FAB Affiliate Programme

The FAB Affiliate Programme is now available, earn money or SMS credits by recommending FAB Products and Services.

Providing something a little different in an affiliate programme we’ve decided to allow payments either via PayPal or SMS credits. This allows us to remove the minimum payment limits that most affiliate schemes enforce. Affiliates can choose at any time their preference for payment if choosing to have SMS credits added to their account we will add an additional 10% to the value of earnings .

We’ve coded the affiliate tracking software ourselves, we’ve done this as we have more than one website participating in the affiliate scheme and plans to add a lot more. Existing affiliate tracking software and networks couldn’t cater for the unusual set up we have and besides we also wanted to reward our affiliates with lifetime commissions. Affiliate networks come and go as well as software vendors so we couldn’t rely on the ability to pay lifetime commissions if we hadn’t written the tracking software ourselves.

It works very well, initially tracking visitors with a 30 day cookie until they sign-up and create a customer record with us, there after the customer is assigned to the referring affiliate and any future purchases are acrediting to the affiliate for the lifetime of the customer. Rediual income can be made indefinately.

Which some very generous commissions available why not sign up to our affiliate programme yourself? Visit our website and follow further instructions.

Send SMS bigger than 160 characters

Being restricted to 160 characters can be a bit of a bind when sending SMS text messages to customers, staff and colleagues. To bring us in line with some of our competitors we are please to say we can now send text messages bigger than 160 characters to compatible mobiles. The theorectical size of a SMS text message we can send is now 38,250 characters long. Yes you read that right 38,250 characters, long  enough to send the first four chapters of Tolstoys’s War and Peace! It would only take 83 of our super-sized messages to send the entire book!

So how does it work?

Well it’s a little smoke a mirrors really, it’s not physically possible to send a message bigger than 160 characters instead we send lots of smaller messages that reform on a compatible handset to make one long SMS message. You get billed for each of the smaller messages but the limit of 160 characters can now be ignored if need to get your message across 

For more information and to send SMS bigger than 160 characters from your computer please visit our main website at www.fabit.com

Introducing Web SMS from FAB

We are pleased to announce the release of Web SMS, a new SMS service for sending and receiving SMS text messages using your browser.

Utilising the same SMS sending account as our popular FAB SMS Addin for Microsoft Outlook you can now choose between sending SMS via your desktop and now via the Web.

 

• Easy to use: we’ve designed our Web SMS service to be as familiar as using Web based email.
• No specialised hardware or software to install, just use your favourite Web Browser to send and receive SMS messages.
• Quick & reliable; messages are typically delivered within seconds using high quality routes to ensure delivery.
• Saves time contacting multiple recipients when compared to traditional telephone contact.
• Save money when compared to other marketing media or sending SMS to international destinations.
• Use either or both WebSMS and the FAB SMS Addin for Microsoft Outlook to send & receive SMS from your computer

When used in conjuction with a dedicated inbound SMS number, WebSMS allows you to receive replies and/or have inbound SMS delivered straight to your personal SMS inbox. This provides a complete online SMS solution.

For more information about acquiring a dedicated inbound SMS number please visit our website at www.fabit.com , call us 0844 884 2535, email us or Text Us on 01424 400007 (which we will receive in our online inbox)

If you already have a SMS account with us you can login now and start enjoying the benefits of WebSMS. Alternatively if you would like to know more click the “tell me more” button below.

FAB SMS for Estate Agents

We are pleased to announce the release of our new Text Messaging System for Estate Agents & Letting Agents. You are now able to send SMS Text Messages to vendors, rental clients and prospects quickly, easily and reliably with just a few clicks of the mouse.

Our service is a collection or suite of programs designed to work together to provide a comprehensive system for sending and managing SMS communications in your Agency and effectively creating a simplified property management system. The suite of programs that make up FAB SMS for Estate Agents are:

 

• Web SMS: a browser based application for composing your messages online
• A dedicated inbound SMS number (local geographic) for accepting SMS and including on saleboards
• SMS Inbox: A Hotmail/GMail style inbox for receiving and viewing your received Text Messages
• SMS Keyword Manager: For responding to inbound SMS in different ways eg Setting Autoresponders to return particulars when a keyword is added to a saleboard, Forwarding to email, Forwarding to SMS, Capturing senders numbers and storing in specific distribution lists (for following up with either a call or more SMS particulars) or forwarding to a group of mobiles.
• Import Contacts Wizard: A handy Wizard to ease the importing of data from your School Management System such as SIMS for example.
• SMS Addin for MS Outlook: An addon for MS Outlook to send SMS directly from Microsoft’s premier email client. This can be used in addition to Web SMS
• Fax to Email: Your dedicated number can accept Fax in addition to SMS and convert either into email

When used together the above applications & services combine to create a comprehensive messaging system that helps you keep in contact with vendors, home buyers, rental clients and remote staff, free up the time of admin staff, reduce costs (notably telephone costs) and capture and verify hot leads, all amounting to a convenient way for Prospects to get in touch and for you to make the most of a new marketing medium.

