Welcome to the exciting month of May that brings us (normally) sun, many public holidays and something you have waited for so long… Yes, it is the mobile version for your Dating Factory web-sites!
The first May newsletter will be fully dedicated to the mobile theme and what we have prepared and rolled out for you and your members today.
Figure 1.1. Surfers by mobile device |
Based on our Analytics records, 9.15% of your users are now browsing your sites from mobile or mobile-like devices – what is considered mobile user agents. Visit duration of mobile surfers is on average 2 minutes 5 seconds longer than visits from the web, and the bounce rate is 15% lower. This shows just how important the mobile market is, and the need for developing a mobile optimized version for this type of site users.
As a first step to conquering a mobile dating market, the Dating Factory development team launched the mobile optimized web-sites version in March 2012 for few selected web-sites, to be able to test and adjust to the user demand and behavior.
As a second step we are launching the mobile web-sites version for all the partner sites across Dating Factory platform so your mobile users are comfortable with browsing your sites and of course to give you the opportunity of buying and monetizing mobile traffic across the network.
We have analyzed the main devices that your members currently use and made it our priority to adjust and test your mobile sites on as many of them as possible to create as best a cross-platform system we possibly could.
Of course the same goes for the browsers (both web and mobile). We analyzed the statistics to determine the most popular ones and make sure the mobile sites render well in the top used mobile browsers like Safari, Android browser and Opera-mini.
Figure 1.2. Surfers by browser
So what does launching mobile mean for your members?
In fact not much changed for web users – the only change they will see is the “Mobile version” link in the footer of their web-sites and a nice visual “switch to Mobile” button (if you choose to have it of course) on the site’s front page:
By clicking on the link or visual tab the user will be taken to the mobile version of the site with the ability to switch back to the full version at any time:
Mobile users will be automatically taken to the mobile version of the site with the ability to switch to the full version if they require full web-site functionality and are more comfortable with browsing the way they did before.
The mobile solution supports a simplified version of the platform enabling users to easily navigate and communicate with their matches and friends from their phones or tablets without having to log in on their laptops and PCs.
Mobile version users will be offered mobile payment methods – Dating Factory has partnered with a couple of mobile payment companies and developed a payment engine fully compatible with the mobile platforms and mobile operators requirements.
We are planning to launch mobile payments for all the European countries, Canada and USA this month with worldwide coverage coming up this summer.
What does going mobile mean for you as a site owner?
Going mobile means a good deal for you as a site owner, as it gives you an opportunity to promote your sites to the mobile phone audience, and buy mobile traffic that is usually cheaper than web traffic, and is of a good quality when bought from reliable sources.
Now you need to check your mobile sites and upload the mobile version of the logo that will appear on your landing page. To do this go to “Sites – Edit – Front page (mobile)”:
Here you will be able to:
– upload the logo for the mobile version of your site (32 by 32 pixels is a preferable size)
– change the site name for the mobile version – it will appear in the header on every page of your site, so make sure it is short and catchy (up to 25 chars)
– change the landing page layout (switch between what you want your users to see when they land on your site – login or registration form)
Before you update your mobile sites the old site name will show by default instead of the logo as well as in the headers of internal pages, so don’t worry, your mobile sites do not look broken right now!
Now that we have launched the mobile web version – what comes next? For you – lots of fun working with mobile traffic and more opportunities to increase your site’s visibility on the net. For us – also lots of fun, and working on your and members’ feedback about mobile sites, and improving the concept further together with analytical tools, reporting and promotional tools.
What is planned for the next releases is:
– mobile vs. web surfers reporting
– mobile landing pages customization
– new updated web interfaces with adaptive technologies
As always – your opinion counts, so please give me or your account manager a shout if you encounter any problems or have any ideas to make our mobile platform better!
And last but not least – we are currently updating the hardware infrastructure for both World Dating Partners and Dating Factory systems, so some short service interruptions may occur. We will let you know about the windows for these updates early next week in your administration interface messaging system.
I will see you all very soon – just make sure you don’t miss any special news by
…reading our marketing and company news on our Blog:
https://datingfactory.com/blog/
…taking part in the discussion on the partner Forum:
https://datingfactory.com/forum/
…using your administration area tools to their full potential using our Tutorials:
https://admin.datingfactory.com/contact
…following us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/datingfactory
…joining our Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=172005894013
…joining our LinkedIn group: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=2416698&trk=anet_ug_hm
…and keeping in touch on Google+: https://plus.google.com/107876291608517033848/posts
With the best wishes,
Lisa Moskotova
COO, Co-founder
Dating Factory