There are a few brands, the crème de la crème, that consistently show up on various “Top 100″ type lists.  You know which ones I’m talking about.  They’re household names and for the most part come out on top because they’ve met and exceeded the expectations of reviewers/consumers/whoever.  They’ve got the best of everything (insert famous ad tagline here) and they’re usually not hurting too badly financially.  So when I stumbledupon the latest “Top 100 Brands” list here I took a look at some of the companies’ websites guessing I was in for an overdose of inspiration…

I was wrong.  A few were great, most were fine, and some were pretty bad.  The bad ones are here…enjoy!

Duracell

For a site with upwards of 80,000 visitors per month its amazing how dated Duracell is, and the slow-to-load, amateur-ish flash intro doesn’t help.

UPS

Yes, its bad - but I was going to let this one slide because it was UPS.  That was until I checked out compete.com and found out they average over 12 million visits per month! I am truly speechless.

FedEx

Better than UPS…but not by much.

Colgate

AH my eyes!! Bad color choice and much too cluttered.

Ferrari

Cars this cool deserve a better website…’nuff said.

BMW

Granted it gets better as you delve into the site - but you don’t want this to be the first thing people see. Boring.

Merrill Lynch

I know its ‘professional’, and that a website probably isn’t a high priority for them right now…but come on, this looks like they haven’t upgraded since 1998.

McDonald’s

I’m not lovin’ it. The black background could look cool, but they have so little content on the page it ends up being overwhelming.  The navigation is hard to use as well.  They made it super interactive, problem is that when you move your mouse inadvertently what you were reading can disappear.

Nestlé

Where’s the yummy food?  Seriously…not one chocolate chip? I realize they are a huge company, but it seems like they’re taking themselves a bit too seriously with this extremely corporate-feeling site.

BP

With second quarter earnings this year of $4.98 billion you’d think they’d be willing to drop the $5K or so it would take to make their site modern and maybe a bit better looking.

Avon

Avon’s business is looking pretty…they should know better.

Accenture

The biggest/best consulting firm around and this is all they’ve got? Tired design with hardly any navigation to speak of doesn’t convey the image they’re probably going for.

Marriott

Some useful features, but the site doesn’t have a very welcoming feel - why would I want to stay here? I think not having any pictures at all is a lost opportunity for any site trying to sell accommodations.

Canon

Know any other great brands whose websites don’t quite live up to your expectations?  Let us know in the comments!

Let’s be honest…blogging is hard.  In fact, Michael Parsons touts it as the “hand-to-hand combat of the writing world”.  Creating and maintaining a successful blog is a huge undertaking, and those that are really successful at it put forth great amounts of effort.  They eat, they sleep, and they blog.

The blogosphere really is another world, with it’s own set of rules and etiquette that you’ll need to learn.  You should set aside time to read other people’s blogs, and try to establish relationships with other bloggers.  Learn when to comment, when to post your own content, and when to link to other blogs.  Staying up to date can quickly turn into a full time job if you let it, so here are a few tips to help:

1. Write about something you like and write often.  Seems like common sense, but readers will know if you aren’t sincere and you’ll build up loyal readership faster by making new content available regularly.
2. Stay well-informed.  Get your facts straight and be aware of what others are writing about the same topic.  Readers will nail you to the proverbial wall for obvious duplicate posts or not fact checking first.
3. Promote your blog.  Readers will not be magically drawn to your site so you’ll need to do some grunt work, especially in the beginning.  Ping, use trackbacks, and leave comments on other relavent blog posts to let others know what you are up to.  Use gimmicks, wit, a specific tagline - anything to get noticed, the internet is a black hole of information that is easy to get lost in.  Lastly, make use of social bookmarking and article submission sites by submitting one of your better posts once in a while to reel in new visitors.
4. Don’t just blog for the sake of blogging.  Have an opinion or something useful/interesting to say or no one will pay attention
5. Have thick skin.  Readers will leave harsh comments, its part of the game.  Respond (tactfully) if you must and then move on.  If it bothers you, use comment moderation to weed out the particularly hurtful ones.
6. Hang in there.  It will get easier.  Most bloggers who get discouraged and quit do it in the first few months.  Building an audience takes time, and it doesn’t really matter how many people you are reaching as long as that number keeps growing.  The older your blog gets the more credibility it will earn.

It’s hard, and its not for everyone - but blogging can be very rewarding.  Adding a blog is a great way to make sure your site has fresh content, you’ll get your point across to lots of people, and hopefully you’ll have fun and gain satisfaction from sharing information with others and participating in online communitites.

After our brewery design post we thought it was only fair to showcase equally inspiring designs for the wine drinker as well!  So here are 22 of the best winery/vineyard sites we’ve come across…

Dog House Wine

Luna Di Luna

Toasted Head

Rex Goliath

Renwood Winery

Folie a Deux Winery

Frog’s Leap

Gnarly Head Cellars

Kendall-Jackson

The Little Penguin

2 Lads

Dancing Bull Wines

Fish Eye Wines

3 Blind Moose

Bonny Doon Vineyard

Clos Du Val

Red Bicyclette

Magnificent Wine

Yellow Tail

Wine That Loves

Big House Wines

Turning Leaf Vineyards

21 of the most well designed brewery and micro-brewery websites we’ve come across…getting thirsty yet?

Rolling Rock

Bell’s

Bridgeport

Left Hand Brewing Co.

Red Hook

Blue Tongue Brewery

Half Moon Bay Brewing Co.

Leinenkugel’s

Pilsner-Urquell

Stella Artois

Landshark Lager

Samuel Adams

Long Trail Brewing Co.

Malt Shovel Brewery

New Belgium

Guinness

Sierra Nevada

Widmer Brothers Brewing Co.

Budweiser

French Broad Brewing Co.

De Dolle Brouwers