Going Mobile – Why Not?

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by Michael Joshua

Whether we are published or not, we love our blogs. There’s just something exciting about putting our thoughts out there for the world to read. Many of us choose from the available free services – blogger, wordpress.com and companies who promise free hosting, to name a few.

But the fact is that if we intend to reach a larger audience, we must consider a mobile website. More and more people are surfing the web using mobile devices: smart phones and tablets. Some people have moved completely to tablets and don’t even boot up a laptop anymore. The world is becoming more mobile day by day.

Knowing this – we should respond by providing our content in a format that the public can read on their handheld devices. Since I am a full-time freelancer, it seemed like this skill would be a great addition to my portfolio. I already build WordPress blogs and migrate blogger blogs to WordPress for other writers, so why hesitate on learning how to build mobile-friendly sites? So I took the plunge.

It was pretty easy to see that it my desktop website was not reader-friendly on mobile devices. Only a portion of the page was viewable and you can bet that anyone who visited my site on a smart phone would click their back button in less time than it took to load. What I needed was a mobile site that provided a full page view, with navigation that makes sense to the viewer.

The navigation on my new mobile site is clear and easy to follow. Whether a reader would like to read the “About Me” page or my “Recent Blog Post,” there is no question where to click to find them. Not only that, the “Click to Call” button on my site will dial my office number from any smart phone. All I had to do was create my header image directly from my blog, write pages that are appropriate for a mobile device and code them for the platform. Of course, I didn’t put pages and pages of stuff on a mobile site, it would load too slowly. So I decided exactly what I wanted to showcase and created a site with a sample of my stories.

If a reader clicks a link in search engine results that points to my blog while on a mobile device, they will automatically be transferred to my new mobile version. This is an easy thing to accomplish with a WordPress plugin or HTML scripts as long as your site or blog is on a top level domain.


Michael Lee Joshua is a happy grandpa and a freelance writer. He is also skilled in SEO techniques and can help you find and dominate your niche on the internet. He is actively building mobile sites now. Visit his blog at http://InspirationalSayingsFromGrandpasHeart.com or his SEO site http://PayNoPostage.com. Feel free to ask about a discount for ACFW members!

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