Why Your Web Site Just Won't Do for Your Propsective Readers Who Use Smartphones

This is the fourth in the second round of mini posts on apps. Today's guest post by Aggie Villaneuva explains to authors why smartphones don't mix very well with Web sites.   For those who need something more basic, please go back to the first round of articles in this series on apps. It begins here. Read through the five articles. Then come back here and start this round. It began three posts ago, which means you should be able to find them all on the home page of this blog. (-:

Smartphones Incompatible With Web Programming Languages

by Aggie Villanueva

Impossible web navigation is just one aspect that make smartphones incapable or browsing Internet sites successfully. Most of the time a smartphone users on your site can't even perform the simple, but vital, task of signing up for your newsletter on your site. They can't view a video or listen to an audio message, either, because your Web site's programing languages often can't 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.

If you have any further questions, please check out the earlier articles in this series. There was one every day for preceding four days. Or check out the first round of articles beginning here. Or leave your question in the comment section below. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Learn more about Aggie Villanueva and her company check out this page.

More about Aggie's Services:

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. But they can’t take full advantage of smartphone functionality like the Location Based Search (mentioneded in the marketing techniques articles earlier in this series) or most other marketing campaigns

To do it right, your 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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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second ediction of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

What if My Site Has a Mobile Friendly Plug-in?

This is the third in the second round of mini posts on apps. Today's guest post by Aggie Villaneuva explains to those who are so techy they are sure they've already taken care of marketing to this vast smartphone audience because they have a mobile-friendly plug-in on their Web site.  For those who need something more basic, please go back to the first round of articles in this series on apps. It begins  here. Read through the five articles. Then come back here and start this round. It began two posts ago, which means you should be able to find them all on the home page of this blog. (-:

What if My Site Already Has a Mobile Friendly Plug-in?

by Aggie Villanueva

There's still not much hope that mobile device users will browse your site when you slap on a plug-in that claims to make it mobile friendly, unless you pay big bucks for it. The free and inexpensive ones are fairly ineffective. Here is my personal 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 mobile users see. 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 to my app, just as purchasing my books is linked in my app.

If you have any further questions, please check out the remaining articles in this series. And the one coming up tomorrow. Or check out the first round of articles beginning here. Or leave your question in the comment section below. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Learn more about Aggie Villanueva and her company check out this page.

A Little More about Aggie's Services:

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. But they can’t take full advantage of smartphone functionality like the Location Based Search (mentioneded in the marketing techniques articles earlier in this series) or most other marketing campaigns

To do it right, your 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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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second ediction of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Can't Mobile Users Just Find Me on Google?

So, here we are. The second in the second round of mini tutorials on apps for writers by guest blogger and book marketer Aggie Villaneuva. 

Can't Mobile Users Just Find Me on Google
Or More Reasons Why Authors Need an App to Reach Millions

by Aggie Villanueva

Authors do need an app to reach the Smartphone users who  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. Learn a few more reasons in previous installments of this series beginning with the first round of articles the first round of articles on this blog earlier in March. This round began yesterday.  Yes, you can easily play catch-up. (-:

Can’t Mobile Users Just Find Me on Google?

No. Not the Google we know on our desktop computers anyway. Because of the numerous viewing limitations mobile users’ frustrations have stopped them from searching the internet. The Google we know is nearly useless because its search results just send them to more web pages that their devices can't successfully browse.

Google added a mobile search engine, Google Mobile. If you go there on the desktop Internet (that would be the one you are used to accessing with your Mac or PC or laptop) you can send a text message to your mobile phone with the Google Mobile link included. Or just use your phone’s Google search window to type in www.google.com/mobile. Here you can also download mobile search apps for various smartphones.

But even if you find an app through Google Mobile your Internet site still won’t be browse-able unless you paid big to have your site made truly mobile friendly. But why spend money for that when you can invest instead in an app (which is where mobile users will search first) that allows you to market to mobile devices in ways Web sites never will, mobile friendly or not? (Keep reading for more mobile marketing articles for details.)

The point is that smartphone use is already overtaking computer internet users. Just think how many more millions will never see your book promotions by next year if your marketing is still exclusively online.

Mobile users search the apps marketplace when they need something; they search the internet less and less. Let’s not miss out just because this is a new and mysterious area. The internet was also once a mystery but we are now making promotional use of it daily.

If you have any further questions, please check out the remaining articles in this series. There will be one every day for the next four days. Or check out the first round of articles beginning here. Or leave your question 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.

