While there are already hundreds of thousands of mobile apps out there, this new medium is really still
in its infancy, which means the door is wide open for new ideas. What makes a successful app? Why is
Angry Birds the all-time highest seller on mobile platforms? There isn’t a perfect formula for creating the
next smash hit, but there are a few common attributes all the best apps share.

This is the golden age of the mobile app market. Most customers aren’t clamoring for more advanced
and futuristic apps (devices yeah, apps no), they just want something useful and/or fun they can use on
what they’ve got. If your great idea will only work on the iPhone 12, it’s probably not such a great idea.
So here are some things that make an app successful.

Make it useful

The greatest apps to date have been those that do something we think we need, although we may not
realize we need it until we see it. If your app makes people think to themselves, “Whoa! I can totally
use that! Why didn’t I think of that!” you’ve probably got a winner. Whether it’s Genius Scan for taking
better notes in class, or SwiftKey or Dropbox, if it makes life more efficient or allows me to do something
on the run I previously had to do at a computer (or even worse, by hand), it has a market.

Make it fun

Diversion and entertainment are really needs, and because our lives are busier than ever, we
increasingly turn to our mobile devices to get our fun fix in multiple bite-sized chunks throughout the
day. When I’m waiting in line at the DMV, I need Angry Birds, although lately I’ve been more prone to
use my eBook reader. It’s no mystery why the best-selling apps of all time are games. Mobile games
don’t have to be very complicated or involved, they just have to look good, run smoothly, and satisfy
that unquantifiable x-factor that makes people love something for some reason they can’t quite explain.
Yeah, good luck with that.

Make…money

Successful mobile apps make money. This may seem like a result more than a tip for being successful, but you
need to identify how your app will work for you. You can either sell it on the app markets, or offer it
free as a marketing tool in the hopes that it will attract new customers to your primary business model.
Think of the apps for new movies and TV shows; they don’t really do much by themselves, but they raise
awareness and promote brand. It’s like asking you to download a commercial, and it works! If you’re
looking to make money on the app market you should consider how your app compares to others and
what you think you can charge for it. Offering a free version with limited content or ads can be a great
way to break into the market and test the waters.

Don’t reinvent the wheel… or do…

Many of the great apps, like all great ideas, are simply improvements on existing offerings. A better
camera app, a more intuitive user interface, a keyboard that lets you drag your finger. Don’t feel like you need to start with a fresh concept. If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “This is cool, but I really wish it did
this…,” you may be onto something. That said, some great apps have come out of left field. If you have
a unique idea, give it a try, but be sure it’s well developed before launch because the app market is an
imitator’s paradise.

Go for a niche

Think of a smaller audience with a very specific need and figure out how to fill it. A great example is the
Babyphone app, which lets parents turn their phones into baby monitors that call a specified number
when the baby wakes up. People with specific needs are often willing to pay for tools that help them in
those areas. You probably won’t hit the top of the charts, but you can still produce a really successful
app.

What mobile app ideas have you seen succeed?

Guest Author:  Chris Dayley 

As a customer, you’ve probably experienced the benefits of mobile marketing to give you discounts, specials, and freebies from your favorite brand. Right? Well, as a business owner, you can use this same type of hands-on mobile marketing to reach customers more effectively than ever before.

Even the most popular fast food chains like Subway, Pizza Hut, Burger King, and Wendy’s started marketing to customers with text marketing, iPhone apps, and mobile coupons just a few years ago. Many of these mobile apps will allow a customer to place an order online and pick up their food moments later. Simply brilliant.

Even large retailers like Target, Wal-Mart, and Best Buy stay connected with customers via text for holiday specials and discounts and have introduced iPhone apps to give customers more options. Instead of visiting the official website, customers can read reviews, order products, and create a gift list directly through their mobile phone.

As a business owner, you can take your mobile marketing campaign beyond just the standard text message. You can get creative with the following ideas:

• Mobile Payments: Starbucks recently introduced Starbucks Card Mobile payments available at more than 1000 Safeway locations via the Android App. Customers can load up their Starbucks card on their mobile phone and use their phone to pay for their coffee at their convenience. This means that Starbucks mobile payment is now available on 90% of all smartphones to make it virtually impossible for a customer not to connect with Starbucks through their mobile device.

