On this episode of Power to the Small Business, we welcome Holly Kolman. Holly is passionate about the coming mobile revolution. She tracks it, writes about it, and advises on it on her blog: Mobienthusiast. Are you prepared for the coming mobile revolution? You should prepare because it gets closer with each passing month and each new iPhone sold. The good news is you can prepare rather easily and Holly’s going to tell us how.
What you are getting in this episode is short, concise, and yet so important to reaching your customers in the future. There are very few opportunities to be the first in the game, this is one of those opportunities. The opportunity is called the mobile web.
Guest: Holly Kolman of Mobienthusiast
Length: 24 minutes
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The Mobile Web vs. The Desktop Web
More than 270 million smart phones will be sold worldwide next year. Smart phones are those web-enabled mobile phones like the iPhone, Blackberry, and Moto Q. As the use of smart phones rise, so will the use of the mobile web. That’s a great opportunity for the small business, but it’s also a challenge.
Websites display differently on mobile devices than they do on your desktop or laptop screen. The desktop web is a long, graphic-rich, application intensive experience. That won’t work on a mobile device because that website will take forever to load. And it will look like a jumbled mess on the mobile screen when it does load. But what to do? Holly thinks you should develop a mobile website as a companion to your existing site.
The Basics of Mobile Website Design
Holly Kolman shares with us some basic tips.
- Make your site is long and skinny.
- Develop your site without frames or tables.
- Use small graphics and don’t make your site big.
- Use ready.mobi to check the mobile readiness of your site.
- Test your mobile website on several different phones to see how it looks. Mobile websites do not look the same on all phones.
- Use site.mobi to create a free mobile website.
- Add a “click to call” feature
What To Do Right Now
- Register your .mobi domain name
- Get a basic site up
- Start getting traffic
Holly Kolman – Mobienthusiast
Holly’s website and blog with news and advice on the mobile internet
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