Jay Moreno

If you want to take your designs to the next level you would build a site using something like PHP and use conditional statements based on the User Agent detection to deliver the appropriate content to the viewer...

Just recently i was thinking why not include light weight flash snippets for Android users since its supported and display something alternative to other devices based on user detection...

basic logic for your conditional statement would be:

if device is equal to android show this else show that

hope that makes sense

you can easily embed youtube these days using the new html5 iframe snippet code, it works for most smartphone devices, however i would rigorously test it before you put a site live... for me i prefer to use 3GP as i know for a fact it works across most devices - if you have the time and want to put in the effort there is no reason why you cant simply add multiple versions of your content in different formats and deliver accordingly to the right device viewing it using the user agent detection as i mentioned...

If your going to use multi-media and high bandwidth features, then you need to give people an alternative... dont let your client loose a potential lead because they dont have a fast connection or limited bandwidth or they simply dont want to watch some elves dance across the screen or killer whales jumping out the page! lol

Magnus Koenig

Selling mobile websites to local businesses indeed is a HUGE market, and it gets bigger every day since everyone wants to have a smartphone (and they are getting cheaper). Right now we have an opportunity like in the beginning of the internet era, only that now you don't have to explain them what "the internet" is.

What works very well is showing the business owner how bad his website looks on a mobile devise right now, and then showing him an example of how it could look if he/she buys your service.

scotth

I love showing business owners their competitors mobile sites I have done..they say more often than naught "how much".

Based in Costa Rica Living my life on my terms a expat lifestyle and traveling the world at will. Time Freedom is True Freedom!

scotth

@Qamar...

All I bring to my appointments is my Iphone a one page mock up of the prospects site and a actual mobile site of a competitor and a receipt book to take the order...

Based in Costa Rica Living my life on my terms a expat lifestyle and traveling the world at will. Time Freedom is True Freedom!

JBroyer44

You know i just made a new thread about this but probably should have just asked it here.

Anyone using any of the wordpress mobile themes to build sites for clients? I can work in html/css sites but I am not much for graphics and sharp looking design. I was thinking using some of the themes from themeforest and designing on those?

Anyone doing that, and what is your experience?

"The force is strong with this one"
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wakee456

How it will work mobile website ? Please let me know about the whole process because I am new to this and don't know much more about mobile website .

peter_act

Honestly, I wouldn't bother with Wordpress - buy Will's WSO or Quentin's WSO, or preferably both. I would buy both (I did) - the links to them will be scattered throughout this thread.
Then all you need is a header and a few images, which you can get from the client's existing website, and a free image editor.

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Qamar

Guys, when checking for keywords at Google keyword tool, do we use the "All mobile devices" or "Mobile devices with full internet browser"? Is there any difference between them or are they very similar?

Qamar

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scotth

Go through this thread and you will have the knowledge to move forward to be successful selling mobile websites to local business owners...the key take ACTION on what you learn here..its spelled out and its FREE!. This is a very lucrative business..

Based in Costa Rica Living my life on my terms a expat lifestyle and traveling the world at will. Time Freedom is True Freedom!

scotth

I agree...Quetins script is the one I been using since February of this year. I like the flexibility of the shrink to fit script. The video tutorials make it very easy for the newbie to learn very quickly and the support is awesome if you get stuck.

Based in Costa Rica Living my life on my terms a expat lifestyle and traveling the world at will. Time Freedom is True Freedom!

webvalue

Good for you Scott and thanks for sharing

I have looked at Quentin's tool before and a couple of other options I
found here on the forum and am trying to decide which will be the best
for me to use.

Do you have to be an HTML expert to use his tool or is there any
WYSIWYG function that goes with it?

Also wanted to let you know that the link you posted below goes to
an error page.

webvalue

I don't know much about it but I read somewhere on the forum that
wordpress is "heavier" so may not be as good for mobile sites since it
may slow down the site loading.

If I remember correctly, I think it was said by someone who was selling
a lighter version, so I don't know if this is correct or if this was said as
selling point or perhaps it's both, but I think it's something to consider.

I hope this helps...

Jay Moreno

Wordpress can be used to create a light weight mobile website as can Joomla and i expect Drupal (have no experience of the latter so cant say for sure) - You just need to know what your doing

scotth

I knew very very little about HTML...and it is based off of WYSIWYG...IMO its very simple and once you do one..then the rest get easier and easier.

