Mobile Optimized Websites
Hey welcome to resort marketing vids. Weâve been talking a lot about Mobile the last couple of months. But something that really ties everything together is having a mobile optimized website. Now, thereâs a reason weâve eased in to this point. Mobile websites arenât That easy, unless you know what youâre doing.
I suggest starting small and building a mobile site for a promotion youâre running. Itâll give you a chance to get your feet wet in the mobile web space.
Like it or not, more and more of the mobile market is being taken over by smart phones. And the cell phone manufacturers, and especially the providers, are leading the charge. They make a lot more money when theyâre getting a monthly data fee from you in addition to your regular service. In fact, most cell phone stores have even gone as far as to stop putting out regular, non-smart phones, on the sales floor because they donât want you purchasing them. And mobile data consumption rates are going through the roof. Soon, you wonât be able to get by without having a mobile site at all.
Check below this video for visual example comparing a mobile optimized site with a site that isnât optimized for mobile. If you have a smartphone, you know itâs a Huge difference. If you donât, well, youâll see what a big difference it makes by referencing the example below.
So, How Can you get started with a mobile site? The good news is, there are a plethora of mobile site templates available to purchase on the web. The bad news is, configuring them to work with your site and managing the redirections and such is complicated. Well, if youâre not a web developer it can be complicated.
Iâve been careful to put this video off for a while. You see, Iâve been experimenting with mobile sites for months. I thought it would be Sooo easy to set up the first time. I mean, after all, Iâve built dozens of regular websites before. Boy was I wrong. It took me four solid hours just to figure out one page. Now, maybe Iâm just a slow learner, but it was frustrating. However, once I got that first page down, the rest went very smoothly. And now itâs a breeze to get a new site up and running like clockwork.
So hereâs what I would do if I were you. If youâre technically inclined, schedule yourself a block of dead time â a few hours of radio silence where you can focus entirely on what youâre doing, and start researching mobile site development for the platform your site is built on. Be sure to research Re-direction, that plays a key role in mobile sites. Then start developing your own mobile website.
Option two, for the less technically inclined, or for those of you who simply donât have the time, head over to Craigslist, O-desk, or whatever your favorite freelancing site is, and start browsing for a freelancer that specializes in mobile site development.
What you want to do next, and hereâs where a lot of people go wrong, is hire the freelance to do a test site. Most people jump right in and hire a freelancer to do their whole site. Then, once theyâve already committed financially, theyâre stuck with that person and that site, whether they like it or not. So hire the freelancer to do a small site for you, three pages is usually enough, as a mock up of what they anticipate your site will look like. This is a great way to get a feel for a good freelancer, and itâs the least expensive option out there. Professional design firms can charge you up to a thousand dollars per page! So, learn it yourself, or hire a freelancer â but either way, take action and go mobile! Your prospects and members are, so you should too.
Anyway, thatâs all until next week. Iâll see you later.