutshell, is a method which is useful for
handling your winners.
Additional Information
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