Three Start-up Ideas On Mobile Commerce

Mobile commerce or more widely known as M-Commerce is all about the boom of applications and other services that are readily accessible from mobile devices with internet capabilities. It includes new technologies, business models and other services. In other words, it is the ability to buy and sell services via handheld devices such as cellular phones, tablet computers and personal digital assistants or PDAs. M-commerce also enables users to access the World Wide Web without the need to plug their devices into. It is different from the traditional e-Commerce due to the fact that mobile phones and mobile devices impose very different control compared to desktop computers. Consequently, they also open many new doors to a surge of new mobile applications and services. They are present wherever you are, making it easier to find restaurants, keep in touch with family or make it easier to pay bills online.
Since that is already the case, it is now very hard to ignore the significance of getting into mobile commerce. A lot of businesses now are accepting mobile payments as it is now beginning to make sense. If you want to consider implying mobile commerce to your business too, here are some tips to help you start.
1. Know all the options. While there are many options to choose from for mobile fund transfers, for a lot of businesses, there are two good choices. First is to use devices like the Pay Anywhere device. It is possible by using a smart phone or tablet with an attached card reader device that processes credit card payments whenever needed. In fact, this type of point of sale payment option is even used in banks and other enterprises like restaurants. The second basic option to use is the “contactless payments”. This basically allows buyers to pay for their choice goods, products and services by using just the information from the client’s virtual credit card stored on a mobile device. The mobile device will be the one to communicate wirelessly by means of a payment terminal.
2. Talk to your bank. If your business is already registered with a merchant account on one of the major banks, never hesitate to ask if they offer extensions such as mobile payment service for your business. Banks will generally assist you on your needs to integrate other options for you to receive payments and keep your business going. Some already have the mobile payment option like Citibank but if your bank doesn’t offer it yet, third party companies can help you there. All you have to do is sign up to them and install their app to your devices, and then you’re good to go.
3. Always be connected. Whatever mobile commerce you choose for your business, you still need to connect it to your current system of operation. Of course this will mean some changes in your accounting transactions, task management and client relationship that may sometimes not mean much to your business. You may not see the results in a week or a month or so but and changes is sales may not be significant at first. Never lose heart, other businesses are already integrating this method and it brought them better check out options.
Mobile device point of sales and other contactless payments are now making sense to various types of businesses. However, these processes may also have some limitations. While you can see that this is a very good option for your business, decide if this is a type of option you and your customers are ready to enjoy.

Terrific Mobile Marketing Tips

Many people say that they would like to learn the secrets to mobile marketing. Like anything else, you need to have the right information about the right ways to do it in order to be successful. This article contains a number of tips that will help you on your way to mobile marketing.

Getting a webcam and setting up a Skype account to have a face-to-face with your customers is a great way to handle mobile marketing if this fits your business. Not every person out there wants to be that personable in business, but if you have affiliates working for you or some seriously loyal customers, this is a good move to stay in contact with them, in a personal way.

Customer love rewards so reward them just for signing up. Just for signing up give them a coupon for a free item when they come back and purchase something else. Since they are giving you their mobile phone number, reward them with something worthwhile that will keep them coming back.

Remember the call to action. All of your mobile marketing efforts must contain some idea of what you want your prospect to do next. Every communication you have with a customer or prospective customer must have a purpose, so make sure you always keep that in mind. You want them to buy your products, after all.

You MUST test any mobile marketing campaign on all of the phones and tablets available to ensure it displays exactly as you wish it to. If your call to action doesn’t show up, or the link you’ve included doesn’t work then your entire ad campaign will be a wash on that brand of phone.

Being aware of what tools are available to you can mean making more customers aware of your business! Understand the tools applicable to your mobile marketing campaign before you begin, to maximize the potential of things like audio, location-awareness and video. Have a solid idea of how to incorporate all of it into your promotions.

Understand the regulations for mobile marketing. Mobile marketing campaigns are heavily regulated, just like anything that has to do with mobile phones. Look up your local and federal guidelines, and make sure you stay well within them. If you do not, you can face penalties that range anywhere from fines to jail time.

