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Apps are the Cliff Notes of Your Website

It is a common misconception that smartphone users can browse websites as easily as computers just because they connect to the desktop internet. The fact that they can’t is partly what birthed the apps marketplace.

For mobile users apps are as Cliff Note books to students. Apps replace your website and deliver the simplest most seamless experience for the user. Though they are complex beyond my understanding, I do understand that apps read stuff totally different than sites written for the desktop Internet are meant to be read.

And think back to a previous article explaining the smartphone’s navigation problems. (Internet Sites Impossible to Read & Navigate With Smartphones, and “Why Isn’t My Website Good Enough for Mobil Phone Users?). Rather than spending up to 30 minutes using 60+ keystrokes (presses) your app also simplify this to merely a few. (See the article Keystroke Counts are Key.)

If you have any further questions, please check out the remaining articles, or leave them in the comment section below. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

If you wish to know more about Aggie Villanueva and her company check out this page.

Reviewing: Why is it imperative to Have My Own App?

The iTunes Store (for iPhones) and Apps Marketplace (Androids & compatible) is mostly ignored by authors. This is a mistake. It’s a market of billions of users who probably won’t ever see your website/blog even though their smartphones are capable of internet browsing. (Why they won’t see your site is explained in-depth in another post of this series.)

Smartphone users browsed over 97 million apps (in 2011), up from 37 million the year before. And on February 24, 2012 the iTunes App Store announced it was about to hit 25 billion downloads.

That’s how fast it’s growing, and it’s growing at this rate because businesses have discovered there is money in being represented in this vital market. Today there are literally trillions of apps downloaded weekly.

As with Mother Nature, it’s not NICE to ignore such vast opportunity.

But understandably businesses/authors can’t even consider entering the mobile marketplace with their own app until they grasp where and what that is — until they get some answers. Each post in this series addresses a different set of question and aspects of mobile marketing with your own app.

Summary: Can I Afford an App?

(Scan my custom QR code with your Android phone to download my free app. iPhone version coming soon.)

True, there are cheap do-it-yourself-type apps available online, but they begin and end with the entry level app you purchased and a few add-ons. Plus they can’t take full advantage of smartphone functionality like the Location Based Search (mentioneded in the marketing techniques articles in this series) or most other marketing campaigns.

Each app must be programmed specifically for your needs. This from-scratch-programming is the most desirable, but where the high costs could come in.

But it doesn’t have to be expensive — offering you competitive prices for an entry level app is what my company, My Book Marketing Systems, is all about. Imagine your own app for just a few hundred dollars.

Even more importantly, we differ in that our apps can be upgraded a la carte to your heart’s desire and as you can afford it, all the way to our high-end super interactive stand-alone e-reader. Having a stand-alone built-in e-reader in your app is extremely desirable. (That desirability is beyond the information addressed here, but will be covered in-depth in an upcoming article of this series).

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Cliff Notes of a Website; That’s What App Are

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Image Credits: courtesy Kalexanderson on Flickr

You may be wondering how you can market to mobile users if you don’t own one. And you may be imagining the huge sums of money you’ll have to invest to have an iPhone and Android phone, plus monthly connection fees for both, just to view and keep tabs on how your app looks and functions. Then of course the apps marketplace also extends to various tablets too, such as the iPad, Android’s etc.

No one can afford to buy every mobile device out there just to keep tabs on our apps, and we don’t need to. But we can afford to begin building our app campaigns today, and take it step by step.

The truth is you don’t have to own anything to market in the various apps marketplaces. Even though it is in fact best to have your apps in both the iPhone and Android marketplaces, plus, when you can expand, place an app on some tablets too.

Creating a mobile presence and marketing to mobile devices requires little effort or knowledge from you. Your apps programmer does it all. (For more info see “How do I Update My App?”)

As for you, just relax and be creative with fun marketing ideas while your programmer takes care of the rest.

If you have any further questions, please check out the remaining articles, or leave them in the comment section below. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

If you wish to know more about Aggie Villanueva and her company check out this page.

Reviewing: Why is it imperative to Have My Own App?

The iTunes Store (for iPhones) and Apps Marketplace (Androids & compatible) is mostly ignored by authors. This is a mistake. It’s a market of billions of users who probably won’t ever see your website/blog even though their smartphones are capable of internet browsing. (Why they won’t see your site is explained in-depth in another post of this series.)

Smartphone users browsed over 97 million apps (in 2011), up from 37 million the year before. And on February 24, 2012 the iTunes App Store announced it was about to hit 25 billion downloads.

