Ten reasons why your website should receive an award

1) A Best of Industry award means your the best and you can prove it!

2) Your mom would be proud of you.

3) You will receive important benchmark data for your entire
industry and where your site ranks in each of the seven judging
criteria.

4) Think of the PR opportunities - industry publications,
blogs, websites, by-lined articles, podcasts, press releases,
interviews - the sky is the limit.

5) A best of industry plaque containing your award winning site will look great in your office.

6) The WebAward logo on your site is like receiving the "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval" for Web development.

7) Your clients and customers will be impressed at your industry recognition and so will your potential clients.

8) A link to webaward.org will help your site's search engine
rankings because you will be linked to a site with a high Google
PageRank.

9) If you wait until after may 31st, you'll have to pay a late fee.

10) If you don't win, we won't tell anyone - and you still get the feedback.

Recognition and feedback , that is what
you will receive when you enter the 2006 WebAward Competition for
Website development. Winning accolades in the 2006 WebAwards - the
Internet's premier award recognition program, is a great way to stand
out from others in your industry. You will also receive valuable
feedback from our judges and benchmarks for your industry. But you
won't get anything if you don't enter!

The 10th Annual WebAward competition deadline for entry is May 31st, only one week away, and you can submit your site for review at www.webaward.org.  Avoid a late fee by completing your Web site entries before the deadline.

WebAward - The award for your award-winning Web site.

MarketingSherpa’s new eCommerce Benchmark Guide 2006

Do you want to improve your e-commerce conversions?  Grab a copy of MarketingSherpa's new Ecommerce Benchmark Guide 2006 for:

-> Eyetracking study data on Amazon, Wal-Mart, Dell, Best Buy, Apple, Bombay, QVC & Circuit City. Shows you how online shopper's eyes "flick over" your store's pages (and how you can redesign for better conversions.)

-> Real-life ecommerce marketing and tactical data from 1,101 of your peers. Compare your stats to theirs; discover which traffic sources and site tools are working (and what's bombing.)

-> See inside the minds of 1,120 actual online shoppers. They reveal why they abandon carts, and what would make them buy more from you online.

Discover how to lower your shopping cart abandons, traffic costs, fraud, email unsubscribes, search marketing cost per click -- plus, how to raise your conversions, average order size, shopper trust, affiliate revenues, customer loyalty, and ROI.  Want more information? Visit:
http://www.sherpastore.com/e-commerce-benchmark.html

Featured Articles from Interactive Briefing

Here are the featured articles from our May issue of the Web Marketing Association's Interactive Briefing Newsletter.

Winning an Award is only Half the Battle – Here are some ideas on how to promote your award winning website after you have one an award.

Turnaround Game – Virtual Imagination Leads to Real Life Success for this award winning interactive application

The tale of two seasons – Marriott
exploits the weather to offer visitors hot deals.

Looking for past WebAward Judges

Every year we get emails from past judges half way through the competition telling us their email address has changed or filters stopped the messages from getting through.

If you are a past WebAward judge and have not received our emails inviting you to participate in the 2006 WebAwards, please contact us ASAP as we are finalizing the judging panel.

Please contact us through www.webaward.org

Help to spread the word about the WebAward competition

We need your help to spread the word about the WebAward competition. As the premier recognition program for Web site development, we have grown each year because Internet professionals, like yourself, have gotten the word out to other Internet professionals by email, in blogs and even face to face.

The Web Marketing Association
is a volunteer organization and it’s through efforts like these that the
WebAwards can set the standard of excellence for Web sites in 96 industries.
However, this year, we have made it even more advantageous to tell your friends
and co-workers about the WebAwards.

WebAward Referral Program

To reward those who tell others about the WebAwards, this year we are offering a $20 referral bonus per referral for each person who gets someone new to enter the WebAwards. It’s our way of rewarding those who help us the most.

To qualify you simply need a WebAward nominator account from WebAward.org. Give the email address associated
with this account to everyone who you recommend the WebAwards to and when they
enter and include your email address, you’ll receive a check from the Web
Marketing Association as our way to say thank you.

WebAward.org has complete details,
so tell a friend and log in to your nominator account and watch your referral
bonuses add up.

Call for WebAward Judges

Another way you can help
support the WebAwards is to nominate yourself as a judge. We are looking for experienced Internet professionals – interactive creative directors, graphic designers, marketing managers,
webmasters, heads of agencies, among others – to help adjudicate the entries
for the 2006 WebAwards.

