HOW TO: Create a Mobile Website for Your Nonprofit for $8 a Month
[tweetmeme] The Web is going mobile. Faster than anyone thought. Smartphones are transforming the Internet and how individuals access the Web. One in five Americans now access the mobile Web daily. Some through Apps. Others through mobile Web browsers.
This means nonprofits and their web communication strategies need to transform as well. One of the most – if not the most – important pieces of mobile web strategy is launching a mobile website [Re: Four Reasons Why Nonprofits Need a Mobile Website].
Until last week, I hadn’t yet found a way for nonprofits to easily launch a mobile website with low start-up costs that wouldn’t be dependent upon a costly third-party for updates. I have now [www.nonprofitorgs.mobi]. For $8 a month, your organization can launch a blog and a mobile website. Here’s How:
Step One :: Launch a Blog on WordPress
Over the last year I have found for many organizations that utilize social media, blogging is the missing piece in their social media strategy. Blogging and WordPress can also be used as the Content Management System for your new mobile website. Thanks to RSS, any new post that you publish to your blog automatically gets published to your mobile website.
Step Two :: Sign up for Mofuse Premium
Mofuse Premium allows you to quickly and easily create a mobile website. Using elements, nonprofits can create a homepage and subpages and then using the RSS from your blog, you can easily and automatically generate articles and news stories. I created a very simple simple mobile website at their Jumpstart level of $7.95 a month.
While my mobile website may not be “Desktop” worthy by today’s design standards, it’s highly functional and looks good in a mobile browser. What is visually important to note is that it converts WordPress blogs posts from the WordPress format to a mobile website format (you get to choose the colors). This means that the look, feel and branding is consistent as users click-through and around your mobile site:
 |
 |
Using Page Elements, you can then create a homepage and sub-pages:
 |
 |
The Admin Dashboard is easy to easy and functional and you get access to important statistical data:
Step Three :: Buy a “.Mobi” URL or set your mobile website to m.yourdomain.org.
Easy enough. You can buy a .mobi URL at GoDaddy.com for $1.99 a year or set your m.domain.org in your Admin Dashboard on Mofuse Premium. The later is a little complicated, but doable. I chose to go with www.nonprofitorgs.mobi because the domain nonprofitorgs.com was not available, thus I could not create m.nonprofitorgs.com. But m.domain.org is the best practice, such as m.twitter.com, m.youtube.com, etc. And on that note, make sure you link to the mobile versions of your social networking profiles on your mobile website, such as m.twitter.com/nonprofitorgs, m.youtube.com/nonprofitorgs, etc.
One final note, for $8 a month you get 5 Page Elements. That’s only enough for a very simple site. If you upgrade to $39 a month, you get 20 Page Elements and the ability to add CSS. If you upgrade to $89 a month, you get 100 Page Elements, CSS, Google Checkout and the ability to create online forms, like mobile and e-newsletter subscribe forms. Currently, nonprofits receive a 10% discount. For more info, see Pricing Information.
Related Webinars:
Webinar: How Nonprofits Can Successfully Utilize Group Texting, Mobile Websites, and Smartphones Apps
Webinar: How Nonprofits Can Successfully Launch and Maintain a Blog on WordPress
Share:
Trackbacks
- Which is a better investment for your nonprofit – an iPhone App or a mobile website? « Nonprofit Tech 2.0
- HOW TO: Launch a Group Text Messaging Campaign for Your Nonprofit for Free « Nonprofit Tech 2.0
- Five Reasons Why Nonprofit Communicators Need Smartphones « Nonprofit Tech 2.0
- TangoNet » Blog Archive » Five Reasons Why Nonprofit Communicators Need Smartphones
- Nonprofit Tech 2.0 iPhone App :: Version 2.0! « Nonprofit Tech 2.0 :: A Social Media Guide for Nonprofits
- Want Apple To Get iPhone Donations Right? Sign the Online Petition!
- 22 Ways Nonprofits Can Use QR Codes for Fundraising and Awareness Campaigns « Nonprofit Tech 2.0 Blog :: A Social Media Guide for Nonprofits
Nonprofit Tech 2.0 Blog :: A Social Media Guide for Nonprofits 
Great article. Thanks.