Mobile marketers should be mindful of the importance of aiding existing customers in sharing their subscriber status with their friends and acquaintances. Be sure to encourage customers to pass text offers onto others, and you will immediately have the power to expand your reach beyond the customer base you already had.

Although slow to the start, mobile marketing is a great way to bring customers to your products. So do not panic. It just takes a little while longer to gain the trust of an on-the-go user since they don’t typically follow links all day long.

As was stated at the beginning of the article, many people are interested in mobile marketing but are not sure where to start. If you know the right way to utilize this avenue, the process of doing it becomes much easier. Apply this article’s advice and you will be on your way to using mobile marketing with ease.

Making Your Mobile Home Energy Efficient

If you were living on a mobile home temporarily or permanently, you surely would want to cut down your electric consumption just like others who would like to cut down theirs.

Here are several ways in making your mobile home energy efficient:

· Improving the roof paintjob

In the hot and humid months of June, July, August, and September, mobile homes tend to heat up. This is because mobile homes are not built with much ventilation. On regular homes, large attics the separate the outside from the inside keep houses cool. Vents on these attics further contribute to reduction of heat penetration to the house. The space separating the roof of a mobile home and the ceiling is not enough to keep the inside cool. As a result, air conditioning system works harder during hot summer days. Thus, consuming more energy. To lessen the heat penetration to the home, cool roof coating can be done.

Do this when it is not raining since cool roof coating is water-based.

Repainting the roof of your mobile home to deflect the heat that can potentially penetrate to the inside.

· Providing better roof insulation

Many people, even a mobile home contractor would suggest that you couldn’t do anything to improve the insulation of your mobile home. To tell you honestly, they are totally wrong. You can access the roof cavity from the edge of the roof that is connected with the wall or from the directly through the rooftop. Doing so will save you as much as 15% of your total cooling system consumption.

You can do this on your own or find someone who knows how to do this.

· Maintaining a good air conditioning

Air conditioning occupies the biggest chunk of your electric bill. This is why you need to make sure that you get the most out of it. To so this, check your air conditioning system regularly. You can start with the air duct. Make sure that the air duct is sealed. Any small leak would let the outside air to enter, thus making the air conditioning to work harder.

Your mobile home’s air duct is usually located underneath. You may want to skirt your mobile home to the ground of few inches from the ground to protect the duct during winter and summer. Skirting would also provide additional protection from your pets to destroy the duct.

· Air sealing your mobile home

The best way to keep the air outside from entering is to seal every spaces of your mobile home. Windows, doors, and other openings can be sealed by weather stripping, a rubber sealant that keeps that interior airtight.

Doing this will let the air from coming out of the mobile home.

· The mobile home location

Sitting your mobile home under the shade would let you save from air conditioning. Since shades draw away heat even before it reaches the roof of your mobile home, your air conditioning will not be forced to cool the interior.

· Ensuring the water heater

The water heater takes 14% of your total energy consumption. This is the second largest energy consumer next to the air conditioning system. If your water heater is located outside the compartment, it surely takes additional energy load since the heat is lost because of the outside air. You cannot cover it of course for safety purposes. Instead, you can use insulation jacket. This will keep the heat inside the tank.

The thermostat dictates the energy consumption of the water heater. If you have less water demand, 120 degrees Fahrenheit is sufficient enough. For larger water consumption, 140 degrees Fahrenheit is usually required.

· Windows

Proper selection of shutters, shades, and drapes is important to keep the heat inside or away from the mobile home. But, you have to use them properly. Close them during the night to keep the cool air from the outside away and open it during the day if you are not using air conditioning. Use thick shutters, shades, or drapes during winder to keep to cool air from coming in.

Consider all these to make sure you maximize the use of power in your home. In turn, you will save money on electric bills.

Use These Great Tips To Enhance Your Mobile Marketing

Mobile marketing could be difficult to understand and daunting to implement, that is, if you aren’t getting the right information and advice. Take a few minutes to go through the facts and suggestions outlined below – the information there could be just what you need to put this advertising medium to work for your business.

