The cost savings can be significant over traditional landline phone services, depending on the needs of your business and whether you make a lot of long-distance or international calls. Here’s a look at the top four ways to cut your web worker budget by using a VoIP service.

Get a business phone number at a fraction of a landline’s cost. Using VoIP can save money on a business line in both service and installation costs. Service for a landline into my home office from our phone company would cost around $30 per month for local service, with long-distance calls additional.

In contrast, VoIP provider Skype offers numbers for pay-as-you-go customers for only $60 per year, plus per-minute usage fees. For infrequent phone users, this is a much cheaper option than a landline. For heavier users, Vonage offers 1,500 minutes of outbound calls to the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico (and unlimited incoming calls), a free dedicated fax line, call waiting, voicemail and caller ID for $39.99 per month.

Installation with VoIP can also save money over a landline if your office is not pre-wired for a phone line. New phone wiring can get extremely expensive, depending on the office location. But VoIP installation can be much cheaper, or even free, depending on your choice of equipment, provider and office Internet connection.

As an added bonus, if you have a lot of business contacts in another area code, you can request a VoIP phone number that will be local for those clients.

Make long-distance calls for free or cheap. Even if you don’t want a VoIP phone number, it can still save you money on long-distance phone calls. Computer-to-computer calls are free using most VoIP services, so if your frequent contacts use a service like Skype or GTalk, you can talk or even video conference with them for free anytime you are both at your computers.

Calling from your computer to a non-international phone number is also extremely affordable with services like Skype, which charges only $0.021 per minute to numbers in the U.S. It’s only slightly higher for Europe or other countries. If you have an iPhone or Windows Mobile phone and a Wi-Fi connection, Skype will also let you place calls from your cell phone. Vonage is also working on an app for smartphones.

Save cell phone minutes on the road. If you keep a minimal minute plan on your cell phone, the usage spike of occasional travel can consume your minutes fast. Using a VoIP service to make calls from the road can keep you under your plan’s limit and avoid cell overage fees being added to your travel budget. I use Skype for lengthy calls home from my hotel in the evenings.

An added bonus is that my autistic 6 year old won’t talk on a regular phone but will when she can see me via a video call.

Video conferencing can reduce the need to travel. Sometimes it is helpful to do business face-to-face, or you need to share visuals during what could otherwise be a phone conference. VoIP services (like GTalk or Skype) can create a face-to-face meeting for free, and allow for the use of visual aids or even screen sharing. And since computer-to-computer calls are usually free, it definitely saves over the price of travel.

Do you use VoIP for business?

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It is outside of the office where things can get a bit tricky. I’ve never really been a fan of text messaging on my mobile phone. While it can work well for an occasional status update or a quick message, using it as a conversational tool has never seemed all that efficient to me. And while IM on the mobile phone exists, the challenge is the same as on the desktop, maintaining multiple accounts and programs that work with the various services I need.

Enter Mundu IM – a cross platform messaging client that helps keeps me connected on my mobile device.

Mundu IM works with MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, Google Talk and Jabber which pretty much covers all the bases for me. The devices that it works with is also extensive. I had no issue downloading and installing on my Windows Smartphone and versions also exist for Pocket PC, Palm, Blackberry and Sony Ericsson. A beta release for iPhone is also available and Symbian is coming soon. I tested the Windows Smartphone version but features can vary by device so be sure to read the specifics about yours.

I find the Mundu interface to be clean and easy to navigate. There was a bit of setup time to get all the accounts entered and things set up how I wanted them, but after just a few minutes I was able to get familiar with how to accomplish most tasks. It really does a great job of giving me access to most if not all of the features I would have in each of these desktop clients.

I particularly love the Quick text feature (right) which lets me quickly add full sentence responses with just a few keystrokes. The keyboard on my device is good but for frequently used items this is a great time saver.

On my Smartphone, I can stay connected even while on the phone or in another application which is great. I get notified when new messages come in or when folks log in or out. The cross conferencing feature lets me invite users from different IM services to conference in a single chat window. I can also send files and photos to any user I am connected to, as well as maintain an archive of conversations so I can review or act on them later.

The proliferation of devices with a keyboard is really pushing the adoption of mobile instant messaging, and with so many folks already used to the IM interface, getting others on board is easy. Obviously, you’ll want to either have an unlimited data plan or closely monitor your bandwidth to use this extensively. You just might be able to lower or lose your SMS plan though.

You can download a fully featured 5 day free trial of Mundu IM to see how well it works for you. If you like it, Mundu IM is a very affordable $11.00 – They call it a LifeTime use license but that price doesn’t include full version upgrades which may incur an additional upgrade charge.

Do you IM on your mobile? What do you use to stay connected?

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Around a month ago the company added Linux and Flash clients, but I suggested that this perhaps needed to be enhanced with Yugma-style plugins for existing social networks.