To find out more about FAB SMS for Estate Agents and please visit our main website. A 60 day money back guarentee is offered on this product.

Asp.Net Menu not rendering correctly in Google’s Chrome

Thought I’d make a quick blog post on this as it’s issue that took me a while to work out.

Symptoms

Basically if you use a ASP:Menu control in your Web application this might not render correctly in certain browsers, most notably Google’s Chrome. In addition to the physical appearance when clicking on a menu option the entire menu disappeared.

Cause

This is caused by .net not determining the capabilities of certain browsers and as a consequence renders the menu with just the basic of features.

Solution

To solve this you will need to tell .net the capabilities of the browser. For .net 2.0 & above  you need to create a new browers file with the capabilities and upload it to your server.

1. In VS2008 Solution Explorer right click your application and add the “ASP.Net Folder” App_Browsers if you don’t already have it.
2. Add a New “Browser File” item to this special folder and call it safari.browser (if fixing the problem for Chrome)
3. Delete all the default stuff VS put in this file and replace it with the following:
   <browsers> 
     <browser refID=”safari1plus”> 
       <controlAdapters> 
         <adapter controlType=”System.Web.UI.WebControls.Menu” adapterType=”" /> 
       </controlAdapters> 
     </browser> 
   </browsers>
4. Save your file & test locally to see if all is well.
5. Now for the annoying bit. Upload the new app_browser folder & file to your production server, if you have used the “copy web site” menu option to upload or sharepoint or frontpage, these will create a new folder under app_browsers called vti_cnf
6. Manually delete the vti_cnf folder under app_browser on your production server. If you don’t you’ll get “Parse error: Data at the root level is invalid. Line 1, position 1.” in your new safari.browser file.
7. Remember to manually delete this vti_cnf folder everytime you make a change to the app_browser folder or contained files.  

So there you go, how to solve the control rendering problems with Google’s Chrome.

If you found this information useful, send me an email and let me know or even better still visit my website and buy something it would be appreciated. I’ve got loads of software to send and receive SMS . And while you’re there try out the menu structure as it’s all working now.

FAB SMS for Schools

We are pleased to announce the release of our new Text Messaging System for Schools, Colleges and other educational facilities. You are now able to send SMS Text Messages to parents, staff and pupils; quickly, easily and reliably with just a few clicks of the mouse.

Our service is a collection or suite of programs designed to work together to provide a comprehensive system for sending and managing SMS communications in your school. The suite of programs that make up FAB SMS for Schools are:

• Web SMS: a browser based application for composing your messages online
• A dedicated inbound SMS number for receiving replies (local geographic) 
• SMS Inbox: A Hotmail/GMail style inbox for receiving and viewing your received Text Messages
• SMS Keyword Manager: For responding to inbound SMS in different ways eg Setting Autoresponders, Forwarding to email, Forwarding to SMS, Capturing senders numbers and storing in specific distribution lists or forwarding to a group of mobiles.
• Import Contacts Wizard: A handy Wizard to ease the importing of data from your School Management System such as SIMS for example.
• SMS Addin for MS Outlook: An addon for MS Outlook to send SMS directly from Microsoft’s premier email client. This can be used in addition to Web SMS
• Fax to Email: Your dedicated number can accept Fax in addition to SMS and convert either into email

When used together the above applications & services combine to create a comprehensive messaging system that helps you keep in contact with Parents & staff, free up the time of admin staff, reduce costs (notably telephone costs) and provides a convenient way for Parents to get in touch.

To find out more about FAB SMS for Schools and request an “Almost” free trial (you’ll need to pay for your messaging) please visit our main website.

Motivational Quotes by SMS

Add a little zing in your life with a motivational quote by SMS.

Text MOTIVATION to 01424 401066 and get back an inspiring quote to keep going if you’ve lost a little bit of drive. (UK Only)

Quotes are just charged your normal network rate and you get five free quotes before you are prompted to register/sign up for a SMS sending account.

This is mainly aimed at business owners who have lost a little bit of drive during this downturn. We decided to add MOTIVATION to list of many other keywords you can send to this number as it can be hard to find that drive when the outlook for the economy is not that good. Some example of the quotes you can receive are

• Success is not so much what we have it’s what we are.
• All you efforts are like money in the bank.
• Man’s greatest limitation is the one created in his own mind.

For more details on this Motivational SMS Quote and other keywords available please visit our main website

Free International SMS Providers

Are you looking for Free International SMS?

When it comes to sending Free International SMS there is no such thing! Well with the notable exception of sending to a few countries. USA & India for example where the recipient pays the cost.

In general it costs to send a SMS Text Message to most networks. Providers of Free SMS services are absorbing the costs themselves and are not providing Free SMS at all. Their hope is that you will sign up to their other products & services and so help to pay for your free SMS or in the case of non reputable providers to harvest mobile numbers of you and your recipient or charge you the read the message (horror stories of upto £5 just to read a free SMS have been heard of).

