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Showing posts with label Website. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Website. Show all posts

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Making A Mobile Website With WordPress Plugins Is Now Easy

Mobile. The future is here. Everyone (or almost everyone!) now has a mobile device to access the internet and even more importantly they're actually using it to access websites online.
I would think anyone would like to have a mobile optimized version of their blog/website but in the past that has proved to be a daunting task.
If you were not an expert web coder or if you lacked the money to pay a developer to build a custom mobile solution for you then having a mobile website or blog was not a priority.
That has all changed now, especially for WordPress users. There are now many quality plugins available for the open source blogging platform, and the best part is the majority of them are free.
The 'how' part is very easy. By using one of the plugins listed below, you just install and click a few buttons. You'll then have a mobile website!
I cover 3 popular, quality WordPress mobile plugins here below for you to consider:
WP Touch
WPTouch is one of the more popular WordPress mobile plugins as it is already in use by thousands of users. The great thing about WP Touch is that it's super easy to set up and configure. All you do is upload the plugin, activate it, and then go through a single page of options to configure it how you like.
It looks great 'right out of the box' after you configure it, you can select which pages you want to display and you can add advertising to it such as AdSense to monetize your mobile site.
WP Touch is the mobile plugin that powers this site, KennethHolland.com.
Wapple Architect Mobile Plugin
Wapple is a complete solution for WordPress mobile users. The big advantage of Wapple is the amount of customization that can be done to configure your mobile website. You can add a custom header and graphics and design your site to look much like your regular website.
The disadvantage is it takes a considerable amount of time to set everything up. I have tried it, and frankly it can be a pain. However, I am considering using it in the future when I have more time and resources to devote to it. It is a quality plugin.
WordPress Mobile Pack
WordPress Mobile Pack is another quality plugin. I have only tested it (not used it) but I know several website owners who do use the plugin and love it. The plugin is updated frequently to keep pace with bugs and WordPress software updates and that's a must in my opinion.
The only obvious drawback that I've seen is that the themes are difficult to customize unless you are savvy with that sort of thing.
[You can find the above plugins by searching for them on the WordPress.org site]
So...
You cannot go wrong with any of the above plugins to get your WordPress blog mobile friendly. They all work extremely well and each have different strengths and weaknesses.
There are also many others on the WordPress.org site and that you may want to try. These are certainly not the only ones out there so there may be another solution that would be right for you.
If you're not sure which one is right for your objectives you should try them all. They're easy to ramp up and test. The key here is to pick one get your mobile optimized blog going. The future is here and the time is now.


Kenneth Holland is a Blogger and self-proclaimed 'Internet Chieftain' who helps businesses and individuals build a strong internet brand through setting up a blog, SEO, list building, social media and how to make a mobile website.
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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

15 Tips for Effective Mobile Website Design

Did you notice that mobile phones have become iconic devices with the proliferation of iPhones, Android phones and Blackberries? They have gathered a critical mass now and an increasing number of people are searching for information and resources on the Internet with their mobiles.


How do you tap this vast potential market? A mobile website is the answer. Design one yourself or get a site designed as soon as possible. The competition for attention in the smartphone segment is still manageable now, but will become worse as the days pass by.


Here are 15 tips for a great mobile website:


The mobile phones have much smaller screen space and therefore you need to cut down on the amount of information that you can include in the mobile pages.


 The phones work on much slower bandwidth even if they are on 3G. Your site loads much faster if you have smaller files, few and compact graphics and other elements. Since the capacity of the phones vary widely, use progressive enhancement. This way you will have your site working fine off the most limited browsers but show up really great with the more capable browsers and phones.


 Attention span on a mobile site is really limited. Include your most salient points - the big hitters -and do not try to tell everything and confuse the reader.


You might try this format - powerful headline, a paragraph of introduction text and a few bullet points followed by a call to action. New page loads are taxing on the bandwidth, too much information on a single page is daunting.


 You have to strike a fine balance. Advertise on the mobile networks. The clicks are still affordable I can show you how.


 You can also set up campaigns on AdWords (content display network) with mobiles as the selected target.


 Always send the clicks to a mobile version of the landing page. Don't drop the ball by sending the clicks to a desktop landing page which won't show up clearly on the small screens.


 Include a link to your main site so that they can see the whole story, if they are not happy with the limited information on the mobile site.


 Mobile commerce (pay from a mobile - PayPal and phone billing) is picking up very fast. Be ready to take advantage.


 Make your forms as small as possible. They can't fill up large forms with the mobile keyboard. Hot tip: Include a touch-to-call or click-to-call button. They are working off a mobile phone after all and calling someone is the most natural thing to do.


 Build a SMS list. SMS marketing, like email marketing, is a potential winner. However you need to use it responsibly or else, you will go down the email spammer route.


 You must include a mobile sitemap and submit it to the search engines. How can we forget the search engines? They can send large number of people to your sites after all.


 Setup auto-sensing and auto-redirection for mobile browsers on the main URL.


Don't split your branding efforts by advertising 2 different URLs.


You can rest assured of massive success for your mobile websites and unlock a vast new market by following these tips.


