Because every business deserves a good-looking, hard-working, easy-to-navigate website.
Altitude Marketing is sponsoring the First Annual Baddy Awards as part of the Lehigh Valley Web Beautification Project.
Altitude is soliciting nominations of poorly designed websites with marginal content and outdated programming techniques. The goal: To award a new website to the business that has the greatest need for a makeover.
Finalists will be selected by Altitude from all submitted nominations. The winning “worst” website will be selected by the general public through online voting.
Grand Prize
The grand prize winner will receive a brand new website, valued at $7,500, built to Altitude’s exacting standards of excellence. All finalists will receive a free website audit worth $500.
The website will be developed on a leading-edge open source platform, which we will customize for the winner. The most significant advantage is the user-friendly content management system (CMS). This CMS allows any authorized user with basic knowledge of word processing and web browsing to easily manage the entire site without the help of an outside developer, including:
- Creating new or removing old pages as needed
- Adding and removing text and images
- Managing photo and video galleries
- Monitoring visitor statistics
Website Nomination Process
Businesses may nominate their own website, or members of the general public may nominate any business’s website (see Eligibility Requirements below). All nominations will be submitted through a form on www.baddyawards.com.
Note: Websites submitted for nomination will not be made public.
The Judging Process: Initial Submissions
The criteria for judging the quality and effectiveness of a website is detailed on the nomination page and falls into four general categories:
- Design
- Content
- Information architecture (navigability)
- Technology platform
The Judging Process: Finalists
Altitude will select a group of finalists from all entries that meet eligibility requirements and are approved for inclusion by the nominated business. The number of finalists is contingent upon the number of total nominations received but will not exceed ten.
The general public will then get to vote which finalist wins the grand prize. All voting will take place online at www.baddyawards.com. The winner will be chosen based on total number of votes. Only one vote per IP address.
The website that receives the most votes will receive a website make over with a value of $7500.
Eligibility Requirements
- Any nominated website must have been live to the public prior to July 1, 2010.
- All nominations must be received by the submission deadline, which is expressly stated at www.baddyawards.com.
- Nomination form must be completely filled out to be eligible for consideration.
- The business must be physically located in one of the following Pennsylvania counties: Lehigh, Berks, Bucks, Northampton, Carbon, Schuylkill, Monroe or Montgomery.
Submission Requirements
- Verification of submission for self-nomination must be attained from the business by having an authorized representative of the nominated company sign a consent form. The consent form will be sent to the nominated business. Only businesses that sign a consent form and make it to the finals will be made public.
- The general public may also nominate a business. Upon receipt of a nomination from the general public, Altitude will contact the nominated company, explain the contest, and ask the nominated business if they are willing to participate for a chance to win a new website. If the nominated company wishes to participate, an authorized representative of the nominated company must sign a consent form. The consent form will be sent to the nominated business.
Annoucement of Winner
- Finalists will be announced and posted at www.baddyawards.com on or around October 1, 2010.
- Voting will be open to the public for 30 days.
- Winner will be notified within five (5) business days of the voting being closed.
Website Production Process and Scope of Features
Website Page Accounting (Site Map)
Working closely with the winning business, Altitude will create an intuitive page accounting, also known as a site map, that outlines all proposed pages and subpages in a hierarchical view. Our site map/navigation progresses along the following steps:
- Engage in discussion about ideas for organizing the site.
- Present a Round 1 site map to in a Word document and solicit input from the winning business.
- Present a revised site map based on feedback from this meeting and solicit feedback.
- Create a final site map based on feedback.
Wireframe
For any website, form follows function. That’s why the actual design is always the last step in the process before programming actually begins. Altitude will start the design process with a “wireframe” of the site that includes the elements that need to be present on a hard-working, SEO-ready home page, based on the functionality and navigation discussions. A wireframe is not a design, but rather serves as a blueprint for the home page. We will provide up to three revisions to the wireframe as part of the planning process.
Design
Following the process outlined below, we will create up to four distinct page designs:
- One home page
- One sub-page template with sidebar
- One sub-page template without sidebar
- One news/blog entry template
Our design process generally progresses along the following steps.
