I love Twitter. Matt Rains, of RETechBlog fame, sent me a private message on Twitter the other night, asking me to take a look at "something" he had built and to give him my opinion. That something was a text messaging widget and I liked it.

So, yesterday Matt and I met for the first time in a video conversation using Skype and he shared with me the reasons why he decided to create it. It made me smile, because his reasons for creating the widget are the same reasons why I sometimes create some tutorial videos. It's easier for me to make a video once than to have to explain something many, many times. Matt's widget creation logic followed a similar line of reasoning. He had been explaining how easily it could be done and finally decided it would be even easier for everyone if he just created a widget to do it. He was right. :)

Making it fit in the Active Rain sidebar.

So, in the conversation on Skype, I asked Matt if he wouldn't mind editing the widget a bit so it would fit nicely here in the sidebar on Active Rain. He readily agreed and a few hours later, voila, the Free Text Messaging Widget was ready to go. You can see it in my sidebar right now.

Why do I think it's a good widget?

First, it does one thing really well. It allows people who visit your page to send you a text message. That's it. Second, I know that the providing a variety of contact options will greatly increase the chance that someone will actually contact you. Communicate the way people like to be communicated with. It's that simple. Some people will pick up the phone, some will email and some will want to text message. Now you can give them that option.

You can get your free text messaging widget here.

Here's a quick video that will show you how to get it into your sidebar here on Active Rain.

Text Messaging Widget From Matt Rains from respres on Vimeo.

Matt, thanks for this great little widget!