Fortunately, Yuuguu’s been thinking ahead and at this week’s The Future of Web Apps in London, announced that Gmail and Google Talk users will be able to invoke Yuuguu screensharing sessions with existing contacts, rather than those within the Yuuguu client. Coupled with the earlier launch of a Flash-based viewer, this helps to broaden the usefulness of the service as its reach extends beyond previous technical barriers.

Google Talk is available from within a bunch of Google’s services, including Gmail, Google Apps For Your Domain and iGoogle, potentially drawing in many more users to Yuuguu, but also signalling that other IM networks, such as Yahoo, AIM, Skype and MSN might be part of the company’s plans.

Following the quick-start guide, existing users will need to update their Yuuguu client to take advantage of Google Talk integration and will need to enter their Google account details into the client’s preferences.

Once configured, your Google Talk buddies will appear alongside Yuuguu buddies in the client and you can simply click on any combination to invoke a screen-sharing session. Other participants are each messaged a URL which starts Yuuguu’s Flash client in each user’s browser (as illustrated above). It’s a simple and elegant process that appears to work well.

Find out more at the company’s Google Talk information page.

Interestingly, Yuuguu is now stating that it’s beta phase is complete, gaining over 100,000 users and is planning premium versions for release in 2009.

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How can we reconcile its usefulness as a communication tool with the fact that it can be downright annoying?

Using one interface

Having MSN messenger, Yahoo!Messenger, and GTalk open all at the same time can be a bit confusing, or even a complete eyesore (as you can see from the image below).  If you don’t like having too many windows open, you’ll benefit from having just one interface for all your IM accounts.  Programs such as Trillian, Pidgin, and Miranda accomplish this simply.  The one-interface approach can also make archiving conversations much easier.

Tweak your IM client’s settings

Being available via instant messaging is like having the phone ring constantly – just like Melanie said – but only if you don’t change your IM client’s settings.  Find the settings or options menu of your chosen IM program and be ruthless about how you’re notified of incoming messages.  This, of course, will depend on your own preferences.  Personally, I prefer to have no audio notifications, no blinking, and incoming messages don’t launch on top of other windows.  If I want to check for IM messages, I just glance at the Windows taskbar when I welcome such distractions.  But that approach is just for me.  Find what works for you.

One other thing I do is customize my visibility.  Many IM programs will allow you to be “invisible” to different contacts or contact groups when you come online.   You can also be invisible to clients who rarely IM you anyway, and leave yourself visible for a few clients whose projects are more urgent.  Taking advantage of your visibility settings can also come in handy if you use the same IM accounts for both personal and business contacts.

Know your sacred working hours

There are some online tasks you can do that allow for a bit of distraction, such as writing a short email to your mom, commenting on other blogs, or reading your feeds.  There are also tasks that require nothing less than your full attention, especially when you’re doing The Work.  You know, the thing you are mostly paid to do.  It’s often the descriptive text under your name on your business card.

When you’re doing The Work, the rule is simple: don’t be available for IM.  Block out your working hours and let your clients know about it.  It’s likely that they’ll appreciate that you’re taking their projects seriously enough to block out sacred time for them.

Having maximum IM hours

It’s also very important to let clients know that they have a maximum number IM consultation hours with you.  Since I have few clients who need me for back and forth IM, I put a maximum of 4 hours a week for clients with heavy projects (complete web design and web content) and 2 hours a week for clients with lighter projects.

The funny thing is, when I implemented these maximum hours, the clients who used to take up several hours of my day chatting with me changed their behavior.  They didn’t even reach their weekly limit.  In fact, they seemed to have a preference for email when they realized how non-urgent most of their requests were in the first place.  I guess putting a limit in place allowed them to also prioritize their time as much as I did mine.  I was very satisfied with how things changed because of this system that I added a clause for the maximum IM hours in my new contracts, so that clients are aware of it in the beginning.

Getting someone else to do the talking

If you happen to be a web working rockstar and you really can’t handle all the IM requests, you can hire someone else to do it.  Of course, this option is complex and requires a lot of time, money, and effort to implement.  Plus, your clients might not welcome the idea of talking to someone else, especially if they’re so used to communicating with you.  Consider this method only when you’re more of a big business owner rather than a freelancer.

Instant messaging doesn’t have to be a pain, you just need to know how to use it well within your working style.  After all, we should adjust our web working tools to fit into our own work processes, and not the other way around.

Do you have any IM tips and tricks?  What do you do to prevent it from interfering with your workflow?

Photo Credit: Image by Celine Roque

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Here are tips starting with the most basic to help you get the most from Gtalk.

1. Access GTalk on the web or on your desktop. Sign into chat in Gmail (shown at right), run the Google Chat Gadget, use the downloadable application for Windows, or try a third-party instant messaging client like iChat that supports Jabber. Here’s a list of some of the clients that you can use to access Google Talk capabilities. Go to the main Google talk page for the gadget or the Windows download.

