How to further optimize your blog’s mobile site with MoFuse?

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Few days ago one of my reader, Kunal Jain @krjx asked me about the mofuse mobile integration of my site. He came to my site by reading an older post I wrote about MoFuse: Create a mobile version of your blog with Mofuse. I attracted his attention by optimizing my MoFuse site and how I did that?

So I thought lets experiment a bit deeper into MoFuse and lets see what we can do with it. By the way, I’ve opted my mobile site with MoFuse here, m.blogkori.com. MoFuse is so simple because they use the blog’s feed to get the ten most recent posts.

MoFuse is a better option for blogspot or other platform users. For self hosted wordpress blog, I’ll tell you about a cool plugin in the end of this post. Take a look at my mobile site, m.blogkori.com,

The blog logo

First thing that you should keep in mind while building a mobile site is why you need your readers to browse your blog from mobile devices? This is because there are people who can’t access their pc because they are on the move all the time and for others who are totally depended on mobile web. The next thing you should focus on the compatibility. For this imagine a very simple mobile handset (Because not everyone got an iPhone!)

The basic and yet most simple mobile phone could have a 125×125 pixel display. So if you want to show your brand, then you have to keep your logo under 125 pixels in width. Reduce some quality of the log, so it’ll load easily, keep it under 5KB.

Description

Now you can add a description on your mobile homepage. Try to keep it under 15-20 words, because you don’t want your readers to scroll a down a long way! On the right side of your MoFuse dashboard, select “Edit Homepage” and write the description. You have the option to show it on everypage, don’t do it because it will bother your readers. Because your mobile site is a limited version of your blog, try to invite them to visit the full web site (Just as I wrote on the description)

Homepage content

By default, MoFuse shows the last ten posts of your blog on the mobile homepage. You can replace them with links and pages like I did here. I’ve created some special pages for mobile like the About, Web Design, Contact, Mobile RSS options etc. These are also called, blog category links. You can add these Just click on “Add a new page” and edit it. You can also re-order the pages.

Link informations

Mobile web users don’t like to click on every links because it’s a hard experience browsing from a mobile. So instead of words, I replaced them into link informations. I used ‘”blogkori.com/contact” instead of “Contact” -this way my reader will know where this link is and they will remember it.

Useful links for mobile visitors

I added these two options on the page. One is a page with some RSS reader buttons, which will allow them to subscribe to my blog. Other one links to the Google reader mobile version. I feel adding those options will add a value to my site and people will return again and again.

Professionalize it

MoFuse is a free service and they offer their premium service for free. Go to your site settings page and select “NO” on these two options. One is “Powerd by MoFuse” which will disable the mofuse logo on your page. Other one is “MoFuse recommended engine” which will disable other blog links on your pages.

Custom domain

You can use your own domain/ subdomain with MoFuse. I used m.blogkori.com instead of blogkori.mofuse.mobi. Go to “Custom domain” option and type your domain. You must configure your domain before by creating a CNAME entry with “sitename.mofuse.mobi. “

Mobile site for wordpress self hosted blogs

If you run a wordpress self hosted blog, then don’t use MoFuse because it’s very limited with only 10 posts. While researching on it, Kunal Jain again informed me about MobilePress. It’s a plugin for wordpress blogs which will render your complete blog into a mobile site. This is cool because I can see my posts, comments, pages and you also get a search box. Your readers visiting from a mobile page will automatically sent to the mobile site. See BlogKori Mobile version here: blogkori.com/?mobile

Have your say

Do you have a mobile version for your blog?
Which service/software you used for that?
Do you think a mobile site is required?

Please leave your response so that we can have a nice discussion. Please do promote this article by using the Share/Save button.

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Tagged as: accounts, connectivity, design, mobile, mobilepress, mofuse, rss, upgrade

{ 1 trackback }

Tamal Anwar − Awesome! @mofuse just gave me a premium plan for FREE (worth $89/mo): September 19, 2009 at 8:06 pm

{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Jawad February 2, 2009 at 10:49 pm

So that means , I can create a mobile version of my blog? wow

Jawad’s latest blog post..Flash Player for iPhones

2 Geoserv February 2, 2009 at 11:47 pm

Wow, how simple is that. Hard to believe it can be that easy.

