AppMakr – a great tool for bloggers going mobile

So I’ve been checking out AppMakr recently  since I’m investigating quick ways for website owners and bloggers to publish their content on mobile. I looked at AppMakr several years ago when I was writing the eBook and thought it had serious potential. Last year AppMakr launched GetSocialize, a drop-in social media plugin for apps, and that makes it super interesting to me. (GetSocialize was bought by ShareThis in March of this year)

Since I’m using GetSocialize for sharing in my current development, and I find it pretty powerful, AppMakr is now back on my radar and I thought I should test it out.

I’ve looked at similar software before. A while ago I signed up for Seattle Clouds thinking this might be the solution for really simple app developments, and while it probably is a good solution for some, I found it too expensive and complicated for the average, non-technical person.

AppMakr claims that you can build your app for free, no coding required. Now, I’ve long thought this kind of claim meant that someone behind the scenes was building the app for you in a bucket shop somewhere. Of course, I’ve no proof of that, just my thought because at the time this was a pretty impossible feat.

But it was obvious a few years ago that DIY is the goal and I think AppMakr has pulled it off. They seem to have really covered the basics and then some. They claim you can build your app in minutes – so I did just that. I took the RSS feed from this blog and started building. The tool allows you to make some basic color choices, upload icons and splash screens, plug in your RSS and you’re good to go. You don’t even have to do any more than that.

I haven’t yet investigated all the features like social sharing, monetization, push notifications, images galleries, etc. But so far, this looks like a super easy solution for bloggers. I haven’t published what I build so can’t determine how easy the publish process is.

The AppMakr monetization model is my favorite. There is nothing like getting something you really want for free and then looking at what you’ll get if you pay a little. This is a real winner for those who want proof of concept before opening their wallet.

AppMakr is a DIY tool that makes publishing an app super easy for an amateur. I think many bloggers would be seriously interested in this.

Focus is key

I’ve tried to decide how useful social media really is and whether I want to bother with it at all. After fooling around with Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest for a year, I thought that social media would not yield much as a marketing vehicle, and would end up to be a colossal waste of time. So I read a LOT and watched lynda.com social media tutorials. Then, I listed the social media elements and decided to state what my expectations were from each of them. I suddenly found they were not useful as the usual marketing tools. The effort involved in maintaining them would not be justified. But, what I did find was that certain social media would be extremely valuable in unexpected ways.

The expectation changed, and the plan formed. I’m still not a fan of Facebook business pages and don’t see what that will yield except occasional exposure to the massive Facebook world. I’ve concluded that social media as a marketing tool is not entirely a write off. It would be a big mistake to spend all of your marketing energy too freely. Focus is key.