You want to add driving directions to your website? Not a problem! You can simply make the address in your mobile site a link that pulls up a map but another way is to insert a directions field that one types their address into. They then hit submit and a mobile map is pulled up giving them directions from their location. It’s so easy to implement and looks super cool.
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Using mobile icons are a great way to spice up your mobile designs. The problem is that it’s hard to find the perfect icon that goes with your design or all the good ones cost money! So I decided to come up with my favorite 15 go-to icons that I have used a dozen times. They are all 32 X 32 pixels and have a transparent background. The icons are the perfect size to fit 5 of them in a row on your mobile sites. Anymore and it will look too cluttered. I usually only insert three on my sites. Follow the instructions below to insert these beauties on your mobile sites. [click to continue…]

I was recently asked this question from someone in our community about what to do if a small business only wants a mobile website. Since I’m such a nice, fairly young gentlemen I will explain exactly what to do. It’s actually really easy and you can host the clients site which means reoccurring income! (Plus you’ll have all the control, not some stinkin 3rd party mobile site creator)

Now a responsive design would be the best option for this type of solution. A lot of us aren’t responsive web designers so in that case you could follow the information below.

What You Will Need for Your Mobile Only Site

You’ll need a couple of tools to accomplish this. If your client doesn’t have a regular website then they probably don’t have a hosting plan. This is good so don’t panic. This will get you rolling:

• Domain Name – I use 1&1.com. It’s around 10 bucks per domain with private registration.
• Hosting Plan – I highly recommend Host Gator. Get the plan that you can host unlimited domains. It’s around $65/year and they have the best customer support. Instant chat works great!
• A Mobile Website – Of course this is needed. If it’s a local shop then a one page site with a click to call and click for directions would work great! Most local businesses don’t need a complicated mobile site. If you need sites designed please contact me.
• FTP Program – You need to upload your mobile website to your host. I recommend FireFTP. It’s FREE and simple to use.

Step By Step Setup for a Mobile Only Site

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Have a question about the mobile web or a small business topic? Comment below and we might answer it in a blog post, podcast or video!

Google Plus just made some layout changes. The biggest improvement I see is that you can now have a Facebook Timeline like cover photo on your profile page. The dimensions of the image should be 940 X 180 pixels. Below are some creative ways to use your new ad spot (whoops I mean) image spot.

• Display your website or brand logo.
• Include a Call-to-Action somewhere in the image. Either your website address or a phone number.
• Product Launch! Perfect spot to display a new product you’re launching.
• Showcase a FREE offer or product you give away on your website.
• Great place for a coupon or deal for your business.
• Or just be creative and make it fun! Isn’t that what the web is all about?!

My Google Plus Cover Photo Image and the FREE Download

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I’m always looking for new ways to get clients. Aren’t we all? I don’t enjoy selling but do enjoy finding creative ways to make selling fun! Recently I found this cool idea on an internet marketing forum I belong to (I can’t take all the credit for this one).

*This tactic can be paired with selling any online services.

The Idea (Genius I tell you)

Selling mobile sites isn’t the easiest thing. Even though it is going to be the next big thing a lot of small business owners still don’t see a need for one. But that’s ok. We just have to be creative when selling mobile sites. [click to continue…]

Tracking email is a useful step for most small business owners. Whether you are a web designer or own an ecommerce store, at some point you will want to see if someone opened your email or if they clicked a link in the body of the message.

Recently I came across an awesome tool, Point of Mail. This tool will track when someone opens your email, open your link and even if they forward it to another person! It is the James Bond of email. All you have to do is sign up and simply add .pointofmail.com to the end of your email address.

Why I use Point of Mail to Track Email?

I’m a mobile web designer and one of my sales tactics is to send out email to prospects. I used to just send them blindly and hope for the best. I never knew if my messages were opened. I then found Point of Mail and tried their free trial. I was amazed to see how prospects were treating my emails. I discovered that around 50% opened my email. A lot of my messages were forwarded to other people, which I found interesting.
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A few days ago I found an awesome tool that all of us can use. Whether you’re designing mobile sites, web sites or even just own a site you can use this robots.txt generator. Websites use a robots.txt file to let the crawlers know about their site. The crawler visits your site and looks for the robots.txt file. If that file says not to crawl, the robot will not crawl your site. It’s that simple.

Why wouldn’t I want a robot to crawl my site?
Good question. When building a site you might put filler text as a place holder. It may be duplicate content that you stuffed in there while designing. Or you may have their current site up on your own host while building and testing. You do not want spiders to crawl this temporary information because it can hurt your search engine rankings.

By using a robots.txt generator and creating a disallow statement, the crawlers will stay far far away. The tool I discovered makes this super easy and you’ll have your robots.txt file uploaded in no time. [click to continue…]