Create a Mobile Version of your blog
There is an ever increasing demand for accessing the Internet through the mobile phones. The access speeds on the mobile phones are becoming the norms for judging the quality of the sites. The existing content rendered on most of the web pages is not suitable for display on mobile phones.
Mobile users are certainly not interested in viewing the sidebars, designs and other navigation on the page. All that they would like to see is the content. There may be lot of people who are accessing your web pages over a mobile phone. Therefore, it’s important that we do not lose out on this. Hence, there is a need for designing a mobile friendly version of your blogs/sites.
There are several ways to achieve this. Through Google Reader, MoFuse, Mippin, WireNode, MobiSiteGalore, WinkSite are some of them.
1. Google Reader – the easiest way
Google Reader gives the ability to generate the mobile version of your content using the RSS feed. Append the feed address of your site to the below URL and access the mobile version of your blog.
http://www.google.com/reader/m/view/feed/<your feed address>
Example: http://www.google.com/reader/m/view/feed/http://feeds.feedburner.com/ReadToKnow
The output of this link will be your mobile version of the blog. Remembering this is not easy. If you already have a self hosted WordPress blog, I suggest you create a sub domain like m.<your domain name>.com and set the redirection to the above link in your site’s Control Panel. This is the widely used naming convention across the globe.
MoFuse
2. MoFuse – The Best Way
Creating a mobile site using MoFuse is the best way. Just input your existing site’s URL along with few registration items and your mobile site/blog is ready. Your mobile site/blog would get an address with <your site>.mofuse.mobi. Something like this http://read2know.mofuse.mobi/. They also offer various other features like Uploading a logo for the mobile blog, monetizing using AdMob & Google AdSense, redirecting to a custom domain, etc. The earnings are shared on a 50-50 % between you and MoFuse. It also gives a plugin which can installed on your blog so that anybody visiting your actual site on a mobile phone is re-directed to the mobile version. For a live action of MoFuse mobile version visit this blog at http://m.read2know.com.
Mippin View
3. Mippin
What I like most about using Mippin is the view that is presented on the mobile phone. It has List and Gallery views which are very pleasing to the eyes. You have an option to monetize the pages using AdMob. No Google AdSense. You would also get 100% of your earnings. Mipping also provides a plugin for automatic re-direction to your mobile blog. I did not find an option of a custom domain which, according to me, is a drawback. To check Read2Know on Mippin, visit http://mippin.com/read2know.
4. Wirenode
Creating a mobile page of your site/blog using Wirenode is similar to MoFuse. But, I did not find an option for monetizing the pages nor the option of using my own custom domain. Hence, I do not prefer this. Visit http://read2know.wirenode.mobi for a feel of this blog in Wirenode.
For those who want to have a separate content on their mobile sites/blogs and who want to build a mobile site from the scratch, I did not find a better option than MobiSiteGalore. You have every feature that you need including the option for custom domain, monetizing the content with Google AdSense or AdMob, etc.
WinkSite
6. Winksite
This seems more like a Social Networking site on the GO. You create a profile and the mobile sites are the sub sites of your profile. The unique thing about this site is the option they provide for creating a Forum. They also offer the ability to create your own site with the ability to add entries from their website. Monetizing with AdMob and Google AdSense is the add-on. The combination of Social Network and Mobile Web Sites make WinkSite an interesting combination. A great way to build a mobile community around your blog.
This is a WordPress plugin created by the famous WordPress plugin creator Alex King. I haven’t tried this as I did not find the need. If anyone else have been using this plugin, feel free to share your comments. More information can be found at the Plugin’s home page.
8. Are you on Mobile?
What to do in case the site you are trying to access do not provide a separate mobile version of the page?
Just visit Google Conversion Form and enter the URL of the address you want to visit. Google will convert the page into a mobile friendly version.
From what I can tell Google will also reformat content for mobile phones when you search through Google using your mobile phone.
Important: No matter which option you chose to create your mobile site and whether or not you have chosen to opt for a sub domain for your mobile site, do ensure to test your page either on .mobi emulator or on Opera Mini Simulator. This way you can make sure that your Mobile Site is ready for the Go Live!!!
