Sometimes I just can’t get it right. My flight was delayed 7 hours this past Monday and as I sat in the airport, waiting for either a new plane or for them to fix the old one, I decided it was a perfect opportunity to look at my upcoming schedule of events. I have long been putting off changing the dates on my tickets for future travel, and it seemed fitting to take care of it while sitting in an airport. While I played around with the changes to one of my tickets, I found that I would be charged an extra 130 dollars to simply change the date of departure, which did not include the price of the ticket. My thoughts were something along the lines of, “Oh great, and I was hoping to change another ticket too!” I pondered whether I REALLY needed to change my second flight so I could save some money and then I happened to see that my flight itinerary had an error in it. Apparently when I was trying to book it I accidentally chose to fly into the Las Vegas airport instead of the Los Angeles airport! Too bad for me because it looks like the ticket into Los Angeles will be almost double the price and now a fee will be added onto it as well. Yes, share in my humorous error. It’s OK, you can laugh; I did. This just goes to show the importance of double to triple checking what you’re doing. Obviously I didn’t read the information carefully enough because I assumed I had it right. Fortunately at DDA there are people who proof projects after completion and they are meticulous in doing so. Too bad I can’t hire them to proof my personal projects.

PHP can do a lot more than generate dynamic HTML, it can also generate images. There could be many reasons why you would need dynamically generated images over standard images, like creating buttons from text fields in a database or creating visual graphs from web site usage or ecommerce data. PHP also allows the image to be in a variety of formats like JPEG, GIF, BMP, and PNG.

PHP uses the function imagecreate, which takes at least two parameters (the width and height) of the image to return the handle for the image or the resource identifier. To use colors, the color must be allocated in a resource identifier using the function ImageColorAllocate($(Image Handle),RED,GREEN,BLUE). That function returns the handle or resource identifier for the color selected, which then can be used with functions like imagechar, imagefill, imagefilledrectangle, imagefilledpolygon, and imagestring.

In the past six months we have noticed a distinct increase in website form spam — forms that are filled out with junk content in them and submitted.

What causes this problem are bots — small programs, like search engine spiders, that can read and traverse websites. Unlike Spiders, these programs have malicious intent, be it just to cause vandalism, to create links to websites, or worse still, attempt to hack an unsecure form-mail system. These predatory programs can submit hundreds of forms a minute and not only cause chaos to your inbox, but slow down your server and website at the same time.

The solution is to make the form unsubmittable by a bot, this is achieved by adding a “CAPTCHA” which stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.” You have probably seen these hundreds of times and not realized what they are for. The most common type is an image CAPTCHA, which looks like this:

You then type in what you see and therefore the form knows your not a bot and allows the form to be submitted. Here at DDA, we use these standard image versions but we have also introduced our own simple math equation version too.

As part of our website design standards, and thanks to our top notch programming team, all future forms for our clients with be built using some form of CAPTCHA system. But not resting on our laurels, as always, our team of expert website designers will keep a constant lookout for whatever future chaos spam artists try to throw at us next, and be sure we will be able to combat it just as effectively.

I had mentioned previously that some clients choose to use paid search as a method of bringing prospects to their website.

Is paid search right for you? There are many who will debate what is better - organic or paid search results. While organic is free, it takes a good amount of hard work, research, and time to achieve quality results. With paid, your high ranking results can be immediate as long as you are willing to pay the price.

DDA will gladly handle either or both of these tactics for you. We are constantly designing and developing optimized state-of-the-art websites for companies so that they can gain quality rankings on search engines organically. DDA also handles Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns for clients who wish to pursue that method.

Before you decide which method is best for you, you should know that they each require attention and on-going support.

Below are some terms related to pay per click programs.

Impression - the number of times an ad is displayed.

Click - A click (sometimes called a clickthrough) occurs when a user sees your ad and clicks on the title of your ad, leading them to your website.

Clickthrough Rate (CTR) - the number of clicks your ad receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown (impressions). Your ad and keyword each have their own CTRs, unique to your own campaign performance.

Cost - the amount spent during a selected period of time. For every click, your account is charged an amount to show your ad.

Average Cost Per Click - the amount you pay each time a user clicks on your ad.

Conversion - When a user completes an action on your site, such as buying something or requesting more information.

Conversion Rate - the number of conversions divided by the number of ad clicks.

Cost Per Conversion - The total cost divided by the total number of conversions. This statistic gives you the amount spent per conversion. The cost-per-conversion is adjusted to reflect only the cost of ad clicks on which conversions are tracked.

Being a Search Engine Optimization Specialist, I have many sites to optimize each month. As the final days of each month roll in, I can get a little panicked. Having so many websites to optimize in one month’s time can be overwhelming. Even with optimization schedules, calendars set up, and basically doing as much as I can as fast as I can, the last few days usually hold those sites that I have been putting off for the entire month. But somehow, I manage to get everything done by the stroke of midnight on the final day of the month.

Living in a world of meta tags, website analysis, ranking reports and of course Dreamweaver, website optimization is an important part of a website’s design and functionality. Years ago, when people would ask what I do, they had no idea what website optimization was.

Now, everyone seems to know the meaning and importance of the work that I do on a daily basis.

