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Mobile on the move

Every business needs a website. An increasing number of people are using smartphones to view websites. But in many cases, websites do not work well, or at all, on smartphones. This is explained in more detail throughout our course How to earn $4000 a month as a part-time web developer which is included in Joomla Pro. Here's a quick overview:

Google has collated some statistics that were collected by reputable third parties (Gartner, Cisco etc.) and published them on a site called GoMo. If you didn't think this stuff was important, prepare to think again:

  • By 2013, more people will use mobile phones than PCs to get online
  • There will be one mobile device for every person on earth by 2015
  • 71% of users expect a mobile site to load as fast as a desktop site
  • 57% would not recommend a business with a bad mobile site
  • 95% of smartphone users have searched for local information
  • 50% of mobile searches lead to a purchase
  • 23% of people have cursed at their phone when a site doesn't work!

Now okay, I do tend to think that you can make statistics say anything, but there is a definite trend here and the opportunity is now.

(By the way, the Joomla Magazine includes an article that uses a similar argument in the March 2012 issue)

So how do you go about making your Joomla website mobile-friendly? Well if you are starting from scratch and you want to use an off-the-shelf template, there are several Joomla template developers that have the answer. Look around, but three that we use a lot are RocketTheme, YOOTheme and Joomlabamboo.

You could also create a stand-alone site that displays well on mobile devices. The downside of this is you have to change content on two sites – the main site and the mobile site.

Mobile JoomlaFinally you can use an extension called Mobile Joomla. This is a great solution for new and existing sites as it simply formats the existing content so it looks good on various mobile devices. 

The approach we take in our course is to create a stand-alone site, using Mobile Joomla. This is a fantastic approach for new developers because you don't need to convince a prospect that they need to change their existing website. Instead, you demonstrate the need for having a mobile-friendly site, build this with Joomla and include some simple code on their main site that redirects mobile visitors to the mobile version. All the steps on how to do this, including how to find prospects (no cold calling!) is demonstrated in our course.

The opportunity for this is right now. When the economy is stuffed, businesses need to get busy marketing and you are in a fantastic position to help. Anyone can build these sites because there is almost no graphic design required, they go together quickly and it is something that can be done part-time. Our approach is fully demonstrated in the How to earn $4000 a month as a part-time web developer course which is part of our Joomla Pro level.

Please, do this now. We need less people cursing at their phones.

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Comments 9

Guest - Simon Wigzell on Thursday, 29 March 2012 09:49

Please register me for this course but not until I have seen and approved how much it costs!

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Please register me for this course but not until I have seen and approved how much it costs!
Richard Pearce on Thursday, 29 March 2012 09:54
There is more info at http://www.buildajoomlawebsite.com/joomla-pro
Bob Standish on Thursday, 29 March 2012 10:54

I would really like to see more information on building Responsive pages and sites.

0
I would really like to see more information on building Responsive pages and sites.
Daniel Jordà on Thursday, 29 March 2012 18:30

Hi Richard,
I am using the template Cloudbase 2.0 by Cloudaccess which is based on Gantry. It has a tab for Mobile where you can do all the settings for a mobile site. Do you think this is a easy solution? Do you have any experience?

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Hi Richard, I am using the template Cloudbase 2.0 by Cloudaccess which is based on Gantry. It has a tab for Mobile where you can do all the settings for a mobile site. Do you think this is a easy solution? Do you have any experience?
Robert Wilson on Friday, 30 March 2012 04:15

The mobile support within Gantry has gotten to be very good. You have quite a few options when it comes to layout and devices. For many small sites, this will work fine.

However, there are definitely situations where you would want more control over your layout. There are also those situations where your customer already has an existing site, and using a solution like Mobile Joomla! might make more sense when you're building just the mobile portion of the site.

Either way, these are just tools, and the right tool for the right situation is the way to go. Whether you're using Gantry or Mobile Joomla, the business model presented above is still a really exciting opportunity.

