Why Choose WordPress?

Why Choose WordPress?

WordPress saves costly testing time. There are many benefits WordPress website content management software offers. This article discusses one of its biggest benefits when implemented correctly and efficiently: it saves costly testing time. In 2001, I began specializing in custom built-from-scratch websites for businesses and organizations – big and small. I was fascinated by the…

SERENDIPITY? Small World?

SERENDIPITY? Small World?

A chain of events over a two-day period brought smiles to our faces and made us wonder if there was a little serendipity in the air.Here’s how they unfolded… ThursdayAd Ventures writes an article about GTmetrix, our favorite website testing tool, and how our new site at TakeYourBusinessPlaces.com scores a double A / A when testing with…

Phinney Ridge Neighborhood is Seattle’s Hottest

Phinney Ridge Neighborhood is Seattle’s Hottest

Our office neighborhood is hot! How cool is that? #1 in Seattle and #7 nationwide! See for yourself – we’re at 302 N. 72nd Street, in the heart of Phinney Ridge. “Phinney Ridge neighborhood is Seattle’s hottest neighborhood and the seventh-hottest …in the country, according to Redfin.com. The Seattle online real estate company said it determined…

How our website’s speed made the grade

How our website’s speed made the grade

Our site, TakeYourBusinessPlaces.com, speed scores rock.Page speed score is 96% (A).Yslow score is 90% (A.)Pingdom performance grade is 98/100. High Speed score = better user experience, better SEO. How’d we pull that off? – Not by compromising the site by limiting graphics or page count. (Our page count in this site is 66+ pages and loaded…

A top 25 graphic design and web design firm

A top 25 graphic design and web design firm

For the 7th year in a row, Ad Ventures has made the top 25 graphic design and web design firm lists for 2013 in the Puget Sound Business Journal – Seattle! We’re thrilled! The Business Journal serves multiple cities nationwide from Seattle to Phoenix to Washington D.C. and is an industry leader covering business news from a local, regional…

Bing’s new logo works well as an integrated design element, not so much as a stand-alone

Bing’s new logo works well as an integrated design element, not so much as a stand-alone

While at the “Bing Ads Connect” agency seminar in Seattle on Tuesday, I heard that some of Bing’s employees don’t like Bing’s new logo.  Well, if it weren’t for the logo, Bing’s new power point presentation and other marketing collateral wouldn’t be so killer.  Wow! Hundreds of pages of unique templates with infographics that delighted…

Search Engine Marketing Companies: A Hit or a Miss?

How to tell if an internet marketing company is likely a miss…before you hand over thousands of dollars for the intangible. For a true SEM professional, it takes less than five minutes to review a so-called internet marketing specialist’s website to determine if they know their stuff or not.  After all, it’s logical to think that…

If you don’t think your hosting matters, think again.

I’ve noticed over the years that website owners don’t seem to give their website’s hosting much thought.  They should. You might be surprised to learn how much the quality of your hosting directly impacts how Google and Bing rank your site. So if SEO and website user experience are important to your business, you should…

Way to Stand Out

An 8th grader named Safaa Abdellatif from Evergreen Middle School sent a letter to our office today asking about design and photography careers and what graphic designers do on a daily basis. Normally, a letter like this would go on that “to do later if ever” pile because we get hundreds of letters and calls…

What happens when you ask for “custom” WordPress but get “template” WordPress?

It ain’t pretty. You think you contracted a custom WordPress website, only to find out three months into it that you’re locked into specific photo dimensions and layouts . . . You complain, ask for changes and three weeks later the changes haven’t been done yet. This cycle repeats, and repeats again. Why? Probably because…

LUNCH AT RAY’S BOATHOUSE Hardworking Ad Ventures’ Staff Breaks to Celebrate!

LUNCH AT RAY’S BOATHOUSE Hardworking Ad Ventures’ Staff Breaks to Celebrate!

