Hi Friends,

A colleague and friend who recently guest posted on my blog said “You can’t put mobile in a silo.” Mobile is now huge. But, it needs to be part of an overall marketing plan. It doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

At this stage of the game, most small business people in my circle of influence do not have standard desktop sites that perform properly, nor do they have the understanding of social media to harness it effectively to grow revenue – prerequisites to a mobile presence, in my opinion. I have inadvertently left my friends behind in my race to know all there is to know about mobile. Now, it’s time to help them learn to take the baby steps they need to get to get them up to speed on the basics of internet marketing so they can become known by more people who will become their prospects and customers. As the saying goes, it’s not who you know, it’s who knows YOU. I’m off to help people get known online, either on social media, in the local paper, in the email in boxes of people who need what they have, and whatever it takes to make these small business owners and solopreneurs into stars in their niche.

Therefore, effective today, I will be moving away from mobiEnthusiast.mobi to have more time to devote to this new venture.

Your readership and support has allowed mobiEnthusiast^TM to reach some big wins: Thanks to you, I won the popular vote for Blogger of the Year and was an overall finalist in the InfluenceSD Champions of Social Media Award, three of my sites won the prestigious “Mobi of the Month” Award from the international mobile developer and domain investor forum Mobility.mobi, the site has readers in over 90 countries, a Google PageRank 5, an Alexa rank of 99,714 in the US and 361,974 worldwide, and host of Carnival of the Mobilists twice. I hit the front page of Google almost every time I post, and I am sure I am leaving something out. So, for this, I am grateful, and I thank you very much. These are the things that make moving on so difficult.

If you would like to reach me as a consultant or to do a critique for your blog, social media, desktop website, and yes, mobile strategy, if you’d like to be a star in your niche, or if you would like to hire me to freelance write for your website, you may find me on LinkedIn.

I thank you for your support and readership these last three years. This feels a bit like “So long, and thanks for all the fish.” However, I still own the site, so you may hear from me here from time to time, but for the most part, it’s time to move into the bigger picture.

With Appreciation and Gratitude,
Holly
 
Holly Kolman
Founder, Editor & Publisher
mobiEnthusiast^TM Magazine

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If you happen to be in London on April 13, 2o10, you are cordially invited for drinks and mobile start-up pitches with the Mobile Brain Bank. The MoBB London synapse is sponsored by Grow VC, a crowdfunding initiative.

We convene at the Clachan Pub in SoHo at 6 pm. Registration and sign-up to pitch your start-up via here.

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Guest post from Mark Jaffe    www.mobilemandala.com

Back when I was dating, the cardinal rule was to never phone after the first date until at least three days had passed. The phone was too personal for such a quick contact and you could be seen as too aggressive or worse, too desperate.

Times have changed. Now it is OK to use your phone for contact immediately after the first date, provided you don’t speak into it. Texting something pithy or witty that night, or the following day, can often be viewed as a positive addition to the dating experience.

Now let’s move to the end of the relationship. Breaking up over the phone is not as good as breaking up in person, but not nearly as bad as – OMG! – breaking up via text. Same phone. Same message. Completely different level of cultural acceptability.

We respond to text messages faster than emails, and BBMs faster than texts. Same Phone. Same message. Same textual appearance. Different accepted practice.

It is OK to whip out the phone (among some dining parties) at a restaurant to perform certain tasks – like looking up a sticking point in the conversation – but not others, like answering an email or playing a game. Same phone. Same amount of time “away” from the conversation. Different effect on your friends.

The list goes on and on. What is it about the mobile phone that generates this long list of rules and practices that is not present on our other media?

The mobile phone is not “the third screen.” It is a very personal, interactive, communication ecosystem of which the screen is just one visual component. The mobile phone has developed, and is continually developing, behavioral mores and cultural norms that have very serious implications for marketers. Violate one of those norms, and the consequences can be severe.

Marketers who continue to treat the mobile phone as yet another screen to “repurpose content” or as a quick campaign add-on to “target a hard to reach audience”, do so at their peril. It will be the brands that actively leverage the behavioral use patterns of the mobile phone and their attendant cultural norms that will succeed.

Marshall McLuhan said “The medium is the message” and he couldn’t be more right as it pertains to the mobile phone. The emerging customs, lifestyle behaviors and prevailing standards associated with the use of the mobile phone are unique, real and significant.

When mobile-specific behavior and culture is taken into account, the mobile phone shines as a brilliant addition to a well crafted overall brand marketing strategy – witness AT&T and American Idol.

When ignored, it can have the potential to undo the hard earned trust of the very same brand. AT&T found that out when it violated customer privacy expectations by using the American Idol list. And worst of all, most of the customers who chose to break up with the AT&T brand as a result, didn’t even bother to inform them by sending a text.

This post is one of the ten reasons why mobile advertising has not reached its potential.  You can access the other nine at www.mobilemandala.com

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Do you blog about mobile? Need some exposure for your blog?

I run the blog MobiEnthusiast.mobi. Lately, I have been involved in many projects and do not have time to give it the attention it deserves. For example, there are two major mobile conferences going on right now, one in London and one in San Diego, and they didn’t get covered due to time constraints. MobiEnthusiast gets decent traffic, though, and I would hate for it to fizzle out.

If you blog about mobile, and would like to make a guest post about something of interest to mobile internet readers, I invite you to submit a proposal for an article for publication.

There will not be monetary compensation for the article, but you will get author credit and a link back to your site. The exposure is considerable:

MobiEnthusiast had readers from 99 countries last month, and is featured on Guy Kawaski’s Alltop, dotMobi’s MobiThinking, DNJournal Resources, and other similar sites. Your blog entry will also be tweeted through my @mobienthusiast account, which has over 4,000 followers (I routinely block bots and sp*am accounts).

Ground rules:

1.) Must be mobile related
2.) Can’t be a sales pitch
3.) Must be business- and family-friendly (teens and kids find our site sometimes since we cover apps in their age group)
4.) Must link to a business- or family-friendly site
5.) Can’t be political (again, readers from 99 countries don’t always agree on politics)

I reserve the right to edit for grammar.

One article per week will be submitted for inclusion in Carnival of the Mobilists.

Interested? Send me a message on LinkedIn or email it to information [at] mobienthusiast.mobi.

Thanks!

All the Best,
Holly

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Jim Atwood made a WordPress blog and used a mobile plugin. That’s impressive, but not unique. After all, I do that here on mobiEnthusiast.mobi every day. The unique part is that Jim is an American living in Japan. As a mobile internet junkie, I want to learn all I can about what makes mobile tick in a country that is mostly mobile-only – especially since I don’t understand the language.

According to Jim, it is common in Japan to make two completely separate versions of a website. One is for desktop computers, like his standard blog, Ricochehost.com (computer link), and a completely separate, stand-alone mobile website, such as his mobile blog, JimAtwood.mobi.

In Jim’s words:

The Japanese like to make things simple and have two sites. This avoids the browser detection problems that everyone has all the time. With just one dedicated mobile site, things are much easier. In some cases, Japanese website only one version and that is mobile. In my opinion, mobile usage for the Internet is much more prevalent in Japan.

As a mobi enthusiast, this is music to my ears. It makes perfect sense to avoid trying to guess what new phone is going to come out next and garble my site. Granted, mTLD/dotMobi does a great job with Device Atlas, but if you make a site that complies with ready.mobi in the first place, it is much simpler and saves a lot of time and headaches. Dot com for computers, dot mobi for mobile web.

I met Jim through LinkedIn (mobile link). If you are interested in networking with me on LinkedIn as well, please let me know.

Here’s to the mobile web!

This post is featured in Carnival of the Mobilists Issue #185. Check it out for a great weekly roundup of mobile bloggers.

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US Election Results Sites – Mobile

Election Day is winding down in the United States with many of the states’ polls closed and others open for just a few more hours. Who will win? The whole world is watching, and so are we — from our mobile phones. The following is a small sampling of mobile website covering the election results. Please feel free to add your own in the comments section.

News Sites

Here are some .mobi sites with election headlines and stories:

• ThePresidency.mobi
• BusinessWeek.mobi
• MSN.mobi
• FoxNews.mobi
• Signon.mobi, San Diego Union-Tribune
• WichitaEagle.mobi Wichita, Kansas

Candidates’ Microblogs

If you’d like to read what the candidates have to say in real time, they are both microblogging on Twitter. Here’s the mobile version of their messages:

John McCain’s Twitter Timeline
Barack Obama’s Twitter Timeline

Election Video

Mippin has video in 3gp format for smartphones, including iphones.

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If you are looking for a good deal on a domain name, Namepros.com (Computer Link) auctions are known for them. The auction starts today at 6:00 p.m. EDT in the chatroom.

Although Namepros does have a mobile version of the site at Namepros.mobi, the auction is in the chat room and can be accessed only via computer.

Looking through the list, there are a lot of .com, .org, .in, .info, .tv and others. The auction is light on .mobi names, although there are a few:

• TotalVideo.mobi
• Inherent.mobi
• Alleviate.mobi
• Daggers.Mobi
• TaskForce.Mobi
• Nitrous.Mobi

According to Namepros, “Our live auction events last 2½ hours. We will make every attempt to auction as many names as possible during that time. Auction lots below this line are subject to cancelation. (Sellers will be refunded list fees.) If you are interested in one of these lots, you are encouraged to place a pre-bid on it now to ensure it receives a spot in the live auction.”

Many of the .mobi names are classifed as Seller’s Choice Auctions, and are subject to the following conditions: “In Seller’s Choice auctions, the seller can choose to cancel the final auction result by paying the high bidder a buyout fee equal to 20% of the winning bid amount (capped at $8 or 400 NP$). In all other auctions, high bids meeting or exceeding a reserve price are binding on both bidder and seller.”

You must be a Namepros member to bid, and membership is free.

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DUBLIN, Ireland and WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ — dotMobi, the company behind the .mobi Internet domain designed to help consumers find content that works on mobile phones, today announced that more than one million .mobi domains have been registered since its launch two years ago.

From October 2006, dotMobi has seen continued growth in the amount of registrants as companies pursue the increased visibility and targeted marketing the mobile Web offers. Mobile content consumption is steadily growing while the lack of consistency and navigation issues that previously hampered mass consumer adoption are lessening.

In June 2008, dotMobi issued joint research with AKQA, a global creative agency. dotMobi found that 90 percent of respondents were interested in learning about the mobile Web. Brands and companies far and wide have turned to dotMobi for information on building and marketing mobile Web sites for consumers looking to access content while on the go.

Sites such as Nokia.mobi, Mercedes-Benz.mobi, Zagat.mobi and Bank of America’s BofA.mobi have been successfully promoted as custom, intuitive experiences for their users. These brands represent a small handful of the thousands of businesses who are embracing the mobile Web with sites across dozens of categories, including travel, automotive, consumer packaged goods, publishing and financial services.

The entertainment industry is also moving onto the mobile Web. Country music star Tim McGraw engages his audience via http://McGraw2go.mobi, where fans can download music samples, watch videos and keep tabs on the latest tour while followers of the Wu-Tang Clan can get the latest information about the group at http://wumusicgroup.mobi. Recent hit film Eagle Eye featured a special promotional “tie-in” site with US electronics retail giant Circuit City at http://ee.mydas.mobi as does the upcoming blockbuster James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, with Sony Australia at http://quantumcode.mobi.

Along with the .mobi domain, dotMobi as a company has continued to grow. To aid the expansion of the mobile Web, the company has created a wealth of free tools for developers, available at the mobiForge.com mobile web developer forum, which now boasts more than 20,000 members. Free resources such as the ready.mobi report and award-winning DeviceAtlas device database show business owners what they need to do to make their site successful with their customers on virtually every Web-enabled cell phone on the planet.

“dotMobi has established relevance, order – and now success – in what two years ago was a muddled, confusing mobile Web world,” said Trey Harvin, CEO of dotMobi. “With the mobile Web gaining speed, and .mobi paving the way, we are excited to soon unveil the next generation of mobile Web tools and resources that will assist small-to-medium businesses in utilizing the mobile Web to reach a new audience: the mobile consumer.”

Amy Mischler, dotMobi’s Vice President of Brand and Identity Service, added, “To help continue the phenomenal growth of the mobile Web, dotMobi is making 200 highly desired ‘premium’ .mobi domain names available via a special online auction with Sedo (computer link) beginning Nov. 5 and running through Nov. 12, 2008. These .mobi names include actors.mobi, bands.mobi, blackjack.mobi, boys.mobi, cellphones.mobi, dvd.mobi, dvr.mobi, games.mobi, model.mobi, racing.mobi, stamps.mobi, vip.mobi and xxx.mobi.”

About dotMobi

dotMobi (the informal name of mTLD Top Level Domain Ltd.), headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, is leading the growth of Internet use from mobile phones with the .mobi domain name. Unique among domain name providers, dotMobi ensures that services and sites developed around .mobi are optimized for use by mobile devices, so that on-the-go consumers can have confidence that a Web site will work on their mobile phones when using a .mobi address.

dotMobi is backed by leading mobile operators, network & device manufacturers, and Internet content providers, including Ericsson, GSM Association, Hutchison 3, Microsoft, Nokia, Orascom Telecom, Samsung Electronics, Syniverse, T-Mobile, Telefonica Moviles, TIM, Visa and Vodafone.

For more information on dotMobi domains and registration information, visit http://dotmobi.mobi. Visit the dotMobi blog at http://blog.mobi.

Click to call links (below) are enabled for mobile phones only, not computers.

     For more information, please contact:

     Vance Hedderel

     dotMobi

     +1-703-485-5563

     vhedderel@mtld.mobi

     Danielle Siemon

     Edelman for dotMobi (U.S.)

     +1-650-762-2947

     danielle.siemon@edelman.com
     Sasha Manners

     Edelman for dotMobi (Europe)

     +44-(0)20-7344-1200

     sasha.manners@edelman.com


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Casting Agents the world over have a new source for international talent at casting.mobi. The mobile site is available in English and German, and features actors, writers, musicians, models, voice-over talent and more. Some countries represented include Germany, US, UK, Hungary, Singapore, Estonia, Nigeria, South Africa and Columbia, with more added daily. Agents may narrow down their search by talent, experience level, and physical characteristics.

There is no cost to list casting calls, and there are four different membership levels available to people hoping to become famous. There is no cost to register for the site. Since the site is mobile, it has the potential to become a valuable resource to the entertainment industry in the months and years to come.

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It is rare for an author to intentionally spend a year of his life to create a book that he plans to give away without asking for payment, but that is just what Futurist, Consultant and Speaker Javier Marti (computer link) (mobile link) has done with Mobile, Domains and the Future (Mobile link).

I’ve had the opportunity to get to know Javier on the Mobility.mobi forum this past year, and have learned that he is quite good at spotting trends and connecting the dots for what the future may hold in mobile technology and the societal impact it will have on us all. Even more remarkably, the book is written in English while his native tongue is Spanish.

Mobile, Domains and the Future gives a look at the past, present and future of communications, the internet, and the mobile internet. Marti describes potential problems such as privacy issues with the new technology on phones, as well as the information we leave behind as we surf the internet and mobilenet. Additionally, he describes the backlash that has plagued.mobi investors by the domaining community since before landrush – backlash that continues to this day on the most popular domainer forums and blogs. Marti frequently says he is not a dot mobi cheerleader, but he does envision a future where .mobi websites could become as important in the future as .com sites have been in the past and present.

The Author, Javier Marti

As one of the early reviewers of the book, I’ve had the pleasure of watching Marti forecast the future based on news articles of today. Download a pdf copy of the book (7.5 mg, may load slowly on slower connections) and see for yourself whether or not his predictions come true.

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