The largest network of English language websites about Thailand is our very own Paknam Web Network. We have been making websites since 1997 and twelve years later we are still going strong. What amazes many people is that we are still very much family friendly. We don't talk about the bar scene nor do we show semi nude pictures. Our mandate since the beginning has been to promote the real Thailand to the world. As well as tourists planning holidays, our websites are popular with students who have to do projects about Thailand.

Many of the Paknam Web sites do well on Google searches. For many popular keywords you will find our sites on the front page of the search results. In fact, these days you, you will often find that half of the sites listed for a search term are in the Paknam Web Network. Just do a search for "thai blogs" and you will find at least eight of our sites on page one of the search results (click here). I think one of the main reasons that we do so well is that many of these websites have been around a long time. Plus we have a lot of people linking to us.

Some jealous webmasters complain that the only reason that we have so many websites is that we are greedy to bring more money in. But, the fact is that only about 7% of our websites have any advertising at all! Most are commercial free. Go and take a look at our popular local website at www.paknam.com. You won't find one single advert despite the fact that we spend hundreds of hours on that site. Then there is www.ThailandVoice.com where we promote blogs about Thailand on the Internet. Again, you won't find a single advert there. Some visitors even complain when we have adverts as they say that we are only interested in making money. This may be true for some people, but for others like ourselves it is the only way to survive. We spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars every month on server bills alone. As we are a registered company we also have to pay wages and tax.

I think when people are surfing on the Internet they don't always know that they are reading one of our websites. That is a problem that we need to address and do better with the branding. So, I thought today I would introduce to you some of our more popular sites. And then over the following weeks I will introduce some of the other less-known sites.

TOP 10 PAKNAM WEB WEBSITES:

(1) www.eThaiMusic.com - Sing along to streaming Thai music with karaoke English and also translations
(2) www.ThailandQA.com - our popular forums that are one of the few that still remain family friendly
(3) www.LearningThai.com - the grand-daddy of websites for learning Thai and still the biggest free resource center
(4) www.Top10Thaimusic.com - weekly charts of the most popular Thai songs
(5) www.Thai-Blogs.com - one of the longest running blogs about Thai life, culture and travel - still family friendly
(6) www.ThaiPhotoBlogs.com - daily news and travel photos from Thailand
(7) www.ThailandLife.com - it hasn't been updated for three years but still brings in thousands of visitors every day
(8) www.BangkokScams.com - forewarned is forearmed, tips on how to be street smart in Thailand
(9) www.ThailandGuidebook.com - a free online guidebook to all 76 provinces in Thailand
(10) www.Paknam.com - the online magazine for our local area

Starting this weekend, I will give you a brief review of one of our websites in the Paknam Web Network. Then we will continue like that once a week.