Simple advertiser sign-up for multiple portal sites

As part of tonight's upgrade, we are simplifying the user experience for when an advertiser visits multiple SendMyAd sites from different publishers.

As long as the URL is a valid publisher URL, the user's account will automatically be granted access for any new publisher site visited. They will no longer have to select the "Click here if you already have a SendMyAd account" link.

If the user types in the wrong URL, like "www.portalname.sendmyad.com", they will be redirected to "portalname.sendmyad.com" and the login should work fine.

Only if the URL doesn't match a known publisher URL, will they be shown the portal redirector that allows them to choose one of the sites they have visited in the past.

We hope this will remove a source of confusion for advertisers visiting your portal for the first time.

Dashboard improvements

After tonight's upgrade, we hope you'll take a look at the new Dashboard for publishers. We've expanded the range of charts and statistics and improved the presentation of this important information.

Both advertisers and publishers will now also be able to keep up to date more easily with SendMyAd news - the latest articles from this blog now appear right in the Dashboard.

We hope you'll find these features useful.

New Flash uploader

Our latest version of SendMyAd (scheduled for upgrade tonight at 7PM Central) will include a feature that we hope you might not otherwise even notice.

We are switching our file upload code to use a Flash applet to handle the file name checking and upload processing.

We expect this new Flash uploader to be more reliable and a bit faster.

From an end user perspective, there really isn't anything different except now a very small Flash applet loads when you click "Step 3" in the send ad form.

Users have always needed Flash installed to use the trim applet. Over time we will be expanding the functionality of the site, some of which may also require Flash.

If you're unsure of your installed Flash version, you can check it easily. We require version 9 or higher.

Unlocking advertiser accounts

Publisher administrators may now unlock their customer's accounts.

Accounts get locked for 30 minutes if the user has tried unsuccessfully to log in 5 times in a row.

To unlock an advertiser's account, simply click their user name under the Manage > Customers list. When viewing the user's information, if their account is locked out, a button will be available to unlock it.

See video for a demonstration.

Hachette Increases Production Efficiency by 30 Percent with SendMyAd

New article at Folio describes how Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. increased their efficiency by 30 percent by using SendMyAd for their ad production.

Expanded bleed preflighting

Another upcoming feature being tested now: better preflighting of adherence to your bleed specifications.

Previously, SendMyAd was always warning if an ad did not contain bleed according to the ad specification used.

We now allow you to set this check just like other preflight checks - ignore, warn or error.

See the video for further details.

Note that this feature is retroactive for any ads that were preflighted with the profile you adjust to use this feature.

The default setting is to warn, so if you do nothing the behavior you see will be the same.

Custom publication information field in upload form

We're testing a new feature that will allow you to create a custom message for each publication. This message will appear on the upload form once an advertiser selects a publication.

See the video for a demonstration.

Note that if you do not add anything in the custom message field for a publication, this section will not appear.