Attention Mobile Developers, Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners
As the mobiEnthusiast, I purchased my first mobile (.mobi) domain name in 2007. It was an exciting day, and I had a vision for how the world would be able to access the internet from their phone and not be tied to a computer. I thought hard about the kinds of sites that would be worthwhile for people, and what kind of information they would need. Then I stopped in my tracks. I didn’t have the technical skills to pursue my passion for the mobile web.
Flash forward to 2010. I have more development skills, but my design skills are still lacking. My favorite development platform is WordPress, and yet, the options for mobile web have still been limited for most people by a brick wall of a learning curve for xhtml, php and css. WordPress is first and foremost a blogging platform, and so by definition, it is going to show dates for updates and require constant attention to keep it fresh for the search engines.
Finally, last month, I found a developer who has the experience to use device detection and the design skills to make the site look current. As of April 2010, there is a new WordPress Mobile Theme that will allow you to make a full mobile site without the constant updates required for blog posts. If you are a mobile domain name investor, this is a no-brainer. Yes, this is an affiliate link, because I believe so strongly in the product that I think my readers ought to have it, too. If you know me, I am very picky about what I will promote and make sure it works.
I worked very closely with the developer and have tested it myself on one of my sites that is in development. This is a very exciting day for people who want to build full websites for phones who are short in the technical and design skills department.
Microblogging has matured to the point where CNN recently announced it prefers to take story ideas only via Twitter. But the phenomenon of microblogging goes far beyond Twitter, according to Microblogging.com, a site that catalogs microblogging and other social media services.
For example, Status.net (formerly Laconi.ca) now makes it easy for people to start their own microblogging network and offers free and paid versions. Shoutem.com is mobile compliant from the start and offers free microblogging networks that integrate with Twitter or stand alone. These might be helpful for a closed network, or for people who feel like they are lost on Twitter. In the wake of Ning closing out its free communities, these might be good starting points for online community managers who need a new home.
mobiEnthusiast.mobi will also be getting into the spirit of microblogging by posting tidbits from around the web in addition to fully written blog posts. It’s my way of keeping you informed when I only have time to microblog when time is too short to blog. Addionally, you can receive notifications and bite sized info with mobiEnthusiast.mobi updates on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/mobiEnthusiast.
Looking for a GoDaddy coupon? .mobi names are full price right now, so use this coupon code to renew: NAUOFF for $10 off an order of $40 or more. There is also a sale going on now for $7.49 .com names. Here are some ways to get to $40:
Have you done a mobile search for Olympics results and been disappointed with the number of sites you could access on a mobile phone? Are most of the results for full pc sites? What did you see, and did you see the same thing as everyone else? That’s what we’d like to know.
You’re Invited to the Experiment
This is a pretty easy experiment. Here’s how to participate:
Type the following into your browser: Winter + Olympics + mobile
Tell us what search engine you used
Tell us what city/country you were in at the time of the search
Indicate whether you used a computer or a mobile phone to get the results
Provide the top ten results
Post your findings in either the comments, below (moderated) or in an email to information [at] mobiEnthusiast.mobi (subject line: experiment)
Mobile Search Experiment Background
At least one prominent mobile blogger was disappointed with the small number of mobile sites that came back from his search on a mobile handset. So he did what most bloggers would do: He asked his readers to help him find out the answer.
Andy Favell, the Editor of mobiThinking asked the question, “Why are many great mobile Olympics sites not found by mobile search engines?”
This made me curious, too. Some of the people answered that mobile SEO (search engine optimization) in general is lacking. I weighed in and hypothesized that one’s location and browser type would define, in large part, which results were returned by search engines, as well as the age of the domain name and the ever-changing nature of search engine algorithms.
This morphed into a larger question about who gets to see what from mobile search. If you have a moment and want to participate, please join us.
It’s time once again to vote for your favorite developed dot mobi site at Mobility.mobi. You must be a registered member to vote. There’s a good crop to choose from this month, so take a good look and choose your favorite:
Back when I was dating, the cardinal rule was to never phone after the first date until at least three days had passed. The phone was too personal for such a quick contact and you could be seen as too aggressive or worse, too desperate.
Times have changed. Now it is OK to use your phone for contact immediately after the first date, provided you don’t speak into it. Texting something pithy or witty that night, or the following day, can often be viewed as a positive addition to the dating experience.
