Today, an ever-increasing number of modern casino-gaming websites, platforms and applications are making the world smaller by facilitating global accessibility. These platforms are breaking down barriers relating to geography, physical ability, local regulations and language proficiency, making the world of entertainment truly inclusive. Let’s unpack some of the modern realities facilitating this positive trend.

Navigating Legal Landscapes

Regulatory hurdles often limit access to specific content based on location. However, tools like VPNs and location-spoofing technologies are empowering users to get around these restrictions and access a wider range of international entertainment options. While legal and ethical considerations remain, the use of these tools clearly showcase the growing demand for borderless entertainment access.

Many modern apps and platforms have also made their services accessible to global audiences without forcing individuals to make use of VPNs or similar work-arounds. This is perhaps most clear within the world of online casinos, where local restrictions often prohibit operators from running legal online casino operations within specific jurisdictions.

Because fewer laws exist to prohibit residents from playing at offshore casinos, some online casino platforms will open up their digital doors to these players. It can be difficult to find trustworthy offshore operators however, but there are plenty of safe and reputable platforms like those included in a guide for Missouri players where locals can have reliable and accessible means to play casino games with real money. Currently, Missouri’s laws only allow ‘floating’ casinos, and not online ones, so this is a viable alternative for gamblers in the state. As well as this, crypto casinos are also a decent alternative for players in states like Hawaii which don’t allow any casinos at all within their borders.

Demolishing Geographical Boundaries

The days when international entertainment or a visit to a world-renowned casino meant costly flights and cultural isolation are truly over. Today, avid gambling enthusiasts can simply open up an app to access near infinite varieties of casino entertainment and streaming services like Netflix have become global entertainment gateways, offering vast libraries of content from far-flung corners of the world.

With worlds of entertainment at everyone’s fingertips, the sky is the limit. Virtual reality and augmented reality experiences are pushing the boundaries of entertainment further than ever before. Today, gamblers have a wealth of international AR and VR casino options to choose from. These technological innovations are also transporting users to historical landmarks, exotic destinations and fantastical worlds – all from the comfort of their living rooms.

Accessibility for All

The casino entertainment landscape is no longer restricted by physical limitations. Apps and websites are increasingly incorporating features like screen readers, voice controls and fully-adjustable interfaces, ensuring everyone can participate and enjoy casino content as well as other forms of entertainment. Even though a recent report on digital accessibility revealed that digital experiences still alienate around 1.3 billion people with disabilities around the world, many sites are working to make their platforms more accessible.

Language barriers are also less of an issue today. Remember struggling with subtitles or missing the nuances of a foreign film? Advanced translation features are now being built into all kinds of entertainment websites and apps are changing the game. This can be seen at online casino platforms, where real-time translation of text, audio and even live dealer streams allows gamblers to immerse themselves in gaming content regardless of their native language.

These advancements in language accessibility makes web-based platforms more user-friendly, which is a big deal for casino operators who wish to maintain a strong online presence. It also opens up a world of possibilities for users. Today, almost anyone with a reliable connection to the internet, regardless of their mother tongue or ability, can easily participate in the digital entertainment landscape.

The Positive Impact of Accessibility

The impact of accessible websites and mobile apps on global entertainment goes beyond simply providing thrill-based casino enjoyment. It can also encourage more cultural exchange, understanding and empathy. It can empower creators, celebrate diversity and ensure that everyone, regardless of their background or limitations, has the opportunity to be both entertained and inspired.

These innovations are just the beginning of a transformative journey towards a truly inclusive entertainment experience. As technology continues to move forward and artificial intelligence starts to speed up processes, the world can expect even more groundbreaking solutions that further dismantle barriers and connect people across cultures through the shared language of entertainment.

It’s likely that new platforms will mitigate legal limitations further as well by allowing users to access diverse content regardless of their location. Ultimately, accessible websites and apps create a more inclusive and equitable digital landscape. When it’s time to settle down and enjoy a casino gaming session online, take a moment to really sit back and appreciate the fact that accessibility innovations are here to make the world a more interconnected and inclusive space for all.

The post How Apps and Websites Promote Global Accessibility to Casino Entertainment appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The following is a guest contributed post from Laura McGarrity, VP of Digital Strategy at MondoLabs. 

As every expert in the industry knows, having a successful and effective online presence has never been more important. Businesses that lack an impressive, user-friendly website risk falling behind more advanced, forward-thinking businesses.

Your website is your customer’s first glimpse at what your business offers, so you can’t afford to make a bad impression. If you’re concerned about the current performance of your website, read on to learn four clear signs that you are in desperate need of a new website:

1. Built Without the UX in Mind

A positive User Experience (UX) is a major component of a successful website. An outdated website that lacks innovative and interactive design elements will not gain traction with consumers due to the poor UX this results in.

