The Mobile Generation Needs You!

[jquarta]

Left to Right: Logo/Menu, Body Image, Description, Content

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Left to Right: Item, Menu, Footer, Cart

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Left to Right: Checkout, Bing/Yahoo Ads, Custom Page, Items

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A few weeks ago I forced myself to actually look at the page view statistics of mobile users visiting our site! I was quite shocked to see not only the number of mobile users, but the page views among those particular users were in the single digits! The solution was obvious, create a mobile website. Mobile websites are specifically designed for handheld devices since nobody enjoys browsing a desktop website on their smartphone! Research on mobile website usability shows that mobile-optimized websites significantly improve user experience and satisfaction, which makes a positive impression when it counts.

I knew Mike (mcarp555) had created an AOM Theme called Varius at AOM Skins designed for different resolutions that catered to both regular website viewers, and the mobile generation. I definitely did not want to start over on another theme or redesign our present site for a solution.

With that thought in mind, the solution was quite easy. We installed a Varius Theme in a newly created directory. We called our new directory mobile, and uploaded this excellent theme with all the other AOM files. We also created a new .htaccess file for the mod-rewrite portion of AOM, and placed it into the new directory. The solution was not quite complete though, we now have our main site plus a mobile site available with no apparent tie in or link.

The final solution was to add a simple javascript redirect (available on request) to the header file of the main website. The script redirects to the newly created mobile site based on the visitors resolution, not the device they are using.

If you decide to tackle a Varius Theme, screen shots of your mobile design progress can be had at http://www.responsinator.com/ at no charge. This Theme plus the AOM script can be used to go mobile on almost any website (not just AOM) to join the mobile generation and generate revenue offering Amazon products! The value of this Theme plus the AOM script in a standalone website is immense!

More detailed information on The Varius Theme (Highly Recommended) can be obtained here: http://www.aomskins.com/.

Also please note that original content has to be added to any website to succeed (AOM is no exception). Google, Amazon, and Bing/Yahoo demand it!

I'm showing mobile website screen shots from the 240px Android on our newly created mobile site, that were obtained from the responsinator website.

Joe....

[SWalker1]

@ jquarta

Heck yea! The website looks very good on my iPhone! It's very smooth! I can navigate through the your website with ease!

[jquarta]

Followup: We actually have gotten our payback on the purchase of the "Varius Theme" already! I was quite surprised to see that 50% of the orders were at the 320px resolution!

If you do upload the majority of your content from your main site to the "Varius Theme", make sure you add <link rel='canonical' href='http://www.example.com'> to the site head section of the "Varius Theme" Admin to reference where the duplicate content came from!

Joe...

[jquarta]

Update Followup: on the performance of an AOM mobile site, averaging close to 40% mobile sales on a daily basis so far in January.

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Joe...

[SWalker1]

Very Nice! I bet that you got some nice sales during November and December!

[jquarta]

The mobile sales really helped! We probably would have landed even with last year sales, but the mobile sales brought us just over! The U.S. economy is still struggling!

Joe....