TextMarks Pro Service clients now have even more power and control over the end-user experience.

The “Reply Y to confirm subscription” messages sent to new users can now be customized to include the name of your service, a brief description, or even a clickable link specific to each user!

To use this new functionality:

1. You must subscribe to TextMarks Pro Service.
2. Make an API call to Messaging.subscribe() using the new “desc” parameter.

Based on the feedback we’ve been receiving, this will be a welcome addition that should allow clients to provide fully customized experiences for their end users, all with very little work on their part thanks to TextMarks’ powerful API and platform.

Troubleshooting Tip:  If you’re an active Pro Service client trying to get this to work but aren’t receiving any text messages, you may be experiencing our SPAM filter (you’ll thank us later).  One way to clear your phone# to receive more subscription confirmation messages is to type your phone# into a widget for a different TextMark (such as those in our “Widgets” tab).

A new Drupal module is available to help web sites easily integrate TextMarks functionality and broadcast SMS text messages to their users.  (Drupal is a popular open source content management platform.)

This module provides three screens in Drupal:

1. A settings screen to track your API connection settings (see below)
2. A screen to send messages to all subscribers of your TextMark
3. A screen to subscribe a mobile number to your TextMark (the mobile user must opt-in)

Drupal Module Settings

Great work, Justin!

TextMarks Pro Service enables organizations and web sites of all sizes to communicate via text messages with their communities. TextMarks focus remains on ease of use, allowing customers to be up and running within minutes. Use cases include SMS enabling web sites, sending text alerts and creating mobile hot-lines. TextMarks has been popular at academic institutions, religious organizations and sports teams. The new Pro Service from TextMarks, which starts at $9.95 per month, complements TextMarks’ original ad-supported solution, which is experiencing rapid growth.

Press Release: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/10/prweb1435634.htm

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) October 7, 2008 — TextMarks Inc., a leading provider of text messaging solutions for consumers, organization and Web sites, announced today the availability of its Pro Service. The new service complements TextMarks standard ad-supported service with a solution for those who don’t want ads inside their messages or want access to the entire 160 characters in each text message.

“The response to our original ad supported service has been terrific,” said Ariel Poler, CEO of TextMarks, “but we did hear from a number of users that they were willing to pay to avoid having ads in their messages. So we decided to launch an alternative that would retain the ease of use and extensive functionality of our original service while giving complete control of the messages to our customers.”

TextMarks Pro, which starts at $9.95 per month and scales with usage, is entirely self-service. Customers can be up and running, sending and receiving text messages to their community, in a matter of minutes. Unlike alternatives that require extensive technical integration and delays, the TextMarks service can be set-up without any technical knowledge. Those who want a more seamless integration can leverage TextMarks simple APIs and self-service provisioning system.

Initial customers of TextMarks Pro include event organizers, religious organizations, small merchants, advertising agencies, and web based applications. TextMarks is particularly well suited for sending time-sensitive reminders to a young demographic that relies more on SMS than on email. It is also ideal for situations in which people are not in front of their computers, but do have their cell phones. Numerous web based applications have also discovered that they can use TextMarks to easily add two way text messaging capabilities.

For more information about the TextMarks Pro Service please visit: TextMarks Pro Service.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today signed into law a measure banning motorists from text messaging and e-mailing while operating a vehicle.

“Building on legislation already helping save lives in California, I am happy to sign this bill because it further encourages safe and responsible driving,” Schwarzenegger said in a statement. “Banning electronic text messaging while driving will keep drivers’ hands on the wheel and their eyes on the road, making our roadways a safer place for all Californians.”

The bill takes effect Jan. 1 2009. It was written by State Sen. Joe Simitian, who also authored the cellphone ban.

TextMarks encourages you to text safely and appropriately!

(Scoop courtesy of Bottleneck Blog)

The TextMarks XML-RPC API now has a new method to send an SMS to a single user.

The Messaging package now supports both the original 1) Messaging/postAlert() to broadcasts to all subscribers of a specific TextMark, as well as 2) the new Messaging/sendText() method to send to a single subscriber.

The PHP Client Library has been updated to provide easy access to this new call.

Example code:

<?php
require “TextMarksAPIClient.class.php”;

// Authenticate to TextMarks API:
$sMyApiKey = ‘MyAPIKEY_12345678′;
$sMyTextMarksUser = ‘mytmuser’;
$sMyTextMarksPass = ‘mytmp@$$word’;
$sKeyword = ‘MYKEYWORD’;


// Send an SMS to a single TextMark subscriber:
$sTo = ‘415-555-1212′;
$sMessage = “Order 534 ready for pickup! –EnviroClean 800-555-1212″;
$tmapi = new TextMarksAPIClient_Messaging( $sMyApiKey, $sMyTextMarksUser, $sMyTextMarksPass );
$tmapi->sendText($sKeyword, $sTo, $sMessage);
?>

Full documentation is available at the following resources:

Developer Center:
http://www.textmarks.com/dev/

XML-RPC API Overview:
http://www.textmarks.com/dev/docs/api/

XML-RPC API Method Reference:
http://www.textmarks.com/dev/docs/api/ref/

New sendText() Method:
http://www.textmarks.com/dev/docs/api/ref/Messaging/sendText/

The Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project is the country’s oldest and largest non-partisan youth voter mobilization campaign. Over the past twenty-five years, they’ve run massive voter registration and get out the vote drives that have turned out millions of young people to vote.