If your website was built without the user in mind, then it’s extremely likely it needs to be redone. If navigating your website internally is a nightmare, what makes you think users will feel differently?

Everything from the layout of the website to page loading speeds to the aesthetic value are things that affect the UX. Build your new website with these elements in mind and prioritize an enjoyable UX to boost traffic to your site, as well as conversions.

2. Lacks Mobile Optimization

Today, having your business website optimized for mobile is no longer optional. In 2015, for the first time ever, the number of searches on mobile devices surpassed desktop searches. Which means more consumers are switching to their mobile devices to conduct searches and shop for products. According to ReachLocal, 74 percent of users said they are more likely to revisit a mobile-friendly website.

If your website is not mobile-friendly then you automatically risk losing a growing group of consumers to a competitor whose website is. Mobile optimization also affects your search engine ranking since Google has updated it’s algorithm to prioritize responsive sites, meaning non-responsive sites are buried deep in search results pages most consumers never get to.

3. Updates Are Costly and Inefficient

Older websites are often a nightmare to update due to the framework that was created for them initially. If your content currently lives outside a Content Management System (CMS), then you’re doing it wrong and costing your business money, which affects the ROI of your website.

Working outside a CMS framework requires a Developer for every single product, service, or content update for your website which is costly and inefficient for long-term goals, like increased, quality content production.

Incorporating a CMS allows you to keep your content fresh and update it on the fly, thus enhancing the SEO ranking of your website, while minimizing the outsourcing or internal costs associated with employing a Developer to maintain and update the site.

4. Search Engine Ranking is Poor

To have a successful website, it needs to be easily found. If your website is not ranking on search engines, then it’s likely your customers are being navigated to competitors who have optimized their websites for search engines.

Your SEO strategy needs to focus on areas besides just keyword targeting, since search engines evaluate various elements of a website to determine ranking, like page loading speeds, social signals, responsiveness, and, you guessed it, the quality of the content found on your website.

For your new website, you should focus efforts on creating quality content that touches on the pain points of your consumers, while continuously updating and adding fresh content via the CMS to help elevate your search engine ranking.

Creating a new website may seem like a hefty expense initially, but when you consider how much business your current website is costing you, you really can’t afford to put it off any longer. If your website has one or more of these issues, or if it’s older than five years, then it’s time to prioritize building a new website.

The post OPINION: 4 Signs You Are in Need of a New Website appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

To achieve maximum success with a minimum of errors is the name of the game. The most common blunders? Here are the top 8:

1.) No Clear Objectives for a Business Website

2.) No Strategies For Reaching Business Objectives

3.) No Tactics to Achieve Business Objectives

4.) No Targeted Metrics to Measure Progress

5.) No Integrated Marketing Plan

6.) No Focus on the Value of An Offer

7.) No Action Plan for Visitors

8.) No Balance Between the Design & the Marketing Message

The post 8 Website Blunders Small Businesses Should Avoid appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

With content marketing hotter than ever in 2014, company blogs are also becoming more prevalent and popular than ever before.

But with years of successful and epic failures providing a backdrop for today’s upstart bloggers, what can be learned from the successes and shortcomings of other blogs to help newbies craft the most engaging and effective blog posts possible?

The team at Copyblogger recently compiled a list of eleven essential ingredients that every blog post needs.

The post Blogging is Bigger Than Ever… But Are You Doing it Right? appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

If you search domain names to find a great chunk of digital real estate on which to park the brand of your mobile marketing startup, you may be compelled to leave the .com behind.

“All the good ones are taken,” says Brian Figuro, CEO of a marketing firm launched earlier this month in Chicago. “New mobile marketing companies are having a really hard time finding quality domains because most of the really good ones have been gobbled up.”

Unfortunately, many of these premium domains aren’t in use by anyone, but rather held by domain squatters looking to turn around and sell the domains for a very lofty price to the highest bidder.

Of course, if you think domain squatters are bad, the problem is even more pronounced in the world of mobile apps.

“It turns out that squatters have moved into the app store,” observed Andrew Lim at Recombu in a 2009 report. “They’re worse than domain name squatters though, because you can’t even enter into negotiation with them. You don’t know who they are, or where they are. They take advantage of the fact that a developer can pretend to submit an app, but abandon their submission at the last moment, avoiding the need to actually create an application, but keeping hold of the app’s name. In limbo. Forever.”

To learn more about domain names, their availability, and their importance to a quality web presence, check out 1and1.com.

The post Mobile Marketing Domains Drying Up appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

According to the findings of a new survey shared this week by PayAnywhere, one of the nation’s top mobile payments solutions providers, websites still take the cake.

The survey sponsored by VeriSign revealed that many small businesses are still resisting the social trend. 72 percent of participants reported having a website as the primary online presence to represent their businesses.

