Q: Who is eligible to apply for the AAWM Award?

A: The AAWM Awards invites all personal and commercial sites to apply.  All sites must be in English or have an English translation, in order for us to be able to read the content on your site.  For more on eligibility, please see our "policy" rules.

Q: What are the fees to apply for the WWW Award?

A: Entry Fees:

FREE SUBMISSION - for websites based within the USA.

$10.00 ENTRY FEE - for International websites (based outside of the USA).  Guaranteed review by our judges within 5 business days.  

$10.00 Entry Fee - if you have already submitted a website this year.  This includes international and within the USA.  Guaranteed review by our judges within 5 business days.  
 

Q: How long does the evaluation process take?  Can I have my application rushed?

A: The evaluation process is usually completed within a 4-6 week period for free entries, However, we also offer EXPRESS SUBMISSIONS that take only 5 days for review and Deluxe Submissions that take 3 days for review.  Deluxe submissions receive a Award Certificate mailed to the postal address you provide on your application.

Q: What experience does your judges have and what qualifies them to review sites for awards?

A: Our judges are carefully selected and all have at least 5 years experience in web design or  online marketing skills.  On our navigation you may read their credentials.  Or you may click here to learn more about our judges.

Q: How hard is it to win the AAWM Award?

A: The website submitted to us must have a nice clean design and at least 10 pages of quality information (excluding award pages, contact pages, feedback forms and guestbook's).  The site must not have any visible error messages.  Approximately 40 to 50 percent of applicants win an award from our program. We offer several Award Titles, therefore, there is a chance of your site winning, if the  criteria and rules of our award program have been followed. (See scoring for Design, Content, Navigation, Scripting & Technical Features).  Your website must achieve at least 60 points to achieve a bronze award, 80 for silver and 90 for the gold award.

Applicants must also read our Award Policy, before submitting their URL to us.  There are some sites that may be automatically disqualified if they violate the AAWM rules and policy.   

Q: Does the AAWM provide feedback to applicants that do not win an award?

A: Absolutely!  Applicants that do not hear back from us after 4 to 6 week after applying, can assume that their websites have not win an award from the AAWM.  Applicants may then email us and request tips on improving their websites.  Due to the enormous amounts of applications and emails the AAWM receives monthly, we do not automatically notify those applicants that do not win. 

Q: Why do Award Programs make you wait 30 to 90 days to re-apply if an applicant didn't win an award?

A: Each Award Program has their own set of rules for re-applying.  Most Award Programs ask that you wait  30 to 90 days before re-applying, to allow you plenty of time to make changes and improvements to your site.  The AAWM Awards ask that an applicant waits 30 days before re-applying.  We feel that significant changes can be made within that time frame and often times if an applicant has to wait 90 days before re-applying, they will loose interest in that award program.  On another note.....A good award program will offer you tips and suggestion on improving your site, if you simply send them an email and request it.

Q: I won a Gold Award from another Award Program.  Why did I only win a Silver from your award program?

A: Not all award programs are the same.  They all have their own set of rules and criteria that needs to be followed.  They also have different judges that evaluates for their award programs.  The awards giving can reflect on the personal opinion of the judges and the guidelines they use to evaluate sites.

Q: Can I dispute the Award Title I received from your program?

A: You can refuse the Award Title received, but you cannot dispute the Award Title.  ALL DECISIONS ARE FINAL.  Refusal of an award, will ban your site from future submissions.  We will provide you with our findings and how we came to our decision of your award title, (at your request).  We will also offer tips on improving your site if you request it. You may re-apply after 30 days if you are not happy with your title and significant changes have been made to your site. 

Q: How do I know which Award Programs are credible and which ones are not? 

A: There are literally thousands of web award programs on the internet today.  Some are credible, some are not.  The Award Givers Community has a name for the one's that are not.  They are called "Market-Me Awards or Give-Away Awards".   The Market-Me and Give-A-Way award programs holds no credibility and often results in spam letters being sent to you, rather than gaining credibility to your website.  Most Market-Me and Give-Away Award Programs will also reward sites that are tasteless or may contain adult content and material.  The only thing you will have to do is paste their award graphic to your web or fill out a simple form.  These types of Award Programs do not actually take the time to review applicants websites, they simply give you an award by right clicking your mouse and saving their graphic.  If you are asked to join a mailing list as a requirement for applying to the Award Program, our suggestion is......DO NOT APPLY TO THAT AWARD PROGRAM!  If the Award Program states, that additional information will be sent to you, other then your winning or non-winning announcement, then we suggest no applying to that Award Program.  Additional information, usually means spam submission with newsletters and other information, you may not be interested in receiving.

Another good way of checking to see if the Award Program is credible, is by looking for VALID CONTACT INFORMATION on the Award Program Site.  Does the Award Program provide a phone number and land mailing address?  Does the Award Program provide a valid e-mail address?  Does the Award Program provide their credentials? (What qualifies them to professionally review websites?) Is the Award Program well designed and all their links are in working order on their navigation?

The credible Award Programs will display the following:  A criteria that has to be met, an awards policy, a judging panel (that list their credentials, skills, certifications, etc.,)  A code of ethics statement, a privacy statement, a winners list that can be easily found on the Award Program, a COPPA statement and requirements of who is eligible to apply and who is not.  Credible Award Programs will have more then just a "submit site" button.  There are only a handful of Award Programs in the world (such as the AAWM), that has received an "Awards Rating" from an Awards Rating Service.  There are only about 10 Award Rating Services in the World, that actually review only Award Program sites.  If you see a rating on an Award Program, you can be sure that the program has undergone a strict review to receive a rating.  Most prestigious Award Programs will also display an "Affiliates & Memberships" page, displaying their award ratings, memberships to ethics organizations and sometimes award listings they belong to.

Benefits of WINNING AAWM Award

Your Website will be reviewed by a Committee of Professional Web Developers.  Meet our Evaluators.
Our HIGHLY RATED Award Program, is a Choice Award Program, rated 4.0 by Award Sites!  We stand by our Ethics Pledge.
When a surfer visits your website and sees the AAWM Award Graphic displayed on your website, they know that they are visiting a website that is a step above the rest.
The AAWM Awards has received International Press Coverage.  We have over 133,000 webpage's linking to us. 
The AAWM has first page ranking on Google, Yahoo, AOL, MSN and many other top search engines.  Keyword = web awards, Webmasters.  Winning our Award could increase traffic to your website.
We accept applications all year.  Winners are notified within 2 to 4 weeks.
Applicants that do not win an award, may email us for tips on improving their websites for FREE.
Winners receive a permanent listing on our website.  Our winners list and archives acts as a 365/24/7 portal, promoting our winners to their clients and visitors.
Any and all sites submitted over the next 12 months will automatically become eligible to secure our coveted "Webmaster/Site Of The Year Award". when it is again announced in December of 2005.
Our detailed criterion provides informative tips, which could help increase your chances of winning The AAWM Award and other web awards.

Something Extra We Offer -

The AAWM offers actual Certificates, Engraved Plaques and Trophies to act as further proof of your hard work and achievements.
Winners may post their winning Web Award announcement in their news section, newsletters, local media or e-mail campaign ads.
Many benefits have come to our winners as a result of winning our highly rated Award.  Some of these benefits include;  increased traffic to their website, promotions with their jobs, bonuses, grants,  press coverage and more!  We invite you to read their testimonials.