As a Programmer at DDA, I do a variety of tasks, including implementing additional functionality to existing sites, modifying how a site functions, and building new sites. Some projects include creating dynamic links that expire after a certain period of time to protect website content. The Dynamic links will be encrypted with an encryption key for added security. Some other techniques we use to make our systems more secure are making login sessions expire after a certain period of time and requiring complex passwords. We try to do as much code re-use as possible and also to use/build on open source projects to keep the project as efficient as possible for DDA and the consumer. Advanced custom programming and coding projects can be completed at a more rapid pace if all the requirements and objectives of the project are laid out in the beginning, although this doesn’t always happen in the development life cycle and process.

I was thinking the other day how fortunate I am to work on such a variety of design projects. Today, I will be finalizing a logo design for DDA’s new division, DDA CMT (Corporate and Medical Training), then I have some web design updates for DDA’s Corporate site, and finally I will continue my work on a new cover design for a brochure folder, which is in it’s third cycle of printing. What a variety! This sort of variety, I believe, is especially important for any graphic designer. There is a risk of getting to comfortable with one subject matter and failing to expand one’s horizon into other areas of advertising, which helps to keep our designs fresh and consistent from one project to another. This is especially important for many of the Corporate Identity projects we have worked on. My 3-year old child has a book that teaches us the beauty of all the ways one thing can take on different shapes and colors… but it is still the same thing and this one thing can be loved by many different types of people. In some respects I think that that my job as a graphic designer is just that… to design each project that will be accepted and “loved” by the great variety of our clients. 

Time is a created thing To say ‘ I don’t have time is like saying ‘ I don’t want to.’   Lao Tzu

At Dynamic Digital Advertising, we work a ten hour four day week, year round. In the almost 14 years I have been part of this company, I have learned to appreciate staff members who instinctively value time and use it judiciously. It can be magical to watch their work rhythms, and very reassuring to know that such effectiveness is possible in the very complex advertising world that is DDA.

Here, rule #1 is respect for the client’s budget and by extension their time. We have a great group of designers, videographers, animators, writers, seo specialists and programmers, but obviously some of us are better at identifying what must get done first, and what can wait in any given timeframe. Truth be told. googling, checking personal email, lingering over breakfast or comparing notes on last night’s hot show is more fun than buckling down for the day.

Which brings me to my request. Everybody send me a short list of time wasters (that applies to all of us) and let’s see how we can become an even better well-oiled machine that knows the true difference between urgent, truly important, do later and wasting time.  To avoid spending part of our three day weekend fielding problems, we have to understand that time is NOT elastic. There are only 38 desk hours a week that we have to get a myriad of technical, creative, mundane, demanding, frustrating sometimes exciting work done for our clients. Let’s commit to working hard and smart, so we can play joyfully the three days we call our weekend. Let’s do what President Kennedy said “Use time as a tool.” Remember however that in 2008 time can be exceedingly unwieldy.

TENNIS ANYONE? The club is right next door!

To start off my DDA blog, I thought I would write about something that had also just started–that is, the Video ads for Google Adwords that are now appearing in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

The video ads appear under the traditional Adwords copy. When you come across one of these ads you will notice a small plus sign and the words “Watch Commercial”.

If you search for the term “cell phones” you should be able to find an example of this type of ad for Blackberry:

Here at DDA, we think we are uniquely positioned to help our clients make the most out of this new feature. Given our over 10 years’ experience in both Digital Video and Search Engine Marketing, this type of advertising slots right into our field of expertise. We are already in the process of creating our first Google Video Ad for one of our existing clients, and we look forward to finding out how this effects their click thru rates and, more importantly, their conversations.

I have been referred to as one of the first search engine optimization specialists in Pennsylvania. Starting twelve years ago, with a handful of websites to optimize, I have learned the ins and outs of search engine marketing and sometimes feel as though I could do it in my sleep. Back then, I had a hand in just about every field of work that DDA covered. From marketing mailings and proofreading, to shipping/receiving and inventory management, to website updates and database management, I seemed to be the go-to person for many things.

Since my early days, I now focus my entire day on enhancing our customers websites. Each day holds something new for me in the optimization world. One day I will be working on a medical website and the next on a site for wedding cake software. Most of the website optimization that I do is on websites that DDA has designed. I then get to see the skill of our graphic designers when looking at an amazing website design.

