Make Your Blog Mobile-Friendly in a Few Simple Steps

If you want your blog readers to be able to quickly and easily read your blog from their mobile devices there is a really easy way to make that possible. When you’ve followed the steps I’ve outlined below your readers can simply go to your blog URL from their mobile browser and the mobile version of your site will appear. If they go to your blog from their desktop computer they will see the full-sized version. You’ll also have a specific mobile URL that you can use as well.

Here are the steps to follow (with screenshots). Don’t worry, you don’t even need to take a deep breath or anything, it is so simple.

Step 1
Find your blog’s RSS feed URL and copy it. You will be pasting it in just minute.

If you have any trouble with that, try looking for the RSS icon on your blog or go to Feedburner to create a feed. It shouldn’t be hard to find or create.

Step 2
Go to www.MoFuse.com
As shown in this screen shot, paste your blog’s RSS feed URL into the box where it says Mobilize your blog now. Click on the Mobilize button.

Step 3
Set up your mobile site on MoFuse.

In this step MoFuse will create a mobile web address for you. You will want to use this feature because later you can allow your site visitors to have the mobile URL sent to their phone via SMS text message if you want.

The other thing this step accomplishes for you is creating a listing in the MoFuse mobile site directory. And this will also create your free MoFuse account.

Step 4
Launch a New Mobile Site

This step will seem a bit redundant because you’ll need to input your RSS feed URL in again. But you are also naming your blog as it will show up on your mobile site. I advise going with as short a name as you can. You will put that in where it says Site Name and RSS Feed Title.

At the part on this screen where it asks for you to agree to the Revenue Sharing Policy you will need to check the box and be sure to read the policy because it tells what will happen to advertising revenue from ads on the site. (More on this later.)

Step 5
Set up Automatic Detect & Redirect

This is the step that creates the magic. When this screen pops up, choose the Automatic Detect and Redirect option. You can do the other options later but this is the one you want to get onto your site ASAP so mobile visitors see your mobile site and not your full site through a screen the size of a postage stamp.

Step 6
This page will show you options for working with your WordPress, Blogger or other kind of website. The screenshots below walk you through the WordPress option, but the other choices will be similar.

The general idea is you will grab some code and paste it into your blog’s code. This will allow your site to recognize which kind of browser each individual reader is using when they get there. Your mobile visitors will see the mobile version and the folks using a desktop computer will see the big version. Please don’t worry about this, as it very easy.

On this screen you will copy the code as described for your kind of blog platform.

IMPORTANT:
Before you copy the code, go ahead and open up your blogging admin panel. For WordPress this is where you login at yougblogname.com/wp-admin.

Once there locate where you are supposed to copy the code. In WordPress that will be in the Theme Editor. You’ll be looking for the header.php file. When you find it, copy it and paste it into Notepad as a back up. Not that anything is likely to go wrong, but it is always a good idea to back up your code before you do anything with it.

Step 7
Paste the Automatic Detect & Redirect Code into Your Blog

Following the direction that MoFuse gave you in Step 6, carefully paste the code you copied from there and paste it where directed. In WordPress that is at the very top of your header.php file. Be sure to save your changes.

After you have done this, go to your blog on your desktop browser and hit refresh. Make sure it looks exactly the same. If anything messed up, grab that code you copied into Notepad and repaste it in the header.php file. Save and recheck.

If your blog looks fine, then grab your mobile browser and go directly to your blog site. You should see your mobile site.

WARNING: This might not work. When working with mobile web stuff you are not dealing with an exact science. Some themes work a bit differently than others. Mobile phones work differently as well. But hopefully it will work for you. It is OK to leave the code there. Maybe other people are seeing the mobile site.

For me, it worked perfectly for this blog (MobileMarketingProfits) and I had a bit of trouble with MobiBlueprint Blog which I am still working on.

Now you can work your way through MoFuse and find more exciting things to do with your mobile blog. Have fun.

A Note About Revenue Sharing:
If you select the Revenue Sharing / Monetize option on MoFuse and want to display ads on your blog, be sure to sign up for your own Google Adwords and/or AdMob account. That way you will get to keep 50% of the ad revenues from your site. MoFuse makes it really easy to just pste in your publisher IDs and it will work automatically.

Please let me know how this worked for you. Did you run into any snags? Did you understand my directions? If you need someone to test out your mobile blog, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll check it for you to see how it looks.

9 Comments

  1. Thanks for the comprehensive step-by-step guide. It is well received by my peers who are not into m-blogs yet. I anticipate for more mobile blogs to pop up after people have read your posting!

  2. I agree it’s important for sites to be optimized for mobile viewing. Can’t tell you how irritating it is when I’m on my Blackberry and bump into a site that clogs my browser – or is too difficult to navigate.

    Just curious – would you recommend the MoFuse application over the WordPress Mobile Edition plugin?(wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-mobile-edition/)WordPress Mobile Edition plugin?

    My testing has been limited only to my site and my Blackberry.

  3. Hello Kim:

    Great advice – thanks!

    When I saw my blog in the MoFuse application, it reminded me how important the post title is. Mobile users get the text, not the landscape with images.

    From a PR perspective, being mobile-phone friendly positions you and your blog as being ahead of the curve, which you always are. :)

    Barbara
    @wiredprworks on twitter.com

  4. Hi Kim

    this is an excellent step by step and its great to see so many people turning their attention now to the internet for mobile phones.

    I hope its okay to mention too that Mippin offers a very similar service to Mofuse – http://www.mippin.com/mobilizer – where we mobilize blogs and provide customisation tools to accompany the process (so you can brand your mobile site like your blog).

    One or two features we also offer are a huge number of existing mobile interent users, so that once your site is published in to a mobile version, it’s listed on the http://Mippin.com mobile site where there is one of the largest number of mobile users of any site in the USA or UK.

    Finally we’ve just launched some cool new social software which enables users with interests in your blog to be put directly in touch with your blog! You should try it. We also made an Oscar winning (?) video about our social features here – http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2jN11kwrGro

    Just a bit of fun but hopefully it explains the concept. And promise you won’t have to take a breath or anything either! Let us know what you think!

  5. Hi Kim,

    ‘ve developed an interest in mobile marketing and stumbled across your website and subsequently purchased your “Mobile Marketing Handbook.” Thanks for being a true trend setter in this emerging field.

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