• Mobile Coupons: Stores like 7-Eleven have tested out scannable mobile coupons from smartphones to give customers bonuses like a free drink on a daily basis. Target introduced the same concept in 2010 by offering scannable mobile coupons sent to customers via text each month. A customer will then scan their mobile device during checkout to receive the discount.

• Smartphone Apps: Sears and J.C. Penney are at the top of the retail category when it comes to iPhone apps, along with other contenders like Amazon and Best Buy. All of these retail apps have convenient store locators, special deals for customers, and a way to create a customizable shopping list to order online or use at a later date.

For business owners, the choice is clear. If you want to connect with your customers even more effectively, it’s time to get creative and move beyond the standard text message. You can reach out to customers using a variety of interactive mobile methods to make it easier than ever before for interested customers to buy from you.

Guest Author:  Bethany Ramos is an expert in Internet marketing and social media marketing, and she also co-owns her own e-commerce website, The Coffee Bump.

If you’re a small business owner who already uses text message marketing, then you’re on the right track. But it’s still important to stay up-to-date with the latest mobile marketing trends to ensure that you too can stay ahead of the pack.

Currently, there are four times as many mobile phones in the world as opposed to PC users. Roughly 20% of houses in the US are mobile only without a landline.

When you consider that we send 130 billion text messages each month, mobile marketing can be incredibly lucrative for small and large businesses if it is approached correctly. This is precisely why so many businesses have embraced text message marketing wholeheartedly as the most popular form of mobile marketing. Which is why text messaging is now becoming more mainstream than ever before.

To best grasp the concept, text messaging should be compared to e-mail marketing and can be used in the same way that you would create an e-mail campaign. Of course, instead of encouraging your customers to give you their e-mail address for a newsletter or a coupon, you’ll be asking for a mobile phone number to send the same type of condensed updates to a mobile phone.

Yet mobile marketing provides an even greater benefit. You don’t have to go to the trouble of creating a fancy e-mail campaign with images and video because you’ll only be using 160 characters of a text message. Even if a customer doesn’t make a sale the first time, 97% of your customers will still read your text message because it’s so short. You can’t beat those odds!

Businesses have been using text messages to reach out to customers for several years. A Comscore study has confirmed that 25% of all mobile phone users have signed up for anywhere from 1 to 10 text messaging programs on a monthly basis. This means that customers are ready and willing, and you can reach them with your marketing message at any time away from home.

And the text marketing trend continues. People of all ages are using texts for communication, meaning that businesses can use text message marketing for all generations. More and more customers are searching for mobile coupons as our economy recovers from the recession and programs like Groupon rise in popularity. As a result, a number of retail stores, grocers, and restaurants have launched mobile coupon marketing programs to reach out to more customers.

Last but not least, the result that can’t be beat in text marketing is the impressive ROI. A text message will normally get seven times the response rate as an e-mail, meaning that the same message sent out to the same group of customers via text versus e-mail will be much more successful to generate even more sales and revenue.

Guest Author:  Bethany Ramos is an expert in Internet marketing and social media marketing, and she also co-owns her own e-commerce website, The Coffee Bump.

Since the first point-of-sale terminals hit retail and restaurant locations around the country in 1979, credit card processing technology has continued to make large leaps forward with both advantages and disadvantages to business owners. The latest jump has been gaining traction in the last 24 months and promises to revolutionize the merchant services industry in the near future.

Credit card processing firms, fortune 500 companies, the nation’s largest banks, and a number of enterprising entrepreneurs have been pouring billions of dollars into a new technology called mobile processing. The idea of mobile processing is simple: allow a merchant or individual to process, pay or manage their payments on the go and from their mobile devices.

Mobile Processing for Businesses

One of the simplest applications for mobile processing comes from the co-founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, who in 2009 started a new company called Square (www.squareup.com). Square allows an individual or business to accept a swiped credit card using nothing but their iPhone/Android phone and a little card reader that attaches directly to the device’s headphone jack. The unit is no bigger than a silver dollar and allows credit card transactions to be processed at the cheaper swiped rate versus a keyed in card.

Square mobile processing is unique because it carries with it fixed rates regardless of the card type. Small business owners who have had bad experiences with processing firms and are tired of dealing with difficult to understand processing statements may find the simplicity refreshing. However, Square’s limitation comes from the total processing amount allowed per merchant. The initial limit is only $1000 per month, which is a very small amount for any organization operating full time.