While most of the volunteer
judges return each year because of the valuable insights that can be obtained
by judging, the growth of entries requires us to add new judges each year. Judges are assigned a number of entries to review within a three week time frame beginning June 17^th.

If you or someone you know
are interested in participating as a WebAward judge, please use the judges
nomination form on WebAward.org

Conference season

At WebMaster World in Boston we gave-a-way a video iPod to Daniel Bourgeois interactive marketing manager of Wynn Resorts. The following week, David
Mullings of Random Media won another video iPod ad ad:tech San Francisco. Congratulations
to all of our prize winners and to the conference sponsors for putting on
outstanding industry conferences.

On my way to ad:tech in San Francisco, I read MarketingSherpa’s brand-new E-commerce Benchmark Guide. I am a big fan of MarketingSherpa’s work and try to get everything they publish on Web development. We were able to get a 22-page executive summary of MarketingSherpa’s E-commerce Benchmark Guide for the readers of Interactive Briefing. You can read more about it in the “For Our readers” section of our newsletter.

The annual WebAward program
is shaping up to be both a great way to gain visibility for your self and your
Web site, but also valuable feedback to help guide future development and
benchmark your progress. We hope everyone takes advantage of this program.

And remember to tell your
friends about it too.

INBOX: The Email Event

INBOX: The Email Event
May 31-June 1, 2006
San Jose Marriott

INBOX is the first and only event focused on the Internet’s first and central application: email. In just two days, you’ll get a rock-solid email system and email marketing plan you can count on. Our conference program covers Email Marketing Strategy, Creative, Delivery, List Acquisition and Customer Retention. Check out the conference program here: http://www.inboxevent.com/2006/conference.asp

Web Marketing Association members can get a FREE Buyer Pass, or save $100 on a full-conference pass. Sign up online at http://www.inboxevent.com and use Customer Code WMA6.

Internet Professionals Needed to Judge World’s Best Web Sites

The Web Marketing Association is pleased to announce the
call for judges for its 10^th annual international WebAward competition.
The WebAwards is the standards-defining competition that sets industry
benchmarks based on the seven criteria of a successful Web site.  Judges
will consist of a select group of Internet professionals who
have direct experience designing and managing Web sites, including
members of the media, interactive creative directors, site designers, content
providers and webmasters – with an in-depth
understanding of the current state-of-the-art in Web site development and
technology.

To nominate yourself or another Internet Professional,
please use our Judges Nomination Form.

“The WebAwards is different from other Web site award programs because we’re not just a beauty pageant focused on name recognition and design,” said William Rice, president of the Web Marketing Association. “For 10 years, industry professionals have provided the backbone of our award program and helped thousands of Web sites get the recognition they deserve. As a WebAward judge, you are helping to set the standard of excellence for all web site development. Judging challenges you by having you visit and review web sites that you normally would not visit. Being a judge helps develop a critical eye to the many facets of leading-edge web development.”

Judging for the 2006 WebAwards will take place in June
through August, with winners announced in September. Mark Kingdon, CEO of
Organic, Inc. has been selected to lead the judging panel
this year. Past judges have included top
executives from leading organizations such as Ogilvy Interactive, Saatchi &
Saatchi, Blattner Brunner, Comedy Central, Sun Microsystems, Refinery, Euro
RSCG, EPB Interactive, New York Post
Interactive, The Cincinnati Enquirer,
J. Walter Thompson, Xerox, Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Modem Media, and
Answerthink.

2006 Call For Entry Still Underway

The Web Marketing Association is now accepting entries for
the 10^th annual WebAward competition. The WebAwards evaluate Web sites in 96
industries and defines benchmarks based on the seven essential criteria of
successful Website development. The
deadline for entry is May 31, 2006.

Your Web site will be judged on seven criteria: design,
innovation, content, technology, interactivity, copy writing and ease of use. Each WebAward
entry is judged against other entries in its industry category and then against
an overall standard of excellence. WebAward Judges consist of a select group of Internet
professionals with an in-depth understanding of the current
state-of-the-art in Website development and technology.

All entrants receive valuable feedback from the judging
panel as well as a report detailing their performance compared to their
industry average. If you win a
WebAward, you also have an outstanding marketing opportunity to publicize and
drive traffic to your site.

A complete list of past winners and this year’s entry form
can be found at www.webaward.org.

