e-Profit-PRO$ Internet Marketing Blog

Open for business- Increase your ROI and company profits now!

eprofitpros — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 23:44:00 +0000

I was planning on waiting a little longer before accepting clients for my Internet consulting firm, Custom Business Marketing & Sales Consulting, Inc, but the economy beckons and I need to begin helping businesses make money and hire workers as well as pay a few bills myself. The company website is still under a bit of construction, Mac users will not see what the website is supposed to look like. I have a Macbook Pro and am purchasing a version of Windows so that I can use my CMS and make my website Mac compatible.

I look forward to working with small business owners and demonstrating the power of the internet to build brand awareness, sell to new customers, and bottom line – make lot’s more money now, regardless of the economy.

It’s time to play my part in getting America back to work, so anybody out there wish me luck and always feel free to pick my brain on any Internet marketing, or even general business, related question. Let’s get some creative juices flowing and show the world why America has the #1 economy – ingenuity and perseverance. When you need a tough young talent to conquer the world’s problems, anything from Nazis to inflation, turn to the working class American -we get what needs to be done, done. Our government on the other hand lives a life of luxury upon our aching backs and rest their feet upon our tired heads and pretend to solve problems and create solutions, but we all know who has always been on the front lines ready to tackle any problem thrown at us – and we’ll even do it for less than a six figure salary (most of the time).

Jewelryforall.com landing page for viral video

eprofitpros — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 22:11:29 +0000

Here is the jewelryforall.com landing page following the viral video. There are links for signing up for email links and special offers as advertised in the video, and of course the primary objective of selling jewelry. If a customer is not ready to buy right away, which is often the case with big ticket items, then the goal is to get them on our email list. We demonstrate the value of our email list by offering free reminders of important dates and special sales on the days important to the consumer, not jewelryforall.com. We want to make shopping for jewelry easy, affordable, and convenient – and of course backed by great prices and customer service.

The landing page features the controversial and funny mother from the viral video to continue the brand story, as well as offering links to shop for mom and sign up for email reminders featuring Mother’s Birth Day. Continuos with the rest of the site, links are featured for jewleryforall.com’s one of a kind live chat service, as well as links to shop, sign up for email offers, apply for 0% financing, and pictures are displayed of jewelry and free gift wrapping offered by jewelryforall.com. All calls to action are bold and displayed in a high contrast font to make them highly visible.

As with all campaigns, continuos testing would be done to see what links are clicked on and what links are over looked. Any link that is consistently followed by a touch of the back button should also indicate a need for optimization. The current campaign is ready to go viral after tracking is setup so that traffic can be monitored.

VMK Viral Video – jewelryforall.com

eprofitpros — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 22:34:01 +0000

This is my assignment for VMK at Full Sail University. Here is a link to the VMK Viral Video: http://public.me.com/htxjoe

BP cleans up…

eprofitpros — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 23:47:02 +0000

Million dollar executives apply creativity to cleaning up the spill of a valuable black liquid…

This video is a must see! If you’ve ever hesitated about applying for a job because you thought maybe you were under-qualified or haven’t made near the starting salary before, this should give you a little confidence boost. It’s a fair representation of the actions effecting the vitality of our Gulf Coast right now. And in case you haven’t heard, danger to walruses is listed as one of the immediate concerns of the BP oil spill, there hasn’t been walruses in the Gulf Coast region for over three million years! A testament to the geniuses at work…

Google vs SEO – What?????

eprofitpros — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:36:00 +0000

I recently blogged in response to a action Google took taking down one of my blogs for “SPAM.” Their response was that this was a common occurrence, hackers create thousands of fake blogs, steal content from real blogs, all in a attempt to create new pages with affiliate campaigns. In responses, Google takes down all of the blogs, legitimate and otherwise. My blog was entitled “Why Google can be bad for small business,” and is no longer visible on any of my blogs. The blog suggested that Google wielded their muscle in excess, also in rash response, and cause detrimental effects to bloggers relying on their blogs to communicate with their audience. Not only does the temporary suspension cripple SEO effects of the blog, it also eliminates a businesses ability to maintain two way conversation with their customers. Believe me, I am in no way anti-Google, they have done a lot for entrepreneurs to be able to create businesses and generate exposure without the budget of giant competitors. But, when business owners rely on this relationship, and Google breaks up, even temporarily, it can cause serious side effects to the small business.