Based in Costa Rica Living my life on my terms a expat lifestyle and traveling the world at will. Time Freedom is True Freedom!

cedric174

Good for you Scott!... and thanks for sharing..
i was wondering if you've tried WiilR's mobile builder tool, and how different it is from quentins one (which i don't know).. thks

scotth

Yes Will gave me a copy to review. I think its awesome product especially for a newbie..But I like Quentins for the fact I can be more creative with the shrink to fit script.

Based in Costa Rica Living my life on my terms a expat lifestyle and traveling the world at will. Time Freedom is True Freedom!

harimon

Hello,
I would like to talk about protecting this whole niche of mobile sites, the script, and preventing people from downloading the whole site. I know you are not concerned from people copying your script and template but I am.
I'm going to feel very stupid if I offer this site to business owner and he passes it to his current webmaster who is able to type "Save as" and copy the whole mobile site in 5 seconds.

Not only we loose a client but we also create new competition with our own hands.
This current webmaster who got this gold, is going to offer it to all his clients, and we all are going to be "very happy" in helping him to get rich...

I saw several times locked scripts, when I tried to see the page source I could see only a blank page, or a line telling me "you are not qualified to see this info"...
and also couldn't save the whole site...

I think it will benefit all of us to find such a script or software that we can use to protect our business and not feeling stupid...

Sure, there will always be some genius who will crack any encryption, but we must put some effort to protect ourselfs from the majority that the only skill they need to steal the site and the whole niche of mobile sites is to type "Save as".

Please share here a solution.

Thanks
Hari

Jay Moreno

Show them screenshots or a demo video from screenr... It's not going to be easy especially since the code is to a point relatively simple... I will have a think about it see if there is another way...

harimon

Yes, will never give the full site not even with the simulator because they can still copy.
They will get the site only after buying, but we are still exposed to their webmaster - situation I don't like.

Quentin

Hari this is a pretty common question in Internet Marketing Circles however I have found dealing with businesses and their webmasters they have all been pretty decent.

I find businesses to be a lot more reputable than the IM crowd.

One thing you can do is add a small piece of code in your sites so you can so a search for it and see if anyone has copied as thieves are not really smart.

We are doing over 10 sites a week and to date not seen any sites using our scripts.

Quentin

harimon

Thank you for your answer Quentin.
Anyway, if anyone finds a good script that encrypts the code please let us know.

Hari

Adrian John

If you don't want to show them an screen-shot of an mock-up just leave that business alone and visit your next prospect Hari . No need to lose time locking everything,closing everyone.There are too many business who need your help.

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Tim@AffEdge

Definitely use only a screenshot.

What works even better is recording a quick video using an iPhone simulator. You can scroll, click links, make a reservation etc so the business owner really gets a feel for how easy their mobile site will be to use.

My conversion rates using a video vs a static screenshot are significantly better. Of course you can't beat handing them an actual phone with the mobile site though.

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pontiffjane1

Please tell me what is the scope of mobile ready websites ? How long does it take to design the mobiles ? Looking forward to hear from you.

Quentin

Scope is huge and the time per site is around 1 to 2 hours once you get your templates sorted out

Q

JToneyUK

Wow, I've just finished reading this thread from post 1 to post 1528, it's taken the best part of the last day and a half but boy was it both useful and inspiring.

Unfortunately there is still plenty of stuff I really want to know about but these are in terms of using QR codes and services and SMS text services to offer as upsells and I have found several more threads to read about these. But man, I've got a great idea now of how I can easily create some mobile friendly sites to local businesses.

It'll take some courage to start making phone calls or dropping into places, but for the rest of this week I am gonna set up a website (showing my services which I can print onto some business cards), and mock up some templates for certain business types (pizza template, restaurant, mechanics etc) and then figure out clever ways to encorporate QR codes, or SMS services into the sales pitch as a hook.

My car tax is due by Sept 30th, my aim is to sell just 1 mobile site by the end of the month to pay off my car tax! It should be more than doable, based on what I have read on these pages.