It’s important to read the small print of of the Terms and Conditions of Free SMS suppliers. Some reputable suppliers will limit the the number of messages you can send in a day or destinations you can send to. You and your recipient may be asked to both sign up to receive SMS or you may be given Free SMS in return for receiving SMS adverts, whatever the conditions do take before signing up.

For non reputable suppliers you’re likely to be ripped off, scammed and spammed. As soon give away your mobile number and that of your recipient chances are you & your colleague will spammed continually thereafter and your details sold on to other scammers/spammers. Some Phoenix companies offering free SMS for life for a fixed fee, may after getting you to part with your cash, just shut down and re-emerge under a different name, keeping your hard-earned and not providing you a service. There is even one scam we’ve heard of that allows you to send a free SMS Text Message but requires the recipient the pay a fee to read it. What the recipient is unaware of is this might be £5, absolutley incredible.

Well now you know all about sending Free International SMS and the many pitfalls to watch out for; who can you trust? Well we can’t go into all the suppliers out there but we can tell you about ourselves:

FAB Enterprises’ Free International SMS offer allows you to send SMS Text Messages to over 160 countries worldwide absolutely free!!! We only use the best most reliable routes/gateways in order to send your message so you are guaranteed high speed, high availability and reliable delivery. Why is it free? Well there is a catch…but it’s a nice one! Affiliation….In order for us to provide you free SMS you’ll need to do something for us in return, recommend our products to others. As soon a friend or colleague or visitor to a website of your’s buys something from us on any of our websites we will pay you a referral fee in the form of Free SMS which we credit to a Sending Account. You can then use your free SMS with a variety our SMS sending products like “Web SMS” a browser based sender, “FAB SMS Addin for MS Outlook” or Text1066 a fun SMS Text Back product.

Our Free International SMS Affiliate programme is not quite ready but will be available very soon in the meantime if you want be notified as soon as it available either sign-up to our FAB newsletter or Text the keyword FREESMS to 01424 400007 and we’ll let you know when it is ready.

Just a quick note, it should be quite easy to earn referral fees as we have a number of different types of websites for you to recommend, from our Business and fun SMS services to a video games website, craft website and a automotive site, all of which pay generous referral fees.

www.fabit.com – SMS Solutions for Small Businesses

Why Text1066 was developed

So what’s the thinking behind Text1066.co.uk?

Text1066 is a new SMS on demand service for Hastings, East Sussex. The service allows Hastings Mobile owners to get various info delivered straight to their phone by texting keywords to 01424 401066. Information can range from Tide Times, Cinema Times, Jokes, Quotes, Chat up Lines, Taxi Numbers, Pizza delivery companies etc.

The main thinking behind this was for me (chief software architect of FAB) to get the latest Tide Times on demand whilst out & away from the PC. Not wanting to get stranded by the Tide when walking on the beach between Hastings and Fairlight, I wanted to know whether the Tide was coming in or going out and how much was available before hide tide.

Following on from this I thought if I was down the Pub and Single what information would I need, this is when the Chat Up line keyword was added and then the Saucy Chat Up line to really make the girls laugh. Oh to be young and free again. But hang on once the Chat Up line has worked and you’ve been dating for a while then how about whispering a sweet nothing into the ear of your lover. Now this keyword is one of my favourites, a really romantic slushy saying to use on your lover. Lets face us guys don’t have a way with words but so what, Text LOVE to 01424 401066 and have just the right words to say at just the right moment.

Each keyword tended to lead onto the next with Jokes following, then Deep thoughts and then continuing with the Pub theme how about some choice Insults for your mates.

The content on Text1066 is growing at a good rate and we are adding new keywords and more jokes, quotes etc all the time. So if you are after some Funny SMS, Love SMS or SMS Jokes take a look at this new service from FAB Enterprises.

SMS On Demand

Well, we are pleased to announce the Technology Preview of a brand new SMS On Demand service, which we are calling Text1066.

So what’s it all about? In a nutshell Text1066 is a Local information service that uses SMS Text Messaging. The service is available for Hastings, East Sussex but it is hoped that we will provide local information services for many different areas in the future. It works by sending a SMS Text Message containing a predefined keyword to 01424 401066 and getting your required information back. The sorts of information available includes/will include Local Tide times, Taxi numbers, Library opening times, Cinema listings, What’s on etc.

In addition we have added some funny SMS keywords, like SMS Jokes, Yo Mama Jokes, Funny Wisdom quotes, Alternative Confucius sayings and choice insults to use on your best mates. We also put some Wise, Spiritual and Psychic options on there as well, so you can request a quote from the analects of Confucius, a passage from the Bible (book of proverbs) or even receive a mobile fortune cookie. One of the fun keywords on the system is the Crystal Ball, if you are deliberating over a tough decision then, hold your mobile very closely and think of the question; send a Text Message with the keyword Crystal Ball to 01424 401066 and get the answer straight back.

The Technology Preview of Text1066 is a work in progress but fully operational and can be used while we add additional keywords and content to the service.

For more information take a look at the summary page of our new SMS on Demand Service on our main website which has a list of current keywords and a brief on how it works.

Look out for our next blog post where we go behind the reasons of why we’ve developed this system.