History of the Internet

Internet fax service review

The Internet is reshaping every form of communications medium, and faxing is no exception. The latest twist: Internet faxing services that let you send messages to any fax machine from any Web browser or email, and others that give you a "personal fax phone number," then forward any documents sent there to your e-mail inbox.

The Fax Machine - Workhorse in the '80s and '90s.

It enabled you to send a document to anyone, anywhere, at any time, and know that it was received instantly. It was a godsend in the 1980s and everyone had to have one. But it has become an expensive bit of machinery that will cost you money every time you use it. Smart organizations are now reducing or eliminating the fax machines they use in favor of electronic services. The fax machine costs you in paper, toner, phone bills and repairs. It is like a taxi-meter in that regard, and the bill keeps growing and growing. Currently most of the documents that you fax are created on a computer. If you fax them through a fax machine, you must print out the documents, manually create a cover page, and you must go to the fax machine to send the documents. Every time you receive a fax, you must retrieve it from the community fax machine, rather than having it delivered directly to your PC workstation like any other document. Many people still use fax machines today. The alternative is to use fax services from companies that provide Internet fax services.

Fax Machine Costs

The fax machine is considered a simple tool by many, which is probably why they haven't replaced it yet. Anybody can stick a document into the auto feeder, dial a phone number, and send the document at 14.4 or 33.6 Kbs. But it costs to send a fax.

Among the actions employees must take to fax a document, labor is the greatest hidden operating cost. Labor is a key factor because your staff is more expensive than phone calls, and it makes the biggest difference in fax costs. Most businesses neglect to factor in the costs of actions such as employees walking to the machine, waiting to use it, the faxing process and the employee's return trip to their desk. All of this takes time. And in the world of hidden fax operating costs-you guessed it-time is money. Also, keep in mind that it isn't unusual to find executives with six-figure salaries performing some of the same fax-related tasks as clerical workers. When that happens, those labor costs can be as astronomical as some of those six-figure salaries. Costs also incurred are lease and maintenance charges for fax machines as well as sending charges for making fax phone calls. These depend on the rates you pay and the speed at which your fax machine and the machines you send to can distribute faxes.

How Internet Faxing Works

Ever heard of eFax? You sign up for a fax number. When people send you faxes, they're auto-forwarded to your e-mail Inbox, where you can read them, trash them if they're junk, or print them out only if necessary. Not only do you save paper and ink, but you don't need a fax machine or a second phone line-and you get your faxes wherever you happen to be in the country.

Together, in principle, these Internet fax services offer all the advantages of fax -- a universal system for quick and convenient distribution of anything you can put on paper -- without making you spend your money on a fax machine, fax supplies or fax phone fees.

In the business world, any time that you can save money, your customers will ultimately save money too. That is why Internet faxing is a good idea. Internet faxing is the practice of using your email (or a website) to send and receive faxes. The speed and efficiency of email, coupled with the lower costs of sending broadcast faxes via email is more desirable than making lots of phone calls.

Sending and Receiving faxes over the Internet with your regular fax machines sounds cool, but so far, today's standard fax machines do not yet know how to speak Internet - you can't use them over the Internet. Some of the newer models will have this capability, but it will take time to gain worldwide acceptance. In the meantime, there are a number of services that bridge the gap between traditional faxes and the new world of Internet-based communications.

A number of companies, such as eFax, Faxaway, Internet Fax Provider and MaxEmail, allow you to send or receive faxes over the Internet. These services are either free or charge a monthly fee.

However, many of these services are limited in what they can do:

• Require people to dial a long distance number to send you a fax [eFax, MaxEmail]


• Attach their own advertising to your outgoing faxes to cover their cost [eFax]


• Don't offer fax numbers in all local area codes [eFax, MaxEmail]


• Don't work for handwritten faxes (unless they are scanned in) [all]

Still, Internet faxing provides many advantages. Convenience and better resolution are the two main pluses. They allow you to send and receive your faxes entirely with your email service - the best thing to happen to the business world in the last 10 years. You can send and receive faxes anywhere you can access your existing email account: from your home, office, client's office, hotel, airport or cottage. Or even better, a web-based interface that keeps track of everything you've done with your faxing business and allow you to do cheap and efficient broadcast faxing.

Some of the advantages of Internet faxing:

• To send a fax, simply send an email. It will automatically be converted to a fax and delivered immediately


• To receive a fax, simply check your email. All faxes sent to your fax number will be forwarded to your email


• Web fax - For people who need to fax their information to thousands instantly. Send thousands of faxes in minutes from our website - Broadcasting.


• Avoid tying up your computer or telephone lines


• No software to download or hardware to buy


• Easily distribute press releases, product and pricing information, newsletters


• Sending to International phone numbers is cheap - the charge is based on the destination country


• Easy and convenient - faxes are sent and received over the Internet from the office, at home or on the road. Your Internet "Fax Machine" is available 24x7 and is never busy.


• Toll-Free is cost effective - some virtual fax numbers are toll free so that no matter where your customers are, they will not pay any additional long distance charges and your North American clients and contacts can reach you free of charge.


• Privacy - You are the only person to see your faxes, giving them the same privacy as your email.