A few quick questions to Scot, Quentin or Will to answer (or anyone else having had the experience)

- Have you tried simply just walking into a place and speaking to the owner without an initial meeting set up via cold call or e-mail, armed with maybe a mock up of a generic pizza mobile site for example (providing you were calling into pizza places on this specific day)?
Or maybe if you can produce a 1 page mock up pretty quickly created a mockup specific to the several places you will target that day? Not sure if the spontaneity would work so well, and you risk dropping in when the owner is not there (though you can call ahead of time and ask if the boss will be in today),

However, I see this only working if you wielded some magic. Maybe by going into a take away and using a QR code on a made up coupon you can show your order of one of the specials or something. It might just spark some interest and you can take the conversation from there. Again this method may be a bit far fetched.

- Have you ever come across people who see their website in the browser on your phone as you do your demo and they actually like the fact you can zoom in to navigate it? Compared to the old WAP sites, this feature was very good when it first came out, but do people really get sold on the "ease of use" aspect? I'm thinking that some people may see that their current website is fully accessible as it is, so in their mind they dont need what you're offering. Some people wont be thinking about things from a usability issue. All they care about is that people see some form of website from their phones and they can do. I guess if thats the case you just have to walk away.

- Do you go beyond simple info pages? I know the aim of a mobile site if for quick access to the important info a person on the move would be looking for. But what are some more "advanced" features you could implement if say a client is not overly interested in the basic nature of your mock up? For example, a pizza place may want it so users can order one of their pizzas by tapping a button (and not so that it calls them up lol). I think that particular feature has been mentioned before somewhere, but are there any other features which could be an option and therefore potential selling points which lend themselves to particular niches?

- Have you been targetting businesses in major towns/cities only? I live around 6 miles north of Manchester, England and while there are another 2 closer, large towns nearby, I live in a rather small town. Many businesses here don't even have a website, but there are some that do (and they are terrible, future upsells). I don't really want to assume too much ahead of time, but I have a feeling that approaching these smaller businesses in my immediate location would yield less interest than those in the nearby larger towns and Manchester city centre. Ultimately I'd like to branch out into Manchester, where I can probably up the costs of my services also, but I just wanted your thoughts on this. Do you target any business you may happen to find on google (local), yelp, yellow pages etc regardless of physical location? Maybe this is why targetting those spending on advertising is wiser come to think of it.

- And that brings me onto my last question, honest! It kind of makes sense to target those companies already being listed high up in Google. That should really eliminate any discussion of SEO, which I really want to avoid. However, similar to the above point, some people will deem they are already doing enough (and probably spending enough) to get their site to a place where its findable, and don't feel the need to just accomodate a user friendly experience for hand held device users?

Hmmmm I think I've kinda answered some of my own questions here. I keep saying "some people", so I guess its a numbers game. If I get 20 meetings "some people" will not deem the service viable for reasons above and many others, but then again "some people" will see it from our side as well!

Well anyway, I wanna thank everybody who's contributed to this thread, it has been truely helpful!!

MrThinkBig

Hey Guys,

Awesome forum! Been reading through over the last month and have taken so much away from it.

I have a client whom I have built a mobile website for. He has requested a link back to his main site however if I use a basic redirect and create a simple hyperlink it will just loop back to the mobile site.

I want to avoid having to duplicate his site onto a sub domain that doesn't contain the redirect.

Any thoughts and suggestions would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Andy

WillR

Let's get this car payment paid

It's not the way I usually do things however I have had numerous members tell me of success doing things this way. One of the most recent was a guy who went into his doctors surgery, asked if they'd like to see a mobile version of their website, went home and mocked up a quick demo, and walked out with a $3,000 deal later that day. He upsold them on other services also.

You can read his post here:

Post

I have also had members tell me of doing the same thing in restaurants. They'll ask the waiter if the owner is in and if they are they then show them a mock up of their mobile site and how it would benefit the restaurant. They seem to be having great success with this method.

I imagine the reason it works so well is because you are not selling them as such. You are just having a casual and informal conversation.

So yes, this definitely works. Nothing beats showing them, one on one, what a mobile site can do for them.

Granted, you can't sell EVERYONE. You will always run into the odd person who thinks they know best and are the expert at everything. I don't want to work with these people anyway. In my opinion, if your client is coming up with objections like this then YOU have not done a good enough job of selling the benefits to them. There are way more advantages to having a mobile site than simply not having to zoom in to view the site.

It really depends on the niche. Having said that you and your clients do need to understand mobile is about keeping things simple. If you want to get into the whole online ordering system then you are going to be best off integrating a third part ordering solution into the mobile site. There is no point reinventing the wheel.

Yes, seeking out those businesses who are already spending money on advertising is going to be a great way to find businesses in need of your services. As for how far you can stretch your services, it really depends how you decide to sell them. If you want to do things in person (face to face) then obviously you are limited to those businesses within physical reach. If you decide you want to try some cold calling and/or emailing then you can definitely sell to clients much further away.

I have several members who have successfully sold sites to clients in other countries so yes, it definitely can be done. Will it take a little more persistence than meeting a client in person... yeah, sure it will.

Another great way to find clients who need your services is to search phrases such as "location order online" etc. This will bring up clients in your area who already take orders on their websites so it is very important for them to also be mobile compliant.

My response would be this. Recent studies have shown 1 in 5 Google searches is now conducted on a mobile device - this number is only going to get bigger over the next couple of years. If you are spending time and money to get your website high up in the search engines so it can be found, why would you want to risk turning away 20% of your business - those people who arrive at your website on a mobile device. If they don't feel the need to accommodate 20% of their customers then once again they are not the sort of client I want to work with.

Important!

One thing I will tell you and it's the same thing I've told a number of my own members, don't waste your time looking for why this won't work. There are plenty of people out there right now selling these mobile sites every day of the week - it works. Those members of mine who have the most success are not those who have sat down and tried to think of all the objections customers might have, they are the people who just got straight out there and started selling.

Best of luck!

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JToneyUK

Will, thanks very much for your time to answer all those questions! I got slightly carried away and deep in thought as I started to type those bad boys out and they went on forever!

In a way, I had already answered many of those questions myself in the thinking process, but you have summed everything up perfectly in that last paragraph!

You are always going to get those people not interested or who really questions things, and they are the people you don't want to be working with indeed. Infact, they probably would keep finding faults with everything and waste too much of your time and basically be a nightmare to work with.

Of course, everyone knows things are going mobile nowadays, so I guess it's upto them if they want to start going that way now, or further down the line when everyones doing it and developers are charging a fortune. Like they were for creating table based websites in the original internet boom .

I suppose I've always been a bit of a thinker of worst cases, and this can really hinder getting things done. But I am all for this.

Anyway thanks again Will for your great advice above and throughout the entire thread!

WillR

No problems at all. Questioning things is good, it's how we learn and I'm always doing it, but don't let it get in the way of moving things along is all I'm saying.

I haven't been able to check in to this thread as often as I'd like to lately but there's always a great bunch of knowledgeable guys hanging around here willing to help. So make sure you keep asking away!

Ardoris

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Quentin

Just something to help you that I have seen.

We are all trying to help businesses and most of the time they will not be out knocking on doors.

Now I have grown to like this approach but one customer once asked and said if your system is so good why are you not using it to get customers yourself.

I thought it was an excellent point so I went home from that interview and set up a whole bunch of websites using my system and now we get most of our work from these sites.

Build some sites around QR Codes, Mobile marketing, social management as these are hot at the moment. My QR Code sites get me about 10 customers a week at the moment.

Quentin

BUFFALOBT

Does anyone have any suggestions about the best wordpress theme to use to showcase your mobile website business?

Any help/input is appreciated- thanks!

Qamar

You mean you got your customers via online?


Qamar

or

Do You Want to become a High Ticket Closer Like Me and work from anywhere around the world?
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Quentin

Most of them Qamar but I still do some cold calling every now and then to keep up the skill.

Best theme is really it doesnt matter as it is the content that draws in the people not the theme. So many marketers get this wrong.

The theme is just the shell and has very little baring on how the website performs.

Quentin

supershoesclub

It is really so wonderful ,i think we will become more convenient to sell online with the moblie

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ryanpadilla

I have a restaurant that has agreed to commission me for a mobile ready website. The main thing that they want is a way for people to use there cell phone to make online orders.

They already have the order system in place on their website to connect with the POS (Point Of Sale System). So when someone orders on the website they can choose the items they want to order and what time they want to pick the order up right on the website once they place the order it will go right into the POS system to tell the kitchen when to make the order. So basically I am just trying to say their website already has this, so can I just use the existing order page and make it mobile ready?

