Mega Domaining Essentials Contest Additional Task #4
November 23, 2008 by admin
Filed under Domain News
As promised on November 1 when the Mega Domaining Essentials contest was launched here at DNXpert, we will come up with a set of easy tasks that will allow you to get extra points on the random entry points tracking page and increase your chances of winning a prize in the random draw to be held on November 30, 2008.
Today we reveal task #4 worth 10 extra points in the random draw entry point pot.
Go to the following 10 prize providers’ websites and pick the best designed and worst designed website - explain your reasoning in a comment on this post ( proper answers please, not gibberish ).
| Sponsor | Prize | Value |
| Bidvertiser.com | $200 credit in winner’s Bidvertiser account. Click here for details. | $200 |
| DNSStuff.com | 1 x yearly license to DNSStuff professional toolset. Click here for details. | $79 |
| Escrow.com | $100.00 worth of Escrow fees. Click here for details. | $100 |
| PPC-Sites.com | 3 x 10 domain package of PPC optimized minisites, 1 x $100 in cash via PayPal. Click here for details. | $518.5 |
| Psd2Html.com | $600 worth of credit for markup services and implementation. Click here for details. | $600 |
| Estibot.com | 4 x Estibot Pro memberships for 1 year. Click here for details. | $599.80 |
| ClickFire.com | $100 Cash via PayPal. Click here for details. | $100 |
| DomainMagnate.com | 10 LLLL.coms and 10 LLLL.nets. Click here for details. | $300 |
| Parked.com | $200 credit in Parked.com account. Click here for details. | $200 |
| JohnCow.com | 1 x Licence of VideoPostRobot + Choice of 1 x license of SyndicateKahuna Pro or $67 cash via PayPal. Click here for details. | $264 |
JohnCow.com looks the best thanks to the snazzy custom theme and the cartoon guy. The worst would be Domain Magnate, because of the nasty orange-ish color scheme and the generic non-header.
24xtreme,
Best: JohnCow.com - What a custom blog skin. Just looks very colourful and certainly a blog i would like to read. The colour schemes certainly works well.
Worst: PSD2HTML.com - I really do not like sites that fill the entire screen. Also the graphic wrist band across the top right looks a little untidy.
PPC-sites.com has the best layout for me. The layout looks professional and the color scheme is nice. Escrow.com might be the one which has the worst design because of the dull color.
The best : JohnCow.com looks neat and simple with some graphics on header and footer.
The worst : DomainMagnate.com because the orange color doesn’t fit with other colors.
erxn
Best: JohnCow.com - awesome, unique & creative design.
Worst: Escrow.com - showed only in the left half of my screen.
Best : JohnCow.com have very nice cool look design is simple but color combination with logo and the cartoon make it very catchy and clear
Worst : As per name of Escrow it should be design like that and right now just 3 rectangle box on a page with ugly color combination.
Best: Psd2Html - the design is simple yet elegant
Worst: DomainMagnate.com - I didn’t like the blending and the color scheme
Best - Estibot - They understand why I would visit their site by having the appraise box displayed prominently.
Worst - John Cow - Don’t particularly care for copycat sites, especially the smug cartoon character.
A copycat of what exactly? As far as I know JohnCow.com is the original - including the character. Please justify your statement domainmaster.
I like psd2html.com, their design looks great.
The worst is parked.com for me, their site looks like a template.
sorry, forgot to say my forum username is malay_maniac
Best one: bidvertiser.com
I really like that layout, it’s simple and effective, choosed colors have taste and fits great into layout and in the whole picture with other colors on the page. Boxes are placed well on the site, with taste and right feel in my opinion. All in one, looks simple but clear, informative and effective.
Worst one: estibot.com
First of all, those bad and old looking table with links on top, really looks so last century. Central content could be better aligned and not just trown on the page, left column is higher than right columns which are only ads (bad for such a site). It also looks like they are hacked or I don’t get those Hakukoneoptimointi.com links at the bottom of the page. All in one, it doesn’t look very professional to me.
Tivo
Best - Parked.com: Some people may disagree with me here but its simply the most realistic design out of these websites. They get a clean and FUNCTIONAL design while keeping the visitor entertained.
Worst - Estibot.com: Sorry to say it Esa but your design looks a little 1997. Just because the design is not great does not mean the service is not great. In fact i would go as far as Estibot provides the best service out of these websites along with parked.com.
dominantdomainer @ dnxpert forum
Best design: dnsstuff.com
Professional looking clean tech design, without looking too much like a template. The calls to action are large and easy to understand.