Good post.

3 Kikolani February 2, 2009 at 11:58 pm

Great article. I need to create a mobile version of my site, as it is currently too graphic heavy for that size browser.

~ Kristi

Kikolani | Poetry, Photography, Blogging’s latest blog post..Living a Healthy Lifestyle

4 Tamal Anwar February 3, 2009 at 8:49 am

@Jawad: Hey there Jawad, yes you can create a mobile version with MoFuse, this is easy and your blog readers can read it with their cell phones. MoFuse also provides a iPhone friendly version.

@Geoserv: Hey Darrell, it’s easy to launch a site. I spent some time to check out other mob sites and how they presented each thing on their mobile version. I guess the optimization tips will help everyone.

@Kikolani: Kristi, how are you? and how’s your hubby? Thanks for leaving such a useful comment on my posts. Ya websites are heavy for backend mobile phones and you should keep it in mind because lot’s of people are using simple phones. I decided to use both MoFuse and MobilePress for my blog. On is ultra light version and the other one is the semi light version.

5 Geoserv February 3, 2009 at 9:51 am

I am going to set this up on my blog tomorrow, it may never get used but for something so simple it only makes sense to have it.

Your instructions and tips will make this a breeze.

Thanks again.

Geoserv’s latest blog post..FREE SWCMS template – SWCMS Me v1.0.0

6 @krjx February 3, 2009 at 11:46 am

great post! I believe that Mofuse also has a plugin for wordpress users that might add some more functionality.

@krjx’s latest blog post..Economic depression

7 Tamal Anwar February 3, 2009 at 12:00 pm

@krjx: I use the MofUse plugin, but it doesn’t do much. You have to configure your mobile site from your MF dashboard. The plugin only helps you to redirect mobile visitors to the mobile site -that’s all.

Thanks for informing me about MobilePress. There’s lots of plugins but don’t know what’s best for a blog. Now I use both MobilePress and MofUse to mobilize my blog.

8 Kikolani February 3, 2009 at 11:19 pm

We’re doing good. Super busy between wedding planning, tennis leagues, and dance practices, but otherwise good. How about you?

I didn’t realize how bad my site was, mobile wise, until i hit a few other blogs regular homepages, but wasn’t able to pull up my site at all. So I will definitely be working on this.

~ Kristi

Kikolani | Poetry, Photography, Blogging’s latest blog post..Living a Healthy Lifestyle

9 Jerry February 4, 2009 at 8:09 pm

“Do you think a mobile site is required?”

Absolutely! More and more people are reading via their mobile phone – I see them everywhere, in the train, coffee shop, bus stop, park – everywhere. Mobilizing your blog is the next step if you want to be reached by more readers!

Jerry’s latest blog post..WordPress Manual Installation (video tutorial)

10 Geoserv February 5, 2009 at 7:52 pm

Ok, I finally “mobilized” my blog this morning.

First, MobilePress was a major pain to work with, so, I found a better plugin for me at least at http://alexking.org/projects/wordpress/readme?project=wordpress-mobile-edition worked like a charm.

The next step is to figure out how to monetize it with Adsense.

Geoserv’s latest blog post..Pliggs Twitter followers

11 Tamal Anwar February 5, 2009 at 7:57 pm

@Geoserv: I’ve heard a lot of good things about AlexKing, but I found Mobile press easier for me. I’ll try out AlexKing but do think adding adsense on the mobile version is good? How to check your blog’s mobile version in web?

12 Geoserv February 5, 2009 at 8:05 pm

@Tamal, you can use this emulator http://mtld.mobi/emulator.php

I used it and my Blackberry to ensure it looked good and worked.

Geoserv’s latest blog post..Pliggs Twitter followers

13 Hamdani February 11, 2009 at 11:16 pm

Hmm, interesting. I think I’ll give a try perhaps on another domain.

14 @krjx February 12, 2009 at 6:40 pm

Tamal, how do you use mobilepress & Mofuse (and why)?