- After a creative discussion with the winning business, we present a Round 1 home page design comps. (A comp is a mockup of the design and is not yet a functioning web page.)
- After soliciting feedback, we present a revised Round 2 home page comp.
- Based on input, we create a single Round 3 home page design.
- We perform up to three minor design “tweaks” to this comp. Design tweaks are adjustments to the existing design and not wholesale changes in design direction.
- We create the sub-page templates and provide up to three revisions to each.
- After all designs are approved, the design is ready for the programming phase.
If new photography is needed for design and layout, Altitude can manage the process, but new photography costs are direct costs not included in this proposal.
Functionality
We will program the websites with the following features:
- Full-featured content management system with “WYSIWYG” (What You See Is What You Get) text editor, similar to what is used in Microsoft Word.
- Content and imagery “slider” on the home page to provide movement, animation and visitor interaction. The slides allows visitors to peruse what we call the “Readers’ Digest” version of the winning business’ story. This feature can also be used to chunk up key messaging and guide site visitors to the area in which they are most interested in. A few examples of Altitude’s slider technology can be found at:
- healogix.com (click Who, What, When, Why)
- ecotechmarine.com (click Advantage, Customer Service, Where to Buy)
- sitrof.com (click Overview, Information Management, Data Protection, Compliance)
- lehighvalleymarketplace.com (click In This Issue, Advertise with Us)
- Testimonial blocks and configurable promotional blocks will also be deployed for additional motion throughout the site as desired.
- Multilevel administrative permissions enabling the winning business to dictate who within their organization can update what sections of the website.
- Image, PDF document and file upload capability.
- Embedded CSS text styles so all fonts, styles, colors are consistent throughout the site.
- Google Analytics installation (visitor tracking and statistics).
- Cross-browser compatibility (IE6, IE7, IE8, Firefox Mac/PC, Safari, Chrome).
- Internal site search.
- Visitor information request form
- Automatic push of news and blog posts through the social media channel of choice (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn)
- Site optimization for more 5000+ mobile devices.
- Image gallery (if desired) with intuitive and easy-to-manage categorizing system so site visitors can select imagery by event, date, activity, and so on.
- Video galleries with intuitive and easy-to-manage categorizing system.
Website Content (Words and Images)
Unlike traditional web developers who focus solely on design and coding, Altitude will provide a truly complete website package—including well-edited, keyword-rich, targeted brand content. Working from a base of content supplied by the winning business, Altitude will conduct a skilled top-edit to make the messaging as clear, concise and compelling as can be. Altitude’s content efforts include:
- Fine-tuning the brand messaging to be compelling and concise
- Top-line edit of any content written by the winning business
- Competitive keyword research and integration of findings into content
- Effective use of headlines, subheads and callouts for ease of reading and visual interest
- Use of title tags, alt tags, headlines for initial search engine optimization
- Insertion of images for visual appeal. Note that costs associated with new photography or stock photography are not included as part of this prize package.
Content Management System Training
We provide two hours of training using the CMS and an additional hour of technical/user support via email and phone after training. We recommend an initial 60-minute group training session with any Kiwaii personnel who may update the site in the future. As part of the website build out process, Altitude will build out the home page and up to 10 sub-pages. The remaining pages will be built out by the winning business. Some of these pages will be built out as part of the training process.
Other Fine Print That Our Lawyers Said We Should Include
Finalists will be determined by the criteria set forth and at the sole discretion of Altitude Marketing LLC. All nominated companies must agree to terms and conditions and sign a waiver.
The award is non-transferrable. The winner must make themselves available for a project kick off meeting within 30 days of notification of winning the contest and must adhere by the production schedule set forth by Altitude. The winner must also agree to allow Altitude to promote its “before” and “after” website and detail the process.
There is no cost to the winning business for a website developed with the stated features, functionality and production process (detailed above). Should the winning business desire advanced features or functionality that fall outside the scope of the award (detailed above), additional fees may apply. No fees will apply without prior discussion with the winning business and without Altitude producing a cost quote in advance.
