A World of Apps: The 10 Most Convenient Apps

This article will highlight different categories of apps available from various app stores. Between Google Play and Apple's App Store there are over a million apps available for download. From games to educational apps, it's hard to decide which apps you need and which will just end up taking up memory space on your device.

This week we'll be looking at the ten most convenient apps you could have on your mobile device whether it's your smartphone, your iPod touch or your tablet. These apps are listed in no particular order and represent a small cross-section of the most convenient apps available.

1. To-Do Lists

Every person who has things to do needs to have a to-do list on their mobile phone. Every morning you wake up with at least 10 things to do. You either need to remember to pay a bill or visit the grocery store. This app helps you to organize your day while you are on the go. Having a to-do list on your mobile device allows you the freedom of ticking off all the activities you've completed for the day while playing your part in saving a few trees.

2. Note Pad

You're on the road and you just need to take down some information but you don't have a notepad or a pen nearby. This app turns your mobile phone into an instant note taker. Just use the keypad to type in whatever you need to remember.

3. Voice Recorder

Whether you're at an amazing concert or making a verbal note to yourself, a voice recorder app is a very convenient app to have on your mobile device. It allows you to capture audio moments right onto your device because sometimes a picture is not enough.

4. Wikipedia

Every mobile device should have a wikipedia app for those moments when you really need some information but you'd rather not sift through the mountain of google suggestions. Having a wikipedia app on your phone is like walking around with an encyclopedia in your back pocket.

5. Navigation

Being mobile inevitably means being on the go. One extremely important app to have while on the go is a maps app that allows you to pinpoint your current location and gives you explicit directions on the best way to get to your next destination.

6. Flashlight

It's inevitable. One day your keys fall behind your seat in the car and the ceiling light is of no help. Luckily, you downloaded that flashlight app that turns the flash from your camera into an instant flashlight. This app also comes in handy during blackouts, surprise parties or if you're just too lazy to get up and turn on the lights. Just be careful, flashlight apps tend to drain your battery.

7. Email

If you have a mobile device you probably have an email address. Most mobile devices allow you the facility of linking your email directly to it through an app. That way you don't need to wait until you reach home and power up your desktop or laptop to read your latest email. There's nothing more convenient than that.

8. Messengers

We should all be aware by now of the myriad of apps available that allow us to keep in contact with our friends and loved ones via our mobile devices. Every mobile device should have at least one messenger on it. Messengers like Google Talk and Skype make communicating while on the go cheaper and more convenient.

9. Remote

This particular app turns your mobile device into a remote that can control other devices that are connected via wireless. You may not use it every single day but one day you'll be in your bathroom and need to turn down the music on your laptop. Then you'll be glad you downloaded this app.

10. Cameras

Every mobile phone should come equipped with a camera. Camera's have become a standard part of the mobile experience. Being able to capture special moments on your phone allows you the freedom to share them with others via social media or you can just keep them to yourself.

Regardless of your motivation for using and downloading apps, one thing is for sure. Mobile Apps make life much easier.

My name is Bill Holton I'm the founder of Mobile Site Depot and Co Founder of Appznation. Learn how to offer mobile marketing services to your existing clients and profit, completely under your brand 100% white label with no association to Appznation

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Three Simple Strategies To Get More Customers

When considering strategies to get more customers remember the 3C's Contacts, Communicate and Consistency. Apply all three to get more customers but remember take away any one of these elements and the marketing process fails.

The first element of any marketing strategy should be to determine the unique selling point for the business. Only then is it possible to identify which specific market segments or customers may be interested in the product (or service) offering. A target prospect list of businesses to attack and the key contacts within those businesses may then be assembled.

With a list of prospects to hand it is then necessary to establish how the business may communicate with them on an ongoing basis until they are ready to buy. Available marketing tools should be evaluated to determine which will have the highest impact at the lowest. It is likely a website will be required as the hub for all marketing activity.

A simple customer contact (CRM) system is essential to keep all existing and potential customer data in one place and to simplify and track the ongoing communication process. There are many simple, relatively low cost CRM systems available which facilitate the recording of customer contact details and provide the means to send Emails and record the result.

In some industries Social Media Marketing will be essential in others Email marketing may be a better choice. Search Engine Optimisation activity to ensure the business website is found will almost certainly be required. This may be coupled with Pay per Click advertising on a short term or long term basis depending on the time available to generate results. Some direct mail activity may or may also be applicable.