Internet Professionals Needed to Judge World’s Best Web Sites

The Web Marketing Association is pleased to announce the call for judges for its 10^th annual international WebAward competition. The WebAwards is the standards-defining competition that sets industry benchmarks based on the seven criteria of a successful Web site. Judges will consist of a select group of Internet professionals who have direct experience designing and managing Web sites, including members of the media, interactive creative directors, site designers, content providers and webmasters – with an in-depth understanding of the current state-of-the-art in Web site development and technology.

To nominate yourself or another Internet Professional, please use our Judges Nomination Form.

“The WebAwards is different from other Web site award programs because we’re not just a beauty pageant focused on name recognition and design,” said William Rice, president of the Web Marketing Association. “For 10 years, industry professionals have provided the backbone of our award program and helped thousands of Web sites get the recognition they deserve. As a WebAward judge, you are helping to set the standard of excellence for all web site development. Judging challenges you by having you visit and review web sites that you normally would not visit. Being a judge helps develop a critical eye to the many facets of leading-edge web development.”

Judging for the 2006 WebAwards will take place in June through August, with winners announced in September. Mark Kingdon, CEO of Organic, Inc. has been selected to lead the judging panel this year. Past judges have included top executives from leading organizations such as Ogilvy Interactive, Saatchi & Saatchi, Blattner Brunner, Comedy Central, Sun Microsystems, Refinery, Euro RSCG, EPB Interactive, New York Post Interactive, The Cincinnati Enquirer, J. Walter Thompson, Xerox, Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Modem Media, and Answerthink.

2006 Call For Entry Still Underway

The Web Marketing Association is now accepting entries for the 10^th annual WebAward competition. The WebAwards evaluate Web sites in 96 industries and defines benchmarks based on the seven essential criteria of successful Website development. The deadline for entry is May 31, 2006.

Your Web site will be judged on seven criteria: design, innovation, content, technology, interactivity, copy writing and ease of use. Each WebAward entry is judged against other entries in its industry category and then against an overall standard of excellence. WebAward Judges consist of a select group of Internet professionals with an in-depth understanding of the current state-of-the-art in Website development and technology.

All entrants receive valuable feedback from the judging panel as well as a report detailing their performance compared to their industry average. If you win a WebAward, you also have an outstanding marketing opportunity to publicize and drive traffic to your site.

A complete list of past winners and this year’s entry form can be found at www.webaward.org.

Internet World 2006

Internet World 2006 – Free entry, Over 200 exhibitors, Over 100 hours of seminars
9-11 May 2006, Earls Court, London, UK
Internet World is the UK’s largest B2B internet event.
Directors from MSN, e-Bay, Lastminute.com, Virgin and more delivering keynote presentations. Supported by Net Communities and endorsed by The Guardian, Revolution, Marketing, e-Consultancy, mad.co.uk and others.
For more information and to register for FREE visit www.internetworld.co.uk

One Month to Go Until WebAward Deadline

If you are planning to enter your Web sites into the 2006
WebAward Competition, you better get moving – There is less than one month to
go until the deadline for entries.

The WebAwards is the standards-defining competition that
sets industry benchmarks based on the seven criteria of a successful Web
site. It recognizes the individual and team achievements of Web professionals who create and maintain outstanding Web sites. The deadline for entry in the
2006 WebAwards is May 31, 2006. A complete list of
past winners and this year’s entry form can be found at www.webaward.org.

So if you have the best Web site in your industry and want
to prove it, be sure to get your entry submitted by the deadline. Entries
submitted after the deadline, but before the judging begins will be subject to
a $50 late fee.

WebMasterRadio.FM at Ad:tech

WebMaster Radio provided outstanding on site coverage of
Ad:tech San Francisco. They stopped by the Web Marketing Association
booth at ad:tech and interviewed Bill Rice, President of the Web Marketing Association
and here is a link to the an audio file of the interview.

ad:tech San Francisco a success!

The Web Marketing Association participated in the 2006
ad:tech conference in San Francisco.
Bill Rice, President of the Web Marketing Association was on hand to meet with
attendees as well as judges and past participants who were at the conference. Also in attendance were WebAwards sponsors PR Web, SimpleFeed
and Web Sites Services Magazine.

There was a lot of interest in the 2006 WebAwards and for
the Internet Standards Assessment Report and links to each where provided to
everyone who had their name tag scanned at the WMA Booth.

Congratulations to David Mullings of Random Media who was selected to win a video iPod for stopping by our booth.

Many thanks to Jeff Valentine, Kristin Widergren and the
rest of the ad:tech staff for putting together a great well-run conference and with
lots of interesting exhibitors to meet.