First of all, my blog complaining about Google’s actions and intricately, painful customer service process magically disappeared. On top of that, today I read an article that SEO companies will no longer be allowed to advertise in Google’s local business directory (Web Pro News article “Google Ditches Local Listings for SEO and Designers” by Chris Crum). This is a complete outrage. The very businesses that work hard to appease Google and ensure quality listings from millions of websites will no longer be available to consumers via Google. Google should be working with these companies to improve search results, not against them. And for business owners looking for companies to assist with SEO and web design, now they have to look a lot harder – or maybe just on Yahoo.

Google is responding by saying this move is necessary to meet the wants of their consumers. They are suggesting that for some reason, searches who are looking for “website design Houston,” that the people are not interested in web designers in the Houston area. Is this ignorance, idiocy, or some kind of genius well beyond the common sense of anyone that possesses the quality? I personally don’t get it.

Perhaps they are launching their own SEO business and are doing a preliminary extermination of the competition. Maybe they just don’t want people and businesses to get help from professional web designers and consultancy with search engine optimization. Whatever the reason, I am curios to no end to hear any other possible scenarios which could make sense. Should anybody have input on the subject, I’d love to hear it.

- Mark Rogers
Custom Business Marketing & Sales Consulting, Inc

Which comes first – the business or the website?

eprofitpros — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:02:28 +0000

After watching the video, http://ibm200912.ning.com/video/web-startups-pitching-their, I am reminded of the age-old question, which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Only in this case, we’re considering websites and business models. Obviously, if you had a business prior to the invention of the World Wide Web, a website is necessary in the 21^st century. But, if you don’t already have a business, do you build a website and hope a business springs forth like a newborn chick?

Prior to the dot-com bubble burst, it seems the only requirement for millions of dollars of venture capital was a domain name and an idea. Now that the Internet has become normalized, there needs to be some thought before coding away on a URL. I believe there is still a large disconnect between e-businesses and brick and mortar businesses. Brick and mortar businesses need a business model and some proven expertise before even thinking about being funded. In the post dot-com era, the same rules still don’t exist for e-business.

With a score of college drop out millionaires (in some cases billionaires) as role models, entrepreneurs with a vision for a website that makes money are in no short supply. However, the pockets of venture capitol firms are not as deep anymore. As demonstrated by the video and attitudes of many e-business CEO’s, there seems to be a far to relaxed attitude towards business in general on the Internet. To present day, there are scores of websites with tons of traffic that still have no idea how to become profitable. I personally believe the “if you build it they will come” attitude common in e-business needs to come to an end.

Whether dot-com, or brick and mortar, there are some basic rules of business that need to be applied. Every company needs a mission statement. This differs from a business plan. A mission statement is one to three sentences that states what the business will do to make money (and should remain constant throughout the life of the business), compared to a business plan that contains every possible aspect important to doing business and is a living document that should be updated regularly as numbers and competition, etc. changes.

Also, a level of professionalism needs to be maintained by company officers. No matter how relaxed the company environment is, acting professional is important to being professional. Using proper language, well written documents, and accurate accounting of numbers should be universal of all businesses. Don’t expect to get any business loans in your baggiest pair of jeans, cursing casually in conversation, and treating potential investors like high school friends. Acting professional is absolutely essential to being professional.