That’s how fast it’s growing, and it’s growing at this rate because businesses have discovered there is money in being represented in this vital market. Today there are literally trillions of apps downloaded weekly.

As with Mother Nature, it’s not NICE to ignore such vast opportunity.

But understandably businesses/authors can’t even consider entering the mobile marketplace with their own app until they grasp where and what that is — until they get some answers. Each post in this series addresses a different set of question and aspects of mobile marketing with your own app.

Summary: Can I Afford an App?

(Scan my custom QR code with your Android phone to download my free app. iPhone version coming soon.)

True, there are cheap do-it-yourself-type apps available online, but they begin and end with the entry level app you purchased and a few add-ons. Plus they can’t take full advantage of smartphone functionality like the Location Based Search (mentioneded in the marketing techniques articles in this series) or most other marketing campaigns.

Each app must be programmed specifically for your needs. This from-scratch-programming is the most desirable, but where the high costs could come in.

But it doesn’t have to be expensive — offering you competitive prices for an entry level app is what my company, My Book Marketing Systems, is all about. Imagine your own app for just a few hundred dollars.

Even more importantly, we differ in that our apps can be upgraded a la carte to your heart’s desire and as you can afford it, all the way to our high-end super interactive stand-alone e-reader. Having a stand-alone built-in e-reader in your app is extremely desirable. (That desirability is beyond the information addressed here, but will be covered in-depth in an upcoming article of this series).

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How Can I Have an App? I Don’t Own a Smartphone.

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I’m excited today and couldn’t wait to share this with you. I always get this way when learning to do something for myself that I thought I couldn’t handle and would have to be outsourced for hundreds of dollars.

Yesterday I learned how to add a new page tab to my Facebook Page. It’s a gorgeous Amazon bookstore selling right from my author Page, Books by Aggie.

Good friend and social media expert Phyllis Zimbler Miller, of Miller Mosaic, posted directions how to use your Amazon Associates aStore to create the inline frame code to place in your Facebook Page’s Static HTML: iframe tabs app.

No, Really!

Now don’t run away. I purposely made that sound as geek speak as possible (though I don’t speak the language myself) just to get the point across that it is so much simpler than it sounds. If I can do it you can do it. BTW: If you don’t have an Amazon Associates account create one now.

Before you’re ready to follow Phyllis’ instructions you need to do one thing. In Facebook do a search for Static HTML: iframe tabs and click on Add Static HTML to a Page. I’ve done the search for you. Just click here. You’ll need to be logged into Facebook.

Now you’re ready to follow Phyllis’ easy instructions found at her blog, Internet Marketing: How to Successfully Market on the Internet No Matter Your Business or What You Know. You can read the directions at “Amazon Opportunities for Book Authors.” And before you know it your bookstore will be in place. And with each sales you’ll earn affiliate monies through your Amazon Associates account.

Scroll to the end for large screenshots of mine and Phyllis’ FB bookstores and more.

And Now This is All I See?

You’ve made it through and are breathing a sigh of amazed disbelief when disaster strikes – but not really. When the page tab is all done and in place don’t be shocked when you can’t even view it. The app’s icon shows up in your bar of page tabs right under your cover image, as shown in the screenshot below. But when you click on it all you see is the code you entered, as shown in the screenshot above. This is because you are the page owner.

No, you did nothing wrong. Just click the Preview button and you’ll see what visitors see, a beautiful store with shopping cart, similar items lists, an about page and more. (See large screenshots at the end of this post)

I’ve included a bunch of juicy screenshots throughout so you can see just what you can have on your very own Facebook Page as soon as you finish. And please don’t be too intimidated to even start. You really don’t have to be a techie to do it.

And You Don’t Have to Stop With FacceBook:

Social Media Posts, Custom Icons, Foreign Bookstores…

You, like me and Phyllis, can go on to add your bookstore to websites, etc. Even post the links throughout your social media that click straight through to your own private bookstore. Click on my direct link in the screenshot below to start shopping at my store right now. The screenshot is from a Facebook post.

Phyllis used the Static HTML: iframe tabs app to create three identical bookstores for the three countries where she sells a lot of her books. Check it out. Her three page tabs are circled in red below.

After I added my own bookstore page tab, I too wanted to replace the ugly default icon that comes with the app, like Phyllis did with those clever country flags. So I grabbed a screenshot of my bookstore and shrank it very tiny. The app requires exactly  111 x 74 pixels. When you edit the settings as shown in the screenshot below, the dialog box will tell you the required size. You’ll need a photo editing program to do this, but there are free ones online if you don’t have one.