Without the third element of consistency the process will almost certainly fail. Only an ongoing communication process is likely to ensure the business is both trusted and front of mind when a prospect is ready to buy hence short term bursts of effort are unlikely to achieve results

Good quality content keeps the prospect engaged and builds credibility. Good search engine marketing is based on the posting of quality content, socially sharing that content and presenting it in such a way that it will be found and indexed by the major search engines. However, if content is not delivered on a regular, ongoing basis, then the impact will be significantly reduced.

Simple strategies to get more customers are therefore based on identifying customers, communicating with them on a regular basis with engaging content and identifying the most cost effective marking tools to deliver that content. Consistency however is the real key to success.

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Essential Concepts About Google AdWords Businesses Should Know

Establishing an online presence is crucial to the success of any business. Along with traditional marketing efforts, businesses can get an extra boost with a well-planned online campaign using a variety of tools, including Google AdWords. Companies and business owners are slowly catching up with the idea of using this marketing tool. And yet, however effective a business tool is, it is still crucial that it is used properly to achieve the desired results.

As with any other business tool, it is crucial to know how something works. In the case of AdWords, business owners and companies should know that the advertisements can show up online in two ways. First is at the Google search page. When you sign up for a pay per click campaign, your ads will show up after a specific set of words (which you provided) are typed in by someone using the search engine. Your ads can also crop up on websites that have subscribed to Google's AdSense program.

In the case of keywords, how do you make sure that the ones you target yield the best results? The pay per click management team you hire to help you may use a variety of techniques. In contextual targeting, your ads will show up in websites that more or less relate to the keywords you have given Google. In topic targeting, your ads will show up in specific websites that match the topic your keywords cover. Recently, Google released a new system which targets an audience based on their online habits. For example, if on average, a user frequently visits sites related to the topic of gadgets, they will likely see ads relating to that niche.

In terms of the optimal size for ads, 300 X 250 pixels is the best size to start with. Of course, you can easily bump up the size of the ad depending on your budget.

Contrary to the belief of some that taking a shotgun approach in terms of targeting audiences is ideal, a narrowed-down approach works much better. Adding a plus (+) sign between your choice of keywords can help yield better results in terms of accuracy. Finally, do not rely on a single specific ad. Try launching different versions of an ad to see which yields a better result. The right ad will yield not only increased conversions but will also get plus points from Google through reduced cost per click.

Traditional marketing still works but having a well-planned online campaign will give an extra boost to your business. There are numerous tools being used these days and one of them is the Google AdWords tool Dubai business owners are starting to understand and utilise.

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Mobile Apps: Enhancing Marketing Strategies of Mobile Brands

But what is the catch here? There are more than 1.5M apps available in the market today. Brand manufacturers use these apps to improve their respective sales, with SMS Messaging and Mobile web being the most widely used. Other techniques employed are: apps subscription features, pay-per-download, ad-supported promotion, in-application micropayments, and many more. Mobile apps offer companies an avenue of ready and steady income including an affluent media experience to all brand users.

More than Just Style Statement

Mobile phones are no longer just a simple style statement, but rather a fundamental necessity for everyone in this modern world. This is enhanced by mobile apps, which are now considered to be the core component for all mobile devices. Users can do almost anything since these mobile apps perform numerous functions simultaneously, with very little effort or time put into creating them.

Different brands, today, are investing in the mobile advertising platforms, so much so that even Google already took part in the craze and acquired iAd Network of Apple and AdMob. This is a solid substantiation of how powerful mobiles apps are when it comes to mobile brands context. The different platforms fragmentation was too much for some mobile brands to handle, causing them late entry in the game. Although this resulted in an overwhelming number of mobile apps available in the market, users now have a wider selection of brands and mobile apps. There is no limit to the brand that users can use as each promises to provide more features, functions, and facilities.

The Power of Integration

Mobile brands cannot rely on applications alone as their sole entity. It is necessary for brands to integrate these mobile apps into all of the marketing strategies of the company. Since competition is getting stronger as days pass by, brands are now more conscious in choosing the apps which enhance the users' overall experience in using the device. This is what makes others truly successful in all their marketing and promotional strategies.

The inclusion of some fancy apps, in order to create a spectacle, helps neither the app nor the brand. To top this off, consumers are much wiser now in choosing the best products from an unending array of choices, staying only with ones that constantly offer benefits. So if you want to enter this mobile marketing platform, maintain your position in the market, or improve your marketing strategies to get ahead of competition, ask yourself: "How can I ensure that the mobile app I created will get the consumers' interest that it truly deserves?" If you understand and implement the mobile brands marketing strategies mentioned, then you are likely to win in the ever changing and quickly growing world of mobile marketing.