Pardon the newbie questions (I’m trying to get up to speed with mobile marketing) but when you use a mobile URL how are you driving traffic to that version vs. your “regular” site?
From text alerts. From e-mail newsletters which folks might be reading on a mobile device. From smartphone Apps. From your desktop site… people may go to your desktop site looking for a link to your mobile site. 🙂
Got it. So you’re really treating it like a secondary website.
I noticed on my Facebook, when I login on my Droid I have the option to switch to “full version” or “mobile”.
I guess once again, giving your visitors what they want in a format they want is the end goal.
That’s extremely affordable
Hello,
Another great option that I use is WPTouch
http://www.bravenewcode.com/products/wptouch/
It’s a free plugin for WordPress that sets up a mobile version of your blog.
A couple of notes based on the column above …
1. dotMobi, the company behind the .mobi domain and many other mobile enablement services, offers a free WordPress plug-in that allows you to make your WordPress blog “mobile ready” in seconds at no cost. You can read more about it at http://mobiforge.com/running/story/the-dotmobi-wordpress-mobile-pack#comment-5560.
2. dotMobi also offers a desktop-to-mobile site conversion service called Instant Mobilizer, which can also be a good, low-cost solution — depending on the complexity of the desktop site. See details at http://instantmobilizer.com.
3. And to counter one point in th ecolumn above, “m.domain.org” is not a mobile “best practice” — the .mobi domain is best practice. The .mobi domain is the only ICANN-approved mobile naming convention and offers many benefits that other mobile naming conventions do not, including enhanced search engine optimization and site whitelisting by network operators. You can read more about this at http://mtld.mobi/resource/top-5-reasons-why-you-need-a-mobi-name.
Don’t forget something very basic — having a link out from your mobile site to your core website. I use an Android phone, which gives me access to the “real” web, and there is nothing more frustrating than following a link that takes me to the stripped down, mobile version of a website but fails to give me an option to click out of it and back into the main website.
YAA, you’re right. I’ve got an Android also and I frequently switch to the desktop version for a site I’m on.
Great post – what an excellent example of creatively using your resources wisely. I do have one question/concern: what about duplicate content? If you are treating your mobile site like a second site, complete with its own analytics – yet pushing all of your blog posts from the desktop to the mobile site – how are you preventing the search engines from penalizing one of the sites (probably the mobile site) for publishing duplicate content?
That’s a really good point. I’ll watch my search engine results to see if mobile pages affect the results. There is unique coding on mobile sites, so the search might pick that up and separate them. Will likely have mobile search engines soon. Thanks.
The other thing to note that any wordpress blog is automatically set up to be mobile. Go to https://nonprofitorgs.wordpress.com, and you will notice that no matter which mobile phone you are on, the site will load nicely. On touch devices (like iPhones and Androids), the WPTouch theme will load, whereas on simpler mobile phones, a more basic mobile theme will load. See http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/the-hero-is-in-your-pocket/ for a better description of what I just say.
What you cannot do with either of those themes is add the elements like subscribing to newsletters / sms alerts / the social media bar you have. In fact, this may be a thing to request having access to from either the WPTouch / WordPress developers.
Excellent post! MAA offers web to mobile (automated) solution $0.99/month for qualified Non-profit. Sign up for the free trial and send us an email to benefit from the offer.
Hi Ethan,
Our non-profit conference http://www.missionsfestvancouver.ca would appreciate a free trial, as we are exploring options to have a mobile site for our upcoming conference.
Thanks.
Claudia.
registrar [ at ] missionsfestvancouver.ca
I don’t work with the company. I am in no position to give yo a free trial. 🙂
A phone is now the best way to reach customers and businesses. In this world of fast, fast and faster, the economy can only react to what’s put before it. Most business are closed minded to only having a adnormal website (laptop and desk top) they are not made for the flexible life of smart devices…Now instead of spending $30-150,000 just to convert your business to a Mobile Website, InnovativePlatforms.net does it for just a low fee, while other businesses are closing or crashed before they can get started this company is giving away Business Opportunities.