There are still many dot-coms that have tremendous traffic, but still don’t make money. This should have been predicted and addressed before the website got it’s first visitor. It is far more difficult to ask a customer who’s been using your service for free for years to start paying than it is to ask for a couple bucks up front. Google proved that volume of traffic can lead to profitability even if service is provided for free, but they had an idea of what to do with all of these customers. If you like working for free in hopes of being famous, by all means, create useful products and give them away. If you have a family or other bills to pay, monetization needs to be in your plans from the beginning.

As a career salesman prior to entering Internet marketing, there is a basic rule that applies everyone looking to make money without a fixed salary. If you have a product that will improve a customer’s life in any way what so ever, than you can’t be afraid to ask for money upfront – however nominal the fee may be. This basic rule of sales could have solved the problems of a number of dot-coms long before the problem occurred. I’m not saying money can’t be made by offering free products, but like Google – the king of free – the “how” has to be thought about before spending countless hours on a potentially fruitless endeavor.

In summary, some argue the age of free will come to an end on the Internet, but it hasn’t happened to the Internets predecessors – TV and radio. There will always be money to be made using freemiums and third party payer business models, but that needs to be addressed before taking your product to market – not after everybody already has your product for free. By taking away the free you’ve been giving since inception, you risk alienating and infuriating your user base. Instead, have a plan to utilize popularity before giving away the fruits of your labor. And by all means, ACT PROFESSIONAL IN BUSINESS MEETINGS WITH EMPLOYEES AND INVESTORS. Follow these two simple rules – plan ahead and act professional – you eliminate the risk of becoming a starving artist with an outstanding product already circulated in the market.

Why Google can be bad for small business

eprofitpros — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:30:00 +0000

I am an award winning content writer and blogger in the niche of Internet Marketing, and this is my story. I am currently pursuing my Masters Degree in Internet Marketing. In my limited free time I have written some quite insightful blogs on the subject (and lengthy when time is limited), and Google eliminated them because they link to my website. I am a part time Internet Marketing Consultant, I mostly am finishing my degree, but like everybody else, have a family to feed in the meantime. All of my blogs contain no blatant self promotion, just free insight on a subject confusing for many, even those experienced in Internet Marketing. At the end of each blog, I post a link to my website in case any one should catch an interest in what I have to say, then they can contact me. Google called this SPAM because they index sites based on inbound links. Because I produce links to my own website, they take my blog down so that blogs selling more Google ads don’t get passed up by my URL in organic search. Google long ago abandon “let the best man win” in favor of “make Google more money.” Google, who once was a vital enhancement of small business, is now the only company allowed blatant self promotion. They rake in Billions while silencing those that compete with their “favored customers” who sell out for more Google ads. Google has stolen my intellectual property and is refusing to give it back because it challenges their established ad brokers. Google no longer cares about small business, only about making more money for Google. Not to mention what they do to dominate competitors with less cash… Any body with a similar experience, I would love to hear from you. As far as I know, Google does not have hit men yet (although I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if they do), so please contact me at htxjoe@fullsail.edu (a URL of which Google has no influence over!) I want Google to change business practice to favor small business over Google’s multi-billion dollar self interest (reply to that Mr. Matt Cutts!). A blogger should be allowed to link to their own website at the end of their own blog, it is their own blog!

More Government Intervention to "fix" banks?

eprofitpros — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:27:00 +0000

I was recently reading an article that was clearly written by someone with no knowledge of their subject, and of course there was no space to leave comments on the article, so I thought why not post my own blog on the subject? The first response was that it has nothing to do with Internet marketing, or does it? Let me start with a summary of the article.

“A better way to fix bankers pay” by Shumeet Banerji, can be viewed by clicking here. The opening paragraph discusses that world governments have begun administering newregulations for banks so that they don’t collapse the world economy again, but they never bothered to ask the question of why the old policies didn’t work. Shumeet says, “Why did the system go out of control in the first place? Most bankers understood that they might face catastrophic institutional failure and enormous loss of personal wealth. Why wasn’t that enough to keep them from taking such unprecedented risks? The implicit response seems to be that they were distracted by their greed.”