My name is Bill Holton I'm the founder of Mobile Site Depot and Co Founder of Appznation. We have helped countless people over the last year in becoming successful mobile marketers,and I can show you how you can Earn $60,000 to $100,000 or More in 2013 Using a Totally New Business Model In An Explosive Market.

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The Beneficial System of Mobile Marketing

Mobile marketing provides businesses far more benefits, such as customization, easy tracking, lower cost, and many others. All of these reduce manpower, but at the same time these give entrepreneurs better business opportunities and profits. Some may still have qualms of mobile marketing's effectiveness and how it can improve one's business.

So what makes the system of mobile marketing so beneficial?

Straightforward - Regardless of what content you will draw out for a mobile device whether it be video, images, or text, you will find it easier, simpler, and definitely less expensive compared to a laptop or desktop. In addition, mobile medium likewise makes it easier for marketers in issuing marketing incentive and promotional services for the consumers.

Instant Results - Users are always carrying their mobile units with them. Since these units tend to be constantly on, this means the user will instantly receive the message as soon as it is sent. Even if one has to put a mobile device on stand-by mode, all messages are received at the exact moment the device is turned back on.

Convenient- Considering the mobile phone's small screen size, it is capable of limiting the content's scope to be displayed. Web app developers find it so convenient to create simple, basic yet powerful content which will acclimatize itself far better to different mobile platforms.

Tracking Users' Response - Mobile marketing allows for instantaneous tracking of users response. Great help is provided for marketers in understanding and analyzing users' behavior, thus resulting in improved standards of their service.

Direct Marketing - There is no better platform that directly interacts with a user on a mobile phone than the mobile's which allow for a tailor-made interaction on a larger scale. Utilizing this benefit also gives the marketers the capability to start direct dialogues with mobile users, getting instantaneous feedbacks through SMS.

Comfortable and Diverse Niche - The niche of mobile marketing remains comfortable for all new marketers since it is relatively new and is still being explored. What does this mean for you? This means that you stand a better and brighter chance of being successful with your mobile marketing strategies.

Marketing - There is no better platform that directly interacts with a user on a mobile phone than the mobile's which allow for a tailor-made interaction on a larger scale. Utilizing this benefit also gives the marketers the capability to start direct dialogues with mobile users, getting instantaneous feedbacks through SMS.

Simplified Mass Communication

The number of mobile users around the world is still escalating, thus giving marketers the opportunity to reach a diverse and far wider market, particularly in remote regions globally. As a marketer, you can fully utilize the advantages of Bluetooth technology and GPS for geo-location as well as sending location-based SMS to all mobile users. More and more marketers are realizing just how enormous the viral potential of mobile marketing is since mobile contents are easily distributed among users. The ability of users to invariably share informative SMS and promotional offers among family and friends leads to a wide exposure for companies with hardly adding extra effort.

My name is Bill Holton I'm the founder of Mobile Site Depot and Co Founder of Appznation. Learn how you can offer mobile marketing services to your clients, completely under your brand and profit.

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Push Technology and Your Mobile Marketing Campaign

Push technology refers to sending direct messages or communications to a push capable client (i.e. a mobile device) from a centralized broadcast (messaging) server. Whereas with pull technology the client requests specific data from a server and the server responds by sending data to the device (eg. For website browsing) instead, push technology allows a user to 'opt-in' to certain messages that will be sent directly to their mobile device. Push messages can be sent using a variety of methods. The most common push technology is Short Message Service (SMS), which is used to send text messages from one mobile device to another. Then there is Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), which uses both SMS and Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) to deliver multimedia messages. MMS is used particularly to send pictures and video from one mobile device to the next. By using these tools you can actually broadcast a message that can activate applications or alerts on a mobile device.

The Apple Push Notification Service is a service created by Apple that was launched with iOS 3.0 in 2009. Push notifications require an active Wi-Fi or cellular connection. They are basically an easy way for iOS apps to provide instant alerts and related information to users. Push notifications allow different apps to notify you of new messages or events without you needing to actually open the application. This is similar to how a text message might make a sound and pop up on your screen. Push technology is a great way for apps to interact with users in the background, whether it is a new email or someone tagging a picture of you on Facebook. Whenever an event takes place that causes an app to send a notification, the notification is pushed to the user by one of three options: sound, on screen alert, or badge. Most apps that support push notifications allow users to select which of the three notifications (if any) they would like to use to make them aware of updates. In addition to pushing messages to the screen, push notification also allows apps to display a number or 'badge' on the app's icon. For example, the Mail icon will show the number four if you have four unread messages.

