Mobilizing Your Blog
TheSpot-er on July 2nd, 2008Is your blog ready for Mobile Web? Allow me to ask you a question:
When last time you have walked in the mall or airport, how many people did you see using their mobile phone or smart phone and not making a call?
Does it make you wonder what exactly do they do and perhaps even more importantly - How Does It Impact you? According to an interesting report by Research Brief in US cell phone penetration is over 80%. Meaning that over 80% of people have a phone and use it on regular bases.
How they Use It and How We can take advantage of it (mobilize your blog) will be discussed in this article…
Take a look at the screenshot from the report already mentioned above (click to see full size)
These are the results of the last 30 days for the mobile functions usage in US alone. And while some might see importance of the ring tones, etc … I decided to purely ignore them. Also while picture taking and Text Messaging can be used for the web, such as Twitter messages or pics sharing - we don’t have real numbers and once again I have decided to ignore them.
But still, even after removing all non-essential to us functions we have 24% of the cell phone users who have potential to be your blog visitor, your reader, your customer! Here is quick spread:
19% were accessing Internet
3% Streamed Videos
2% Shopped
24% of the potential customers who missed your blog all together unless you have taken steps to make it Mobilized!
Mobilizing Your Blog
As much as I would like to make this seem complex - it is not! In fact it is as simple as installing one plugin and then testing it. Period, nothing more to it!
Step 1: Install WordPress Mobile Edition plugin by Alex King.
Please make sure to read the guide provided. You have to place one file into your plugins folder and then one folder into your themes folder. The just activate and move to…
Step 2: Test your blog mobility!
Obviously the best way to do it is via a web browser built into your new shiny phone. There is a good usage for it! Test your blog 
. But if you are like me and use phone only for what it was intended - such as phone calls….
Here is a free tool to test and see how it will appear to Mobile Browsers:
Step 3: enjoy!
Wasn’t that simple? I hope so and now you can hopefully get a share of those mobile internet users. Hey, how about you use a Twitter and tweet about this post 
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Technorati Tags: cell phone users, mobile, mobile edition, mobile phone, mobile web, plugins, WordPress, wordpress-plugins | 
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I have only recently started using my phone to browse the web. I am no longer bored at places I have to wait and it beats waiting room magazines. Up to now, as far as blogs go, I have been using Google Reader and sticking to full feeds. It works for the most part. But if it is just as simple as adding this plugin to make your blog mobile phone ready, everyone should do it.
Stephan Millers last blog post..No More Adsense Referrals or Pay-Per-Action Beta
Interesting stats. i thought the internet would be higher the 19% by now….although I’ve never done it
Dennis Edells last blog post..Blogging Tip: Splitting Categories for Better Usability
Dennis,
Stats are the ONLY results we can use
I definitely do believe that surfing the internet via your phone is going to the wave of the future. Correct me if I am wrong, but one of the important things, is to keep your website size to as small as you can. Because there are longer load times via cell phones.
I gotta be honest here, at least speaking for myself. It’s enough work keeping a site spiffy and tidy for other computer users, until I see significant proof that a considerable portion of my visitors are from phones…I ain’t gonna worry too much about it
Dennis Edells last blog post..Blogging Tip: Splitting Categories for Better Usability
Those are pretty interesting stats indeed. I can see the convenience of surfing the web using a cellphone (or smart phone) for stuff like checking the emails, price checking, ticket reservation etc. But, like the previous commenter said, I never use it although my phone has the capability to surf the web. The problem I guess for me at the moment is the high cost of the data plan. I hope they make it cheaper then that 24% will definitely balloon to 70+.
The WordPress Mobile Edition plugin seems cool. I guess I got another toy to play with. Thanks.
xels last blog post..Happy 4th of July!
I set that up the mobile plugin last week - it works really well - though looks very basic… cheap bandwidth-tho - which is important when you are paying the data rates!
Colins last blog post..2565862752_f9320b98df
Does the plugin create like another page to optimize it for mobile? If so, won’t it conflict with seo since you have two identical pages…?
David,
It simply applies different CSS theme to your blog, to change the appearance. No other changes.
I see, sounds good thing!
David Kams last blog post..Borrow Passage to Destroy Guo
Thanks for the great info!
I just struggled with a few other sites to figure out how to make my blog mobile phone compatible. Your post had me up and running in minutes!
Other sites had complicated ways in which to accomplish what you did with a few simple mouse clicks. Thanks again for the great and timely info!
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