Working for a professional search engine marketing company has definitely changed the way that I look at websites. I can no longer look at a website without checking for alt text, focused head titles and keyword-rich content. Working in meta tags has become second nature to me. It is interesting to see a website achieve higher rankings in search engines due to the work that I have done. It is a nice sense of accomplishment seeing a website’s rankings and page rank increase.

Being a programmer at Dynamic Digital Advertising is an exciting position because of their diverse projects. Each project poses a unique level of complexity that must be approached differently. It’s the challenges that invigorate one’s passion in formulating an optimal solution for each set of problems within the realm the programming domain. The challenges involve how to apply abstract theory to real world application within a given time constraint, constructing a feasible application that meets a client’s demand, and foreseeing all probable outcomes to maintain reliability and stability within the problem domain. Development of an application involves the analysis of the problem at hand, involving different theory and methods. One is the understanding the problem, which may involve extensive research toward comprehending the problem. Once clear understanding of the problem is established the next process is breaking down the problem in a modular solution. There are different domain of problem which involve a different set of algorithms and different techniques to accomplish the means. Database programming involves data structure, data relations, and data organization.

Programming is very involved and there are many aspects to it which make it a challenging and interesting field.

Being that this is the first blog, and it’s a Monday, I haven’t got much to write about regarding work, I’d much rather be writing about my weekend, because for once that was productive. Alas, this is work, and with work comes responsibility.

I guess I should start off with what it is that I do here at DDA, break the ice so to speak. I have been here at DDA for about 5 years, or at least it will be in June. Prior to DDA, I’d been in the programming/tech field for 3-4 years doing everything from programming to tech support, so I know a little about a lot. It makes for fun conversation at least. Once with DDA, I started out being the lone programmer that just sort of maintained some of our larger ColdFusion sites, made some forms work, pretty mundane programming tasks. I am now the lead of 4 programmers, each of us with our own sort of specialty (some still stuck doing mundane forms), working on projects on the larger scale. Dynamic intranets, CRM applications, fancy ColdFusion and Ajax interfaces have become my mainstay.

My goal here will be to throw in new stuff I find, or little web programming or database programming code snippets that I’ve found useful, so maybe something I find will be of use to someone else (if only to just say, what the heck is she thinking!?!?) I’m not always on the cutting edge of technology, it is difficult to hold a productive job and stay up to date with things and still have a happy home life…but hopefully there are nuggets of goodness in there somewhere.

My job here is varied. I do little bits of several different things, for many different areas like taking care of actors and website maintenance. I have learned that DDA can practically do it all, from Web Design to Video Production. Our Graphic Designers and Writers are insightful into the needs of each individual client, and the Programmers and Videographers are amazing at bringing it all to life. Each day I see something new and creative from the talents here!

Not one sentence into my first post, I’m finding that writing a blog is more challenging than writing search engine optimized web content. Maybe this is because my expectations of what a blog should be are warped and outdated. My first introduction to blogs was in high school, when Diaryland started a self-disclosure craze among the bookish types, whose recounted weekends involved more moping than partying. Now that writing a blog had become part of my job as an advertising copywriter, I’m racking my brain for templates to use as a model for my blog, but all I’m coming up with is memories of band geeks’ slander and people using code names for their crushes. That will have to do, I guess.

Working for an advertising agency that has extensive experience as a search engine marketing service has taught me a lot. Working with established clients and developing new business has meant moving away from the norms of college online writing (heavy reliance on the odious slang known as abbreve) and into DDA’s world, where search engine optimization specialists and experienced copywriters have shown me the importance of economic, keyword-rich language when writing sell-sheets, web content, scripts and more for clients.

I initially though this position would be like the copy editor job Elaine Benes (from Seinfeld) had when she worked for J. Peterman, but it’s much better. Perhaps because I don’t write copy about urban sombreros, and instead have the opportunity to help establish products and services as diverse as jewelry, health care services, windows, and more.

That’s it for today. Back to SEO copywriting (search engine optimized copywriting) and my other duties at DDA.

I have been with the company for a little over two years and from day one it was very clear that DDA has always been a strong believer in the power of organic search results.

Our website (www.zeroonezero.com), as well as the websites we have built for our clients, are proof of what can be accomplished with a dedicated team focused on search engine optimization.

For those who are interested, DDA also manages search engine marketing or pay per click (PPC) programs. Our team of search engine marketing specialists work with various search engines to give our clients the best results possible, constantly monitoring campaigns, ad groups, keywords, and max bids to assure that our clients are receiving the best ad position possible for the money spent.