Two local web designers are on the hunt to find Richmond’s ugliest website.
And to the winner – or loser, depending how you look at it – goes a $10,000 website makeover.
Brian Forrester, owner of website optimization company Dynamic Web Solutions, started tossing around the idea a few months ago with friend and business partner Sharif Ewees of 28 Media.
“It was a fun angle to spin on the idea of helping out a small local business,” Forrester said.
“Our businesses have really started to pick up in the last six months,” Ewees said. “This is kind of our way to give back to the community.”
Forrester said the contest’s fugly factor came in a little later.
“I have to credit Sharif with the idea for the ugliest website,” Forrester said.
The contest, which starts July 1 and runs until Sept. 1, is open to companies that have been in business for at least two years and have between two and 20 employees.
Business owners or anyone who knows of a local business website in need of a facelift can make nominations at richmondsugliestwebsite.com
“They can submit a link to the business’s website and a brief description of why they think its ugly,” Ewees said. “It can be as silly as they want.”
The winner will get $10,000 worth of design, development and programming for their site.
“It will be full design, from concept to coding,” Forrester said.
Ewees will mainly work on the website design and look for the business. Forrester will help with the site’s search engine optimization to make the business’s site easier to find.
Forrester said he and Ewees would narrow the nominations to 10 finalists. The public will get to vote on which one is the worst the second week of September, and the winner will be announced that month.
Forrester mentioned the possibility of holding the contest annually, depending how this one goes.
“We’d like to get some local businesses to sponsor to make it an annual thing,” Forrester said. “It will be something fun for Richmond to look forward to.”
Two local web designers are on the hunt to find Richmond’s ugliest website.
And to the winner – or loser, depending how you look at it – goes a $10,000 website makeover.
Brian Forrester, owner of website optimization company Dynamic Web Solutions, started tossing around the idea a few months ago with friend and business partner Sharif Ewees of 28 Media.
“It was a fun angle to spin on the idea of helping out a small local business,” Forrester said.
“Our businesses have really started to pick up in the last six months,” Ewees said. “This is kind of our way to give back to the community.”
Forrester said the contest’s fugly factor came in a little later.
“I have to credit Sharif with the idea for the ugliest website,” Forrester said.
The contest, which starts July 1 and runs until Sept. 1, is open to companies that have been in business for at least two years and have between two and 20 employees.
Business owners or anyone who knows of a local business website in need of a facelift can make nominations at richmondsugliestwebsite.com
“They can submit a link to the business’s website and a brief description of why they think its ugly,” Ewees said. “It can be as silly as they want.”
The winner will get $10,000 worth of design, development and programming for their site.
“It will be full design, from concept to coding,” Forrester said.
Ewees will mainly work on the website design and look for the business. Forrester will help with the site’s search engine optimization to make the business’s site easier to find.
Forrester said he and Ewees would narrow the nominations to 10 finalists. The public will get to vote on which one is the worst the second week of September, and the winner will be announced that month.
Forrester mentioned the possibility of holding the contest annually, depending how this one goes.
“We’d like to get some local businesses to sponsor to make it an annual thing,” Forrester said. “It will be something fun for Richmond to look forward to.”
Very cool idea. Heads up: The link to the opt in lander is broken.
The one that was being worked on is at
http://sites.google.com/site/intuitivenaturopath
It’s not ugly it’s not great it’s just not done
This is going to be a great contest – you really WANT to win, so Sharif & Brian can set you up the right way!
It seems odd to promote your web design business by publicly admonishing peoples’ websites. What’s next. having a content to find the ugliest person in Richmond and give them a makeover?
Charles, we certainly won’t be admonishing people… we’re just having a little fun with wording.
We’ll have more information once the contest is officially open, but “ugly” won’t mean aesthetically ugly. We’ll have a list of best practices that we think every site should meet… like clarity of message, ability to interact with customers, a method to collect leads, and so on.
Charles,
I don’t think this is at all publicly admonishing anyone. There are businesses out there that will be able to openly admit their website isn’t up to par, and those are the ones that this contest is targeting.
Fellow RBS readers, please refresh my often faulty memory: Didn’t another local web-design firm, “Addison Clark Online” premiere this very same contest LAST year, ahead of the Retail Merchants Association’s 2010 Marketing Expo?
Great idea! Have you considered adding new copy to the pot? It wasn’t mentioned in the article, but seems like that would be a big piece.
Isn’t this the same concept these guys had last year: http://isyourwebsiteugly.com/?
I’m confused, are you affiliated with them?