Get RSS alerts via SMS text messages (for free!)

There are loads of rss services on the web that I can think of a use for this, for example..

1) Get an SMS text when someone comments on your blog
2) Get an SMS text when a severe weather warning is on its way
3) Get an SMS text when your favourite TV programme is about to come on.

etc etc.

Why exactly would you want to?

You can find a bigger list of 101 rss services over at one of my previous posts if you are stuck for ideas on combining rss feeds with (SMS) text messages. Anyway if you can already see the value in something like this, or have a business idea that requires something similar read on.

Email to SMS

If you are in the UK or Ireland, SMS providers such as O2 or Virgin are generally quite poor in their service offering. To my knowledge only a couple offer free pickup of email via text message. And this is where the link comes in. If you can find a service provider that offers email to SMS, then you can get your rss feed sent to your mobile. There’s a great list of Email to SMS gateways over at MUTube, which is well worth checking out regardless of where abouts you are in the world. So once you’ve got yourself an email address that works. I.e. When you send email to it, it sends a text message to you, all you have to do is connect the RSS feed to the email address. You could of course use Pingie to do it all for you, but I imagine behind their service is something similar, and if you need to integrate this into an existing web app, I guess its better to know the workings behind the wheel.

Connecting the RSS feed to the Email (and thus RSS to SMS)

There are plenty of services out there for connecting RSS feeds to Email. Darren has a good number reviewed over at his blog, but you’ll be looking for something that scrubs the ads, and the images, and simply forwards the text. Lifehacker also have a similar post on providers that may be of use. Personally I have used RSS forward, as it allows you to filter keywords in the process, which can add a level of complexity to your SMS alerts.

Anyone else got any bright ideas for this? Let me know in the comments.

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Filed in: Marketing • Website Promotion
Tagged with: rss • rss feeder • RSS feeds • Sms • sms messages