For business owners that are looking for a little more flexibility and processing volume, a new device called ROAMpay is a great alternative to Square. ROAMpay is not a processor and will not manage a business merchant account. Instead, their equipment will work together with a merchant’s current processing company and allow for mobile processing directly from an employee’s smartphone.

The major advantage a small business will see from mobile processing is the reduced cost when accepting a credit or debit card away from a standard terminal. Processing companies charge extra fees for cards that are keyed in rather than swiped because the likelihood of fraud is greater. Service-based businesses, especially those done off-site, will potentially see the greatest benefit.

Consumer Behavior is Changing

Mobile payment processing is not only changing the way business is done, it is also changing the way that consumers pay for goods and services. In the last decade, MasterCard introduced Near-Field Communication technology into some of their credit cards that allowed a consumer to simply waive their card in front of a NFC equipped point-of-sale terminal rather than handing their card over for processing. This technology was reserved for gas stations and supermarkets at first, but has gained popularity with other retail businesses in the last few years.

Google Wallet has taken the same Near-Field Communication technology and started putting them into their smartphones. These phones allow a consumer to attach a credit card to their smart phone’s NFC chip and simply wave their phone in front of the same properly equipped POS terminals.

This is important for small businesses, especially in the retail sector, because it shows a shift in consumer behavior and expectations. There were many small business owners that refused to accept credit cards due largely in part to the excess fees. However, as more and more consumers began expecting a merchant to accept them, it forced business owners to adapt in order to compete.

Guest Author: Eric Stauffer is a writer for CardPaymentOptions.com. Their focus is to help small business owners navigate the murky waters of the credit card processing and merchant services industry.

Under the broad umbrella of mobile marketing is location based marketing. Savvy smartphone users everywhere can pull up local search results on their phones at any time. These same smartphone users rely upon location based apps and social networks to share, interact, meet, and even recommend certain places to their online friends.

Some top location based networks for mobile users include:

• Foursquare
• Gowalla
• Loopt
• Yelp

As a business owner, the first step in the process to maximize this mobile marketing platform is to understand how each location based social network works. Most users will rely on the above apps on their smartphones to check in to certain locations to alert their friends of their whereabouts. The same feature can also be used with Facebook Places.

In order to get acclimated, download all of the above apps to your smartphone so that you can understand how each is best used.

The next step in the process is to set clear goals for what you hope to accomplish with the use of location mobile marketing for your business. Perhaps you want to increase local traffic to your retail store, raise awareness about a new shop that has opened up, or even bring back repeat customers to support your business.

After these goals have been set in place, it’s time to make a splash into the many location based social networks. It’s important that your business is listed clearly on the each of the above networks with the right address, hours, phone number, and description. If another user has added your business, they could have gotten quite a bit of the information incorrect, causing interested customers unnecessary frustration.

Last but not least, it’s time to synchronize all of your mobile marketing efforts and tell your customers where they can easily find you online. The truth is that local customers are looking to connect with local businesses online as well as offline.

So, by adding a sign to your storefront telling customers to check you out on Yelp and encouraging your Facebook fans to check in to your business on Foursquare to spread the word, you’re making an impact in the location based social networks. This ripple effect will make it easy for new customers to find you, and it will also keep your brand name out there to encourage customer loyalty. Win-win!

Guest Author: Bethany Ramos is an expert in Internet marketing and social media marketing, and she also co-owns her own e-commerce website, The Coffee Bump.

Sure, you can try your hand at mobile marketing as a small business owner, but what’s going to guarantee that you’ll be a success? How do you know that you’re not going to waste thousands of dollars of your advertising budget trying to reach your customers through text or smartphone apps?

Fortunately, the answer is simple. As a small business owner, you can develop a clear mobile marketing strategy that will ensure that you avoid many common mistakes that competitors in your industry have likely made by now. When mobile marketing is approached correctly, you can reach your customers even more effectively, quickly update them about product news and specials, and boost your sales as a result.

1. What phones are your customers using? This may be a no-brainer, but you need to find out what type of phones that your customer base uses on a regular basis. If your customers don’t have smartphones, then there’s no use in creating a smartphone app. On the flipside, if your customer base uses smartphones exclusively, then your best bet would be to create a smartphone app to market to your customers or to have a presence on a smartphone social media location-based app, like Yelp or Foursquare.