Make sure that your website is mobile-friendly. Your mobile-friendly site should not be cluttered with graphics, and should only include basic but important information about your business that a mobile user can quickly get to. Mobile users do things quickly, and your site must display efficiently on their mobile devices if you want them to visit you often.

You should research the habits of the customers you reach through mobile marketing and tailor your communications and special offers to their needs. Treat them as a special subset of your customer base and learn all that you can about their buying habits. The offers you send out to cell phones should have a special appeal to your mobile customers.

Your mobile ads must be short and sweet or the customer will delete! Customers do not want or have the time to scroll through lengthy messages. Keep your ads as brief and concise as possible to increase the chances of it being read and of customers purchasing your product!

Make your messages relevant. This is the most important aspect of mobile marketing. A text message can be very personal and it interrupts someone no matter what they are in the middle of doing. Avoid re-purposing an e-mail. Your text message should be short and very relevant to the audience whom you are sending them out to.

Test your campaign before you start sending out your messages. Send the messages you want to use to your family, friends and employees. You will have to make sure the messages display well on most types of devices: perhaps some changes will be needed at this point. Ask people for their opinions on the content of the messages.

When sending out messages for mobile marketing, let your customers know that you are sending out messages for a special mobile marketing promotion. You might have to create your own excitement about it by generating flyers and submitting press releases. It does not matter how you get the word out as long as it gets out.

Keep mobile marketing to regular business hours or your customers will think their receiving spam mail. Marketing customers at inconvenient times will cause them to delete the message and ignore future emails. Unless it’s vital for a specific target audience send your emails at normal business hours.

Align your mobile marketing campaign with the holidays and big events. Use the holidays to make your marketing campaign sparkle. Use the sporting event to your advantage. Make a special code for everyone to text for a chance to win. Using these events will help to make your business a success.

No doubt there is something there that you can use. Of course, you can’t expect your plan to come together overnight. But if you make a task list, and set aside regular time periods to work on the project, you can develop a good campaign and expect to get good results.

Mobile Marketing At Its Best: Here’s How You Do It

If you’re thinking about getting into mobile marketing but aren’t sure how, then look no further. This article is geared towards informing you of some valuable tips about how to succeed with mobile marketing. Remember that these tips are only going to benefit you if you read this article thoroughly and digest the information.

Some mobile marketers get out of hand with their messaging and can send five to six messages a day per customer. Doing this sort of aggressive campaigning, will simply turn customers off to your business, especially if they have to pay for each individual text that they receive from you.

Even if someone subscribes to your messages, they may still want to unsubscribe for whatever reasons, so make it easy for them to do so. In every single message that you’re sending out via mobile marketing, make sure you’re including an unsubscribe link so that people can opt out if they choose.

Don’t concentrate so much on finding the time and the budget for social media. Focus instead on the integration of mobile marketing and social media into your business. You may be surprised to find out the things that you are currently unable to do because you are not yet mobile-marketing friendly. Concentrate on leveraging what you can.

You need to be sure to obtain the mobile owner’s permission before you send them any kind of a message. If you do not have their permission before you send them something, you are becoming a spammer, and it will destroy your reputation to many users across the web for years.

A key tip to a mobile marketing campaign is to stay focused on what your customers want and need. In order to do this you have to get inside your customers head and think about what they are looking for in contrast to what you want to provide. You only have a few seconds to grab their attention so use it wisely.

Although slow to the start, mobile marketing is a great way to bring customers to your products. So do not panic. It just takes a little while longer to gain the trust of an on-the-go user since they don’t typically follow links all day long.

If you really want to convert sales with mobile marketing, work hard to make visiting your site a pleasurable experience for people. Because most mobile users are on-the-go users, they’re more inclined to quickly browse through multiple sites than PC users are. Give them a reason to stick around.

When performing mobile marketing it is important to provide real value to your customers. Mobile devices are an important part of lives today. If you send a text message, it needs to be relevant and meaningful for the recipient. Don’t send a college student a $5000 a plate dinner invitation, a $10 coupon will prove a lot more valuable.