Now I was getting into this! It was fun to thumbnail a screenshot of my bookstore to use as its page icon. When it was ready, from my FB Page I clicked Admin Panel in the upper right next to my cover picture, and then Manage, and then chose Edit Page. On this next page I clicked on Apps and edited the settings of my Static HTML: iframe tabs app as shown in the screenshot below.

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 I can’t wait to see what you create.

Be sure to leave links to your work in the comment box below.

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This is the bookstore page at Promotion a la Carte Blog. And I can change the colors of any of my bookstores anytime

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Create a Private Amazon Store on Your Facebook Page

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I’m extremely honored to be teaching with such an esteemed list of book marketing experts as D’vorah Lansky has gathered under her wing for this year’s 4th Annual Digital Publishing Summit.

You get to attend all 20 workshops for free, or choose those most pertinant from these categories:

• Promoting Your Message
• Book Creation Strategies (that’s where I’m teaching)
• Creating Multimedia Content
• Making Money with Your Message

Can’t make it live because of a conflicting schedule? No worries. Purchase the Full Access Pass and  own them all.

But check it out for yourself to get all the details.

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Sign up now to reserve your virtual seat: 

Digital Publishing Virtual Summit

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Attend 20 Workshops Free at the 4th Annual Digital Publishing Virtual Summit

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You’ve been wanting to get you own

author app for a while now.

Find the mobile marketing answers you’ve been asking. Bite-sized answers to tons of basic app questions. An ongoing series.

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Get Your Mobile Market Questions Answered. Get Your Author App

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My new book is just about ready for launch but I couldn’t wait to share this video from it with all of you. I SO related and laughed so much that I included the video in the book, Amazon Categories Create Best Sellers since my book and the video are both all about book marketing.

I know you’ll enjoy Sci-Fi author Melissa Conway‘s huge mix of creative talents coming together in video and animation, composing, singing, and writing. I certainly do!

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Be sure to check out all Melissa’s books and trailers here.

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THE INDIE AUTHOR LAMENT by Melissa Conway

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Even with a mobile friendly plugin there’s still not much hope that mobile device users will browse your site any easier. They claim to make sites mobile friendly, but unless you pay big bucks for it, the free and inexpensive ones are fairly ineffective in my experience.

But I try to always prepare as much as possible on all fronts. I use the WordPress Mobile Pack plugin for my company site, Promotion a la Carte. But no matter how I configure the few settings available, it insists on showing every hidden page/post and other items that have no place in a menu, making it an unreadable string of text. And that’s the first thing seen. So mobile visitors are utterly confused as to what my company is and what I sell, even though my site is mobile registered and supposedly mobile friendly.

For this reason, I’ve had my programmer create a Promotion a la Carte app which is linked from my app, just as purchasing my books are linked in my app.

If you have any further questions, please check out the remaining articles, or leave them in the comment section below. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

If you wish to know more about Aggie Villanueva and her company check out this page.

Reviewing: Why is it imperative to Have My Own App?

The iTunes Store (for iPhones) and Apps Marketplace (Androids & compatible) is mostly ignored by authors. This is a mistake. It’s a market of billions of users who probably won’t ever see your website/blog even though their smartphones are capable of internet browsing. (Why they won’t see your site is explained in-depth in another post of this series.)

Smartphone users browsed over 97 million apps (in 2011), up from 37 million the year before. And on February 24, 2012 the iTunes App Store announced it was about to hit 25 billion downloads.

That’s how fast it’s growing, and it’s growing at this rate because businesses have discovered there is money in being represented in this vital market. Today there are literally trillions of apps downloaded weekly.

As with Mother Nature, it’s not NICE to ignore such vast opportunity.

But understandably businesses/authors can’t even consider entering the mobile marketplace with their own app until they grasp where and what that is — until they get some answers. Each post in this series addresses a different set of question and aspects of mobile marketing with your own app.

Summary: Can I Afford an App?

(Scan my custom QR code with your Android phone to download my free app. iPhone version coming soon.)

True, there are cheap do-it-yourself-type apps available online, but they begin and end with the entry level app you purchased and a few add-ons. Plus they can’t take full advantage of smartphone functionality like the Location Based Search (mentioneded in the marketing techniques articles in this series) or most other marketing campaigns.

Each app must be programmed specifically for your needs. This from-scratch-programming is the most desirable, but where the high costs could come in.

But it doesn’t have to be expensive — offering you competitive prices for an entry level app is what my company, My Book Marketing Systems, is all about. Imagine your own app for just a few hundred dollars.

