How To Get A Blog Displayed Properly On Mobile
 

Hello Warriors,

I'm a total newbie when it comes to this Mobile thing and I kind of need your help and advice :D

I have a blog and I am trying to get it displayed properly on my mobile. Here's a few questions that is clouding my mind :

1) Should I use a Mobile theme or can I just use a plugin? What is the best approach based on your experience?

2) If I should use a Mobile theme, what is the most recommended theme for Mobile use? I'm running a gaming blog, reviewing games and at the same time promoting games from Amazon. What's your recommendation?

3) Are all Mobile themes, standalone or are they able to be used parallel with the current theme that I am using?

4) If all Mobile themes are standalone, does this mean that I have to purchase a new domain, particularly a .mobi extension and create a whole new website from scratch? Is this correct?

Hopefully you guys can help out a newbie over here who is kind of lost :D
Your help and advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks guys :D

Regards,
Didi

Re: How To Get A Blog Displayed Properly On Mobile
 

You can probably just get a plugin. I could be wrong but I believe that JetPack do it.

Re: How To Get A Blog Displayed Properly On Mobile
 

If you are using Wordpress for your blog, then I would suggest using WordPress Mobile Pack plugin or spicing things up with a new mobile compatible theme. :)

Re: How To Get A Blog Displayed Properly On Mobile
 

WPTouch does a pretty good job formatting a Blog for mobile devices.

There are several 'Mobile' plug-ins available... so don't be afraid to try em out!

When you find the one you like, delete the others... Keeps the confusion down, and fewer plug-ins means *friskier* page load performance.

Personally, I want a 'Tap To Call' button on my page... so I went with mobile templates. Templates are not Rocket Science until you get deeply into it (or so I am told).

Let us know what you land on, and have some fun learning a new Skill!

Patrick

Re: How To Get A Blog Displayed Properly On Mobile
 

Hello Adam,

Thank you for kind advice. I'll look into that :D

Didi

Re: How To Get A Blog Displayed Properly On Mobile
 

Hello Monetex,

This is the part that actually got me stuck; whether to use a plugin or, to use a Mobile compatible theme.

But like you said, I think I will try to check out some Mobile themes. I think by using Mobile themes, I can do a lot more things. I totally have zero knowledge in this but I will go ahead and try things out :D

Thank you for your kind opinion.

Didi

Re: How To Get A Blog Displayed Properly On Mobile
 

Hello Patrick,

Thank you very much for sharing your opinion. Using Mobile templates seems to interest me a lot.

I did a bit of searching on the web for Mobile templates and I did came across 'WPTouch'. It looks kind of cool and I would consider purchasing the 'Pro' version if I were to use it. I've included WPTouch on my buying list.

I then search a bit more for more options which then I came across a few more Mobile themes from ThemeForest site.

ThemeForest does offer a couple of Mobile themes for Wordpress and some of them provide QR codes for you to see the demo on your mobile devices. I tried the demo and they were very good and very responsive.

With that being said, I will make a few comparison and see which one would fit my needs the most and go ahead with the purchase.

But before I make the purchase, there's one inquiry that I would like to inquire from you.

You did mentioned that you were using Mobile template for your site. Is this template, the kind of template that just formats your site into a Mobile version? If it doesn't, do you have to start building a new website from scratch based on the template itself?

Just want to clear the clouds clouding my mind so that I won't be lost when I begin my work. Thank you Patrick.

Didi

Re: How To Get A Blog Displayed Properly On Mobile
 

The WPTouch theme is good, but when writing for mobile, you really need to pay attention to your content. Short paragraphs rule!

Re: How To Get A Blog Displayed Properly On Mobile
 

Didi, you have already received comments concerning how to adapt WordPress to serve content on a mobile phone screen and, as you can read, this is possible. Before you start to integrate these you need to consider your customers rather than focusing on the technology.

There is a considerable amount of research published concerning the behaviour of customers who are using mobile phones. One quote from Google's "The mobile playbook" is – "Your mobile site will difer from your desktop site not just because of the size of the device, but because the mobile context reveals a diferent mindset for your consumers. Visitors to your mobile site may be at a diferent point of the purchase funnel."

A mobile phone has a much smaller screen than a desktop computer and this influences what type of content consumers wish to see and are prepared to read. Also mobile phones are often used by customers on the move or whilst doing other things eg watching the television. This means that the your existing content may not be suitable for display on a mobile phone (perhaps it is much too long or full of very large images) or it may not be of interest to your customer at the time they are using their mobile phone.

Before you start to implement the solution in your website you need to understand how your customers use mobile and what information they will be seeking and what they will want to do at that point.

There are many threads on this forum discussing how to adapt WordPress so that it displays on a mobile phone and I am not completely convinced that this is the right way forward without the site owner and understanding the issues I have outlined above. Of course tempting an existing WordPress installation to display on a mobile phone offers benefits - one single website, one administration panel and one source of content, but displaying the existing content on a mobile phone may not actually be delivering the experience and content / information that the smart phone user wants.

Re: How To Get A Blog Displayed Properly On Mobile
 

Hello ppc4profit,

Thank you very much for your important advice. It seems that I have totally overlooked this part and I think this is one important factor than one shouldn't overlook. Thank you for reminding me on this matter.

With that being said, can I inquire from you as to what are the available sources out there that I can use for me to be able to collect these important information pertaining to the customer's buying behaviour while using their mobile devices? I will search through this forum based on this topic but do you know any other sources besides the discussions from within this forum?

I remembered coming across a certain thread, while I was searching for books on Google that Marketing Experts have revealed that the statistics for people purchasing online via their mobile devices has increased dramatically ever since smartphones were introduced in the market.

If the experts are right on this assessment, I see it as an opportunity; another channel from which you can get traffic over to your site. Search Engine is one channel from which we can gain traffic, and so is the Social Media. But of course, the way of approaching differs from one and the other. And you have brought up a very good important point.

Then again, based on your experience, any idea that you can share pertaining to the sources that one is able to use and obtain these critical information?

As for normal websites and blogs, Google Analytics is one good source to obtain these critical information. Based on the information obtained, we can somehow see what could be wrong with our website and how we can go about into improving those defects.

Another source (only for Wordpress Blog) is a plugin, "WP Feedback, Survey & Quiz Manager Pro" that I came across while searching for Mobile themes over at ThemeForest.

It's a good plugin if you want to get important feedback from your customers which can help improve your site and business and it is something and I am considering getting and use on my site.

Do share some of your thoughts and I appreciate your kind help and advice. Thank you.

Didi

Re: How To Get A Blog Displayed Properly On Mobile
 

Didi,

There are many freely available sources of statistics on mobile use. Google has published a couple recently
The Mobile Playbook
Our Mobile Planet

You can read these pdf to get a general overview of how mobile is changing users activity but this is generic information. You need to think about your market and your customers and you are in the best position to do this.

You hinted at one other possible approach - ask your current customers.

Re: How To Get A Blog Displayed Properly On Mobile
 

Thank you very much for your help. I'll get on these right away.

Didi