Hopefully, after reading this article, you have a better sense of the steps you should be taking towards your mobile marketing goals. Keep in mind that the advice is only useful if it is utilized carefully, but if you are diligent in doing so, you stand a great chance of achieving your objectives.

How To Run A Top Mobile Marketing Campaign

Mobile marketing is currently the hottest tool for marketers as more and more people, or potential buyers, now own a cell phone. As this type of marketing is relatively new, there is not much advice around. This article contains a few tips and ideas to help you to get started with mobile marketing.

If you can, address the recipient of the message by their name. People will be more likely to pay attention to the message if it is addressed to them directly. Address them in an energetic manner so that you capture their attention and encourage them to find out more about your campaign.

It is important to keep track of all the responses that you are getting from your mobile marketing adventure. This will allow you to know if you are doing the right thing, or if you need some improvement somewhere. Use a mobile-only web analytics service to keep track of everything.

Although the number of mobile users is increasing, that doesn’t mean you can take your mobile marketing campaign outside of its respective niche and just advertise to a larger market. You still need to remain within the confines of your market. You will find that any niche gets larger, but attempting to attract people from outside it is just wasted effort.

Include messaging about standard message costs to any mobile marketing enrollment form. Many consumers now have unlimited messaging plans, but for those paying by the message or with a specific monthly limit, providing this message ensures they know they may see charges related to the messages they elect to receive from your business.

Ensure that you are covered in the legal element of mobile marketing. This doesn’t mean you have to strap up a team of lawyers, but you want to ensure that you are taking the right steps to ensure that you aren’t going to gain some sort of legal trouble through nondisclosure of full information.

Crafting a legitimate business plan is a good idea with mobile marketing. Just because the mobile devices are small, that certainly doesn’t mean that your task is going to be an easy one. Make sure you’re doing what you can to preplan your entire campaign, from inception to hypothesized fruition you want to try to cover all angles.

One of the key factors to successful mobile marketing advertising and messaging is to keep your messages and ads short, to the point, and urgent. The devices are possibly smaller, so you have less room to work with in composing your ad. So make them short and clear so that you can get your message across quickly and fully understood.

You should make it easy for people to unsubscribe from your distribution list. Most companies include a few commands at the end of their messages: for instance, a customer can unsubscribe by texting back ‘stop’. You should use a simple command and provide clear instructions about unsubscribing from your mobile campaign.

The tips above should have given you some ideas which will help you to create an effective mobile marketing ad campaign for your business. You should also continue to keep up to date with the latest developments in the mobile marketing industry so that you can stay ahead of your competitors.

A Brief Examination Of Mobile Telephony

The novel technology of mobile telephony has over the last years become the focus point of numerous discussions, both in academia and business environments, due to its tremendously social penetrating abilities. Making the conveyance from telephone’s cultural heritage to that of the mobile’s augmented reality has generated as much support from various critics, as it has discontent. But the fact still remains that for the privileged developed half of the world, mobiles have become to be viewed as a trendy necessity as well as a social networking tool.

An electronic telecommunications device, the mobile phone or cellular phone, commonly referred to as the “cell,” has become one of those personal property items that can fit the criteria of being both a gadget and a tool. Offering its communicating services since the early to mid 1980s, the considerably larger version of the mobile phone was permanently installed in vehicles as car phones. As technological innovations made miniaturization possible, the majority now of mobile phones are easily controlled and operated single-handed. Moreover, the standard voice feature has been enhanced with additional services, like text messaging, camera capabilities, internet browsing and MMS features for sending and receiving photos and video.

Mainly due to their low establishment costs and rapid deployments, mobile phones have since their first introduction spread rapidly throughout the world, outstripping the growth of fixed telephony. From Europe and Australia, to Asia and America, mobile phones are now widely used, with the majority of adults, teenagers and even children now owning at least one model. Packed with widely diverse features, from alarms to teleconference abilities, mobile phones have set the pace to a new type of communication based culture. But the extreme overload of cell phones has not resulted in closer or more genuine communication principles. Still people, in most cultures, base their business deals and personal affiliations to face-to-face interaction, leaving mobile telephony less ground to grow as a meaningful type of communication. After all, it is not that different than having a fixed telephone line; the difference mainly being that you carry that line whenever you might be.

