"Be water. If you pour water in a cup, it takes the shape of a cup. If you pour it in a teapot, it takes the shape of a teapot. Be fluid. Treat each project differently. The best style is no style. Because styles can be figured out. And when you have no style, they can't figure you out." - Jay-Z & Bruce Lee
Talk about a swan song... I told you this isn't even my final form yet. What's more personal than a mobile device? Really nothing. The Internet allows us to connect with users, customers, visitors at a higher level which we are just now starting to scratch the surface of. A website is not the end all, a website is just the beginning. Mobile APPs are the next level of communicating with brands. We can now transfer funds from one account to another while sitting on the toilet, really think about that. Use your website as the first stage, think about ways to create an APP that's a more personal communication channel to your audience. Look at Facebook's Mobile traffic, surpassing it's regular desktop traffic now. You can move all your content and still generate revenue to a mobile solution, which allows users to no longer have to wait to get to a desktop to connect with your brand.
The first way to generate revenue that comes to mind is purchasing specialized Apps that have a customized solution, but that's leaving money on the table. Free Apps get more downloads, so by not tapping that ass, err app too soon for revenue you can create long term profits down the road. What if you had 10 mobile Apps generating you 1K to 10K views daily, you can create your own mini-advertising network flying under the radar. You can push your own CPA offers straight on your consumers. You can also sell advertising space in your APPs.
The easiest example to showcase the possibilities are mobile games, most are free, but have options to get exclusive weapons or bonuses which you have to purchase with the Ip-App purchasing - generating revenue for the company. Also, don't forget the possibility of In-App advertising. But that's just a small tip of what is possible.
Let's say you have a lifestyle website geared towards women. You can create an App which has exclusive content, data, and so on, only available on your App. You can have some of the best sizzling content in your App with commenting options then do a Reverse and sell guest-posts in your Mobile App to others in your niche/vertical. Wait wat...
Just when they think they have you on the ropes, they keep swinging, but miss, then you show them a new power move they've never seen before, and they're dazed and rattled, and they're like "dude, come on... is this even your final form?" They think they've caught up to you, but then all of a suddenly you're in outer-space mang...
You can switch it up and create several free ebooks and push them in the Kindle marketplace which helps increase your brand's awareness and reach. Using the free ebook series about your niche to drive traffic back to your main site, capture their information, then drive them back to their mobile App store to get in their pockets.
Once you get a user to download your APP, there is no limit, push notifications of coupons, or limited time CPA offers as deals - is your head exploding yet? Got new content on your main site? How about push notifications to everyone who has downloaded your App, and let them know about the new available content? You are literally in their pockets, as a brand that's the one place you want to be, constantly attached to your customer.
Do it cleanly, and don't spam, you can milk that cow for generations. Imagine you did a huge media buy to get people to download your App, and got 100K people interested, then every time you drop content or a story you notify your audience, similar to email - but Google's doing everything to kill that, so you skip those Google clowns and take it a step further and send that notification straight to their phone, lets be cereal... What if 50%, 50,000 people, instantly viewed your new content cause of the notification? People are addicted to their phones, remember that! What if you did a guest-post for a client on your site, then push 50K instant viewers to his article? Wat, Dafaq? You see how I'm mixing and matching? Come at me bro... What's a better traffic leak, than customers who like your brand enough to download your app, waiting for you to engage with them?
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Stop and think about the possibilities for your own niche. What's the main datapoint people want, how can you deliver it to them faster, better, and more friendly? Once you get the gears turning in your brain, you're on your way.
What if you created an APP that had a growing repository of resources and info for your niche. Make it Free, Free apps get downloaded a lot more than paid. Then allow people to gain access to this niche specific data, spreadsheets, or white papers, and have some Premium versions that they can purchase easily with the IN APP purchase. ;)
You can also have your website's resources lists as the best, or in the top place and then gain traffic to your website from your Mobile APP. Ipads/tablets and Mobile traffic has surpassed Desktop traffic online, so if you at this date still haven't joined the party, your missing out. I've heard left and right that people aren't willing to put their information, bla, bla, bla. I've got a website generating 50 to 100 signups a day, and 40% of those sign ups are from Mobile devices. Ipads/tablets are also considered mobile devices people, but I get signups from Iphones and Androids as well. These people have to fill out A LOT of information, First and last name, address, city, state, zip, phone number, email, year of birth, etc - and here is the kicker, THEY DO IT!
Unless you see something first hand, it's all here-say, so enough with the mobile traffic doesn't make money, it's making me dollars. :) Once your App gets accepted, you can have newsletter signups for your main site OR more importantly, move your brand's primary communication to IN APP communication. You are now in every one of your customer's pockets. You can push notification with coupons, special offers, or news from your brand. What's more personal than a phone? And your brand is right there - think about the endless possibilities.
The more creative you are with this channel the better ROI. Now since this would be considered a tier to your money site - make sure it pays it's own rent. Meaning you've got to generate email sign-ups and tag them from coming from the Mobile App, direct revenue, or indirect revenue, which showcases it's importance in your pipeline.
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As with any exploit the first ones to the scene usually get the best ROI. Not ready to jump into the Mobile APP scene just yet, well your a lazy fuck, since you can download Mobile APP templates for your niches, example: http://codecanyon.net/item/universal-recipes-book-for-iphone-for-ios-3x6x/3184439 (Thanks BlogHue).
That is the XCode Application for a Recipe Book for the Iphone. You can scroll around through CodeCanyon to get these kinds of mobile templates so you are not starting from scratch. Find a guy on ODesk or where ever, shell out what, $200 at most to get this thing going? Not a bad return on investment if you can get 10 email sign ups a day or make $10 a day in revenue from IN APP purchases. :)
The best part of the Deep Web is that it doesn't just encompass websites, it encompasses everything that touches the internet. Mobile Apps, Mobile traffic, Android Apps - all these things touch the internet and with today's technology they can be a revenue source for you OR a traffic source OR both. :)
Think about all these available marketplaces, Google Play, Apple's App Store, Windows - whatever they are doing, even Blackberry has an App market place. I plan on talking about Amazon and the Kindle marketplace separately, since that's a different beast on it's own. But at the end, these companies are doing everything in their powers to expand their market shares, and you being the blackhatter/exploiter that you are have the ability to ride that wave - In the mist of Chaos, the one with a clear goal is king.
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You don't even need to start from scratch: Mobile - Recipes App | CodeCanyon (Thanks BlogHue)
Code Canyon has APP templates for Android, iPhone, etc, which you can use as a basis for your APP... I mean, the money is jus there right in your face, are you man enough to take it?
What about, what about, what about this... You ever see those marketing tactics where they are releasing cues once a week as an PR stunt. Or rather like a comic book where next week the next episode. How about creating a mobile App that's a book or content series, but the next chapters are uploaded once a week as they are written, so it's like an episode to get word out there. That'll keep readers waiting for the next juicy chapter, and also allows you to create discussions around your site.
What if I released something like a marketing tactic once a week but only available on the mobile App, could I achieve historical numbers? Use the way TV shows schedule themselves to gauge the audience, get advertisers in place for when I drop new content, or even an exclusive CPA offer that's only available within the 4 hour window I launch... It becomes it's own viral tornado. I'm all out of Red Bull, that's a wrap...
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If you got any niches/topics you want me to brainstorm, feel free to drop it in this thread, and I'll show you how to do this...