2. Try an IM aggregator. If you have some friends on Google Talk, some on AIM, some on MSN, some on Yahoo!, it’s nice to use a client that makes them all available in one interface. Popular IM aggregators that allow you to chat on the Google Talk network include Trillian (Windows, with iPhone and Mac OSX in alpha test), Pidgin (Windows and Unix), and Adium (Mac OS X).

3. Get Gtalk to go. Try Google Talk for Blackberry, MGTalk for mobile phones that run Java, OctroTalk for Windows Mobile, or fring for Symbian or Windows Mobile.

4. Put it in your browser sidebar. It’s pretty easy to put the Google Talk Gadget into your sidebar. The Google Operating System blog provides a clickable link in this blog post that you save into your bookmarks. Then when you click it, it loads into the sidebar. An Opera version is available too. (Scroll down to the bottom of the post to get to the links that will create a bookmark for you.)

5. Make voice calls from one PC to another. To make voice calls with Google Talk, you need to download and install the Windows client, available on the Google Talk home page. And the person you’re calling needs to have the client installed too. Then, just find the person in your Friends list that you want to call and click on the phone icon next to his or her name.

6. Send a voice mail. (Windows client only). You can send one whether your friend’s logged into Google Talk or not. Your voice mail shows up as an mp3 file in your contact’s Gmail inbox. Just call a contact and let it ring, or access the options menu for your friend’s contact record and select Send voicemail.

7. Get notified of important events. (Windows client only). It can notify you of incoming Gmail and when someone in your Friends list comes online.

8. Transfer files. (Windows client only). If you’re using the client and so is your friend, you’ll see a Send Files button next to their name in your friends list.

9. Add an avatar. Upload your photo or other avatar using the General tab of Gmail settings. You can make it visible to everyone or only to your Gtalk contacts.

10. Auto-add email contacts to chat. By default, if you’re a Gmail user and a Gtalk user, the contacts you email often will be added to your Gtalk contact list. If you don’t like this behavior, you can change it in the Gmail Settings > Chat tab, by selecting “Only allow people that I’ve explicitly approved to chat with me and see when I’m online” in the “Auto-add suggested contacts:” area.

11. Save chat history in your Gmail account. Then you can search them just by searching your email. By default, this option is enabled, but you can turn it off in the Gmail Settings > Chat tab.

12. Get a sound notification when someone starts to chat with you. You need Flash installed on your computer. By default this is enabled; use the Gmail Settings > Chat tab to turn it off.

13. Chat with AOL Instant Messenger contacts. This week Google rolled out AIM integration so you can chat with your AOL Instant Messenger buddies right from the Gmail chat capability. You need to have an AIM account to use it and you can only be signed in with one AIM screen name at a time.

14. Chat with multiple people at once. In June of this year, Google introduced group chat into the Google Talk Gadget but it wasn’t available in the Gmail chat capability until the end of last month. To use it from Gmail, start chatting with someone, then choose “Group Chat” from the options menu at the bottom of the chat window. From the Talk Gadget, you’ll see Group Chat at the top of the messaging tab when you start chatting with someone.

15. Use animated emoticons. The gadget and Gmail chat offer a menu with three different styles of animated emoticons — circle, square, and basic made of ascii characters.

16. Put smarts at your fingertips. Now that you can sign into your AIM account from the Gmail chat, you can access the AIM-based tool SmarterChild that gives you a command line type interface to do a bunch of useful things like calculations or setting reminders or answer questions. Lifehacker editor Gina Trapani shows you all the cool things you can find out from it, including getting sports team schedules, accessing dictionary definitions, or checking your horoscope for the day. All you have to do is add SmarterChild as an AIM buddy and say “hi” to get started.

17. Get productive with IMified. IMified lets you access your favorite productivity tools from your IM client, whether you use the Gmail chat, the Google Talk Gadget, an IM aggregator, or something else. Add imified@imified.com as a contact to Google Talk. Send “help” and you’ll get a menu to get your account set up. Then with short commands you can access tools ranging from del.icio.us to Remember the Milk to your Google Calendar to Twitter and more.

For example, I have my Google Calendar set up on my IMified account. So I just pick Anne’s Google Calendar from the main menu and it gives me the option of adding an event or viewing the calendar.

You can use IMified with a bunch of other IM networks too.

Bonus. Chat with Yahoo! and MSN buddies with your favorite Google Talk client. Since Gtalk is based on Jabber, you can hook it up to your MSN and Yahoo! messenger accounts too. You’ll have to download another client to get it set up, but after you do that you can use whatever Gtalk client you like best — Gmail, Gtalk Gadget, or other. Here are detailed instructions to make it work.

Are you a Gtalk user? Share your own tips in the comments.

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