Think about the fact that 33% of people in the US are using smartphones, and that number is only expected to increase. It’s likely that your customers are already using a smartphone, but it’s important to find out before planning your marketing strategy.

2. Ask for customers’ mobile phone numbers. It never hurts to ask! In all of your marketing materials or on your blog or website, give your customers the option to opt-in via text for more information about your business or products.

Make sure that you are crystal clear in your intention. By telling your customers that if they give you their phone number, you will send them text messages with exclusive product specials, you’re likely to quickly build up your mobile marketing list of customers.

3. Track your results carefully. Instead of just sending out mobile marketing text messages blindly and hoping for the best results, carefully track when customers opt in or opt out based on your marketing message.

If you sent out a particularly great product deal that got a lot of attention and increased your sales, then focus on that strategy when marketing via text to your customers. By using this analytic approach, you can detect any weak areas in your marketing campaign and ensure that you focus on your strengths to increase your profit even further.

Have you tried mobile marketing?  What other tips can you share?

Guest Author: Bethany Ramos is an expert in Internet marketing and social media marketing, and she also co-owns her own e-commerce website, The Coffee Bump.

Text message marketing campaigns can be fantastically effective for several reasons:

• Quick and easy to prepare and send
• One of the lowest cost forms of direct marketing
• Response rates can be measured
• They have unbeatable delivery and open (i.e., read by recipients) rates

However, the very benefits offered by text message marketing also mean they have to be used with care.  Below are some highly effective tips to consider before you send your first text message marketing campaign.

Get a clear opt-in

Most people consider their mobile phone to be an extension of their personal space. This makes a text message very intrusive. Make sure your sign-up process is clear and unambiguous. Tell people that they will receive marketing texts from your business, what they’ll be about and roughly how frequently.

Avoid subscriber fatigue

Because they’re so potentially intrusive, most customers have a lower patience threshold when it comes to receiving marketing text messages. Use them sparingly, and only when you have something genuinely valuable for the customer. Treat each campaign as if it’s your last, and your business survival depends on it.

Track response rates

This means you can adjust campaigns to suit what your customers actually want. It involves having customers treat a text message as a coupon, e.g., to benefit from a 2 for 1 deal they have to display the text in-store. You can either just record the total number of vouchers redeemed, or you can identify every individual coupon redeemed using a merge field. The merge field would be a unique ID that you assign to each individual mobile phone number. This would be automatically displayed in the body of every single text message. A bit more work, but a great way to add segmentation to your marketing list.

Record unsubscribes

Every text message must give customers the option to opt out, quickly and easily. If you don’t have your text message and customer database systems automatically joined up, you’ll have to record unsubscribes manually. One low cost option is to set up a mobile phone number to receive just unsubscribe messages. Or, your text delivery service may be able to help set you up with an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed to a web page or email address of your choice. Either way, you must remember to manually update your customer records.

Have you launched your first text message campaign?  What other text messaging tips can you share with readers?

Guest Author: After many years of business experience, George Drever has learned the hard way what does and doesn’t work when building a profitable marketing list and creating compelling email and text message campaigns.  He strongly believes an opted-in customer database is the most under-used asset in business.  His consultancy website helps small businesses avoid the same steep learning curve he encountered in getting the most out of direct marketing.

Mobile marketing is perhaps one of the best ways to grab the attention of your customers when they’re out and about. If your customers aren’t plugged into their computers, you can still update them with promotions and news in mere seconds. It can’t be beat.

But now that the benefits of mobile marketing are clear, how can you make this style of marketing work for your business? The good news is that mobile marketing campaigns often have excellent open rates at up to 98%, according to Frost & Sullivan statistics. This is impressive when compared to the average open rates of an e-mail marketing campaign, which often range from 15-30%.

This doesn’t mean that you have to throw email marketing by the wayside, but you can enhance your results by taking your marketing campaign to the mobile arena to reach out to your customers even more effectively.

Of course, you only get 160 characters or less to send your message, so you need to make them count.