Even more importantly, we differ in that our apps can be upgraded a la carte to your heart’s desire and as you can afford it, all the way to our high-end super interactive stand-alone e-reader. Having a stand-alone built-in e-reader in your app is extremely desirable. (That desirability is beyond the information addressed here, but will be covered in-depth in an upcoming article of this series).

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I Can Add a Mobile Friendly Plug-in for Smartphone Users

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Impossible web navigation is just one aspects that make smartphones incapable or browsing internet sites successfully. Most of the time a smartphone user on your site can’t even perform the simple, but vital, task of signing up for your newsletter, viewing a video or listening to an audio message, because your programing languages often cannot be read by mobile devices. But Apps are designed specifically for mobile devices. They keep it simple for the small screen and its internet limitations.

Placing your App in the “Apps Marketplace” is the best way to effectively market to those who exclusively use their smartphones rather than computers. And that’s a trend; more and more people with smartphones don’t even use a computer these days.

Graph credits: Analytics from mobiThinking http://mobithinking.mobi/mobile-marketing-tools/latest-mobile-stats#mobilepageviews

If you have any further questions, please check out the remaining articles, or leave them in the comment section below. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

If you wish to know more about Aggie Villanueva and her company check out this page.

Reviewing: Why is it imperative to Have My Own App?

The iTunes Store (for iPhones) and Apps Marketplace (Androids & compatible) is mostly ignored by authors. This is a mistake. It’s a market of billions of users who probably won’t ever see your website/blog even though their smartphones are capable of internet browsing. (Why they won’t see your site is explained in-depth in another post of this series.)

Smartphone users browsed over 97 million apps (in 2011), up from 37 million the year before. And on February 24, 2012 the iTunes App Store announced it was about to hit 25 billion downloads.

That’s how fast it’s growing, and it’s growing at this rate because businesses have discovered there is money in being represented in this vital market. Today there are literally trillions of apps downloaded weekly.

As with Mother Nature, it’s not NICE to ignore such vast opportunity.

But understandably businesses/authors can’t even consider entering the mobile marketplace with their own app until they grasp where and what that is — until they get some answers. Each post in this series addresses a different set of question and aspects of mobile marketing with your own app.

Summary: Can I Afford an App?

(Scan my custom QR code with your Android phone to download my free app. iPhone version coming soon.)

True, there are cheap do-it-yourself-type apps available online, but they begin and end with the entry level app you purchased and a few add-ons. Plus they can’t take full advantage of smartphone functionality like the Location Based Search (mentioneded in the marketing techniques articles in this series) or most other marketing campaigns.

Each app must be programmed specifically for your needs. This from-scratch-programming is the most desirable, but where the high costs could come in.

But it doesn’t have to be expensive — offering you competitive prices for an entry level app is what my company, My Book Marketing Systems, is all about. Imagine your own app for just a few hundred dollars.

Even more importantly, we differ in that our apps can be upgraded a la carte to your heart’s desire and as you can afford it, all the way to our high-end super interactive stand-alone e-reader. Having a stand-alone built-in e-reader in your app is extremely desirable. (That desirability is beyond the information addressed here, but will be covered in-depth in an upcoming article of this series).

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Smartphones Aren’t Compatible With Web Languages

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If you don’t have one, borrow someone’s smartphone and use it to go to your internet site or any favorite site. You’ll see you have to stretch the page to make it large enough to read the text. This will give you a tiny cut-out section of the page. In order to read you must scroll to the right and read what shows, then scroll to the right again and read, and then scroll to the right…ad nauseam.

And when you’ve finished that left to right section you must scroll down, adjusting until it goes only to the next sentence after the one you just read and repeat the process again and again and again.

And THEN you must scroll up and down and left and right to find the menu to click and go to another page. Not to mention the pains taken in order to find your sidebar with all its vital information and links. It’s frustrating and so time consuming no smartphone user will bother.

If you have any further questions, please check out the remaining articles, or leave them in the comment section below. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

If you wish to know more about Aggie Villanueva and her company check out this page.

Reviewing: Why is it imperative to Have My Own App?

The iTunes Store (for iPhones) and Apps Marketplace (Androids & compatible) is mostly ignored by authors. This is a mistake. It’s a market of billions of users who probably won’t ever see your website/blog even though their smartphones are capable of internet browsing. (Why they won’t see your site is explained in-depth in another post of this series.)

Smartphone users browsed over 97 million apps (in 2011), up from 37 million the year before. And on February 24, 2012 the iTunes App Store announced it was about to hit 25 billion downloads.