Raymond Lee is a mobile marketing expert who works closely with many MSB and larger companies developing their mobile marketing campaigns. Contact him via the mobilehelpers website http://bit.ly/heyeverybodyitsme

The General Points Of Mobile Website Development And What It Can Provide For Your Company

Mobile website development is a term used to describe the specialized modification of a site to make it clearer to read on a mobile device. Though some businesses overlook the importance of this task it can be advantageous in helping to promote a company. There are several different mobile marketing techniques that can be improved by having this sort of program in play. Not only will it help to make your other promotion strategies better but it can also exist on its own as one.


For those who know a lot about mobile technology it doesn't make much sense to ignore this vital resource. Cell phones are greatly utilized by people of all ages. Many people spend a lot more time on utilizing the web capabilities of their cell than they do their desktop. Because of the great appeal that they have developed, odds are that these devices will just get smarter. This could mean so much more possibility for promoting your product. Portability and operational intelligence are going to bring ways of marketing with these machines that we have never before imagined. Beginning now at the start of this exciting new advertisement format is a great idea.


Some of the other techniques that are often used on cell phones include SMS marketing and Mobile application development. Both of these promotion options can be enhanced by having a well created cell accessible page. If a business puts out a promotional text message and does not have a website that can be viewed via the portable device there is a gap in time before clients can act on the call to action presented in the text. Time between original view and ability to act on a call to action is obliterated by a link that can be viewed on the portable device. Instant connections are what this genre of advertisement is all about. People today are preoccupied, they are impetuous, if you can get them to act immediately after the thought hits them you are going to have the best response rate. If the customer can instantly go to your site they are going to be a lot more likely to do what you want them to when they get there.


Another advantage is that with an instantaneous connection like this consumers are able to gain access to your information quite rapidly. If consumers want to know your business hours or pertinent schedule information for your business they will like being able to instantly access this info through the web from their phone. Clearly, as the leader of a company, you should be able to see how having access to a device that most people keep in arm's reach every second of the day could be beneficial.


Mobile website development is a great way of providing access to information over the web for consumers who frequently utilize mobile devices. Getting your site enhanced for access via portable devices is super easy. Many companies exist that can help to make this process much simpler for you. Just contact one of those places today to get started.


Establish long term loyalty with your consumers with the help of Mobile Website Development or Mobile Marketing


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Monday, April 25, 2011

What Does Your Mobile Website (Or Lack Thereof) Say About Your Business?

Market Watch recently published an article titled Your Smart Phone Says a Lot About You, that analyzed a set of sociological trends among owners of various popular Smartphone devices, including BlackBerries, Android devices and, of course, the iPhone.While it seems that their amusing investigation of the secret identities of mobile users was published solely for entertainment purposes, it certainly prompted us to consider a correlated matter (and as Smartphones become mainstream, it doesn't seem impertinent to wonder): what sort of image or values are businesses conveying on the mobile web?


Businesses of all industries are starting to pay more attention to who's visiting their sites-and what technology they're using to get there. More and more, site analytics are factoring into the decisions a company makes regarding digital media and online marketing, including how to manage the shift many consumers are making to the mobile web. A couple of weeks ago we posted a blog about what one company, vegas.com found when they started tracking the number of visitors that were accessing their site from mobile devices-and guess what? When they discovered just how many leads they were losing every day because of how their site displayed in Smartphone browsers, mobilizing was an easy decision.


And while vegas.com is a great example of a company that was proactive about creating a mobile presence, many businesses still just aren't in tune with the message they send to mobile users-or they haven't established a budget or a strategy for mobile web development yet. Frankly, it seems unlikely that any business interested in establishing a professional, polished image and engaging valuable leads would be complacent about how their company was represented on the mobile web. Yet many brands and businesses are bouncing leads and missing sales opportunities every day because their sites aren't accessible from mobile devices, or if they are, they're major eye-sores in a mobile browser. And, granted that mobile web development is still a relatively new trend, it's still hard to believe that so many businesses haven't made any plan for transitioning to the up and coming new medium-maybe they just haven't considered what their website communicates to mobile users about their business.


As a matter of fact, we aren't the first ones to call attention to this shortcoming: Ad Age, the online marketing and media news source, recently published an article cataloguing "The World's Worst Agency Websites (For iPhones and iPads)." What was particularly interesting about their report was that it called out digital and creative ad agencies-companies whose primary function is to help brands with online marketing and media-for having sites that aren't even accessible from iOS devices because they are so heavily laden with Flash content. Even major international corporations were guilty of this-including Ogilvy, one of the worlds largest incorporated advertising agencies. The report was eye-opening as it showed that even businesses that claim to have expertise with mobile marketing, are failing when it comes to actually demonstrating those skills on the mobile web.


The good news for businesses that still don't have a mobile website, or any mobile strategy at all, is that it's not too late to get in the game. Going forward, sites that aren't optimized for mobile browsers won't impress the growing mobile user base-these companies stand to lose valuable business opportunities and fall behind the competition if they don't adapt to the new technological frontier. But as the need to engage mobile users becomes more critical every day, businesses, brands and agencies, will have to start giving more thought to how they're representing their business on the mobile web-and what that representation conveys about their company


Company blog. Her insightful reports on mobile marketing trends serve to inform brands, businesses and individuals of how to take advantage of the growing new media industry. Featuring professional recommendations on how to mobilize your business, engage mobile users and leverage your small screen presence to maximize ROI, these tips can help jumpstart your mobile strategy.


To jumpstart your business or social prescence go now to www.mobilehelpers.com/globaljetbusinessessolutions view the 1minute 25sec video and get contact details for a free months trial.


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