This has been a real close race between #4 and #5. I know that each artist sent over some of their friends to vote on their work and that’s okay with me. Even so, it was still close. So over Labor Day,  I asked some friends and family members to go to my site and look at the entries and tell me which one they preferred.

It was close, as close as it could be and not be a tie, #5 squeaked out the win by one vote from friends and family members.

As for myself, I thought all the entries were darn good and I could use any of the banners for my site. I couldn’t make up my mind between #3, #4 or #5.

I’ll be heading over to Webmaster-Talk and posting the winner there. If you’re in need of some serious graphic design, go to this thread on Webmaster-Talk and look over the artist, you can’t go wrong!

Will I use the logo? I don’t know. After seeing the job UniqueBlogDesigns did for JohnChow and ShoeMoney, I thinking I’ll see what they can do with AffiliateWatcher. Their designs look awesome and they’re reasonably priced, so stay tuned as I try to make my mind up as to what I want to do. I’m beginning to understand how women feel…LOL

Share this:

I’ll keep this up for about a week before choosing the winner. You can also see them here at Webmaster-Talk.Com

Here are the entries, in no certain order. These are clickable thumbnails, so click on a thumbnail for a larger view of the design imposed over my homepage.

Entry #1

 Entry #2

Entry #3

Entry #4

Entry #5

Entry #6

Okay, that’s it. Remember, to vote just leave a comment with the Entry # you like.

Share this:

I keep playing around with different header banners for this blog. When I was using the two column Cutline Theme, I liked my old header. When I upgraded to this 3 column Cutline Theme, I tried to redo my header image to match. I’ve never gotten it so that I think it looks ‘okay’. I’ve tried other designs, but I’ve found none I’m happy with. I’m throwing up my hands in defeat! There is only one thing left for me to do…

Announcing The AffiliateWatcher.Com Graphic Design Contest

Here’s what I’ve decided to do. I’m going to run a contest for graphic designers to design the header for this blog. Here’s how it will work.

1. The contest will start today and run to the deadline day of Monday August 13.
2. Graphic artist who wish to participate should submit their submissions to me via email at – simpleblogmail at yahoo.com

I thought about it long and hard and felt like a contest wouldn’t be fair to those who didn’t win but who worked to create a banner. Being a cheapskate, I don’t plan on paying everyone who submits a design. But here’s what I’m planning on doing, which should more than make it worth your time to submit a banner submission for this contest.

Here’s How It Will Work

1. Once the deadline has passed, I’ll upload all the designs onto a post. With each graphic design submitted, I’ll allow the Artist to include their name and their company’s name (if they have one) along with a link back to their company website or their personal gallery. I’m doing this so that everyone who enters will get some attention from my visitors, not just the Winner.
2. Once all the banner submissions are up, I’ll either open up the Comments for a few days and let the readers vote on the design they like the best or I’ll use a Poll, not sure which one yet.
3. Whoever gets the most votes will be the Readers Choice Winner and will get special mention by me on this blog. I retain the final decision whether or not to use the Readers Choice Winner’s submission as my banner.
4. The Winner will be announced in a seperate post.
5. The Winner will obviously get mentioned in the post, but in addition, I’ll put a 125×125 banner in one of the sidebars that points back to their company’s site or to their gallery stating “Header Logo Courtesy Of —-”, yeah, that’s free advertising for the Winner. The 125x advertising banner will stay on this blog as long as I use their banner.

Here’s the 411 My Brothas and Sista’s

• Entry’s are limited to 3 per Graphic Designer/Company
• Banners must be 1000 x 140 pixels
• I retain the right to refuse posting any banner logo that I find objectionable (you know someone would probably submit something stupid ;) )
• My personal taste on banners lean toward the clean and simple type banners, but I’m willing to look at all. I want to see how creative ya’ll can get because I don’t have enough creativity to make my own banner!

Not A Graphic Designer – You Can Help Also

I’ll need help spreading the word. I’d appreciate if all my readers would pass the word about this contest on to everyone they know, especially graphic designer.

I’d appreciate if you’d make mention of it in a post or news article on your website or ask around in the forums that you visit. Hey, if you end up refering the winning Artist, I’ll throw some link love your way also!

Thanks in advance! I think this will be fun and I look forward to seeing what comes out of this.

Share this: