Comments on: How to optimize your blog for mobile devices

By: Jo Turnbull

Jo Turnbull — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:44:26 +0000

Thanks, for your comments. I am glad you liked the post.

By: Jo Turnbull

Jo Turnbull — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 16:20:50 +0000

Thanks for your comment. How long have you been developing plugins for? I am impressed with the wordpress mobile admin.

By: Brian Prows

Brian Prows — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 02:53:50 +0000

Folks, WAPL is absolutely INCREDIBLE.

Not only does Rich Gubby’s plugin re-size images, he offers a a control panel similar to Thesis, allowing bloggers to easily insert headers, set your navigation, change footer text, insert thumbnail images next to posts, control length of posts before the “read more” next page link and more.

You can even insert a search function at the bottom of the page and change the title. For example, I changed “Search” to “Find” which to me sounds a lot more friendly. Similarly, I changed “Comments” to “Thoughts?”

The post title’s are a bit large, flash is lacking and I’m getting a WAPL error–”Entity ‘mdash’ not defined” when clicking on the most current post’s next page, but I haven’t experienced this error with other posts.

Without flash, my PowerPress podcast player icon doesn’t appear; however, I’ve started inserting the podcast MP3 links directly at the bottom of the post since even the iPhone doesn’t offer flash.

And I need to further explore how to insert AdMob ad code into my blog, similar to MobileBeyond.biz created using MobiSiteGalore.

I tested WAPL on my BlackBerry Curve and my HTC HERO from Sprint. Both displayed my blog exceptionally well. I don’t know how MobileBeyond would appear on less powerful handsets. But if the rendering of the web pages is half as good as I’ve seen on my Android phone, it’s still fantastic.

I believe the combination of Marko’s configuration of my blog with Thesis, plus Rich Gubby’s mobile plugin is the best solution for mobilizing my blog.

By: Brian Prows

Brian Prows — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:31:21 +0000

Thanks, Rich, for the information about WAPL.

I reviewed the WAPL site and have a few questions:

Can Admob or other ad network code be inserted into a WAPL site using the WAPL builder–not the WordPress plugins?

Will existing 125X125 banner ads get stripped out of a monetized blog like mine?

Do you have any screen shots of WML browser displays? I’m interested in how my site would render?. The iPhone, Android and other smartphones on the market render pages very differently from legacy handsets.

The iPhone only represents 4% of all phones on the market. Most of the 4.5 billion handsets around the world have limited displays.

Thanks for posting.

By: Alla

Alla — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:56:00 +0000

You know, Marco, it’s a really great idea for my blog. Thank you.

By: Rich Gubby

Rich Gubby — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:57:44 +0000

Hi!
Nice post and some good info there! I’ve created a couple of mobile plugins for WordPress that I think are worth a look.

First up, there is the Wapple Architect Mobile Plugin for WordPress – it mobilizes your blog for your readers and allows you to retain the look and feel of your web theme across to mobile. You can also tailor your mobile SEO terms as well. You can download it here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wapple-architect/ and see how it looks on a few blogs here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wapple-architect/screenshots/

Secondly, I’ve created WordPress Mobile Admin which mobilizes the WordPress control panel so you can create posts from your mobile phone. You can also upload photos and moderate comments as well as manage posts, pages, tags and categories. You can download it here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-mobile-admin/ and see how it looks in action here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-mobile-admin/screenshots/

Let me know how you get on!

By: Brian Prows

Brian Prows — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:43:19 +0000

One thing to keep in mind about mobile websites. Visitors are not going to visit your mobilized website unless you have one and you promote it.

Second, you can monetize your blog with a mobile website using Admob, Google, Milennial and other ad networks throughout the world. Advertising revenue is growing 50-75% per year for mobile, while ad spend on print and traditional Internet is stagnant or falling. The click-through rate on most mobile campaigns is 5%-10%.

Keep in mind that most of the 3.5 billion people who own handsets that are capable of accessing the mobile Web are. Every month, for example, India’s carriers are adding 15 MILLION new subscribers and smartphones are selling like crazy. In Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, the same is happening.

Side note: Host Gator and I are still working on php permission problems using MobiSiteGalore, an Indian firm that offers a free online website build tool. With MSG you can easily add RSS feeds for your blogs, Admob and Google code for mobile ads, “click to call” and contact forms plus more.

By: Jo Turnbull

Jo Turnbull — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:55:48 +0000

Thank you for your comment. It is good practice to have a mobile version of your site as more and more people will be accessing the internet through handsets. Let me know how you get on with your site.

By: James Rayers

James Rayers — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:48:01 +0000

At the moment I don’t think enough readers access my content through a mobile device to justify “mobilizing” my site.

I do have mobile related domain name lying around that I would like to develop and hopefully these tips will help me do so.

By: Brian Prows

Brian Prows — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 04:29:55 +0000

Well, here’s my first attempt at creating a mobile website, using Mobile Site Galore. Indeed, when I chose PHP rather than HTML, the screens warned me that Host Gator doesn’t support the protocol, although when checking my cpanel file manager, I see Php files everywhere. In any cases, this is a humble beginning:

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