More about Aggie's Services:

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. But they can’t take full advantage of smartphone functionality like the Location Based Search (mentioneded in the marketing techniques articles earlier in this series) or most other marketing campaigns

To do it right, your 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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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second ediction of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

How Can I Market to Mobile Users if I Don't Own a Smartphone?

This is round number two of short little training sessions on apps for writer by guest blogger Aggie Villanueva. Unless you're very techy and already know lots about apps, you may want to go to the first post in round number one and follow these posts through to day five. The first one is at http://sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com/2012/03/apps-for-book-marketing-what-is-app.html Then, to get more little app tidbits about app marketing for writers, start here and come back every day for the next five . In fact, make it easy for yourself. Subscribe to this blog (see the column on the right) and let the magic of Blogspot bring each of the series right to your mailbox. (-: 

You Don't Have to Own an iPHONE to Mark on iPHONES!

by Aggie Villanueva

First a little review on why it is imperitive to have your 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. They won't see it because smart phones are often incompatible with Website so if you are relying on your Web site...well, just too bad. There are other reasons, too, covered in the first rount of article son apps.

And, Smartphone users are the coming thing. 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. Some smartphone users don't even own computers (or other phones for that matter). They're that connected to their phones.

That’s how fast this market is 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.

How Can I Market to Mobile Users if I Don't Own a Smartphone?

Some of us who would like to reach this market may not own a smartphone. If you're one of them, you may be imagining the huge sums of money you’ll have to invest to have both an iPhone and an Android phone, plus monthly connection fees, 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. We can have apps without even owning a smart phone. 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.  And I can help you with this for a much more reasonable price than you'll probably find if you Google "app programmers."

All you have to do is 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 in this series. There will be one every day for the next five days. Or check out the first round of articles beginning here. Or leave your question in the comment section below. I’d love to hear your thoughts. And I'm happy to answer your questions.

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

Summary: Can I Afford an App?

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 but customized 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).

Don't forget to leave your comments and question on this blog. I'll get back to you. And come back tomorrow for the next installment!
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second ediction of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

The Good and Bad of Literary Agents

The essay below is a reprint of comments I contributed after a member of a list-serve came to the defense of agents and admitted that some of her agent-friends critiqued her work but "couldn't/wouldn't" sell it.)
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Ms. X, I'd like to add something to your comments, even though you did a great job on your defense of agents and, admirably, admitted that some manuscripts deserve to be put in a drawer or at least rewritten. That takes courage when it is your own manuscript (-: ; it not only takes courage but shows that writers do grow and get to be better writers if they work it. When that happens they can see the flaws in their own writing. That's not an indictment. It's the way we improve.

Now, back to agents.

I had the privilege of working with several dozen of the nation's top agents for my new release The Frugal Editor. They helped me help other writers by sharing with me what they find in query letters that mark writers as amateurs. They did it with humor and some with a certain sweetness of soul. They did it because it helps them if writers submit professional, helpful query letters but also because the more we all know about good editing and publishing in general, the better off the industry is. Some agents asked I not use their names but more than 20 let me quote them, and they were supremely quotable. They gave me a gift (a great chapter on writing and editing queries!). Through me, they gave writers in general a gift.

Having said that, these were all reputable agents, not the fly-by-nighters who charge for reading manuscripts, have editing businesses on the side that they try to pawn off on writers for an additional charge as well as a subsidy-publishing business that they hawk (at a hefty fee!) after they've roped writers in under the guise of being an agent.

There are scoundrels everywhere. And there are ways to avoid the ones who call themselves agents, something else I address in The Frugal Editor. The number one way on my list in TFE is -- surprisingly -- not to check complaint sites like Preditors and Editors. Too many naïve authors who know nothing about the publishing industry and didn't do their homework choose to go there and berate their agents who have really committed no other sin than taking their books on and working their bottoms off trying to sell their books so they can both make some money.

Nope, the number one best way to avoid them is to get references from someone experienced, like writing department instructors at universities, or some of the people on my favorite (self-publishing-subscribe@yahoogroups.com ) who give lots of their time to help other writers.
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, is the award-winning author of the HowToDoItFrugally Series of Books for authors. She is introducing The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, now available for pre-orders at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0978515870/ .

Please sign up for my "Sharing with Writers" newsletter: Put "Subscribe" in an e-mail to HoJoNews@aol.com. Learn more at http://www.HowToDoItFrugally.com . The next AllTips Edition will be issued in September.