Many freelancers depend on Skype for VoIP communication. Never has it been so simple to talk to anyone from any continent with one simple piece of software - and it’s free. Add to that SkypeIn calls for land lines, a nice interface and very good uptime, this little application is basically a godsend. It’s popularity makes it a standard – a standard freelancers can use to their advantage. Collaborating or doing business with different parts of the world is far easier when you can speak to people in realtime, without worrying about the phone bill.

As any application that has become a business standard, Skype too has a plethora of developers making great add-on applications to enhance it’s feature set. From audio recording to user-friendly voicemail, here are a few nice features you can add to the basic Skype setup…

What do You Think?
Recently quite a few new services have been released to help us collaborate remotely on documents. If you use Skype regularly, TalkAndWrite is the best of these services - it lets you work with your partners on a whiteboard-style app that integrates with Skype. You can draw, erase, scribble, type or just highlight while talking.

On the Record…
For podcasts or references, recording your calls can prove useful. Although Skype doesn’t feature recording as a default feature, there are some add-ons that will. For Windows, there is the Prettymay Voice Plugin. It costs around US$25, and can record all incoming and outgoing calls as well as save them as an mp3 or wav file. You can also play the records in other Skype conversations.

Pamela Call Recorder lets you record Skype calls for free as long as the recording is under 15 minutes per long call. The Professional and Business versions offer unlimited recording time, and cost US$24 and US$36 respectively. This plugin also lets you take notes during a call and features optional automatic call recording.

If you’re using a Mac, Ecamm has an application called Call Recorder that lets you record calls and video, and save the files as H264 and AAC (having the option to convert them to MP3 format later on).

Hold All My Calls.
Sometimes you just can’t be bothered to talk to people over Skype. On the other hand, you don’t want to leave Skype offline and miss an important call. The best answer is to setup voicemail. Skype can become your personal answering machine. Prettymay Voice Plugin and Call Recorder have this function. The more advanced versions of Pamela enhance the Skype standard voicemail so you can setup separate greetings and messages for different users. If you use Skype for both business and personal calls, this can prove truly useful.

Hello, John on the Line…
Freelancers aren’t loners. Whether outsourcing or collaborating we often work with other people. Sometimes for shorter or longer periods of time we can function as a real or at least virtual company. If your virtual team collaborates via Skype, it can be very difficult and time comsuming for one representative to talk to a client and report back to the team. PrettyMay offers a great application called Call Center which functions as any real call center. Incoming calls are limited to 30, but that is more than enough in this case. You call record calls, transfer them between agents and it even supports interactive voice response (IVR). IVR enables automatic routing of incoming call tasks. Press 1 for sales please. The Call Center does have a higher price though, US$15-50 per month or US$150-500 for a one time license. It is only available for Windows.

Looking Sharp!
Mac users may not have a lot of choices when it comes to Skype add-on applications and plugins, but Ecamm has developed a great application called iGlasses. It lets you adjust your webcam’s (iSight’s) video setting - the colors, brightness, even zoom. If you’re in the dark (for whatever reason - wink wink, nudge nudge), just use built in night vision. Maybe you want to put your iSight on the side of the monitor or mount it upside down? iGlasses can fix all that, letting you choose the rotation of your picture – how ever crazy it may be. You can use 3rd-party webcams as well as Apple’s very own iSight with this software, which makes iGlasses a bargain at under US$10.

These are just a few of the add-ons I’ve found useful when using Skype for business and pleasure. There are a lot more out there too, and if you use them well they can save you time and keep you looking professional.

Unlike the rest of the team, Ivan Brezak Brkan still has to balance his freelance interface design and new media writing/copywriting career with a busy university life. New media and blogs are his outlets of choice - and “new” marketing his passion. Find out more about Ivan at IvanBrezakBrkan.com.