0
The mobile support within Gantry has gotten to be very good. You have quite a few options when it comes to layout and devices. For many small sites, this will work fine. However, there are definitely situations where you would want more control over your layout. There are also those situations where your customer already has an existing site, and using a solution like Mobile Joomla! might make more sense when you're building just the mobile portion of the site. Either way, these are just tools, and the right tool for the right situation is the way to go. Whether you're using Gantry or Mobile Joomla, the business model presented above is still a really exciting opportunity.
Kevin Morrison on Friday, 30 March 2012 12:00

The problem I have with Mobile Joomla is that it strips out all the module positions. Unless I missed how to build the mobile site with them?

I would personally like to see a faster move to Responsive Designs by the template clubs. So far the only ones who seem to be taking mobile friendly is Joomla Bamboo and to some extent Joomla Art. It is this type of framework that has won me over and nothing else even comes close.

Simon, I can tell you from my experience you are not going to find the level of detail anywhere on how to work with Joomla for the more than fair price of these tutorials. It has been the best investment I have ever made and I point all my clients here if they want to know more about working with Joomla.

0
The problem I have with Mobile Joomla is that it strips out all the module positions. Unless I missed how to build the mobile site with them? I would personally like to see a faster move to Responsive Designs by the template clubs. So far the only ones who seem to be taking mobile friendly is Joomla Bamboo and to some extent Joomla Art. It is this type of framework that has won me over and nothing else even comes close. Simon, I can tell you from my experience you are not going to find the level of detail anywhere on how to work with Joomla for the more than fair price of these tutorials. It has been the best investment I have ever made and I point all my clients here if they want to know more about working with Joomla.
Robert Wilson on Saturday, 31 March 2012 04:20

Kevin,

Thanks for the endorsement! Love when our members say good things.

Yes, it does seem that the folks over at JoomlaBamboo are really embracing responsive design well. And when this type of development, HTML 5 / CSS 3 / etc, catches on in a much wider fashion, we'll be much better off. Standardization does take a while to catch hold unfortunately. It will make things easier and better. But, until then I think we do need whatever tools we can find to make our solutions work. Can't stop progress...but can't just sit and hope it happens faster either.

When more and more people like you (and me too) demand this progress, it will move along faster.

0
Kevin, Thanks for the endorsement! Love when our members say good things. Yes, it does seem that the folks over at JoomlaBamboo are really embracing responsive design well. And when this type of development, HTML 5 / CSS 3 / etc, catches on in a much wider fashion, we'll be much better off. Standardization does take a while to catch hold unfortunately. It will make things easier and better. But, until then I think we do need whatever tools we can find to make our solutions work. Can't stop progress...but can't just sit and hope it happens faster either. When more and more people like you (and me too) demand this progress, it will move along faster.
charlotte on Wednesday, 24 October 2012 10:26

I love this template but I cannot adjust the mobile settings at all. When viewed on an iphone, the logo disappears and where the name of my site should be, it says 'cloudbase.' There is a 'switch' in template manager that slides to on or off but mine is stuck on off and won't slide the other way. I would use Mobile joomla instead but if I can't turn off the setting in cloudbase, the 2 will conflict.:p

0
I love this template but I cannot adjust the mobile settings at all. When viewed on an iphone, the logo disappears and where the name of my site should be, it says 'cloudbase.' There is a 'switch' in template manager that slides to on or off but mine is stuck on off and won't slide the other way. I would use Mobile joomla instead but if I can't turn off the setting in cloudbase, the 2 will conflict.:p
Guest - Webdeveloper on Monday, 14 January 2013 17:07

Hi..
This has been a huge help for myself and my team members! We needed comprehensive help and direction to finish project on time. Hopefully with all the resources you gave we can get it done! Thanks a million
Thanks..

0
Hi.. This has been a huge help for myself and my team members! We needed comprehensive help and direction to finish project on time. Hopefully with all the resources you gave we can get it done! Thanks a million Thanks..

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