One of the largest online tech communities is the world-wide phenomenon of web, graphic & media designers. This illustrative and overflowing group floods the web with portal communities that take 10 minutes to download, even with a broadband connection. This is a group so addicted to Flash and form that following function is virtually out of the question.

However, they are free with their links and if your design content can measure up, you can receive thousands of links in a matter of days from high quality, traffic-pushing sites. If visibility is your goal and your message is ready to be received by the hip, urban mod generation; you can hardly find better content to create.

I've created a short list of some of the biggest design portals in the business below - where possible, I've used their "catch phrases", which help to illustrate the culture of the sites:

• RES72 - Design Surveillance System
• BD4D - By Designers for Designers
• NetDiver - New Media Digital Portal
• PixelSurgeon - News, Reviews & Interviews
• Origin Online - From New Zealand
• Australian InFront - Australian Design Portal
• Creative Behavior - Online Design Magazine
• Surfstation - Inspiration Becomes Innovation
• For the Masses - Another New Zealand Design Portal
• Experimental Magazine - Feed your Emotions
• Moluv - Design Picks
• Kaliber 1000 - The Designer's Lunchbox
• VisualOrgasm - German Design Portal
• Design is Kinky - ?
• DesignTaxi - Design is Everywhere
• NewsToday - For a Better Tomorrow
• Scene360 - Art, Film, Literature, Music
• Media Inspiration - The Designer's Resource
• WellVetted - Inspirational Gathering
• Plastic Pilots - Design Awards (Note: I actually submitted Avatarfinancial.com here and got accepted, bringing me over 400 visitors that month - and a good link)
• Eyepunch - Spanish

There are hundreds more. If you've got a site with a killer design that requires horizontal scrolling and has no visible navigation (or just a really clean, pretty design), try submitting to these folks - it can be quite rewarding in terms of traffic.