THECSSAWARDS.com – Want over 5,000 new visitors a day coming to your website?

As a web designer or anyone looking to do web design it’s all about getting your name out there like in any business. As web design has grown it’s only natural that it becomes a something of a “conversation piece” to be judged and rated.

Sites like THECSSAwards.com are nothing really new but that doesn’t change the fact that people are looking for recognition for their work from reputable, industry known websites. THECSSAwards.com was started in the summer of 2009 they officially started in October of 2009. Oscar Perez, the CEO of TheCSSAwards.com, started the website, which gets and gives some great traffic to its “site of the day” and “site of the month” winners in the range of 2,500 to over 5,000 a day for winning sites and continues to grow rapidly according to Giuseppe. This gives a winning web design and the web designer who created it some well deserved website traffic and recognition.

On top of the traffic, the winners at THECSSAwards.com have also been winning iPod Nanos but lately they’ve focused on giving out mentions and awards. Clearly the biggest benefit is the traffic that winning provides.

Unlike most web design award and inspiration websites, THECSSAWARDS.com website is paneled by a jury of web design professionals including Brian Hoff of thedesigncubicle.com, Jacob Cass of JustCreativeDesign.com (who I’ve had a chance to interview in the past) and Paul Mosing from CreativeSpaces.net.au. This definitely gives THECSSAWARDS.com website creditability because when you submit a site that is recognized as the “Site of the Day” or “Site of the Month” it is coming from the best of the best in web design today. To have a look at the full Jury that the THECSSAWARDS.com uses click here.

So what does it take to get recognized by THECSSAWARDS.com? Simple, they’ve designed a system of valuation which I think is quite ingenious and incorporates valuing Design (50%), Creative (25%), Content (15%) and Usability (10%). Now why does usability score lower? I am not fully sure because too me usability is more important in good design then the content is but needless to say you know where you stand when THECSSAWARDS.com rates your site. To check out their system of valuing web designs click here for the whole scoop.

With all this said I had a chance to ask them a few questions about THECSSAWARDS.com, why they started the website in the first place and how they promote the website and what kind of money they make from THECSSAWARDS.com.

Luc @ SWD: I see that you offer cash and technological prizes. What is the biggest prize you’ve ever given to a winning website?

Giuseppe says: In the beginning we were giving as a prize and iPod Nano, but recently we took out this prize because we prefer give mentions and awards, which is already enough. And use our resources in promotions.

Luc @ SWD: For a site that wins, what kind of traffic is generated from the promotion of their site on THECSSAWARDS.com?

Giuseppe says: Actually the site of the day receive more less 2,500 visits and the site of the month more than 5,000 but every day the traffic increase a lot.

Luc @ SWD: Do you feel that a site like THECSSAWARDS.com accurately give exposure to the most talented designers or is there some bias when reviewing a submission by of the designer’s name and track record?

Giuseppe says: Our goal is that thecssawards.com will be a good tool for promoting websites and get to know the newest web trends.

Luc @ SWD: How much money does THECSSAWARDS.com make monthly and how have you monetized the website to keep it operating strongly?

Giuseppe says: We made and inversion about 30.000 Euros and actually we are creating various web campaigns through banner. The websites are: Abduzeedo, Web Designer Depot, Creattica, SixRevisions, Toxel, and CSSmania.

The website (THECSSAWARDS.com) will be monetized by submissions and banners.

If you get a chance to submit your website to THECSSAWARDS.com and you win you should definitely see a nice spike in your website’s traffic and it might even help the word of mouth about your business. Who knows? You may have what it takes to win the “Site of the Month”.

Luc Arnold