A celebratory luncheon at Ray’s Boathouse, conveniently located across the street from Ad Ventures’ design studio, starts with a round of cell-phone inspired photos. And it follows with one round of drinks, and multiple rounds of jokes, stories, laughter and getting to know each other even more. Congratulations to Heather on her 8th anniversary as…

Do you really have the rights to use all the photos in your website? What you don’t know could cost you thousands.

If you’re not sure you have all the rights to your website images, stock photo companies have vastly improved their capability to let you know if you don’t. They’ll let you know you are in violation in the form of a letter…and a potentially hefty bill for several years of back usage. To protect their…

For those busy people who resist Facebook, it’s not as time consuming as you think

I get an average of 75 – 100 emails per day at work. I research and read up on industry technical info and trends online every week. I started a hard copy book two years and haven’t finished it. (And it’s really good, can’t wait to see how it ends…) I can often be heard…

Best Fonts From Google’s Font Library

Google’s font library has grown rapidly since it started with just a handful of fonts. The library encompasses over 80 fonts from every genre – handwritten to serif, script to monospaced. These fonts are available to use for free on any website, commercial or private. They work across allmodern browsers and nearly every version of Internet Explorer still…

“PORTFOLIO’S: ARE THEY FOR REAL?” How to stay clear of the big portfolio rip-off

So you like their portfolio? Here are some questions you should ask when interviewing a design firm or freelancer to avoid contracting a skillset that isn’t exactly what it appears to be. What part of the work did you do?2. How many people worked on it and what were their roles?3. Do you still work with…

Bing. Gotta love you.

Bing, Bing, Bing. Gotta love you because you are my laptop’s default browser. And I loved you even more when I saw that our company website recently arose to position #1 in the Bing local listings for a very competitive industry keyword phrase. But delight turned to “horrors!” when I clicked on the listing’s website…

“Mollie Mac”, Marketing Coordinator and Project Manager

A big congratulations to “Mollie Mac” for her promotion from marketing coordinator to project manager at Ad Ventures. “Mollie Mac” started as a design intern from University of Washington five years ago and was hired upon successful completion of her internship. She has diligently taken on more responsibilities over the years and is a key…

Browser Trends – Nov 2010

The following data points were gathered from 4 different sources, using North America or US statistics where available. They were then averaged together for the final row. Because each company uses different methods about how they collect stats, the numbers vary, sometimes wildly. In the case of Internet Explorer 8, as much as 16.4 percentage…

Web Statistics and Trends

Web Statistics and Trends

Designing for screen resolution is a must-do component for successful website design. Choose what your minimum standard pixels should be based on your target audience. For example, the below statistics are reflective of WC3School students with an interest for web technologies. So naturally, their computer screen resolutions will skew higher, since this group is more…

Halloween Tails

Halloween Tails

Ad Ventures’ “welcome waggins,” Sammie and Taco, howl with goulash stare-downs. (We howled too trying to wrangle up doggies for photo shoots.) Thanks to Bonnie, Executive Director of NW Yacht Association and self-described “more of a cat person,” for her tip to buy the “really cute” bat wings for Sammie from ‘All the Best Pet Care.’ “We…

What exactly is search engine optimization?

In the past it’s been presented by some almost like it’s a “magical” inside, proprietary knowledge that SEO “experts” have that they can’t share. Well, it is inside knowledge that comes from years of studying and most of all, keeping up to date with Google guidelines, which are non-proprietary. At Ad Ventures, we research SEO and…

Strategy Behind the Ad Campaign

From conceptualization to planning media to delivering the call to actionWith the gigantic movement of ears and eyes to the internet, its formidable presence commands reconsideration of planning traditional media campaign mixes in print, radio, TV and outdoor. A well-strategized website should play a key role in every advertising campaign regardless of selected advertising mediums….

Marketing Strategy and Websites

What exactly is “Marketing Strategy” To some, it means putting together a marketing plan where to focus your resources for the best return in results. To Wikipedia, “Marketing strategy is a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. A…