Mr Banerji goes on to state several proposed solutions and offers little sensible insight into the problem and no quality solutions. First of all, there are a lot more aspects that affected the global economy than banks and bankers. Second, “greed” was not what caused to banks problems, in fact it was the exact opposite! Greed would lead to generating and holding on to capitol. Instead, banks, forced by government regulations, handed out massive amounts of money for people to buy homes they couldn’t afford using adjustable rate mortgages and little to no down payment. This act of semi-communist generosity led to mass use of the word – “toxic assets.” More specifically, banks gave people way to much money for homes that weren’t worth it and people began foreclosing in mass when the need to move arose and nobody would by the house for what the banks were forced to pay for them, causing what George W. and Barack Obama both agree was necessary – TARP funds, the Trojan horse of government bailouts.

It is typical of people to blame greedy American capitalism for the worlds problems, but the fact is, American liberal generosity is what caused this particular problem. I’m not saying American liberal generosity is a terrible thing, but when you give money away that you don’t have, problems will arise. And you can’t fix them with more government regulations. It is popular mob mentality that wants governments to limit pay for some individuals in certain areas of business, but this is a ridiculous solution that would cause mass exodus of any talent capable of solving bank’s problems. Now is a good time to point out that for every $1 the government spends on regulating an industry, companies spend $46 complying with these regulations. Common sense would say if we want companies to improve performance, government regulation needs to be reduced – not increased. But unfortunately, common sense is a rare commodity that government rarely invests in. By the way, I just saw a commercial from the government telling me that text messaging teenage girls asking them for nude photos is bad, thanks for spending our tax dollars on that message – I’m sure nobody would have figured that out without the commercial…

Anyway, how am I going to tie this into Internet marketing? Well, I could list a few common sense solutions like switching the expensive TV commercial I mentioned above into a banner ad that nobody would click on. That would at least contribute to some government savings, every penny counts when there is a real problem. But what about the banking industry? Has anyone ever seen a TV commercial for a bank? I know I have. I also know that no TV commercial has ever convinced to go open a new bank account or apply for a loan. Banking typically comes out of necessity, I certainly don’t know anybody that goes banking for fun. If banks want to improve performance (including ROI on marketing campaigns), than they should spend less on branding (look what happened to WaMu – they bet everything on branding that didn’t work out so well. You’re Washington Mutual, why would you spend billions of dollars for a hip new name!?) and more on selling products people are looking for, where and when they are looking for them.

Banking is not that different than any other industry when it comes to selling products. More than half of consumers always use the Internet when researching their purchase, yet advertising budgets typically include far more money for radio and TV, leaving a very small portion to reach the bulk of their customers. Common sense business solutions are the only thing that can save the banking industry, and that comes from smart business men and women with common sense – NOT our government. And one last point I need to drive home to every business in America, if you do not have an effective Internet marketing strategy, than your business is not doing the best it can. Often advertising gets cut from the budget during lean times, but Internet marketing makes money, so why would anyone want to cut profits from their budget during lean times? If your Internet marketing is not making money for you, than I strongly suggest a consultation with a contingency marketing consultant - we don’t charge a dime until we increase your profitability, so you can’t loose. Even you Big Banks, the rules of smart business are very much the same everywhere.

- Mark Rogers

Internet Marketing Consultant

Custom Business Marketing & Sales Consulting, Inc

Marketing 4 Profit in the Auto Industry

eprofitpros — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:43:00 +0000

I am considering changing the name of my Internet Marketing Blog as the vision of Custom Business Marketing & Sales Consulting, Inc (aka e-Profit-PRO$) clarifies. The mission of my company, e-Profit-PRO$, is not to simply create Internet marketing campaigns and websites that produce a strong return on investment (ROI); I personally hold the position of Individual Profit Consultant, and that is the general role of e-Profit-PRO$. We can design high return advertising, which doesn’t only include Internet marketing – it can also include local or national radio advertisements, television ads, and whatever else may be important for “branding,” a marketing tactic far more necessary for large national companies, or “brands” – but Internet marketing will always have a lower cost for reaching new people because it is cheaper than radio waves and digital television programming, and offers far superior targeting (offering custom messages on an individual level rather than serving the same message to every lead).