15 @krjx February 12, 2009 at 6:41 pm

Btw..congratulations on being linked from the Mofuse website.

16 Tamal Anwar February 12, 2009 at 9:12 pm

@krjx: I use both now as a test. MoFuse works very well with every handset. But Mobilepress is not showing my mobile site when I browse from the mobile.

I think I will stick to mofuse for the simplicity and remove mobilepress. Ya I’m excited about that mofuse linked my post, it’s a good one. The site will send more traffic as it gets more popular over time :D

See the post here: http://help.mofuse.com/forums/26192/entries/21527

17 Timothy February 14, 2009 at 8:06 am

Thanks for this article! I’ve mobilized my site and it was really easy to use as well.

http://m.charlesandhudson.com

Timothy’s latest blog post..The Amish Know Space Heaters

18 Geoserv February 17, 2009 at 1:29 am

Now that we have mobilized our blogs/websites, anyone know of a way to track traffic?

I haven’t been able to find a setting with Google Analytics.

Geoserv’s latest blog post..New upcoming Pligg template

19 Tamal Anwar February 19, 2009 at 12:34 pm

@Timothy: Hey your mobi site looks great! Have you setup the CNAME entry yet? because the url is a redirection.

@Geoserv: Now that you’ve bring this matter in front, I’ll check out if there’s a way to add the analytics in mobi pages.

20 Timothy February 19, 2009 at 2:27 pm

Thanks Tamal. Do I do the CNAME with my host or with my registrar? I couldn’t find it with either so I just setup the redirect.

I’d also like to know if anyone has any browser redirects for a Movable Type site.

Timothy’s latest blog post..New Shelter Magazine to Debut, Fresh Home

21 Tamal Anwar February 19, 2009 at 2:34 pm

@Timothy: This is because you don’t have the access to change the CNAME entry of your sub domain. Write an email to your hosting support team and ask them to change the CNAME entry of http://m.charlesandhudson.com

Tell them to set the CNAME as: charlesandhudson.mofuse.mobi. -please remember that there should be an extra dot after “mobi” please do remind this about it to your support team.

On your MoFuse account, set custom domain to: m.charlesandhudson.com -If everything’s fine, it will work! Please do inform me if you have any questions on this topic.

22 Geoserv February 20, 2009 at 6:59 am

Turns out Google Analytics does track mobile visitors, but I’m not sure how much faith I have in them as most bloggers say it’s not a simple thing to setup and involves some browser sniffing etc…

Geoserv’s latest blog post..Free theme for Social Web CMS – PliggieSWCMS

23 antony March 7, 2009 at 8:09 am

If I use my adsense in mobi, do I have to share 50% of my revenue with mofuse? is it includes desktop hit?

antony’s latest blog post..Senior Piping Engineer (Future PMC project)

24 Tamal Anwar March 7, 2009 at 12:02 pm: @antony, According to mofuse, you have to share 50% of your earnings

Reply

25 antony March 9, 2009 at 7:25 pm

I agree for the mobile site. but do I have to share 50% of my revenue for the other sites I have?

Thank You

antony’s latest blog post..My car caught fire on the drive and set fire to the garage, can I claim on car insurance?

26 Tamal Anwar March 9, 2009 at 11:50 pm: @antony, You have to share for only the sites from MoFuse. You don’t have to give share for your own sites.

Reply

27 Claude Gelinas August 15, 2009 at 2:04 am

I’m not sure many of my visitors read my articles from their phones but thanks to your article, it seems easy enough to make it easier for those who do.

28 generic August 27, 2009 at 12:32 pm

Now it Turns out Google Analytics does track mobile visitors, but I’m not sure how much faith I have in them as most bloggers say it’s not a simple thing to setup and involves some browser sniffing etc.

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30 San Jose Amy January 24, 2010 at 11:46 am

This was cool to read, thanks.

31 Bronwyn January 29, 2010 at 6:21 am

I’ve found this post sooo very helpful and will be taking another look at sorting mine out for my blog later this evening. Thank you!
Bronwyn´s last blog ..Shrimp in Tomato and Feta Sauce