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I’d never put an advertisement on a blog bearing my name if I didn’t believe in the product.

I’d heard about Skype for years through colleagues and friends but it sounded so space-aged I couldn’t wrap my head around it. It also sounded too good to be true.

When I finally turned to Skype, it was because I needed an affordable alternative to landlines. Traditional phones in Canada had become so expensive I couldn’t bear the thought of installing a landline in my new home office. I already had a cell phone, which I used for all of my calls to that point, and I thought by using Skype I’d have a backup system.

I was surprised to find I actually used Skype more than my cell phone almost from the start. Consider that it’s instantly free to talk to any of your contacts anywhere in the world if they use Skype. With the plan I bought, I can make calls to any phone, anytime, for a flat rate of $7.95 USD; not per month, but every three months. Compared to the rates I would have paid our local phone operators (can you say Bell Canada?), I’m saving 270% month over month.

The drawbacks have been few.

Sometimes the connection has been poor, with crackling or complete lack of audio, but generally it’s no different than what you hear on a landline. You can conference call but only between two people if you want to use the video feature.

Otherwise, getting several people in different parts of the country together for a telephone conference is cheap and easy; and speaking as a small-business person in the second biggest country on Earth, that is one significant feat!

Oh, plus Oprah digs it.