Your Blog On My iPhone
As our recent post described, the number of folks who regularly read blogs on an iPhone, PDA, cell, or other mobile device is increasing dramatically.
Depending on your CMS and your blog’s theme, the default rendering of your blog on a mobile device may be indecipherable. If so, you may be unwittingly overlooking this increasingly valuable subscriber segment.
The Problem With the Default Rendering on Mobile Devices
Obviously, the viewing size on a mobile device is considerably smaller than a desktop or laptop. If you have an iPhone, you’ve seen how it does a pretty good job on some sites, squishing everything into that little space. However, the text is so small that it is difficult to read. And… If there are images, ads, or an opt-in box… you can forget about those rendering and being functional.
This means that the increasing pool of readers viewing your blog on a mobile device can barely see your content and will never:
opt-in subscribe to your RSS click on an ad see an image
unless they remember to re-visit your blog on their desktop/laptop.
What’s worse is that, even if you have gone to the trouble of establishing a mobile version of your blog, the sites you link to (like your affiliate landing page or sales letter) may not be “transcoded” properly and look like complete jibberish on the iPhone screen.
How To Create A Mobile Version of Your Blog
In our recent FeedM8 video we showed you the basics of establishing a mobile version of your blog. The tasks are simple but understanding why you do each is a bit confusing.
So, here’s a recap:
Mobile META and Redirect Script
Imagine someone on an iPhone (or other mobile device) heading over to mobile.google.com/search and typing in a keyword related to your niche. Presumably, Google checks it’s list of blogs with a mobile META tag (a tag in your header that indicates your blog is optimized for mobile viewing), you’re on the list so Google displays your listing on the results page. The person browsing likes what your listing says, clicks and, because of your redirect script, is taken seamlessly to the mobile version of your site at m.yourdomain.com. Here, they see a custom version of your blog that is fitted and formatted just for mobile readers - same content, different format.
See ours at m.web2center.com.
The META tag and redirect script that you installed (in your header) made this possible. Otherwise, if Google would have suggested your blog at all, there is no telling what your site would have been “transcoded” as when it appeared on that little iPhone screen.
CAUTION: The redirect script can be a problem. Recently, we experienced a rather alarming issue when we realized that the redirect script provided by FeedM8 was redirecting all visitors, desktop as well as mobile readers, to the mobile version of our blog. For this and a few other functionality reasons we have partnered with MoFuse.com. (More on the other reasons in a minute.)
Mobile RSS and SMS???
I have to admit, this confused me for the longest time. Thanks to Dave Berube at MoFuse for clearing this up for me!
Some people (like me) thought that SMS was the mobile version of RSS. Well, it’s not.
SMS is simply the “language” used to send text to a mobile device.
So, your goal is NOT to get mobile viewers to subscribe to your SMS and desktop/laptop viewers to subscribe to your RSS. You want everyone to subscribe to your RSS feed, which you have hopefully “burned” via Feedburner so you can easily optimize and track your readership.
Therefore, you need to offer the same RSS subscription link to both your desktop/laptop viewers and your iPhone viewers.
Now, this is where some (like me again) get even more confused.
You might have noticed that some bloggers have placed their “mobile feed” button right up there with their RSS feed button.
Why do they have two?
Well, they either want to track the number of people who intend to read via a mobile device or they mistakenly think there is a difference between the two feeds.
Some savvy blogs, like Web2Center (now that we have our facts straight) have a mobile icon by the RSS feed icon that allows a person to quickly view the mobile version of the blog. More than anything else, this is an advertisement to people who happen to be on their PC at the moment saying: “Hey, when you have some time to kill at Wal-Mart waiting on your shop-till-she-drops girlfriend, we have a great, easy to read mobile version, check it out!”
So what is SMS used for?
Primarily, SMS is the technology that makes the “Mobile Link” feature work.
See the little box over there near the bottom right that says “Get Our Mobile Link” >>>
This allows someone to get a text message that links them directly to the mobile version of Web2Center.
SMS also allows for “Text Alerts”. Text alerts give readers the ability to ask for notification when selected keywords or key phrases are used in a post. So, when that keyword (phrase) is used, they would be notified via a text message and directed back to that particular post with a link.
Advanced Mobile Fusion
As the importance of the mobile version of your blog begins to rival the standard version, customization will be critical. This is why, after recommending FeedM8 just a month ago, we have already decided to switch to MoFuse.
We are certainly not disapproving of FeedM8. Besides the redirect glitch, we liked FeedM8 and admired it’s simple interface and quick setup, which is especially useful to beginning bloggers.
It’s just that MoFuse had the killer features that, as our knowledge of mobile technology grows, we feel are critical to the future of our reader base.
MoFuse makes it easy to customize the mobile version of a blog. Not only can you upload your logo (like FeedM8), you can also create completely unique pages specifically for the mobile version of your blog.
Why does this matter?
Well, going forward we want to be sure that our opt-ins, our ads, our RSS subscription button, etc. are all perfectly accessible to both mobile readers and desktop readers. The only way to have total control over this is to create custom pages on the mobile version of the blog. MoFuse has an AJAX wysiwyg editor that makes this simple.
MoFuse is also actively seeking control over the way your blog is “transcoded” by search engines. Until MoFuse stepped in, a search engine like Google would render (or transcode) your blog the way it wanted. It could be a squished version of your full HTML or some version created by Google’s code. MoFuse has a sophisticated redirect script that ensures a mobile viewer will see the custom version of your mobile site as you intended.
As the numbers and activities of mobile readers expand, these features become even more critical and beg you to consider taking the time to open a MoFuse account, get familiar with the interface and “go mobile”.
P.S.: We will be doing a MoFuse video showing how to install the META and redirect script along with a few custom page creation ideas. Subscribe to Web2Center and get the video in your RSS reader delivered automatically.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
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