Introduction
 Ever considered entering awards competitions for your work or
business? I think you'll be extra motivated to do so when you read below
about how it can really pay off for your business, staff, and clients.
We'll follow this up by hearing about a popular four-and-a-half-year-old
web site that now receives one billion views a day. Can you guess what I
might be referring to? The service this site offers could be a great
platform for you to market your business too. We'll take a look at this
golden opportunity.
Want to know the big stories and links from Twitter, but too busy to
peruse all those tweets? You'll be interested in this service I delve
into; it makes it easy to keep up with the Social Web.
Finally, we'll wrap this issue up by paying tribute to a
Tribune legend. I'll let you figure out who that might be.
I trust you'll enjoy this issue of the Tribune.
Miles Burke
tribune@sitepoint.com
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Summary
Reap the Rewards of Awards Comps
Recently, my business entered a selection of web sites we'd created into
two national awards programs. I'm pleased to say that we've just learned we
have multiple finalists in both!
It's a great publicity opportunity -- both for our clients and for us --
yet the rewards are more than just immediate. Here are just a few of the
reasons why entering awards programs can boost your business.
The nomination process forces you to hone those writing skills. Most
awards applications ask you to explain the process, or just simply state
why you believe your work is great. It's a fantastic opportunity to
improve your writing and practice promoting yourself. If you’re ever
involved in creating sales materials for your business, you’ll
appreciate the benefits of this.
Entering awards boosts team morale. The very act of entering is
indicative of believing you have a chance of winning; for those who worked
on the project, such belief is both rewarding and inspiring. Furthermore,
imagine how your team will feel if the web site becomes a finalist or even
wins! Recognition in the form of an award from peers or industry is so
gratifying to receive.
Award recognition is also a boon for the client -- imagine how they'll
feel? You’ll be proving your worth in their eyes, as well as showing
that you believe in their web site. Any client in this situation will soon
be telling their friends and colleagues, so expect to receive a referral
or two!
There’s also the boost in web site traffic -- both to your own web
site and the winning work. Additionally, most award programs link to both
the winner and creator, proving an extra boon.
Most awards have an event -- so make sure you seize the networking
opportunities it provides for you. Be sure to take the team and fill your
pockets with business cards!
Look at writing a press release, or at least contacting your local
media. Most journalists love a positive business story, and your success
is newsworthy. Ask your client to circulate the media release to their
contacts as well, or look at doing a joint statement.
Make a point of also mentioning this success to other clients and
prospects. They’ll be keen to hear about it, and your shiny trophy
is testament to the fact you do quality work. It’s one of the best
seals of approval you can gain!
If you do receive a certificate or trophy, make sure you place it in
your reception area or meeting room -– the more people who see it,
the better.
So get cracking and look for awards that you can enter. And best of luck
with your entries!
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One Billion Views a Day!
Google's acquisition of YouTube must go down as one of the more
significant deals in web history. Co-founder of the video service, Chad
Hurley, took time last week to commemorate the union with a blog
post on the official YouTube blog. Here he mentioned that YouTube.com
enjoys "well over a billion views a day," a milestone that's also
reflected in their temporary logo tweak.
That's quite a growth curve, given that it was only three years ago that
Chad and co-founder Steve Chen made a short video
announcement of the deal, and followed that up with a 'last day in our old
office' video.
Congratulations Chad and Steve, it's a great effort for a web site that
only launched in February 2005!
Use Video to Promote Yourself
Speaking of YouTube, have you considered using video to promote your
business or products? There have been some great success stories, like
BlendTec's Will it Blend?
YouTube channel. The founder, Tom Dickson, is seen blending all manner of
items in the videos -- from marbles to a camcorder -- to demonstrate the
power of theBlendTec blender.
With just some domestic video equipment and standard lighting, you too
could be on the road to achieving the same sort of success. The recently
launched Creators
Corner provides some insight into how to create and upload great video
content. Once you've done that, all you need to do is embed the video on
your own web site and promote it far and wide.
Have you had previous success with YouTube as a marketing medium? I'd be
keen to hear about it -- shoot an email to tribune@sitepoint.com.
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Tribute to a Tribune Legend
Since July
15th, 2004 (Issue 298), my insightful co-editor, Brendon Sinclair, has
been penning his thoughts in this newsletter. If you read your way through
last week's issue, you'll know that Brendon has decided to call it a day
here at the Tribune, and that last week was his final edition.
I'm sure I speak on behalf of all Tribune readers when I say
we're going to miss Brendon, and I'd like to take this opportunity to wish
him all the best in the future. Thanks for the last five years, Brendon!
The next few issues will feature some special guest writers, before I
eventually dive into taking responsibility on a weekly basis.
Thanks so much for reading this issue of the SitePoint Tribune.
I look forward to being in touch in two weeks time.
Miles Burke
tribune@sitepoint.com
Editor,
SitePoint Tribune
|
Browser
support for CSS3 is continually improving. In this article, Alex walks us
through a few of the coolest CSS3 properties supported in the latest
development release of Firefox (3.6 alpha).
In
parts I and II, Andrew showed us how to build a slick-looking Flash
frontend for Twitter and Flickr using the beta versions of Flash Catalyst
and Flash Builder 4. In this final installment in the series he takes our
application a step further by adding video functionality: allowing users
to upload videos, and to take screenshots of their videos to post as
images.
As a
follow-up to his recent ebook, Build Your Own Firefox Extension, James has
assembled this selection of useful tips, tricks, and hacks that he's
collected from his experience with building extensions for Firefox. 
Luke
Stevens is a web designer who believes firmly that testing is the future of
web design. Matt quizzed him on data driven design, A/B testing, and Google
Web Optimizer.
Ben
Galbraith, of Mozilla Labs, is speaking at Web Directions South '09 on The
State of Browser Tools. Andrew had the opportunity to interview him about
his Web Directions session, the Bespin project, and browser tools in
general.
