The award for website of the month by Steve Nesbitt of SN-AVIARIES however I feel most proud of as it actually represents my site and other avian related sites in an informative way, to promote bird related websites.
I am proud to have this award simply as it lets people who keep or breed birds of any species, to take their hobby in to a new dimension & allows people to experiment on the net, showing people who don’t have a website that simple web design isn’t rocket science.
This award lets bird keepers know that the people behind the sites are just everyday Joes and not actually doing web design as a job but as a hobby and just an extension to their hobby of keeping birds.
I feel it also shows that if you have a problem in an area of bird keeping then all you need to do is ask and most will go out of their way to give advice to the best of their knowledge freely and in depth, expecting nothing in return.

Many Bird keepers who have websites forget the reasons for actually starting a site in the first place.
They get stuck in the trap of thinking a good website has to look professional as if they were pro web designers, this is all good and well but what about the reason for building the site.
Many UK sites in particular seem to insist on trying to build the best website and forgetting to ad decent content or information that is interesting to other bird keepers.
Many spend more time actually designing the site than actually adding content.
To some degree I have been guilty in part just trying to impress with the design, and been proud to accept an award for the design, but to be honest that’s not why I started my site, I built my site to share my basic knowledge of bird keeping and maybe help others along the way.

So many of these awards do not have any Bering on the content only the design qualities. (only he says)but then content is harder than design.

Many sites thank god are coming round and spending more time writing the information and also how it’s illustrated making them in my opinion standout from the rest.
This is the sole reason why I started my own Gold Coin Award simply to help promote these great sites and their hard work and willingness to share their knowledge and experiences of their hobby and the birds they keep. Believe me building a good quality website that has good content and quality illustration and information takes more skill and hours of work than any actual building of the site.
I agree totally with a site looking nice and tidy and individual to the person building it however without the basic structure of great information then the site is just a pretty picture, leading visitors to simply have a quick look and then move on to the links page, which to be honest speaks for its self.

You can always test your websites popularity by temporarily taking it of line and seeing just how many emails you get asking when the site will be back or what has happened to your site with deep concern.
I have witnessed this for my self in building this new design as I took it off line whilst I built it, probably a stupid thing to do but I did and I have had around 150 emails asking or simply informing me that there is something wrong with my site and many asking when it will be back up and running.
These types of emails mean more to me than any award as these are real people with a real interest in birds and my site so come on people let’s keep our websites real, who cares if someone steals one of your ideas, feel proud that someone would want to use your ideas it keeps it all interesting, always try to do something different to others even if it means re-designing your site to incorporate new ideas that’s what keeps it interesting, there is one or two site out there I love going back to as they have great information to share and done in a way that is unique to them. Mentioning no names, “Steve, Rob, Laus” LOL

Anyway here are my awards I feel I must show them all as in some way I feel proud to have been awarded all of them.