Worst design: Escrow.com
Green and orange? Based in Wisconsin? There is a lot of text strewn over the page, nothing stands out and it all looks like a confusing mess. The call to action is lacking some kind of explanation or further text to relate the benefit. Start an escrow now, does not give the user a benefit for doing so and does not explain what this all means to a user that doesn’t know what an escrow is.
Best Design - Bidvertiser.com has a nice, clean administrative look. It appears to be a business website, rather than someone’s personal webpage. The colors are bright, yet subdued enough to convey professionalism.
The site I would probably redesign is PSD2HTML.com. It is a nice, simple design, but it looks like someone’s blog or personal webpage rather than a business page. I think in order for this site to be taken more seriously, it should abandon the ‘blog’ look and impliment a more professional looking design.
The best one is bidvertiser.com
I’m falling in love with bidvertiser design, very good in combining colors, more informative and easy navigation. Let’s say its cool, calm, and confidence.
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The worst one is escrow.com
escrow design is too simple or primitive design, maybe they are too lazy for making some update or changes.
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Regards,
mana @ dnxpert.com forum
Re JohnCow.com, the site began life as a copycat blog of JohnChow.com. There was a similarity in theme and template. Ironically, JohnCow.com also made it on to the first page of google for ‘John Chow’, which is kind of funny. This much is well known. (I’m also a semi-regular at John Chow’s Dotcom Pho meetups, so I’m aware of some behind the scene things.)
I believe the original owner - Mr Jones - parlayed his make mooney online blog to modest success, then sold it off to new owners, who have included some decent content but something about that cartoon character kinda bugs me.
Me, i just love dnsstuff design. it look just so simple yet everything blends well all together. Plus, the site are really user friendly.
For worsts design i have to go with estibot. Looks like the it stuck with the 90’s era, and too much square. Put up more striking color and images, probably round edge square for the table.
romico
Best: psd2html. The design is kept simple with matching color palette.
Worst: estibot. The color scheme doesn’t match each other. What with the huge ads that takes half of the page? There is too much things at the top table list, I’m confused with the page navigation.
Updating my blog for additional task #4
Best designed:
In my opinion, bidvertiser.com is the best designed site. its very light, so users even on dial up have no problem loading the website. It has a very clean interface, structured layout; even a first time visitor will have no problems navigating the website. I am also impressed by the simple designed header and logo. The “Featured Advertisers” are placed neatly on the bottom left with no intrusive ads splashed to normal surfers.
Worst Designed:
With all due respects to John Cow and his success, I am not particularly impressed by the design of the blog (or website). Too may ads is one thing that turns me away. The site is also heavy on bandwidth; a downside which usually turns away potential visitors on low speed internet connection. The top navigation can easily be missed, which can leave newcomers wondering about the structure of the website. The number of posts on homepage needs to be reduced, in my opinion. Users need to scroll down to access earlier posts, which is something I am not a fan off.
escrow doesn’t look very professional, it looks like done by a 12 years old guy at his second html experiment. Don’t knowing who the company is, only by judging this site would you trust them to give them your money ?
John Cow is my favorite design fo the list provided: that idea of the Chow parody has been one of the best ideas and themes of 2007. Jason did also a great job reorganizing the theme for optimizing all the ad spaces.
My fav design of the lost is probably psd2html. Clean, nice layout and easy to find what you want.
Least fav is probably estibot. I assume they “designed” it like that more for the SEO with all the text links and such but it’s possible to do the same while still making it look nice. There are tons of very simple service type sites out there with just one input box but still look great…some inspiration from those would help the design of estibot.
http://www.psd2html.com/ is best for me. It is very clean, nice looking, without any useless design elements.
The worst design for me is http://estibot.com/. I use estibot very much and like the services, but the design is very basic and even the image of the logo is not of very good quality.
my username: plxtransformer
Best: I really liked Bidvertiser.com
The design of the layout is simple yet anyone who get there will find easily what he’s looking for. The combination of the colors are pleasing to eyes. Comfortable much! Number one in designing. Easy navigating on pages. Links are favorable.
Worst: This is not really the worst, err, I just think the layout of Estibot.com is lacking of something. Maybe the templete is sooooo dull? 4 colors isn’t enough. Gee, their site still helps but the templete navigation has too many links on it. Maybe a minute or two to find what I’m looking for.