1. Send Simple Messages

Keeping it simple is the way to go by sending out only one message per text. If you have been sending out a regular e-mail marketing campaign, then you may be used to covering several topics in your marketing message. The same does not hold true for mobile marketing! Make sure that each text message sent out has a simple, uniform message advertising an event, product special, or store discount.

2. Introduce Yourself

Even though a customer may have willingly opted-in to your mobile marketing list, their mobile phone may not show the sender of the message. To make your customer more comfortable and to reduce the risk of them deleting your message, introduce your brand and throw in the type of products that you offer if there is still space. Also, if you happen to be advertising an event or sale at a store location, make sure that you include the exact location to avoid any confusion.

3. Don’t Forget Your Call to Action

Last but not least, your mobile marketing messages won’t be effective if you don’t include your call to action. You need to ask your customer to act by interacting with your business, whether it is visiting your store, attending an event, or purchasing a product online. Think about what you want to achieve from the message that you’re sending. Make sure to ask each customer to take action within the text, or you’re not likely to see the marketing return that you were hoping for.

Guest Author: Bethany Ramos is an expert in Internet marketing and social media marketing, and she also co-owns her own e-commerce website, The Coffee Bump.

Right now, 91% of Americans are mobile subscribers. In fact, mobile devices like smartphones are soon expected to surpass the popularity of PCs as a primary technological tool by the year 2013, according to a Gartner study.

For a business owner, the mobile market is pure advertising gold. Since 91% of the population is plugged into their mobile devices at any given time, you have the opportunity to reach out to potential customers on the go, provide them with information about your products and services, and encourage them to connect with your business either locally or online.

So how can you use mobile marketing to improve your marketing efforts as a business owner?

1. Text Messaging: Text messaging, also called SMS messaging, is a primary means of mobile marketing for many businesses. Customers can willingly opt-in to your text messaging list just as they would with an online e-mail list.

When customers type in a specific keyword or short code, they will be placed on your text message marketing list. Your text messaging service can then send out periodic text updates to interested customers about product specials, discounts, or events regarding your company.

2. Mobile E-mail Lists: If your business already has a solid e-mail marketing strategy, then you can use this same technique to reach out to mobile customers. For the many customers out there that have smartphones, they are ready and willing to connect via e-mail through their mobile devices.

You can ask customers to opt-in to your e-mail list through your website or text you their e-mail addresses to join your list. From there, the e-mails that you send out to your mobile subscribers can be customized for a mobile-friendly marketing campaign. They can include such options as displaying coupons on smartphones or allowing a customer to click on a business’s phone number instead of a web link.

3. Mobile Social Media: Since smartphones are soon becoming even more popular than PCs, you can greatly improve the visibility of your business by connecting with your customers through mobile social media applications.

By establishing your business’s presence on Facebook and Twitter, customers can like your posts or respond to your tweets when they are on the go. These same customers can also re-tweet and re-post your information if they find it relevant, thus giving you the opportunity to spread your marketing message to a whole new demographic!

Perhaps the best rule of thumb when it comes to a mobile marketing strategy is to give in order to get. If you begin to provide your customers with valuable information through text updates, mobile e-mails, and mobile social media posts, then you will be able to attract loyal customers to support your brand well into the future.

Guest Author: Bethany Ramos is an expert in Internet marketing and social media marketing, and she also co-owns her own e-commerce website, The Coffee Bump.

The Apple iPhone is an incredible expansion of the individual’s ability to communicate. While some may dismiss it as an electronic leisure item merely designed to appeal to the nation’s lust for high tech toys, the fact is that any communicative device, especially one as ingenious and versatile as the iPhone, can be a great asset in business, including Internet marketing.

With a device like the iPhone, which combines separate and once bulky capabilities into a single compact package, your improvement in efficiency can be nothing less than dramatic. Any business needs to move quickly in order to maximize its profits. Anything that might contribute to lag time or a slowing down of its ability to conduct business will keep it from devoting its resources to generating maximum income.

Whether you’re managing your time, projects or clients, the iPhone makes the perfect business partner. FaceTime makes video calling a reality, so you can see who you’re talking to. The Retina Display offers the highest resolution screen ever on the phone, and multitasking allows you to give everything your undivided attention. Plus, HD video recording gives you a great opportunity to share what you’re seeing with others on the spot.

The vast array of business apps available for the iPhone make it an indispensable tool.  The LinkedIn app gives you instant access to your professional network. You can add new contacts on the spot and appraise others of your work with your own status updates.