e-Profit-PRO$ also does sales consulting, which doesn’t just mean consulting and training sales teams, but also working the companies of any size to increase sales. Bottom line, e-Profit-PRO$ uses a holistic approach to increase profits for clients – consulting on cutting costs, increasing profit per sale, and generating far more sales using every possible medium. And this doesn’t just mean companies looking for larger profits, it also includes non-profit organizations (i.e. churches looking to receive a higher contribution per member, charities seeking more donations in larger numbers, etc.)

With that in mind, I’d like to discuss the automobile industry in America. The US government has given billions of dollars to our “Big 3″ (Ford, GM, and Daimler-Chrysler), millions of Americans work for these companies – it is definitely in America’s best interest these 3 companies succeed. Congress thinks this should be achieved by forcing these companies to manufacturer more cars they (Congress) perceive to be what Americans want, and vice versa (less SUV’s.) But what makes America the most profitable nation in the world? INNOVATION! Not copying goods produced by foreign nations – that’s for the Chinese. America’s role in global profitability has always been innovation. Without Henry Ford, there would be no Nissan and Toyota, why would we want to copy them?

What the “Big 3″ need to increase profitability is innovation. Sure, by cutting costs and increasing sales, they will improve their bottom lines. But to pay taxpayers our billions of dollars, stop laying off American workers, and start hiring again – we need innovation from our big 3. I, for the life of me, don’t understand how electricity has not been used more successfully in manufacturing cars. Can you imagine what a HUGE effect it would have on our enemies if we no longer needed oil (I also don’t understand why we don’t have more American oil – but that’s another discussion)? And to explain the impact on our economy, I offer the following example.

American entrepreneurs have vastly impacted the globe. Americans like Benjamin Franklin, Henry Ford, and Steve Jobs make it possible for consumers all over the world to buy light bulbs, cars, mp3 players, personal computers, fax machines and so much more. Let’s look at cell phones for a minute. Nokia continues to be a leader in cell phone sales – originally a Japanese company. But if it weren’t for Benjamin Franklin having invented phones, they never would have sold a thing. Now, they still make a lot of sales – but Apple is raising the bar by making their previous products obsolete with the invention of the iPhone.

What if we did the same thing with cars? Sure, Nissan and Honda make quality automobiles and are profitable companies, but they have Henry Ford to thank for that. Now it’s time to make their previous auto line up obsolete. Solar cars have existed for a while now, but not as practical daily transportation. Electric cars are gaining popularity, but still have less power than their gas powered counter parts. Other fuel sources are emerging but not gaining popularity. What if cars incorporated solar power, electricity, a little American oil, and one more missing key ingredient. What happens when a car drives? Wind. If we could harness all of these energy sources into one automobile, you can’t tell me that this automobile would not have equal or greater power than a gas powered car. If we can power a space station on solar power alone, I’m sure we can do better than the current automobile.

So, if our Big 3 incorporated innovation instead of only simple traditional methods of increasing profits, what are the possibilities? National security would vastly improve – our enemies would no longer be counting our cash. The average American would have more money in their pocket – renewable sources of energy don’t cost as much as buying gallons of fuel to keep on the move. The American deficit would reduce – foreigners would want to import our fantastic automobiles, just like they want mp3 players, phones, computers, etc. Unemployment would decrease – we need more labor to meet higher demand. And as an added bonus, more Americans would have healthcare (our Big 3 are unionized, they have healthcare) so our Congress could work on something else.

