This is part of awards programs that is, well, both interesting and extraordinarily dull. The creative work has all been done. What remains is to examine each site that applies for your award and determine if they are good enough to deserve to be recognized.

So how does this work? It's pretty simple, really. It all starts from your criteria.

Let's use an example of a pretty standard set of criteria:

- Reasonable download time - Understandable navigation - Readable text - Not under construction - No broken links - Good quality content - Way to turn off music - Good HTML - Viewable in all screen resolutions - Does not violate copyright or steal bandwidth - No sites which promote illegal activities, pornography, hacking or warez.

What I like to do is set aside a few hours a week to go through my list of sites. Then you visit each and every site and compare it to criteria that you have created for your award. You should also keep in mind whether sites must meet ALL criteria or just most of them!

This is so important that I will repeat it again: compare applying site against your criteria and only your criteria. In fact, you should only compare it against criteria that you had posted at time site was submitted.

So let's check a site against criteria. You surf to it and find that it seems to download very slowly. This, at first glance, appears to violate your criteria - but spend a couple more seconds to make a judgment call: is this result of site design or something beyond webmasters control (such as slow server)? If page has 500kb of graphics, then site flunks immediately - go on to next one. If page looks reasonable (and it will not take long to figure this out), then continue with it.

These are wasted visitors, and you must do everything possible to reduce waste, or you'll simply miss out on a great amount of profits.

Luckily, there are a couple of effective tactics you can employ to prevent visitors turning their backs on your site. I've outlined ten of them in this article. The basic strategy is two-fold: 1) Trying to keep people on your site 2) Getting them to subscribe to your mailing list.

Here we go:

1. Make it a priority to collect opt-in email addresses

Your number one marketing priority on Web should be to build your opt-in mailing list. This is where most of your customers will come from. And best thing is, once they're on your list you can sell to them over and over. Include a subscription form for your ezine on EVERY page of your Web site (check out my own site for an example of this - pay attention to left hand margin).

2. Put up testimonials

Put up a couple of shining testimonials right on your homepage. Interject your homepage copy with a couple of these testimonials. Add names and email addresses of persons who wrote testimonial to boost credibility (ask them first though). Remember: NEVER fake a testimonial! Not only is it unethical, but it'll show through. And if I'm not mistaken, it is also an illegal practice.

3. Don't link out on your homepage

Keep ALL links on your homepage internal. In other words, don't give visitors a way out so they wont leave as soon as they arrive.

4. Make your headline stand out

Your homepage headline should be in large font type, and very attention grabbing, while at same time hype-free. Study some great sales letters you've come across on Web. You'll soon realize that one of things they all have in common is a headline that just makes you WANT to know more about whatever product/service is being offered.

5. Work on your copy