Local and push notifications are great for keeping users up to date with relevant content, whether your app is running in the background or inactive. They also have great marketing potential as they allow for communications to go directly to a customer's mobile phone from a centralized server. This has a wide array of benefits as it can boost your overall marketing strategy, while reducing the costs of communication. It is also possible to personalize the messaging, since most mobile devices have a single owner who will likely have it with them all day. The notifications also forces a certain level of interactivity, as the owners are likely to view the new messages and updates as soon as they come in.

Finally, messages can be broadcast directly to multiple customers at the same time, in a very targeted manner, which reduces the number of uninterested customers who would likely be receiving your messages. BlackBerry Messenger and WhatsApp are all mobile-platform messaging applications that are used to "push" a message to your friends. As more and more companies begin adopting push technology to push information to their customer's mobile devices the possibilities for an effective mobile marketing campaign becomes even more exponential. If your mobile marketing campaign isn't already using push technology you should consider using it right now.

My name is Bill Holton I'm the founder of Mobile Site Depot and Co Founder of Appznation. Learn how to offer mobile marketing services to your existing clients and profit, completely under your brand 100% white label with no association to Appznation.

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Mobile Apps for the Holiday Season

With the Epicurious app (available for iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows Phone), you can open up a specific recipe and get the recipe, details on servings and prep time, a photo of the finished product, and reviews from people who've made the dish themselves. This is of great help to those who aren't pros in the kitchen. The app also allows you to add recipes to your shopping list, itemizing the ingredients by grocery aisle so that you don't forget anything when you hit up the grocery store. The app also gives you the option of checking items from the list once you get them.

Then there is Panna By How 2 Media, Inc. which is the first-ever video cooking magazine for the iPad and iPad mini. This video app is built for the home cook who follows written recipes, but still wonders how the chef would advise him/her at every step. Panna brings the master chef into your kitchen, offering recipes that are not only easy to execute, but hand-picked by world-renowned chefs. As they chop, talk, steam and sauté, the chefs demonstrate step-by-step cooking technique and impart cooking tips in an engaging, approachable style.

Now that you're done cooking, there's a huge spread of the most delectable (and fattening) foods on the kitchen table. The Weight Watchers 360 app allows you to keep track of your calorie intake so that you don't overdose on lovely holiday food. This mobile app for iPhone and Android is designed to be your constant meal companion. Not only does it track food but it also focuses on your environment.

When it comes to Christmas shopping and gifts it's never too late to get your loved ones a meaningful token of your affection. The Pickie app analyzes your friends' social network data to help you find the most thoughtful, personalized gifts. Built for the iPad, Pickie creates a personalized shopping magazine out of the products your friends and the people you follow are sharing. You simply tell Pickie what brands and categories you like, and they do all the work to scour the web for the most talked about products. Everything featured in Pickie is a buyable product, and you can use the 'heart' button to save things to buy later. The app creates a single place to see what's trending, discover new products and shop. Your Pickie experience is personalized based on your unique tastes and preferences, so that no two Pickies are alike.

Decide Shopping & Price Predictor by Decide, Inc. For iPhone and iPad ensures that you always know what to buy, when to buy it and the best prices on your purchases of electronics, appliances, home & garden and sporting goods. Decide Shopping & Price Predictor App is your Unbiased Shopping Advisor, helping Decide members save money, time and avoid buyer's remorse.

Foldify is a unique iPad app from a Polish developer called Pixle and it helps you turn a flat piece of paper into a 3D paper toy in a remarkably simple, and beautifully presented, way. All you do is choose your favorite design then print and fold them from paper. Perfect for packaging gifts in a fun way for kids and kids at heart as well.

Of course, if you still haven't gotten anything for your family and friends for the holiday you can also gift them an app directly from the App Store. Just go to the iTunes app Store and follow the directions on there. You can also send them an iTunes Gift Card by scrolling down to the bottom of the iTunes App Store Featured page and then tapping 'Send Gift'. Voila!

When it comes to holidays, whether you're preparing and sharing a meal with your loved ones or exchanging gifts, there's a mobile app that can make your experience much more joyful.

Happy Holidays from our mobile family to yours.

My name is Bill Holton I'm the founder of Mobile Site Depot and Co Founder of Appznation. Learn how to offer mobile marketing services to your existing clients and profit, completely under your brand 100% white label with no association to Appznation.

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