So instead of listening to Congress (an institution that has done nothing but cost America trillions) and returning to the basics of being #1, America can have a strong automobile industry again. Given current history, it all seems so far fetched. But with a more extensive study of American economics, this is what has worked time and time again! So here’s my advice as a Profit Consultant to Ford, GM, and Daimler-Chrysler: tell Washington, “With all due respect – shut up.” Get to work on a car that our competitors aren’t producing rather than building cars that quite frankly, they’ve made better. And, PRESTO! We have a much healthier America!

As always, if anybody disagrees (this includes you too Congress), please let me know where I’m wrong. But, if you believe I just might be right, how can we get this message where it needs to go? As my website states, “You don’t pay a dime ’till we boost your bottom line.” This means you, too, Big 3. While blogging advice is free, I wouldn’t argue if any of you Big 3 would like to pay my consulting fee, only after I boost your bottom line of course (contact me). For readers who don’t own automobile manufacturers, but still favor American cars (or just a stronger American economy), I started an organization (American Auto Supporters) with the goal of re-engerizing the American auto industry.

- Mark Rogers

Custom Business Marketing & Sales Consulting, Inc

Internet Marketing for Mobile Web

eprofitpros — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:11:00 +0000

The Internet has historically been a moving target for many corporations. Most missed the first .com bubble, but now it’s hard to find a company without at least a web site or email address. With the introduction of mobile web, I think many already missed out on implementing a mobile web strategy that beat the competition. So far, only a few web savvy companies and a handful of dominant brands have given any attention to this new trend, creating useful content for mobile devices. But with technology improvements that enable users to access the regular web on mobile devices – does it matter?

The mobile web started as a much simpler version of the Internet. Surprisingly, the first mobile web devices were introduced in 1996, in Finland. Japan launched mobile web specific content in 1999. Since it’s inception, what impact has mobile web had on consumers?

Fortunately for most companies slow to act, I think little opportunity was missed by not developing mobile web specific content. Google and Yahoo were quick to make useful content for mobile web, which enabled users to conduct searches, and check gmail and yahoo mail. Maps are widely used on mobile web, and many users catch up on news on the go. At least in America, most banner ads could not be displayed due to small screens and slow Internet access, however, in 2007 mobile web advertising revenue was $2.2 billion – mostly from text ads available on Google and Yahoo. On most web enabled mobile devices, this is still the case in North America. But with QWERTY keyboards or smartphones w/ touchscreens (Windows and Javascript enabled), netbooks, notebook “minis” and WiFi hotspots, the Internet will be available to most consumers in its full size on mobile devices sooner rather than later.

For the companies that did develop mobile specific content, I doubt it added much new revenue (except Google and Yahoo.) In the days when XHTML or WML content were necessary to browse websites, the mobile web was so slow it was too much of an annoyance for most consumers to use. Still today, with much faster access and more devices that are able to display HTML content, shopping is rare on mobile devices, even in Japan where almost half of Internet users connect via mobile web. When you’re hungry, it is much easier and faster to call Pizza Hut than place an order on pizzahut.com with a mobile device (you might get the phone number online for free instead of calling 411, though). On many devices, it’s actually faster to drive to the Gap than to log on to gap.com and browse around. I believe this is the reason users mostly read news or email while waiting for or riding the bus or train, catching a flight, and unfortunately, even driving their car.

With the advance of mobile phone technology like Apple’s iPhone, Google & T-Mobile’s G1, and netbooks (computers made specifically for internet access) available for cheaper and cheaper prices, there is no need to register .mobi (mobile web specific sites that utilized the old mobile web technology) domain names – if you haven’t already, they’re probably obsolete. If you need to access the web on the go, it is cheap and easy to use the “traditional internet”, now also referred to as “mobile web” by manufacturers of mobile devices, especially with Wi-Fi access in every major commerce center.

There is still a lot of buzz around mobile web specific content. I found that companies who registered .mobi domains were mostly already leaders in their industry like Hershey, Hilton, BMW, State Farm, Bank of America and Victoria Secret. American Airlines is another, but their rapid development of .mobi content made no impact on their market share with competitor Southwest Airlines still dominating, and American Airlines losing money in most years. And, when have you known anybody to buy a candy bar or BMW using the mobile web?

