It seems that a few times each month, my wife and I have a moment when we say, “We really should eat a a little better.” It’s not that we eat unhealthy, fried food every night (and we have both been better lately about packing lunches instead of buying fast food). But we do often get home from work, look at the clock, and decide we would much rather order pizza or hoagies then tackle something in the kitchen.

So, last week, we decided that we would really work hard to plan out what we were going to do for dinner each week, and make sure we had all the ingredients on-hand to make it work. So yesterday, I found a few healthy recipes, designated one night for leftover chinese food from the weekend, and even plotted the meals so that the early-week options created enough leftovers to pack for lunch. Then I looked at each recipe, made a grocery list, and picked up everything I would need to get us through the week. As I unloaded groceries, I was quite proud of myself for my advanced planning, and ready to begin the week. We’ll see how long the weekly planning continues…

Here at DDA, that kind of advanced planning is old habit for us. We take extra care to plan our projects from the very beginning. Oftentimes, first-time clients seem to think that a new website takes no time at all to design and develop. In a sense, that’s true (just not at DDA). We could just create a site off a template, fill in a few blanks, choose a URL and give you a website in a few weeks. But that site would do you know good. It wouldn’t be unique, it wouldn’t help you establish a brand identity, it wouldn’t be informative, and, most of all, NO ONE WOULD EVER SEE IT!

At DDA, we know that a well-planned menu structure, informative content, and countless small behind-the-scene details are critical to the success of your site. Therefore, our process may take more time than you might think, but in the end it will be well worth the investment. And if you choose our search engine marketing and optimization services, then we will help your site climb the ranks on popular search engines like Google and Yahoo!, reaching the first page and driving traffic to your site.

From an initial kickoff meeting with each client, through the development and feedback process, and all the way through your launch date, DDA will use its experience to create the perfect website for your business. Contact us today and let DDA create a plan for your new website!

Come 5:59 today, I’ll be shedding my work clothes and donning a Chase Utley jersey so I can head directly to the Phillies game (let’s hope I-95 isn’t a parking lot). It’s fireworks night at the ballpark, and the game has been sold out for months. If you’re a fireworks fan, be sure to get tickets next summer, it’s the best show you’ll ever see.

Anyway, along those same lines, I’ve been following an interesting story over the last week. The Major League Baseball All-Star game is next week, and the announcement was made last weekend about which players made the teams. For many years, fans have been able to vote for the starters for both teams — either with paper ballots at the park, or online. Players and coaches help pick the rest of the 32-man rosters.

For years, the biggest debate isn’t really about who made the team, it’s centered around who DIDN’T make the team. So three or four years ago, the league picked five players who were right on the borderline, and asked fans to vote again for the last player on each team. This year, Phillies outfielder Shane Victorino is one of those players, and he hasn’t been shy about campaigning. He went door-to-door with the mayor in South Philadelphia and begged his home state of Hawaii to get in on the act. The team created “Vote Shane” shirts for fans, and a local radio station pit three fans against each other to see who could submit the most votes between Tuesday afternoon and 4 p.m. today, when the voting ends.

Anyway, this does have a point. The league has made it easy to vote for your favorite player, and set no limits on the number of votes. They use a basic Captcha tool (the programmers downstairs taught me that word) to prevent bulk voting, and also allow voting via cell phone text message. They’ve also created a very cool “Final Vote Widget“, which allows users to customize it and place it on their website, Facebook page, MySpace page, or other online destination. Needless to say, this idea has been a huge hit for the league, with tens of millions of votes being cast in the relatively short four-day window.

Here at DDA, our custom programmers love their widgets, and would love to put widgets to work for you! Whether you’re looking for a light-hearted marketing campaign geared toward social network sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, or something a little more serious that still holds onto the modular properties of an online widget, DDA is the place to turn. Since everything we do is customized for every client, we are not constrained by the limits of a template, or forced to shoehorn your idea into a pre-made widget. Our custom programmers will dazzle you with their skill, while our graphic designers, animators, and copywriters can get in on the act to create a truly interactive Internet experience that pinpoints your target audience.

So vote for DDA today and see why widgets can work for you!

Last Friday night, my town put on its annual fireworks show. The show was great, and we maximized it by hosting a little get-together at our house before and after the fireworks, stopping only to walk a few blocks so we could get the perfect view of the festivities.

Just a few months ago, the night’s events seemed like they weren’t going to happen. Back in the spring, we received an email from our borough councilman notifying us that the annual rite of summer — which has been a staple of my town since long before I ever lived there — was going to be canceled due to the lagging economy. Everyone was pretty disappointed, but seemed to understand that it was a “luxury” that could be skipped this year.

But just like that, a movement began in our little town. A beef and beer was scheduled, a few local businesses chipped in, and by mid-June, a sign at the borough hall proudly proclaimed “Fireworks, July 3″. When combined with the annual Soapbox Derby on the fourth — an event that has even more history than the fireworks in my town — it was the perfect summer weekend in suburbia, USA.

The movement to save the fireworks began online, thanks to a few younger councilmen and women in my town who have slowly increased the Internet presence of the borough. The old website barely even listed what days our trash would be picked up, but the new site offers downloadable tax forms, profiles of council members, and even a discussion area where residents can post questions and notices about events. It’s nothing fancy, but compared to the old version, it’s an enormous improvement.

Here at DDA, we know just how important a strong Internet presence can be. Just take one look at our website. See if you can visit all the pages. I dare you. Come back and talk to me in 8 or 9 months once you see everything.

Unlike most web development companies, we don’t just throw together a design template, slap on some content and call it a day. From the very beginning, we create a detailed and well-planned menu structure that not only touches on your key services or targets, but is also optimized for today’s most popular search engines, like Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. That menu is then used as the backbone so that our graphic designers can create multiple ORIGINAL design concepts for you to review. After you approve of a design, we begin to add all the bells and whistles that make your website a desination for all types of Internet users. Whether you create the content, or ask our team of degreed copywriters to do it for you, your site will not only pop off the screen and engage visitors, but also attract visitors via search engine marketing (SEM).

From animation and video production to custom programming, graphic design, and copywriting, DDA can integrate any or all of our services into your new website. So choose DDA today, and select from our vast selection of fireworks to create the perfect website for your business or organization!