This isn’t particularly surprising, the post from PayAnywhere summarizes, especially when a recent Weebly study found that 56 percent of consumers said they do not trust a business without a website.

Businesses everywhere appear to be picking up on this sentiment as nearly two-thirds of respondents chose to create a website above other online platforms because they believed the site would make their company look more credible and agreed a website was critical for a small company’s success.

“While websites are clearly the most preferred online presence of small businesses,” the post continues, “it’s important to incorporate other platforms as well. Even if time seems like your most limited resource, take a look at some additional social media platforms in order to give customers and potential customers a chance to connect with your company and develop loyalty to your brand. Once you’ve mastered your webpage, start a Facebook page and post the link to your website there as well.”

The post Websites Trump Social Media Among Small Businesses appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Called “Scan-to-Login,” Zapper says this easy to implement resource is compatible with major site builders.

A quick scan creates an authenticated “handshake” to quickly, accurately and securely pass user details to the website backend.

According to an announcement Thursday from Zapper, Scan-to-Login makes registration, login and checkout pages as simple as scanning a code with your phone.

“Website owners understand that anything that helps their customers make a purchase is a tremendous advantage,” says Maurice Karpes, Product Manager at Zapper. “Scan-to-Login was designed to enhance e-Commerce, helping customers move quickly once they’ve made the purchase decision. We’ve been getting great feedback on it,” he added.

To learn more about what Zapper is up to with their latest innovation, click here.

The post Zapper Launches Scan-to-Login for eCommerce Convenience appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

As it turns out, if you don’t have anything nice to say… then you should probably join others in the same boat and begin commenting beneath the articles on you read online.

Fortunately, however, it appears a growing number of online readers are beginning to totally ignore these venom-filled comments.

“I’ve often wondered about the value of website comments, which all-too-often are an ill-informed, venomous echo chamber populated by the same handful of trolls,” Matt Carmichael of AdAge writes.

According to the findings of this month’s Ad Age/Ipsos Observer American Consumer Survey, reader comments posted online are beginning to lose general reader interest.

Nearly two thirds of site visitors are now “uninterested in having comments, photos and videos” mixed in with the news content from the staff reporters and editors of their chosen online publications. Translation: message board trolls and your run-of-the-mill verbal attack artists are driving away readers in droves.

Six in ten readers almost always find the nature of reader comments offensive, and “roughly the same number feel that publishers should do more to monitor the comments on the site.”

The post Two-Thirds of Digital Content Readers Don’t Care About Website Reader Comments appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

According to a new report this morning from Ad Age, Time placed first in a new ranking of 87 magazines’ digital intelligence from New York-based think tank L2.

Time scored a “digital IQ” of 140, which puts it squarely in the “genius” category. The ranking “is meant to reflect the quality of magazines’ websites, digital marketing, social-media efforts and mobile presences.”

Ad Age, which poured over the ranking system and its determinations, found that Time earned points for having a Twitter feed “with personality, subscriptions that bundle print with digital access on the iPad and online, a robust Facebook page, a range of apps for various devices and a drive to try new things.”

People magazine finished second overall and Cosmopolitan rounded out the top ten.

Seven magazines – near the tail end of the ranking – were dubbed “feeble.” Those publications include: Traditional Home, Muscle & Fitness, Elle Decor, Star, Men’s Journal, Town & Country and In Touch Weekly.

Surprisingly, “there is a weak relationship between a magazine’s circulation and its number of Facebook likes or Twitter followers,” L2 found. Conversely, the more “fans” a publication has on Facebook, for example, the more difficult it can be to manage those relationships and keep fans engaged.

“While much of the conversation regarding Facebook has been about the size of an organization’s page, we believe that a more important metric is the percentage of the community interacting with brand content,” L2 says. “Across magazines, interaction rates were negatively correlated with page size.”

The post Time Magazine Nabs Top Digital IQ Honors appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Website Magazine

As you can imagine, nearly every mobile company we cover each and every day here on MMW has a spot on the list, with some surprises near the top.  The magazine says its ranks are calculated using a “proprietary method that focuses on average daily unique visitors and page views over a specified period of time, as reported by multiple data sources.”  Though unique visitors and page views alone shouldn’t necessarily determine the top “movers and shakers,” it does provide a unique glimpse into which companies are driving the most traffic these days.

While we won’t go through the entire list, the top 10 includes OfferMobi in the number 10 position, followed by Mobify.me, Onbite, Greystripe, Mofuse, Flurry and Usablenet.  The top 3 include Trumpia at #3, AdMob at #2 and mobileStorm in the number one spot.  Surprisingly, several seemingly large mobile providers came up low on the list, such as Medialets (#28), Smaato (#24) and JumpTap (#16).  For the full list and article, head on over to Website Magazine.

The post Website Magazine Ranks Top 50 “Movers & Shakers” In Mobile Services appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.