That’s how fast it’s growing, and it’s growing at this rate because businesses have discovered there is money in being represented in this vital market. Today there are literally trillions of apps downloaded weekly.

As with Mother Nature, it’s not NICE to ignore such vast opportunity.

But understandably businesses/authors can’t even consider entering the mobile marketplace with their own app until they grasp where and what that is — until they get some answers. Each post in this series addresses a different set of question and aspects of mobile marketing with your own app.

Summary: Can I Afford an App?

(Scan my custom QR code with your Android phone to download my free app. iPhone version coming soon.)

True, there are cheap do-it-yourself-type apps available online, but they begin and end with the entry level app you purchased and a few add-ons. Plus they can’t take full advantage of smartphone functionality like the Location Based Search (mentioneded in the marketing techniques articles in this series) or most other marketing campaigns.

Each app must be programmed specifically for your needs. This from-scratch-programming is the most desirable, but where the high costs could come in.

But it doesn’t have to be expensive — offering you competitive prices for an entry level app is what my company, My Book Marketing Systems, is all about. Imagine your own app for just a few hundred dollars.

Even more importantly, we differ in that our apps can be upgraded a la carte to your heart’s desire and as you can afford it, all the way to our high-end super interactive stand-alone e-reader. Having a stand-alone built-in e-reader in your app is extremely desirable. (That desirability is beyond the information addressed here, but will be covered in-depth in an upcoming article of this series).

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Smartphones Can’t Read & Navigate Websites

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Analytics from Flurry, http://www.flurry.com/

Why isn’t my website good enough for mobile phone users? A common misconception is that smartphone users can browse websites as easily as computers. Most mobile users will not browse your website, and it’s because they cannot browse it. Everything on the web is made for viewing on computer screens, not in any way created to be seen by mobile devices.

Most of the time a smartphone user on your site can’t even perform the simple task of signing up for your newsletter, viewing a video or listening to an audio message because computer programing languages so often cannot be read by smartphones. But Apps are designed specifically for mobile devices. They keep it simple for the small screen and its internet limitations. Conversely apps aren’t straddled with the limitations of websites.

This is why we see the statistics climb drastically in the graph below. The graph tracks how smartphone users chose to browse apps over websites. In only 1½ years more mobile phone time is spent browsing apps than attempting to navigate the problematic Web.

If you have any further questions, please check out the remaining articles, or leave them in the comment section below. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

If you wish to know more about Aggie Villanueva and her company check out this page.

Reviewing: Why is it imperative to Have My Own App?

The iTunes Store (for iPhones) and Apps Marketplace (Androids & compatible) is mostly ignored by authors. This is a mistake. It’s a market of billions of users who probably won’t ever see your website/blog even though their smartphones are capable of internet browsing. (Why they won’t see your site is explained in-depth in another post of this series.)

Smartphone users browsed over 97 million apps (in 2011), up from 37 million the year before. And on February 24, 2012 the iTunes App Store announced it was about to hit 25 billion downloads.

That’s how fast it’s growing, and it’s growing at this rate because businesses have discovered there is money in being represented in this vital market. Today there are literally trillions of apps downloaded weekly.

As with Mother Nature, it’s not NICE to ignore such vast opportunity.

But understandably businesses/authors can’t even consider entering the mobile marketplace with their own app until they grasp where and what that is — until they get some answers. Each post in this series addresses a different set of question and aspects of mobile marketing with your own app.

Summary: Can I Afford an App?

(Scan my custom QR code with your Android phone to download my free app. iPhone version coming soon.)

True, there are cheap do-it-yourself-type apps available online, but they begin and end with the entry level app you purchased and a few add-ons. Plus they can’t take full advantage of smartphone functionality like the Location Based Search (mentioneded in the marketing techniques articles in this series) or most other marketing campaigns.

Each app must be programmed specifically for your needs. This from-scratch-programming is the most desirable, but where the high costs could come in.

But it doesn’t have to be expensive — offering you competitive prices for an entry level app is what my company, My Book Marketing Systems, is all about. Imagine your own app for just a few hundred dollars.

Even more importantly, we differ in that our apps can be upgraded a la carte to your heart’s desire and as you can afford it, all the way to our high-end super interactive stand-alone e-reader. Having a stand-alone built-in e-reader in your app is extremely desirable. (That desirability is beyond the information addressed here, but will be covered in-depth in an upcoming article of this series).

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Why Can’t Mobil Phone Users Just Browse My Website?