Now let’s move to the end of the relationship. Breaking up over the phone is not as good as breaking up in person, but not nearly as bad as – OMG! – breaking up via text. Same phone. Same message. Completely different level of cultural acceptability.
We respond to text messages faster than emails, and BBMs faster than texts. Same Phone. Same message. Same textual appearance. Different accepted practice.
It is OK to whip out the phone (among some dining parties) at a restaurant to perform certain tasks – like looking up a sticking point in the conversation – but not others, like answering an email or playing a game. Same phone. Same amount of time “away” from the conversation. Different effect on your friends.
The list goes on and on. What is it about the mobile phone that generates this long list of rules and practices that is not present on our other media?
The mobile phone is not “the third screen.” It is a very personal, interactive, communication ecosystem of which the screen is just one visual component. The mobile phone has developed, and is continually developing, behavioral mores and cultural norms that have very serious implications for marketers. Violate one of those norms, and the consequences can be severe.
Marketers who continue to treat the mobile phone as yet another screen to “repurpose content” or as a quick campaign add-on to “target a hard to reach audience”, do so at their peril. It will be the brands that actively leverage the behavioral use patterns of the mobile phone and their attendant cultural norms that will succeed.
Marshall McLuhan said “The medium is the message” and he couldn’t be more right as it pertains to the mobile phone. The emerging customs, lifestyle behaviors and prevailing standards associated with the use of the mobile phone are unique, real and significant.
When mobile-specific behavior and culture is taken into account, the mobile phone shines as a brilliant addition to a well crafted overall brand marketing strategy – witness AT&T and American Idol.
When ignored, it can have the potential to undo the hard earned trust of the very same brand. AT&T found that out when it violated customer privacy expectations by using the American Idol list. And worst of all, most of the customers who chose to break up with the AT&T brand as a result, didn’t even bother to inform them by sending a text.
This post is one of the ten reasons why mobile advertising has not reached its potential. You can access the other nine at www.mobilemandala.com
BuckleUp.mobi has one objective: to convince people to fasten their seatbelts every time they get into an automobile.
If you have ever been to a funeral for someone who died in a car accident, it is a terrible loss. If a teen is involved, it somehow feels like life has cheated us out of the potential that “could have been” as well as the love we feel for a friend or family member. If a police officer later reports that the deceased wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, the “should have, could have, would have” drama often gets played out in our imaginations.
BuckleUp.mobi has information about seat belt usage, including videos of crash test dummies that are graphic in nature about what can happen in a collision where seat belts are not worn. There is a special section just for teens who are likely to make fun of each other for wearing seatbelts. Drivers under age 21 are less likely to wear seat belts and more likely to be in an accident than older drivers. Finally, there is an interactive poll to post how often the reader wears a seatbelt – when I looked, it said just 77% of respondents wear their seatbelt every time the get into a car. That’s not enough in my opinion.
Please share BuckleUp.mobi with someone you care about today.
This post has been submitted to Carnival of the Mobilists(not a mobile link), a weekly roundup of the top blogs around the web that cover mobile from all angles, from hardware to apps to mobile website. Please check out what my mobile colleagues have to say by visiting today.
If you’re out and about on a mobile phone, it can be a real hassle to find a pen and paper. One of the greatest advantages of creating a mobile website is the ability to create a link that enables web visitors to click to dial a phone number. For an example of this feature, have a look at Leucadia.mobi, a mobile website with helpful information for the community of Leucadia, California. Other than 911, all of the emergency numbers are click to call.
Until now, it’s been difficult for mobile publishers to monetize this feature. That could change soon. Commission Junction is having a free webinar on August 6 to detail the features of their pay-per-call program. I don’t know whether or not this will work to monetize a dot mobi site, but I am going to attend the webinar to find out.
Details are at cj.com (computer link). You will need your CID # to register. Your CID number can be found next to your name/company name in the upper right corner of the page after you have logged in.
If you want the latest news from the top microblogging site, Twitter, just follow the hashtag #mobi. Hashtags are tags that begin with the # sign and are followed by a keyword. They are intentionally used by Twitter members to make it easy for people following that particular topic to find news about it.
For news directly from dotMobi (mTLD), follow @dotMobiOfficial. It’s an official account from their Public Relations Department. The editor of MobiForge, the developer forum, is on twitter as well as @rodono.