Want more? The OnlyWire app allows you to update your status and post bookmarks on over 40 social bookmarking sites with one click.

Apple’s own database program, Bento, helps you manage everything from to do lists to event planning and business contacts, while Salesforce Mobile (a subscription-based service) gives you instant access to business and client data wherever you may be. You can log sales, access charts and graphs, and respond to new leads right from your phone.

FedEx Mobile for iPhone lets you track all of your shipments. Simply enter your tracking number to check up on the status of a delivery, or auto track them all with a handy watch list.

Cisco WebEx Meeting Center allows you to participate in meetings and interact in real time over either WiFi or 3G.

If you work with clients, iTimeSheet can help you track your time by client as well as your activity reports and create invoices. Plus, you can export the data to Microsoft Excel, so you’ll never forget what you did for whom.

As for keeping track of all these passwords, you’re all set here as well. 1Password remembers them, along with credit card numbers and other sensitive information so you don’t have to do so, and it uses multilayer security and powerful encryption to keep your data safe.

Consider how tremendous has been the impact of the advent of communications devices. In the 1860s, people had to wait to learn of the Lincoln Douglas debates until word of it reached the newspapers. Now people use their cell phones to tweet about historic events as they happen.

Business has been similarly revolutionized, and with the iPhone, you can carry your office with you in an enclosure that’s a mere 9.3 millimeters thin.

You might get the impression that the Mac is the forgotten stepchild of the Internet marketing industry. But did you know that some of the top names in Internet Marketing use Macs? Get a FREE 75-page ebook that covers everything you need to know about running your Internet business using a Mac, iPhone and iPad here.

Guest Author: Timothy Arends

It was only a few short years ago that mobile searching meant driving to the nearest library and ploughing through dusty tomes to find information that would at best be slightly out of date, and at worst, utterly wrong.

The development of mobile phones has changed all this, and it is now easy to search for information wherever a phone signal can be found. This has opened up a whole vista of possibilities and has been extremely successful. Now many businesses, as well as millions of individuals, not only use mobile searching as one of their key methods of accessing information, but as a new way to access tools such as mobile billing.

Recently, there have been a number of developments that promise to take mobile searching to a whole new level and maximize its potential to such a degree that it may even become the dominant search platform of the next decade.

Google has fired the first salvo in the battle for mobile search dominance with the launch of Google Instant. Essentially a real-time search engine, current estimates are that it can on average take two seconds off a search. This, of course, may not seem like much but when you consider how many searches an average business’s employees carry out in a month, the total time saving becomes significant.

It is therefore unsurprising that this is often the single most important point for millions of users. Time is a commodity that has never been more in demand and it therefore follows that anything that can provide the user with a time saving is something that will play a pivotal role in the future.

Beyond this what does the future hold? Although predicting the future in the world of technology is always a risky business, there are some things that we can say with a degree of certainty:

• Google Instant will continue to develop and at the same time, other search engines will move towards the real-time model.

• Search engine focus will move in the direction of personalized searches. These will utilize an individual’s data (with their permission) to help narrow down search criteria. For example if a user has a large database of music, web articles and images of the Rolling Stones and they then use a search engine to look for “stones”, it will automatically look for relevant information on the rock group and ignore anything to do with pebbles.

• Social networks will play an increasingly important role in search engine results. In practice this will mean that a search engine will use the information not just about the user, but that of the user’s social network. This promises many great advantages chief among them a much more focused set of search engine results.

• Perhaps the most exciting development and the one with the potential for biggest leap forward in mobile search is the possibility of automatic searches that continue even when the user is not online. This could work by using a combination of search history, social networks and a predictive element that will result in future searches being much more focused and efficient.

This ability to have a much more user-centric mobile experience will benefit not just the ability to advance mobile searching, but other key elements such as mobile payments. A more receptive and intelligent mobile platform will help it become much more intuitive and along with the ability to have much more refined search results, the outcome will be an enhanced mobile experience.The future of search is both exciting for the user and full of possibilities for the business.

It is time to ask: what can my mobile search do for me?

Guest Author: Vera Mosley is an expert in mobile marketing. She is also a blogger and freelance writer for a mobile aggregator.  Additionally, Vera loves to spend time outdoors with her family.

