The GWG Website of the Year 09 is SimonSeeks.com

Simonseeks.com was picked as The Good Web Guide's Website of the Year 2009. The new concept travel site launched in June 2009 and now attracts over 2000 unique visitors per day, with numbers growing. Founder Simon Nixon talks us through the business.

Explain your business

Simonseeks is a new concept in travel websites, combining quality user generated content, in the form of detailed travel guides of approximately 800 words, and expert moneysaving tips with a comprehensive choice of booking options. Often described as the YouTube of travel, the site now features over 2000 guides written by celebrities, professionals and amateurs alike who share their favourite destinations and insider tips with the community.

What makes Simonseeks.com unique?

We are unique as we are the only user generated content website to share revenue equally and directly with our writers. This will encourage our writers to take an active interest in the quality and detail of the guides they write for us. This enables us to offer our visitors the very best travel guides free of charge, combined with expert consumer travel advice, moneysaving tips and booking options.

How do you make money?

The revenue comes from commission generated by people reading the guides, clicking through to travel partners’ websites and making a booking. Display advertising revenue is also generated. All the revenue from each guide is shared equally between the writers and Simonseeks.com and each author has a Simonseeks Paypal account and the revenue is generated is paid directly into this.

How much can contributors earn?

The amount will vary depending on the standard of accommodation booked, for example, and the length of stay. The more informative, interesting and easy-to-read a particular guide is, the higher its rating will be and the more income it will generate for the author. A guide is also more likely to attract readers if it looks appealing and has photographs to illustrate it.

To read the full interview with Simon Nixon, click here

Website of the Year 09 - Winner Announced!

The Good Web Guide's first Website of the Year Award attracted over a thousand entries.

A shortlist of 25 sites was chosen and sent to judges including Emma Jones, founder of Enterprisenation.com, Sháá Wasmund, founder of Smarta.com, Liane Dietrich, MD of Linkshare.co.uk; Yanique Francis-Lalin, senior web analyst at Twenga.com, Nick Wills, founder of Beatsdigital.com and MD of Thegoodwebguide.co.uk, Arabella Dymoke.

The standard of the shortlist was very high and judges found it hard choosing a winner. In the end, Simonseeks.com, the new concept travel website which combines user generated content with expert moneysaving tips and a comprehensive choice of booking options was picked as the overall winner.

An awards lunch was held at Quo Vadis, Soho where Nick Trend, the editor of SimonSeeks, received a cheque for £1,000 and a selection of other fantastic prizes.

Judge Yanique Francis-Yalin (Twenga) said of SimonSeeks, 'I especially like the way the user content is organised and that there are standards to ensure good quality content.' Meanwhile, Nick Wills commented, 'It's solid, executed well and could go a long way.'

Nick Trend spoke on behalf of the team at SimonSeeks when he accepted the award saying, 'Everyone in the office is delighted and it is a huge boost to our confidence after many months of hard work!'

Runners Up in The Good Web Guide Website of the Year Award 2009 included: Songkick.com, which tracks artists, venues and festivals to ensure you never miss another gig; Findinvestgrow.com, which works with and supports young entrepreneurs; and Shiply.com, which helps visitors to find cheap courier services already making trips across the UK and Europe.

A big thanks to all those who entered the awards. Please do watch out for our Website of the Year Award 2010 - launching soon!

Website of the Year Shortlist Announced!

The Good Web Guide Website of the Year Award 2009 was geared towards small businesses and non-profit organisations. Over 1000 nominations were received. There was a high standard overall. One excellent site, YoungDebaters.com was submitted by Edward McGovern with the plea, ‘I am 13 and need to take the website further, but don’t have the money to do so.’

The sites ranged across a number of interests from forums and social networks, entertainment, travel, retail, information, property, services, food, parenting and gardening. The following sites have been shortlisted and all have something unique to offer, whether it’s an interesting concept, useful information or plain fun. The winning site will be announced online no later than 6th November 09.

To view the full shortlist, click here.

How to Enter

Entrants have until Wednesday 7th October to put their nominated website or websites forward. Websites will be judged on the following five criteria:

- Design
- Originality
- Content
- Interactivity
- Ease of use

The winner of The GWG Website of the Year Award will be contacted on 31st October. An awards ceremony will take place in London between 2nd and 4th November. The winner will be announced online no later than Friday 6th November.

Could YOUR WEBSITE be our Website of the Year 2009? Enter the competition and find out more here.

The Judges

There will only be one winner of our Website of the Year Award 2009. The winner will be picked by Arabella Dymoke, MD of The Good Web Guide and a panel of five qualified judges:

Emma Jones. Emma is founder of Enterprise Nation, the UK’s largest website for people starting and growing a business from home and advises government on the topic. www.enterprisenation.com



Yanique Francis-Lalin. Yanique is senior web analyst at Twenga.com, the leading, new generation shopping search engine, and responsible for analysing web content across the UK and US. www.twenga.com



Nick Wills. Nick is founder of Beatsdigital, the leading music upload site for the Dance Music industry - www.beatsdigital.com. Nick has been part of the GWG team since its foundation. His sister company, NetInitiative, provides all the technical infrastructure behind the GWG.


Liane Dietrich. Liane is Managing Director of Linkshare.co.uk, the leading provider of full service online marketing solutions. www.linkshare.co.uk




Sháá Wasmund. Sháá is founder of Smarta.com, the innovative business platform that provides help and advice to entrepreneurs and business owners. www.smarta.com



Could YOUR WEBSITE be our Website of the Year 2009? Enter the competition and find out more here.

The Prizes

There will only be one winner of The Good Web Guide's first Website of the Year Award. If that's your site, you will win a number of fantastic prizes including:

• £1000 to spend on your site, put up by The Good Web Guide.

The Good Web Guide has been in business for nearly ten years. It has reviewed thousands of websties and offers a definitive guide to life online. www.thegoodwebguide.co.uk

• A press release prepared by Kenyon Communications on the subject of their choosing, with full media distribution, worth £500.

Kenyon Communications is a Lincolnshire-based marketing, public relations and event-management company with national reach. www.kenyon-communications.com

• A full SEO audit and follow up consultation with SEOptimise, worth £750.

SEOptimise is a UK search engine marketing agency, delivering services that increase the visibility of its clients on the internet and create more sales for you. www.seoptimise.com

• A Vistaprint Custom Business Kit to help build their brand and market their business like a pro, worth £178.

Vistaprint Limited has provided more than 19m small businesses and consumers with the easiest way to make an impression at the best price. www.vistaprint.co.uk


• Professionally taken portraits of the website founder(s) and/or team worth £350, by award-winning photographer Dave Watts.

Dave Watts is winner of the Wanderlust Travel Photographer of the Year 2009 (Travel Icon) and the Sony World Photography Award 2009 (Amateur Architecture). www.wattsdave.com

Could YOUR WEBSITE be our Website of the Year 2009? Enter the competition and find out more here

Website of the Year Award 2009

We have spent nearly ten years researching and reviewing the best websites across a range of topics and this year, we’re launching our first Website of the Year Award, aimed at small businesses and organisations. There will be only one winning site, picked by a team of qualified judges according to set criteria.

Could YOUR WEBSITE be our Website of the Year 2009? Enter the competition and find out more here