Some days the thought of facing that yellow pad with a long to do list is mentally unacceptable. You would rather do something fun and distracting, something mindless, but you are at work, so you shift gears, and…in my case, revert to my student days when one of my most admired teachers instilled in her class the concept of discipline. As a child, I thought that meant staying out of trouble so you would not get your behind walloped. Fast forward to senior year in high school, and I slowly started to understand from daily contact with my special teachers that discipline REALLY means being self aware, studying hard, finishing voluminous homework without excuse, not feigning a stomachache to skip class, trying hard every day to be better. Believe me there were rebellious periods my senior year, but the persistent example from dedicated teachers who believed in me obviously worked.

Entering the work force in college was not traumatic because I did not feel entitled but rather privileged to participate and learn from more experienced coworkers as I completed my studies.  My career development finally led to what I have done for over a decade, helping to run an advertising company. Today, Dynamic Digital Advertising is not a dream on paper, but a thriving, growing entity pushing the envelope of digital technologies in unique ways. We are where we are because of the determination to go on, to build from two people to a cohesive group of graphic designers, writers, videographers, programmers, seo specialists, and production support staff all based in house. We stress that everything we do is done here, our vendors are local, we do not outsource creative work, we are 100% made in the USA. 

Companies who come to us for any of our digital services realize after the initial conference call they are hiring an advertising agency with real depth… an agency they can rely on for all their marketing and promotional needs… an agency where, though often unspoken, the work force is imbued with passion and self-discipline… an agency that delivers what it promises, and never promises something it cannot deliver. My teacher was right when she said, “The more you discipline yourself, the less you’ll be disciplined by others.” Being hands on managers, working closely with clients and staff, David and I know we are truly part of a unique company, a place where you look forward to coming to work because everyone is focused on getting things done. And I promise, as we grow things will only get more exciting! 

It’s that time of year when everyone seems to be suffering from allergies or catching some kind of cold or virus. Right now there are a few of us here that are fighting off a few germs. And I myself will be keeping a few doctors busy this week.  I have found that it is amazing how much medical information is available on the web today. It used to be so hard to find out information if you were sick and had questions- and there’s always a million questions. Now you can find so much info that it can make your head spin! Understanding it may be a different hurdle.DDA has a large and varied collection of medical sites that we design and maintain.  Each one is different. There’s information from Doctor listings, to images and technical information on specific types of cancerous cells. The medical copywriting and medical videos are helpful and informative. There are medical animations and medical illustrations that help you to understand medical or surgical procedures. I find it very comforting to know that so much information is available right at my fingertips. And as an informed patient, I can be prepared to ask my doctors the right questions and to try to understand the answers. 

Something’s going around here at the office. First Laura gets sick, then Jake, then Vinnie and I. We’re dropping like flies here!

Yesterday, I had to call out sick so as not to transmit my deadly cold to anyone else. It’s always a bummer when you have to call out from work. Not only do you miss out on a day’s pay, but you really fall behind on projects you were working on.

At Dynamic Digital Advertising, we are always receiving new animation, 3D modeling,  programming, and interactive jobs. We need to be on top of our work every day to keep on schedule, within budget and on track. I think everyone working at DDA does a fantastic job of that, too. But when you’re sick, it can really take the wind out of your sails.

I’m better now, or at very least (I believe) past the point of contagion. Thankfully, I was ahead of schedule on most of my projects so I don’t have too much catching up to do. With that said, I better get back to it!

Yesterday, I wore a shirt that, believe or not, is 7 years old.  And to my shock I received numerous compliments. The shirt is made well and possesses a timeless design that makes it suitable for wear today.   Though it has been well-worn and washed countless of times, the color and shape look good as new. This timeless approach to garment design reflects DDA’s approach to website design, brochure development, custom corporate and medical videos, training programs, and more. Our goal isn’t to generate an end result that is in fashion and suitable for only a short period of time, but to rather design websites, graphic designs, and content that is timeless.

DDA has always considered itself an innovator in the field of digital advertising. We don’t follow the trends but create them, striving to foresee the future to achieve a video, corporate or medical training program, or website that will stand the test of time. Though video has recently become the latest movement in website design, DDA has been practicing this approach for years. This progressive attitude toward digital advertising is why DDA, in my opinion, is so successful. Like my well-loved shirt, the work that we produce will surely be beneficial to our clients for years to come.

Today, my day started at 4am. My 6-month-old son woke up with a hungry belly and thankfully he settled back down after a warm bottle. Then, I had the choice of crawling back in bed to listen to my husband snore, and hopefully catch another hour of sleep, or scurry on down to my computer to put the finishing touches on a trade show graphic design, which needs to be completed today. I might also add that this particular project was requested just yesterday and, not wanting to disappoint a good client, we accepted and got right to work.

I decided to take advantage of a quiet house. I made some coffee and headed towards my computer to ease the stress of this looming deadline. At this hour of the morning, the birds around my house were singing as loud as they could. Either they were as hungry as my 6-month-old was this morning or just happy to start a new day knowing the sun is scheduled to shine all day.  So, while I listened to the birds chirping away, I finished up the trade show graphic design and sent it off for client review just in time for my 3-year-old to wake up complaining about a boogie in his nose.