The Droid is quickly gaining popularity with phone users looking for a functional, attractive alternative to the iPhone, and the impressive selection of free Droid apps is one reason. If you’re using a Droid phone and haven’t added any slick applications yet, it’s time to explore. Here are some impressive apps you’ll love and should not do without:

1. Layar

This augmented reality program downloads digital information in real time to your phone. Wherever you are, simply take a quick picture with your camera and Layar will superimpose information over the image, providing information on everything from the temperature to restaurant information and nearby hot spots. Layar uses the camera, compass, and GPS on your Droid to determine where you are and give you pertinent information.

2. Tweetcaster or Seesmic

These are both Droid apps that let you follow and manage multiple Twitter accounts. You can see who’s following you, update your Twitter accounts and retweet. If you’re an unrepentant Twitter addict, either of these apps will help you get your fix while you’re on the move.

3. Barcode Scanner

This practical app makes comparison shopping a breeze. Simply scan the UPC code on anything with your camera, and you can launch price comparisons across the Internet and from store to store. You can even download additional specs about the product and check the inventory at local stores.

4. PayPal

If you’re running a business or like to manage your bills online, the Droid PayPal app is darn near perfect. It lets you do just about anything you can do with PayPal on your computer, including sending and receiving money, invoicing, and reviewing your account. It even has a nifty little feature to help you split bills properly if you’re dining out. The “Bump” feature lets you transfer money from one account to another simply by bumping two Droids with the PayPal app together.

5. Fake-Call Me

Here’s one that everyone will want to use at some point, but most of us will feel mildly guilty the first time. You’ll get over it. With Fake-Call Me, you can program your Droid to ring wherever and whenever you want, giving you a graceful out no matter who you’re talking to. Cornered at a boring networking event? When your phone rings, glance at the screen and say, “Oh! It’s my mother, I’m sorry but I have to take this. She’s been sick.” The fact that you can flash them a look at your screen, where your mother’s name will indeed be displayed, makes this a practically foolproof way to do the fade. You can choose who the call will be from and even opt for a pre-recorded conversation that comes on when you “answer.” Yes, it’s sly and a bit sneaky, but you’ll use it.

6. FourSquare

Now you can keep tabs on your friends and stay in touch easily while you move around your city. FourSquare lets you know where they are and what they’re doing, making it easy to choose a place to meet that’s easy for everyone. You can also give tips to your friends about places you’ve been. Is the coffee lousy at that new bistro? Let everyone know on FourSquare. Most users also end up competing for “Mayorship” of favorite locales; it’s good, clean fun and rather addictive. The less talked about joy of FourSquare is that you can also use it to avoid people, like that pesky ex.

7. Anything Google

There are maps, navigation tools, and information apps galore by Google that will work on your Droid. Go ahead and download all of them, because they’ll come in handy at some point. Perhaps the greatest Google App is Google Voice, which lets you make long distance calls over Google, saving you a bundle on your long distance phone bills. You’ll even save a significant amount on international calls. They also offer an awesome Sky Map of the night sky. Just hold your Droid up and you’ll soon see a detailed map of the stars and constellations above you.

8. Pandora

Sure, you can listen to your iPod, but after you’ve listened to your play list about a thousand times, you’re probably desperate for a great radio station. You can tailor multiple radio feeds to your listening preferences and listen any time you like, but the nicest aspect of this Droid app is that you can plug in to your car radio whenever you like and get music you’re guaranteed to love.

9. USA Today

Keep current on politics, finance, and breaking news with one of the best newspaper downloads you’ll find. This is the nicest newspaper app for Droid you’ll find, with good graphics and easy navigation.

10. Talk to Me

This is an impressive auto translator app. Simply talk in English, and then choose the language you want to translate to; your Droid will translate and speak in the language of your choice. If you’ll be traveling overseas, this is the ultimate auto translator to smooth the way toward better international relations. Supported languages for the speech mode include Spanish, Italian, German and French. There are about 40 additional languages that can translate if you type in the words.

What are your favorite free Droid apps? Is there one app you just can’t live without?

Guest Author: Vernon Marker is a Droid fanatic and a freelance writer for a company that specializes in small business phones. When he is not downloading the latest apps or writing, he loves to travel around the world. Follow him on Twitter @VernMarker.