For 2008, the New Voters Project added a set of tech tools to complement its traditional tactics - including a fresh new website, a Facebook application, and a cutting-edge voter registration widget. In addition, they wanted to find ways to utilize text messaging. Their audience - college students - texts each other all the time and it seemed like there should be ways to put this to use to help promote voting.

They chose to use Textmarks as a way to get the word out, because “it was an easy way to quickly take advantage of texting tools.”

When students text STUDENTVOTE to 41411, they get back a reply that says “Register to vote at www.StudentVote.org. Make sure to forward this to 10 of your friends!”

Students on over 100 colleges have been plastering campuses with signs that say “text studentvote to 41411.” In addition, students have been taking a more active approach to promoting the service, by stopping students on campus and asking them to send the text right there. When they get back the automatic reply, they’re then asked to immediately forward the message to at least ten of their friends.

So far, nearly 3000 students have used the service, and they’ve forwarded the studentvote message on to over 20,000 of their friends. It’s proved to be a fun and effective way to promote voter registration and spread the word about the campaign.

For more information about the Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project, visit www.NewVotersProject.org.

Webmonkey just published a great tutorial to help you get started with a simple request/response SMS text messaging app powered by TextMarks. Their example app lets you find out sunrise/sunset times for any location by simply texting e.g. “sunrise portland or” to 41411.

« Click for Webmonkey tutorial

TextMarks user Jesse Andrews saw this tutorial, and in only 14 minutes built his own app to lookup ISBN numbers by SMS! Read about his experience:

Google, Amazon, and TextMark (and web.py) have made building an SMS app trivial and fun. Also the user experience is much nicer than with Twitter. Users of my twitter bots have to: 1) follow the bot, 2) private messages d amazon [ISNB].

Overview

Instead of giving out paper business cards, give a keyword anybody can text to 41411 and get your contact info texted back automatically. Save a tree, travel light, win friends, and influence people!

What it looks like

Here’s how a typical exchange might go:

Alice: “OK Bob, I’ll contact you next week. Do you have a business card?”

Bob: “Business cards are so 20th century. Just get out your phone and text BIGBOB to 41411.”

Alice: “Hmm… OK, cool.” Alice sends the following text message…

Text the keyword to 41411

TextMarks servers receive the message, look up Bob’s keyword, and respond with his information. Within a few seconds, Alice gets a text message back from 41411…

How the response looks on a phone

Alice: “Wow, neato! I’ll call you on Monday! I gotta get me one of those.”

Step by Step

Follow these easy steps to create your own free (std text charges apply) mobile business card.

1. Go to www.textmarks.com.
2. Click the “CREATE” tab.
   

   Click the "CREATE" tab.

3. Select your unique keyword (”BIGBOB” in the example above), type in your response, and set the options as shown:
   

   Set the options and fill out the form as shown here.

4. Click the “CREATE” button. Now test it from your phone!
5. Important: Your new TextMark will expire in 24 hours if you don’t register on the next screen!
6. Once you’re registered, you can login and click on the “MANAGE” tab any time to view stats, change your response, tell TextMarks to send you an SMS each time your keyword is requested (including the other person’s phone#), and lots more.

Want to let your blog readers subscribe to your blog’s RSS via SMS?  TextMarks user Michael Yuan used the TextMarks API to create a WordPress plugin to do just that.

It’s very easy to use.  Below is a screenshot of the admin’s settings.  Visit Michael’s blog to get the plugin and installation instructions.

Great work, Michael!

TextMarks is pleased to announce a new service for professional users to remove the ads from text messages sent through our service!

The TextMarks service has been free to use since we launched. Of course wireless carriers charge for SMS, but TextMarks has never charged users for using our service. We’ve been able to offer this free service by including small unobtrusive ads in the footers of most messages. We don’t send unsolicited ads and don’t plan to.

With our new Pro Service, not only are the ads removed, but you get to use the space they took up. Pro Service messages can be up to 160 chars (as opposed to 120 for messages with ads). Along with the Pro Service are other goodies like reserved keywords and more.

This new TextMarks Pro Service is a subscription plan with many affordable price points (starting at $9.95/mo) to match your messaging volume needs. Take a look at our Pro Service Subscription Plans.

We’re not taking away our free service, and we encourage you to use it if it’s appropriate for your needs, or to prototype an application prior to subscribing to the Pro Service. But we have heard lots of feedback from our user community asking how to get rid of the ads especially in some of these cases where they were deemed inappropriate:

• Professional applications desiring a white-label service for their SMS components.
• Religious text messaging services (broadcasting alerts to church groups, Jewish holiday announcements and candle lighting times, etc.)
• Youth-oriented text messaging services (class updates, schools, camps, etc.)
• Political text messaging services.

We listened, and we hope that this new service meets your needs. Feedback is welcome.

Pro Service Plans: http://www.textmarks.com/pro/options/

Pro Service FAQ: http://www.textmarks.com/info/help/#hlpsProSvc