Yet, mobile telephony use has become ubiquitous due to the interoperability factor telecom networks have endorsed and most have allowed it to spread across continents. In fewer than twenty years, mobile phones have indeed gone from being rare and expensive devices mainly used by businesses, to low-cost, trendy and personal items, used by everyone who wishes to have the ability to reach and be reached by others. But, interestingly enough, sociologists have realized that, as any other type of social networking device, mobile users began to develop vastly different practices based on their own cultural biases.

Why Buy Mobile Homes?

You can buy mobile homes for much less than stick-built houses in most areas of the country. Despite the common predjudice against them, mobile homes are the cheap housing choice of millions. While the advantages are not always obvious, they are real.

One of the advantages is fast equity buiding. You see, the myth about mobile homes depreciating is only half true. In parks they generally go down in value over time. Buy mobile homes on land, though, and they’ll usually go up in value.

Buy Mobile Homes With Real Estate

My first home was a mobile, and it doubled in value in the twelve years I lived in it. The home deteriorated a little (don’t all houses?), but the value of the land rose. With a lower price than a “stick-built house, the mortgage payments were lower. Because of the shortened amortization (seven years), and lower loan amount, I built equity fast.

Buy Mobile Homes To Build Equity Fast

A house with a $100,000, 6%, 30-year mortgage loan gives you a payment of $599.60. $500 of the frst payment will go to interest, $99.60 to principal. You built equity of $99.60 (I’m ignoring appreciation for the moment).

A mobile home on land, with a $30,000, 8%, 10-year mortgage gives you a payment of $363.99. The higher interest rate is normal with mobiles. The shorter term is normal too, so you’ll own the home free-and-clear in 10 years instead of 30. The first month, $200 will go to interest, meaning $163.99 goes to principal. You built more equity in this scenario.

A mobile home on land might appreciate more slowly than a “regular” house, but faster loan pay-down probably may cover this factor. Now, if you also chose to bank the difference in payments ($235.61 per month), you’d definitely be better off financially with the mobile home versus the more expensive home (Except during times of fast appreciation).

You can pay less per month and build more equity. Your real estate agent won’t tell you this, and don’t expect him to agree even after you explain it. Math skills aren’t part of the licensing requirements (at least they weren’t when I sold real estate).

Other Advantages

You can do what you like with the home when you own the land. I rented rooms in my home, and took in more money than it originally cost.

Mobiles are cheap to maintain. I once had a furnace die in a mobile home I owned as a rental.This is about the most expensive repair you’ll have in a mobile. I replaced it for $1,200, which is much less than a furnace for a larger home. For $200 you can tar the roof, or $30 if you do it yourself, instead of $5,000 to re-shingle a traditional roof. Windows, plumbing, and doors are all cheaper.

Property taxes, because they’re based on value, cost less. Insurance is less because you’re insuring less value. Just be sure you can get insurance before you buy. Some old mobiles may be uninsurable in some areas.

I wouldn’t buy a mobile home if house prices for houses are just as low in the area. We bought a house near Butte, Montana for $17,500 – less than mobile homes for sale there (See a photo on our site).

Will your own needs and predjudices let you be comfortable in a mobile home? It’s something to consider. They may be in areas you don’t want to live (true of houses as well). These are personal things you have to consider.

Why buy mobile homes? The advantages are clear for young people starting out, who may have no other options. It may also be your better option, when you consider the lower price, the simpler, cheaper maintainance, lower monthly payments, low property taxes, lower insurance costs, and faster equity build-up. Why not buy mobile homes?

What You Should Know About Mobile Marketing

The world of mobile marketing is very vast and exciting. There are so many ways that one can enter and use their knowledge of this field to help better promote their business. It depends completely on the individual. That said, no matter what your marketing skills are, here are some tips to help you along.

Be a leader in mobile marketing, not a follower. Mobile marketing is still the wild, wild west when it comes to innovation and creativity. There are a lot of options available on the market to consider, but don’t only go with what’s out there. Look at your audience and strategize on new ways to reach them via mobile. You may come up with a successful mobile messaging alternative at a fraction of the price of a paid service!