Technorati Tags: Mobile, Mobile Web Pages, MoFuse, Mippin
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Comments
Hi Arun
Thanks for mentioning Mippin. We always appreciate there are a few solutions but like to think we’d do well in a Pepsi Challenege 
Hope you don’t mind but I’ve been asked by the Team here to explain why we don’t offer a custom domain. Basically its because we feel users prefer their own site domain name with a simple redirect to Mippin for mobile devices. Essentially Mippin doesn’t promote variations on domains as we don’t wish to split the internet in to a mobile version and PC version; instead we’d rather the device accessing a site simply receives the correctly formated version for the particular device. It boils down to the following philosophy – we think there should only be one web, and not a seperate mobile web.
Let us know your thoughts though, and once again thanks for the review.
I was thinking of trying the plugin; it seems the simplest method.
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@Lyndi, as of know I don’t have any mobile user. But many of them asked me if my site works on Mobile!
@Nihar, http://read2know.com is now supported on mobile.
@Dennis, could you share us how to use the plugin… how do I change the content so that it suits Mobile users?
I haven’t used it yet, but I’ll let ya know when I do.
Plugins in general are usually the easiest ways to do anything.
Dennis Edell´s last blog post..Would You Like To Sponsor My *Best Blog Review* Contest?
I was using a plug-in called MobilePress but last night a reader of mine told me that he was seeing the mobile version even though he’s using a PC 
It’s either the plug-in or the SuperCache caching the mobile page earlier..I’ve disabled the plug-in
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@Michael, which plugin where you using? Is it by Alex King? BTW, it’s me who informed you of the Mobile version of your blog
Hmm, this is all something that I hadn’t really thought about, probably since I don’t have a mobile device to read the web on for myself. I know that my brother checks some of my sites though from his iPhone every once in a while, and he would probably appreciate a mobile version, as well as anyone else accessing from a mobile. Google reader sounds like the best for me. I try and avoid plugins wherever possible . . . I feel that they tend to dramatically slow sites down, which I usually find annoying. Good info here!
Justin from Mippin again.
I should have also mentioned we provide a mobile plugin too so you get the best of both worlds! You can use our WordPress plugin, plus your site can be mobilized via Mippin and see the benefit of additional traffic from the Mippin portal. See http://www.mippin.com as more info. Thanks.
@Sweyn, Do try them. I suggest you go for Mippin. The looks are awesome!
@Justin, Forgot to mention that in the post. Will enable it soon.
@Vikram, do make your mobile pages. Do not lose out on the mobile world
I see that this can make our blogs mobile friendly. Is there a way to have a wap site?
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@Unoblogger, WAP uses a different protocol. In order to build a site/blog based on WAP, you will have to do it from Scratch. But, I don’t find any reason doing it when you can easily make your blog mobile friendly. That is all we need rite?
To start earning money with your blog, initially use Google Adsense but gradually as your traffic increases, keep adding more and more money making programs to your site.
Guess this become more and more important. Right now you see some people surfing with mobile devices, but they are few and far between – but that is going to change in the future, I’m sure we will see more and more people surfing with mobile devices in the coming years.
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That’s great! Your post is very nice and contains a useful info. Many thanks for your share. I have learned a lot from your post. You must be a good expert in Mobile Version.
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Now it will be easy for me to manage my blogs via wordpress even from my mobile. It will be a boost for me to help my needs when I am not at office or at home. Thanks for this nicely written blog. It gas provide me many helpful plugins.
The idea of a blog on mobile is awesome! I never wondered this would go mobile. Thank you so much. Your post is very nice and contains a useful info. Many thanks for your share.
Using the MoFuse Premium platform we were able to build a mobile site that incorporates all of our fan’s needs in a short amount of time. …
Yikes, I never realized there was such a variety to enable you to go mobile. I have been using MoFuse for a while now and it works just swell. I only have two users (that I know of) making use of it but every user counts.
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