With these in mind, our team came up with a custom design for their website. The approved design was then translated into a Valid XHTML/CSS code for search engine optimization and multiple browser compatibility. Finally, we integrated the website into Wordpress CMS (Content Management System) that would allow the client themselves to update their site as often as needed.

The result was a website that is set to captivate by highlighting the high level of expertise and excellence in their field. With the increase in online exposure, the website has been a constant funnel of new business. The contact forms, quality portfolio display and up to
date news has allowed them to engage with new clients 24/7. Even while they sleep.

Client Testimonial

“As marketing professionals we needed a platform that could keep up with the pace of our marketing ambitions – one that allows us immense flexibility and scalability. We worked with Dak Solutions to create a custom CMS that is not only very flexible and user-friendly but highly SEO optimized; from launch less than 1 Year ago to today our organic search results have gone up an average of 563%”
- Brad Lott
Account Director / Marketing Communications Manager, Premier Displays & Exhibits, Inc.

Do you want a website that brings a steady stream of business to you? Give us a call
(888) 220-6660 Ext. 101 fill out our form for a quick quote.

It makes sense, more shoppers - more people online - more convenient for shoppers. We get it. That’s why we have become so familiar with Magento Commerce.

If you haven’t heard of Magento by now, then that should be the first thing on your ‘To-do’ list. Magento is an open source ecommerce solution that will make operating your online store easier than ever. The software is FREE to use (excluding the newly launched Enterprise Edition) and comes with thousands of features to polish your customer’s shopping experience.

About Magento Commerce

Think of Magento as the engine behind your online business. In just a few short years, Magento has had over 1,000,000+ downloads making it the fastest growing ecommerce platform in the world. You can always read the fine print, but I find it most helpful to jump straight into a live demo of a store and the admin panel.

Store Demo	Admin Demo

Using Magento Commerce

So after viewing the Demos, what’s next? There are a lot of questions to answer… How can you use Magento to power your store? What design can I use? etc.

It’s simple! This is where our expertise and knowledge can help you get up and running, fast.

We can create a new custom design and integrate it into Magento Commerce, for example:

LavenderNaturalBeauty.com	MountainWestOnline.com

Take a look through our portfolio to see more examples.

Aside from the endless list of standard features, Magento has a HUGE community that constantly developing new extensions and plugins, allowing the software to grow and be tailored to your needs.

Get More Information

If you’re ready for more information, Get a Quote, or call us at 949-534-9174 for more information about how Magento Commerce can help boost your customer experience and give you the proper management tools you need to be successful online.

OC Music Awards: www.ocmusicawards.com

We just recently launched the Official website of the OC Music Awards held annually in Anaheim, CA at The Grove.

Orange County is rapidly becoming the nation’s new vibrant music scene and the OC Music Awards is committed to connecting the community and supporting the scene! The OC Music Awards strives to give Orange County’s up and coming musicians the exposure they need to advance their careers while giving back to local music programs and community charities.

For this project, we were responsible for the XHTML/CSS conversion and Wordpress integration/customization of the top-notch design they provided.

Be sure to check out their new website at http://www.ocmusicawards.com and more importantly come visit their main event on April 4, 2009 at The Grove in Anaheim, CA.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to create one of the many examples of Web 2.0 text.

Photoshop Tutorial: Creating Web 2.0 Text in Photoshop

In my simplest summary, Web 2.0 is a design technique using very subtle gradients and effects to make simple graphics look shiny, 3D, and vibrant rather than painfully flat and monotone.

Ready to learn a bit more? Let’s open up Photoshop and create a custom graphic design.

STEP 1. Create a new canvas (something big enough to work with but small enough to fit within your monitor at 100%). In my example, I am using a canvas of 450px width by 300px height (72dpi).

STEP 2. First let’s create a clean blue background. But rather than making a solid blue color, lets give the background some life by adding a soft Radial Gradient. To get the best looking effect, first get your Shape tool and draw a rectangle about 2.5 times larger than the actual canvas.

STEP 3. Next lets create the type. In my example, I chose the name of our beautiful location, Orange County. You can use any font you like, however, in this example I wanted a simple, strong font so I picked Impact. This is a common font and should be preloaded on almost every computer so if you would like to follow along with me you can. Once you have your font, grab your text tool, click on your canvas, and start typing.

STEP 4. Once we have our text, lets apply a shiny orange gradient. To do this, Right click (control click on Mac) your text layer and click Blending Options. Then select the Gradient Overlay option from the left panel. Use my screenshot as a reference on how to achieve the shiny gradient effect.

STEP 5. To contrast the text color, let’s apply a Stroke to the text layer. Still in the Blending Options menu, select the Stoke option. Depending on your font size, you may want to change the size but in my example I have applied a 3px stroke. Ahhhh… but it’s all about the small details so instead of making the color solid white, change it to a Gradient and make it slightly fade from bottom to top (or vice-versa).

STEP 6. Don’t get anxious just yet, we’ve got more detailing to do before we call it a day. Next we’ll give the text layer a small shadow to lift it off the canvas a pinch. Select the Drop Shadow option from the Blending Options screen.

STEP 7. Finally, lets add an Inner Glow to really make the letters pop out. But a regular Inner Glow will look funny so we’ll need to adjust a few settings to get it right. First change the Blend mode from Screen to Normal and then change the color to a slightly darker shade of orange than the text.

Viola! We have “Orange County” in a clean, glossy appearance that has depth and dimension yes is still very easy on the eyes.

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial! Feel free to experiment with your own creations and let us know if you have your own tips & tricks by commenting below.

-Zack Bujazia

Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a “special relationship” with Google, or advertise a “priority submit” to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is through our Add URL page or by submitting a Sitemap and you can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever.”

Source: Google - http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35291&topic=15260

Photo Credits: Me using my iPhone 3G at Carls Jr after lunch today. Irvine, CA

Ok… so maybe they are talking about PPC (paid search) here but even then you can’t GUARANTEE that Google will show your listing on page 1 via paid search…  It’s Google’s ultimate decision based on many factors not limited to your bids, your website, your content, budget, its relevancy, and more.

Stay tuned for tips and tricks to improve your web site as well as general blogging by our individual team members. Topics will include but won’t be limited to: web design, internet marketing/seo, open source apps, ecommerce, comments about the industry, and more.