Mobile is the new frontier of marketing. Some statistics note that over 70% of the people in the US have a smartphone that can run apps and browse the internet. So the burning question is whether to create a mobile version of your site, a mobile app… or both.

Looking at Mobile Web Pages first, we need to answer the question if you should create a mobile version of your site rather than if you could create one. To answer you need to know how many of your visitors are viewing your site on mobile devices? This information is easily found using Google Analytics. The next question is “What is the number of users or threshold that warrants mobile version of your site?” As a general rule if more than 20% of the visits are on mobile devices, you’ll want to create a mobile version of your site. The next step is to determine the most visited and read pages – which is found with Google Analytics. Applying the 80/20 rule it’s a best to convert and deploy the pages that get 70-80% of the page views and time-on-site visits. This is an iterative process and you’ll want to measure this on a monthly or quarterly basis as you add new pages to your main site.

As a general rule a device-detect-redirect must be put in place such that your site detects if the user is on a computer or mobile device, and then automatically directs them to the properly formatted version.

Looking at a Mobile Application, again the should vs. could question needs to be answered. It’s been said that in the 80′s everyone was working on a screenplay, in the 90′s everyone was working on CD and in the 2000′s everyone is working on a mobile app. I have a lot of customers say “Yeah we need to create a mobile app!” My first question is “What do you want the app to do?” While many of them have a clear idea of the app’s purpose and/or function, some of them have to pause and think about it. From a business model standpoint, you’ll need to know if your app is the product, or a way to engage with your product. If the app is your product you’ll want to charge for it. If your app is a way to engage with your product you should have a clear path to commerce and revenue.

In the next newsletter, we’ll cover the different types of mobile apps and revenue models in more detail.

If you’re looking to create a mobile app, please feel free to contact us for a free consultation at (831) 713-5860.

One of the greatest parts of using a Content Management System (CMS) such as WordPress is the ability to easily update and manage the content on your site. The built in text editor on the admin panel works much like MS Word or other Word Processing programs in that you can type text, insert pictures and publish a new page in a manner of minutes.

However as with all things in life there are some caveats and exceptions. In the case of self web mastering with a CMS you’ll have two types of pages. The first type are pages with simple formatting that you can update, and the second type are pages with more advanced layouts that you’ll likely want your web designer to manage and update. The web pages with simple formatting tend to be pages with just a picture and simple text or pages that use a pre formatted template created by your web designer.

Pages with simple text and pictures can be created by typing content into the editor, inserting a picture and publishing the page.

Pages with pre formatted templates can be created by inserting the template’s source code (created by the web designer) into the page’s HTML view in the admin panel and then replacing the text and pictures using the WYSIWYG View (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) editor.

Typically the pages with simple-layouts and pre-formatted layouts tend to be blog and product pages, while the pages with advanced layouts are typically the home and main pages on your site.

If you’d like more information about migrating to WordPress or template design, please contact us for a free consultation at (831) 713-5860.

Custom WordPress Installation $1200! Click here for more information.

Quality Assurance (QA) is the most important and least appreciated job in Web Application Development. The QA team is the last set of hands to touch the site before it’s released for public use, and this pressure often manifests itself into long arduous hours of tedious work. QA teams must drudge their way through a Test Matrix that increases in size with every release, and maintain 99% or better coverage the whole time.

The harsh reality is that a point of diminishing returns exists where burnout takes place and a clear perspective is simply not possible. Short of horsewhipping the QA team, you won’t get more, and if you do resort to using the proverbial stick, your team won’t be around for long. On the other hand, the product (insert email break here) has to work, otherwise months of market analysis, product planning, and costly development will be all-for-not. Nothing kills a product faster than dodgy stability, or worse, system crashes and the pressure is on at all times.

Continue reading “Optimizing QA” »

Own vs. rent is a common question when running a business. This not only applies to renting or owning capitol equipment but whether to hire a contractor or an employee. There are obvious differences between capitol equipment and humans, mostly being that equipment is an inanimate object vs. people who have feelings and must be treated with respect. Assuming that this is fundamentally understood and practiced in your business, we can draw a reasonable parallel between the decision process of renting/owning equipment and contracting/hiring work.

The single largest factor in making this decision is whether the resource is an integral part of your product’s differentiation. For example, if you are (insert email break here) creating a Website or a Website Application, it is unlikely that you need a permanent employee to administer your servers. The System Admin function is hands-down the most commonly outsourced task in any business for just this reason. Taking this further, if you need specialized enterprise software such as a Document Management System or Enterprise Resource Planning software, you’ll likely hire a contractor to install and customize it. It’s much like building a house; once the structure is built you don’t need to keep a full-time crew around for maintenance. While you may want them to come back at some point to build an addition, keeping them around is simply not necessary and incredibly inefficient.

Continue reading “In-House vs. Out-Source” »