Do website awards programs increase web site visibility?
Bar Graph MDI (bar graphs in web browsers)
Headlines MDI (GRML web browsers)
Pioneer Report MDI (GRML web browsers)
Tree MDI (GRML web browsers)
If your award program is geared to sites related to the theme of your website, link popularity benefits will probably be improved. However, you may be restricting yourself to a smaller universe of potential "winners". While most awards are graphics, you could do a couple of things. Incorpororate a small text line as part of the link (hey, it's your award, why not?). Incorporate ALT text in the code winners must post on their site. Some will just copy the graphic. If you give them the code, most will probably just paste it in.
As far as the link destination on your site, linking to your home page would be better than some awards page. The awards page usually is a traffic dead-end, so it is best to avoid it. On the remote sites, it would be nice if they put the award on their home page. Some more sophisticated sites might want to use a sepaarate awards page instead of cluttering their home page with multiple awards.