“Texting” also known as “text messaging” has became a modern-day phenomenon in communication. It quickly went from a once-in-a-while enjoyment to a day-to-day necessity. Very few people that have cell phones with texting capabilities will go through a day without sending or receiving a text message. Some countries have adopted texting faster than others. For example: in England, a study was done on text messaging. One of the questions asked was, “have you sent a text message in the last two minutes?” A shocking 75% of the women and 25% of the men had sent a text message in the last two minutes. I think it is fair to say that texting is a large part of today’s society.

So why not be successful at texting?

I’ve been studying and utilizing text messaging for years now, and I have discovered and developed the nine most important texting tips to becoming successful at text messaging.

Tip #1 – Abbreviate – Texting uses a different form of communication. Since you only have so many characters you can send (usually 160 characters), you need to abbreviate common phrases. Remember, don’t overdo it and don’t abbreviate uncommon phrases. It’s really annoying when you get a text message that looks like this, “Hey you HRU IHA IDGI TAS LOL.” Use abbreviations that both parties understand.

Tip #2 – Use T9 (predictive text input) – If you look on your cell phone you’re going to see, “abc” on #2, “def” on #3 and so on. If you were to try to type a word without the help of T9, you are going to have to go through all the irrelevant letters to get to the letters you want. Don’t do that, it’s a waste of time. T9 (or whatever your predictive text input is called) will take the buttons you push and give you the most common words relevant to the buttons you push. For example, take the word “CONTROL”, without T9 it would take you pushing your phone pad 18 times and with T9 it would only take you 5 times.

Tip #3 – Don’t send short worthless messages – One of the more worthless text messages are messages that don’t get anywhere and just waste time and rack up the phone bill for someone. For instance, here is a conversation illustrating the difference between a poor texter and a good texter:

Poor Texter

Sent: “Hey” – Reply: “hey” – Sent: “what’s up” – Reply: “not much” – Sent: “what are doing” – Reply: “hanging out” – Sent: “what are you doing tonight” – Reply: “not sure” – Sent: “lets hangout tonight” Reply: ” OK”…..

Good Texter

Sent: Hey, what’s up. Lets hang out tonight.” Reply: “OK”

The Poor Texter sent 5 times more messages then the Good texter. In the poor example, If they didn’t have unlimited text messaging, the sender and the person replying are going to end up paying quite a bit for a bunch of meaningless texts. It’s definintely in your best interest to send text messages with purpose. Over all, you save time, money and you don’t come across looking like an idiot.

Tip #4 – Never send valuable information – When you text message, your true identity becomes masked. No one can see, hear or confirm that the person sending the message is the correct person. This is the perfect circumstance for theft and fraud. Popping up everywhere are people stealing phones and texting numbers in the phone to get valuable information. Don’t become a victim of this. If someone you know wants information, call them and make sure it’s the right person.

Tip #5 – Never text while talking to someone – Texting has become a massive form or communication in today’s society (especially for teenagers). The controversy is that texting and talking are two forms of communication that fight for your attention at the same time. More and more people are trying to text and talk at the same time or worse, choose texting over talking. Remember, if at all possible, real interactions are always better than text interactions. Prioritize and text between real conversations.

Tip #6 – Utilize text messaging to simplify your life – A simple text message can now do anything that a phone call, computer, Internet or planner can do. Now there are tons of web sites and programs specifically built to make your life easier through texting… so why not utilize them? You can find directions, weather, games, news, count calories, keep tabs on flights / friends, transfer files, archive messages, get updates on your daily schedule, and much more. Not to mention, most of these capabilities are free. If you want to learn more about how to utilize texting to simplify your life find another one of my articles with the title “10 Amazing Texting Secrets and Tricks to Simplify Your Life.”

Tip #7 – Be aware of your phone bill and downloads – I just had a friend that paid a $214 phone bill. This was because he didn’t have an unlimited texting plan. He also downloaded a few ring tones and programs. An outrageous bill like this is completely unnecessary and a lot of people fork over this kind of money because they’re not aware about what’s going on and their available cell phone plan options.

The other subject you need to be aware of is the random monthly charges that texting companies try to suck you into. Many companies use Myspace and Facebook to get your number or they get your number from some other way and try to hook you into confirming a monthly charge for their service. Don’t give your number over the web to random websites and never text “Y” to any random number (that usually mean yes to charge a fee). Rule of thumb: Don’t download anything onto your phone that your computer can do, get a texting plan for your needs, and make sure you don’t get caught up into any unwanted monthly fees.

Tip #8 – Don’t become a slave to your phone – One definition of a slave is: a person excessively dependent upon or controlled by another person. Most of us thrive off the feeling of receiving a text message (it’s becoming one of our most common daily feelings). This can become very unbalanced if you’re not aware of it. The question I have is, what is success? Some would call it accomplishments or achievements. Really, it’s basically whatever makes you feel like this day was worth living. The concerning fact is, there’s a growing number of people that are starting to associate a five-hour texting conversation to a successful and fulfilling day.

I saw a woman the other day with her friends that held the phone right in front of her face for the whole time I was around her. It was one of the more worthless lives I saw lived that day. Key point: Get real with yourself and put a little texting in your living instead of a little living in your texting.

Tip #9 – Flirt, Flirt, Flirt – Text messaging is one of the most influential tools to increasing your success in dating and creating attraction. Here’s why: when you’re talking or interacting with someone you have to account for the many attraction triggers that play with or against you. Those triggers are your hair, eyes, clothes, timing, words, tone, voice, energy etc. You mess up on a few of those attraction triggers, and your chances with that person go down the drain. Well, texting eliminates all of that uncertainty so the only attraction triggers you have to deal with is timing and words.

If you send the right words at the right time, you can expect to double or triple your success in dating and make anyone more attracted to you. I have had models and beautiful women dying to meet me just because I sent them the right text messages. Text messaging is a ton of fun and you can become extremely successful with it, if you know what you’re doing.