A quote by an anonymous blogger calling himself “fearless” sums up my opinion in an article titled Apple iPhone could hurt the .mobi extension: “.mobi fanatics are in one of two situations: they either have resold some .mobis and want to keep the gravy train going or they’ve invested money in .mobis and they are desperately hoping they can at least get back even. The problem is that no amount of .mobi preaching by domainers will help much in these two situations. Bloggers like Frank Schilling are bringing in new gullible people to the domain name world. If myself and others didn’t counter all this .mobi euphoria, they would certainly be the .mobi victims left holding the bag.”

For most corporations, I would say leave developing mobile web content to mobile phone manufacturers to make their phones more enticing and search engines that represent over 90% of mobile Internet usage. If you do a lot of international commerce, it definitely might be worth making sure your website is accessible on technology used around the world. If you do business in just your own country, your probably fine just the way you are. Internet consumer behavior is likely not largely impacted in your industry by mobile web – unless you rely on serving news, maps, directories, or email – but then you probably already have a mobile web strategy (if your company has any relevance.)

If anything needs to be done to make sure everyone has access to your web content on every device they use, the normal behavior of SEO applies – making fast loading pages, and developing relevant content. Google does reorganize web results for mobile devices based on sites that are easily viewed – so make sure you have content that’s not too FLASHy, mostly text, includes smaller versions of all your pictures (most e-commerce sites already do this), and you’ll probably do just fine on the mobile web of today. I think with the advancement of technology, mobile web specific content will not even be used in a few years.

According to internetretailer.com, e-commerce sites that load faster and provide good product descriptions make the most sales and keep the most return shoppers. If you’re looking to please consumers on the Internet, that is the best advice to follow – mobile or not. Companies that serve news, mail, directories, and search content – do so with text only versions if you want to give access to users on older devices. Advertisers should offer text only ads (banner ads have questionable results, anyway). For companies that haven’t developed mobile content – if you survived the latest recession, then mobile web capability will probably display all standard HTML and Javascript to most users – no need to change anything already working. I guess my summary of mobile web would be that it is adapting to websites and consumers, there is no need for websites and consumers to change for the mobile web.

I’ll back my summary with one last bit of evidence from personal experience. Almost everybody I know has a phone that accesses the Internet. I asked my cousin about her use of mobile web and she said she uses Google to get answers to test questions while studying at work. I spoke with several owners and employees of cell phone stores when I made my last cell phone purchase, and all said that most people cancel their internet service on phones that don’t browse “traditional internet,” if they bothered with it in the first place. I decided on a Blackberry at the time, I had just lost my laptop and I needed access to “traditional internet” on the go. I am now considering canceling my Blackberry Internet service (actually I did it today, I may reconnect it later as it can be tethered to my laptop to get nationwide Internet access, but it’s likely I’ll wait until I have an iPhone). It came in handy a few times, but now I have a good laptop and haven’t used my Blackberry’s slower, smaller Internet since.

After trying phones with Internet access, users typically make one of the following conclusions. Their device accesses the Internet too slow to be useful, or they have a smartphone and are pleased that they can access the “traditional internet” on their phone – with decent speed. If they conclude the latter, they may eventually end up shopping on their device, but at most occasionally, when convenience is of the utmost importance, because their desktop or laptop is still much faster. If they conclude their Internet service is too slow (and it matters to them), they decide their next purchase will be a smartphone with faster access to the traditional Internet. So, if a mobile device is not capable of delivering an Internet experience consumers are used to, it ends up just getting used as a phone or messenger. Consumers are often not welcome of change, especially if it’s for the worse. If a consumer is to be happy with mobile web, it has to be the real thing – fast access to “traditional internet”; and manufacturers are racing to meet this demand.

- Mark Rogers

Internet Marketing Consultant

Custom Business Marketing & Sales Consulting, Inc

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