Wizard Hacks: Skype

Skype has revolutionized communication and lowered the cost of talking to someone on the other side of the world to nothing. On a broadband connection it sounds even better than a phone call. Most of us are still trying to wrap our heads around this concept. Once it settles in we’ll find all sorts of interesting ways to exploit this ability. Until then, here are a few simple suggestions on how you can leverage Skype for your magic business.

Have a virtual magic meeting
Is your local magic club not into the twisted weird magic you’re into? Do they throw Holy Water on you when you start your H.P. Lovecraft inspired Egg and Vase routine “Cthulu’s Offspring”? Forget them. Create your own online magic club meet at midnight (Greenwich Mean Time) for weekly conference calls. Skype lets you conference call with 9 other likeminded souls. This make it easy to have a virtual cabal with members from every part of the world including the Mountains of Madness. Being that it’s audio only, nobody will regret it if your meeting is held skyclad…

Hide the fact you’re operating out of your parent’s basement
For a small fee you can get a NYC, LA or London area code and phone number. The calls will all go to your Skype account. Some people are impressed by area codes. Some people want to avoid appearing too rural. Skype makes this deception easy.

Cool Online Voicemail
We use Skype at iTricks for people to record comments for our podcasts. Skype voicemail is very cheap and allows you to download and save messages. It gives you a visual interface unseen on cell phones except for the iPhone. This makes message management a whole lot easier.

Sell your consulting services
Skype makes it easier to offer telephone consulting. They’re in beta with a program called Skype Prime which makes it very easy to sell your consulting skills. Short of that, regular Skype costs nothing and offer a superior quality to regular phone. The fact that the call costs nothing allows you to sell your expertise to people around the world without worrying about toll charges (I’ve never sold myself as a phone consultant because I still can’t manage to have a conversation without mentioning spider powers, monkeys, comics, the iPhone and several other topics my prospective clients don’t want to pay to hear me talk about). Friends of mine that do this consulting like using Skype for a non-obvious reason: If they’re consulting with someone via a computer to computer connection, it forces both of them to be in a fixed position in front of the computer and away from other distractions.

Offer better customer service
Skype makes it very easy to offer a number for people to contact you that’s not your home number and not your cell phone (a Skype telephone number is just $5 a month). You can direct a Skype call anywhere you want and have voicemail pick it up when you’re not there. For a small business with limited resources this makes it easier to add a higher level of service. People feel better if there’s a phone number on a website they can call. I have one on iTricks but not on Shock Magic because um, hold on…my phone is ringing…I gotta take this….

Working abroad
When I first started working overseas in the early 90’s I missed out on the online telecom revolution and spent much of my hard earned (okay, “hardly earned”) cash to buy phone cards to call my parents back home to tell them where to send the ransom money. The magician working abroad today gets to not only enjoy email in just about any part of the world, but cellular as well. Cellular is still expensive in other countries when you roam, that’s why Skype is a great alternative. Your friends can call the same number they always called and you can either forward it to a local phone or take the call on your computer. They don’t have to do anything differently. You just have to have the foresight to set it up. After you get your first bill for overseas roaming charges you’ll get that foresight real quick.

Get a vanity number
Want a phone number that says something? When you get your Skype number you’ll have the option to choose from a ton of numbers that spell something. For iTricks I chose (954) 603-7469 because it spells (954) 603-SHOW. Um, real clever. I was in a hurry. You get my point. I’ve found that my local telephone company and cellular providers do not have the time or patience for someone asking for a vanity number. Skype’s website has tons of patience. I once asked a cellular rep for a number that would spell something. She replied a string of numbers. “What does that spell?”, I asked. “I don’t know”, she replied. Thanks.

Create a really expensive magic trick
Why force a card and a phone number on someone to have them call an answering machine with a recorded prediction when you can just buy 52 Skype numbers for $3,120 a year and have a recorded message for every card? Think big! Let me know when you set it up. Could you send me the card to number list too?

A disruptive tool
Skype is obviously just a tool. However, being a disruptive communications tool that gives us a greater control over how we communicate, it’s a tool worth paying attention to and leveraging. It makes it a lot easier and less expensive to communicate with people and exchange information in ways we may not have considered before.