I want to record this down before my excitement dies down. Yes! I received an award 2 days ago – the Singapore Website Award 2018 – June Site of the Month!
It is an
Singapore Website Award
Organised by Exabytes, the Singapore Website Award aims to recognize and reward the outstanding performance of web designer, developers and agencies in Singapore. Exabytes specialises in providing web hosting services, website creation solution, business startup solution and more since 2001.
The SWA has 3 categories of award opened for submission, namely Commercial, E-Commerce and Personal. Ratings to the websites submitted are accorded based on SEO, web design, performance, accessibility and content. I submitted my application under the Personal Category and ended up with a not-too-bad score.
Want to know how your website is doing? Click here to submit your application. It is free and there is no harm in having your website rated.
Q&A for Winners
The winners were all interviewed, and I thought it will be quite meaningful to share my answers here.
How do you feel as a SWA winner?
I am excited, honoured and encouraged. After all, I have only blogged for two years with no prior experience in website design, coding, etc. Amongst the winners are the professional website designers and seasoned bloggers who have been out there running their websites for many years. My background is nothing relevant to design. I was a career banker for 16 years doing corporate lending, managing corporate relationship.
So receiving formal recognition from a panel of expert judges is really important to me. It will be great though if I can know the details of my rating so that I can work on my weaker areas. From now on, I know my efforts in blogging is not going down the drain. It will show result somehow, somewhere.
Why did you join the Singapore Website Award program?
Honestly, it was a coincide. I was doing research on the internet on the best influencers in Singapore and the region because I wanted to see what they are doing and why they are the best. I want to learn from them.
Then I stumbled upon the SWA website. Once I understood that the expert judges would assess my website, I immediately decided that I should just have a go for it, with no expectation that I would win anything.
It was a great move because now, I not only know that I am potentially moving in the right direction, I have clinched an award too!
What comes to you first when designing your website?
Simplicity and accessibility in terms of ease for readers to read and navigate my website, not too cluttered, fast loading and big fonts to read.
Second is content, meaningful and useful content that is worth the readers’ time. This is especially so when I am writing with parents as my target audience, people who hold a job and raise kids, fathers and mothers who are surviving on coffee because they barely have 4 to 6 hours of sleep every day. If I want to build loyal readers, I better give them something that is worth their time.
My contents also include bright and colourful pictures that bring across a point. For instance, in my review of playgrounds, I will try to present the park from a bird’s eye view and its specialities so that parents can easily tell why I like the place. I put little efforts into taking Instagram-ready photos because I don’t find them real. I prepare my contents while having my daily activities with the kids. As a parent, I want to be present to my children when I join them, and I don’t want to distract them. Trying to get them into certain poses for photography during these play-time simply ruin their experiences.
So if the public does not find my Instagram and blog photos aesthetic, I am perfectly fine with it.
What advice will you give to a new blogger?
Okay, I am new too. There are tons of stuffs out there to learn and I am not learning fast enough.
Just do it!
To anyone out there who are still thinking about running your own website, don’t think anymore. Just do it. There are tons of free services available to help you with your web design experience.
Learn, Learn, Learn! Be Consistent and Show Up!
Once you have started, show up consistently to learn the basics of the trade. Yes, there is indeed a lot out there to learn but you really don’t need to complete a web design course before you start your own site.
I started reading up on starting a website when I was pregnant with my twins and was on bedrest. After the twins arrived, I continued to spend hours in the middle of the night reading the basics, and I am still a novice. My website is income-producing (token sum though) by now while I am still acquiring the relevant skills and knowledge. It is ok to learn along the way. After all, you are not likely to have a considerable following from the start. So don’t be afraid of making mistakes. And if you are the site owner, you are your own boss. So you are only accountable to yourself.
I am now a stay-home mum of 4 young kids. I have no personal time for myself, and I sleep little and rest little. This will continue for the next few years. I have no web design background, yet I run this site all by myself. If I can do it, so can you!
Hope this piece of article inspires you a little!
You may also be interested in the following posts by me:
Accepting the Blogger Recognition Award
8 Durian Review- Quality Durians Delivered to Us
Top 30 Singapore Lifestyle Bloggers and Websites To Follow
From Tromso to Stockholm – an alternative route
T-Play Khatib – My Preschoolers Played To Their Hearts’ Content
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