Will Quentin's script work with this. They have commissioned me for a lot of money and monthly hosting and I don't know how to do it.

Everyone says to take action and I did, but now I have no idea how to set something like this up. So I am really worried that I will not be able to deliver what is promised.

Please HELP!

Thank you in advance,

Ryan P

Big Gee

That is one of my biggest fears. I look forward to anyone who can provide a solution. It would be great to find out considering restaurants benefit the most from a mobile website.

MrThinkBig

Any ideas guys?

Jay Moreno

Hi MrThinkBig,

This may sounds a little bit techie but take a look at setting a PHP session/cookie based on the viewer being a mobile visitor or not - if they return to the main non mobile site you can do a conditional statement to run the redirect code again or not based on the session or cookie value...

Hope this makes sense - don't hesitate to ask for more help if it doesn't!

Thanks

Jay

Jay Moreno

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but i don't think anyone's script on here would work with it.

Depending on how its being coded you could possibly just serve a different style sheet specifically designed for mobile... am betting though it wont be as easy/simple as that though!

I would probably recommend outsourcing it to someone that knows what they are doing if your not familiar with this type of thing.

ryanpadilla

Yeah I was afraid of that. Anybody no anyone that can do this?

MrThinkBig

Hi Jay,

Thanks for the reply. Yes sounds definitely techie lol. Can you please elaborate more? Thanks.

Jay Moreno

its kinda difficult to explain in a post but basically you are setting something that identifies the users as a mobile visitor either with a cookie or a session variable

when the person comes back to the page ie click on a visit main site from the mobile site the server checks to see if the cookie or session variable is present if it is it doesnt redirect them again but instead places a visit mobile site link...

previously i used to do it a different/simpler way by doing a mobile detector alert using javascript... but the prompt to visit mobile site kinda got annoying... ill have a look and see if its something i can put together as a standalone script or as cms plugin for joomla/wordpress/drupal

these days i tend to use php mobile detection over javascript

for more info on sessions and cookies take a look at this:

http://www.tizag.com/phpT/phpsessions.php

http://www.tizag.com/phpT/phpcookies.php

FYI - the reason you would use cookies instead of a session is if you where to leave the site i.e. go to a different domain ie a .mobi... am thinking your session variables would be lost if you went to a sub domain too not 100% certain, you could store the value in a db but then it starts getting really technical and your probably better of just using cookies...

there's possibly more ways to do it and maybe even simpler ways still - but at least this is one option to consider

JToneyUK

Damn, why did I always go the "sessions" route when doing my old database driven sites? Seems cookies may be more useful.

Jay, what method do you use to detect the user's device? You say you use PHP, but do you simply send the user to the mobile site if they are using a phone, or do you use a prompt that asks them to go to the mobile site or main site? I have seen, using my iPhone, a "pop out" message saying "do you wish to go to our mobile site" with OK and Cancel buttons. I've also just seen a "mobile site" link near the top of some websites, but I don't think that is of much use because the user has to be able to read the link in the first place. It could easily get missed.

Also, do you recommend building any mobile sites in PHP then? Even fpr just basic info pages, so that if in the future the client wants some technical stuff in there it won't need all totally upgrading to PHP files?

JToneyUK

Ryan, have you promised them that you will deliver this exactly??

I suggest that if you need to implement it this way you outsource it, or you could meet up with the client again to suggest a more less costly method which may be easier for you to implement.

Basically set up a form with all the menu options on there for people to select their order, then send the order to a dedicated e-mail address. Then have the waiting staff have the e-mail constantly open and when orders come through someone manually puts the order into their POS which sends the order to the kitchen.

This method isn't exactly ideal, and there is plenty of room for error. However it IS a solution and I have a "fit for purpose" mentality.

flyinghammers

It seems that this thread has been used as a mobile sub forum. Now that we finally have a real sub forum maybe this thread can be locked.

WillR

Or moved over to the Mobile Marketing section...?

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mint24

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Scott

Your post #304 concerning the handset detection company

Does the hand set detection service perform the redirect for you...installing on your customer's website or do they just give you the code and you have to do it? I don't have the capability of doing PM....I look forward to your response...I am not techincal in the least bit of the word. I would rather have a company/someone do the redirect for me...than have to do it myself. Thanks