Before you submit a site for review, make sure it meets the following 6 requirements:

• it must NOT contain pornographic images, adult, hateful or offensive material, including links to such sites
• your site must be in English. The reason for that is because I can't, for the most part, understand anything other than the English language
• it must not crash my browser more than twice. Once will not automatically disqualify your site because browser crashes are a fact of life these days for everyone
• I don't like seeing "Under Construction" signs posted on a site
• super-long pages aren't fun to scroll through so having pages broken up into neat sections are a must
• sites that are solely based on links, redirects and banner ads are disqualified

Once passing the above requirements, your site will then be judged based on the following criteria:

CONTENT:

• Originality
• Neatness of your page designs
• Layout of sections are in a clear menu
• Text readability

GRAPHICS:

• Appealing, colourful and original graphics
• Size of Images being kept reasonable
• Loading time for pages aren't long
• Non-bandwith stealing for images
• No broken images

NAVIGATION:

• Clearly marked navigation links to go from page to page
• No false link names that takes you elsewhere other than what we are led to believe
• No broken links

TANGIBLES:

• Interactive features such as guestbooks and email links are clearly visible. Other things such as polls, games, quizzes, surveys and chatrooms are a plus
• Flash, Java and animated images
• Regular updating to keep visitors coming back

Things that will cause your site to lose points:

• Excessive banner ads
• Embedded music or videos that cannot be turned off
• Graphic pages that contain many large images that take long to load
• Flash objects that don't allow the viewer to bypass should they desire to
• Lack of updates spanning months
• Secondary software required by the viewer to view your site
• Popup windows such as ads or annoying "click here to continue" script things, other than those automatically put from the site host such as Tripod, Geocities and Angelfire

If after reading the terms above you feel your site measures up, then all you have to do is the following:

Sign my GUESTBOOK (with your comments about my site) before you leave and then send me an EMAIL letting me know you want to apply for my award. Please include --

• Your Name (the same name you entered in my guestbook)
• Location
• URL of the site
• Email address
• Description of your site
• Your choice of animated or regular gif award should you win

Your site will be reviewed within a week and the winners will be notified by email. There are three awards available, a Gold Award, Silver Award and Bronze Award. Your award will be attached to that email, along with instructions any notes or comments about your site. If you do not hear from me, one of four things might have happened... (a) your site did not make the grade for an award, (b) your original email sent to me did not get to me, (c) you site is still pending review, or (d) you didn't sign my guestbook.

There will be a conscious effort in trying to inform all those that failed to make the grade for an award why they fell short in hopes the feedback will help you see what others see about your site. I know my site isn't anywhere close to a masterpiece, but feedback is always welcomed in terms of helping me improve things, so by no way is it criticism. It's just the opinions of the panel of judges. If you do not make the grade this time, don't give up. Make changes to your site and resubmit your application to me for another review, but include any and all changes you made since your last entry.

All winners and their sites will be listed in a special section on my site as well as in a periodic newsletter that will contain previous winners as well as new winners. The benefits of this is that it will increase traffic to your site and remind others to return to your site.

Good luck to you!