Keep track of what your competition is doing. Are your competitors sending out messages on their customers’ cell phones? Find out what kind of techniques they are using. If your competitors do not have a website that can be easily accessed via cell phone, this could be your chance to steal some of their customers.

Make your ads suitable to small screens and slower speeds or they may not be viewed at all! Most mobile devices have tiny screens and data speeds much slower than a regular PC so design your mobile content to be displayed accordingly or else it may never reach its intended target!

The most visible mobile marketing is in social networking. The growth of social networking is phenomenal and continues to grow. Making your company viable in the social net realm is of utmost importance. It doesn’t matter what your market segment is, you will find them on social networks everyday of the week. Target these sites and build your business.

Optimize your mobile website for local searches to ensure that people will find you. For example, when you are out in a neighborhood that you don’t know, you will probably search for “(location) Indian restaurant.” If you want to be found, be sure that you focus on those types of keywords for your site.

Approach your text-based mobile advertising as you would billboard advertising, short and simple. Remember, you are reaching people that are not only using mobile devices, but are more than likely mobile themselves! They are on the move and their focus for any marketing message is fleeting at best. Think of it like you have two seconds to persuade your reader, much like trying to reach a driver passing by a billboard at sixty miles per hour. Get the point across quickly and avoid long copy.

Convince people to opt-in to your mobile marketing efforts by offering coupons, discounts, and promotions. People won’t want to miss out on discounted prices, so they will be willing to give you their cell phone numbers. Remember not to abuse this act of goodwill; overdeliver on your promises to provide value.

Mobile marketing is a fascinating and exciting world that is only limited by the extent of a person’s skills. There are endless possibilities, products, combinations, and techniques. Start experimenting to find something new for your business or to learn something new that you can improve for your business. Become inspired by these tips!

Tips And Tricks Of Mobile Marketing

Could mobile marketing be the next great edge in your business promotion? You could find a great set of skills and strategies to put forth in your mobile marketing efforts, but you want to stop first and take note of these great steps that are going to ensure your success in the practice.

Only add telephone numbers from customers choosing to receive messages to build your mobile marketing database carefully. If you add telephone numbers of customers who have not elected to receive mobile marketing messages, you are likely to see a high volume of complaints and requests to be removed from your list.

You are going to benefit from mobile marketing best by keeping your existing customers informed about what it going on with your company. This can include new products, sales and anything else that you think would catch their attention and bring them back to your site to make a purchase.

Know exactly what you want to offer your customers before you start out. Mobile marketing encompasses everything from simple text messaging to instant mobile coupons. Planning ahead on what you are going to offer them can make the actual implementation much easier than if you were indecisive in the long run.

Ask customers to review you on the various review sites. You can put up QR codes that link directly to your business on a particular review site. Make it easy for them to tell the world how fantastic their experience was with you. The more positive reviews you have, the better your business will grow.

Use QR codes. These images allow people to interact with your campaign by scanning a code that will redirect them to your website. Make sure the QR code takes people to a place where they can find useful information or interesting discounts. If not, they might not scan another code from you.

Be sure to lay claim to your business in each social network’s location pages. In mobile marketing, it’s all about location, location, location. Smart mobile devices, all have location awareness built into their systems, so users can tell what is around them. Make sure they can find you by claiming your page on sites, like Foursquare, Facebook Places, Gowalla and Google Places.

Use proper grammar and spelling when working with mobile marketing. It is ok for a 13 year old to use abbreviations in her texts with her friends; it is not ok for a professional business to use expressions like OMG or L8ER. Also try to limit the use of caps unless it is really called for as in a call to action for immediate response.

Don’t overdo. Be aware that different people have different mobile pricing plans, so one message from you could put them over their SMS limit; how receptive do you think they’ll be to your messages when you cost them too much money? Send out the fewest mobile messages per day that you can.

If you are scared of taking on mobile marketing because it is new, you don’t have to worry. There are millions of people just like you that have found mobile marketing to be quite successful with the right strategies in place. Take the time to read these tips and give yourself a head start.