• Portable - You can receive your faxes at multiple email addresses simultaneously and you can send and receive faxes while traveling.


• Receive faxes directly in e-mail - Faxes are receivable and retrievable anytime, anywhere. Faxes are not misplaced and privacy is ensured.


• Send faxes directly from e-mail. - Eliminate manual faxing. Faxing is integrated into workflow and faxes are delivered faster and at less cost.


• Immediate Implementation - No unique client/server or software is necessary, only standard e-mail capability. Minimal to no user training.


• Unlimited scalability - Support as many users as required without purchasing additional fax machines.


• Combine multiple document types into one fax - Fax multiple documents as easily as sending an e-mail.


• Account code tracking - Budget and cost management is simplified.


• Automatic retries for busy or incomplete deliveries - Eliminates need to continually check progress of a fax.


• E-mail notification of incoming faxes - Users know immediately when a fax has arrived.


• Delivery confirmation via e-mail - Users always know when their faxes have been delivered.

Quick Summary of the 4 big services

• Efax - ([http://www.efax.com]) Undisputed leader in the field of Internet faxing. Offers free version. Free version doesn't provide you with a local number. Regular service is expensive. Offers many other products - remote control of computer, etc. Requires proprietary fax viewer software to view faxes. The most local area code numbers available in the US.


• Fax-away - (http://www.faxaway.com/) Competitive regular service. Web faxing not supported. Many customizable features and options for sending. The personal fax number they assign you is not local - they are all in some location where the area code is not local to you - just like the free eFax service - not too useful for your customers.


• Internet Fax Provider - (http://www.internetfaxprovider.com/) Offers toll-free numbers which can be used anywhere in the US with the first 50 faxes per month included in the monthly rate - very convenient for the people sending faxes to you - they will not pay any additional long distance charges. Best rate for broadcast faxing. Many customizable features and options for sending. Comprehensive Web faxing features.


• MaxEmail - (http://www.maxemail.com/) Offers local numbers in the US. However, you will find that only the major cities are covered. No web faxing available. Good receiving plans.

These fax services use the Internet to mimic real fax machines - that is, they deliver your fax to a recipient's fax machine, anywhere in the world, just as if you had dialed it yourself. Most of these services charge anywhere from 10 cents to 20 cents a page. That's more than you'll pay to send a fax across town, but it's much less than you would pay to dial an overseas phone number, even for a short fax.

Most major e-fax vendors offer additional features, including broadcast faxes, the ability to route incoming faxes to you as email attachments and monthly billing.

On the sending side: Most Internet faxing vendors allow you to send faxes by attaching files to an email. When the Internet Fax server gets the email, the emails get converted into a fax coversheet with the recipient's fax number pulled from the "To:" address. The attached files then get converted to TIFF or PDF files for easy viewing by the recipient. The service will then deliver the converted fax to the recipient's standard fax number.

On the receiving side: Most Internet fax vendors will provide you with a phone number that you can then give to your customers. This number can be a local number (if you are located in or near a major US city) or a toll free number (available everywhere.) People will send you faxes to that number in the standard way. The service will then convert the fax to a PDF or TIFF image (or in the case of eFax, a custom image for viewing w/ their software) and send to your email as an attachment. You can then view the fax with any standard Windows Image viewer.

In the future as more fax machines include built-in Internet connectivity, faxing might give email a run for its money as a cheap, convenient way to send documents. Until that time, however, e-fax services will provide the best alternative to picking up the phone and sending faxes the old-fashioned way.

Conclusion

In summary, after reviewing all of the major Internet faxing service vendors, I have found the best service to be the one provided by Internet Fax Provider (IFP). IFP has the best rate plans and offers toll-free numbers that include 50 free faxes per month. I don't go over 30 faxes per month, so it certainly makes sense for me - because with the toll free number provided, my customers don't have to pay long distance charges when they send me a fax. IFP also has the best broadcast sending rates and regular sending plan with the most features. And it was the simplest to use (you don't have to use all the available options.)

For free Internet faxing, I found that eFax offers the best plan. But of course, it puts limitations on the service and you don't get a local fax number. Also, if you live in a big city and you would like a local fax number, then eFax is the best solution. That is if most of your customers are local, because if not, they will pay toll charges when sending you a fax.

Internet Faxing Services Reviewed

The following services provide some type of Internet Faxing:

CallWave

http://www.callwave.com

Installable software helps consumers and businesses get more out of their wireless phone, home phone, and Internet-connected PC by 'bridging' calls between these devices.

More of a cell phone solutions provider - requires custom software.

Data On Call

http://www.dataoncall.com

The company offers a comprehensive suite of fax services including electronic faxing (inbound and outbound), web/fax integrations, developer APIs, fax broadcasting, fax on demand, and custom applications.

Only offer 858 area code and toll free. Expensive. Broadcasting at 8cents/min.

Digital Mail

http://www.digitalmail.com/

E-mail to fax and fax to e-mail services. Users receive a unique phone number, accepting voice mail and faxes.

Difficult to understand, No price structure setup

EasyLink

http://www.easylink.com

Small Business Integrated Desktop Messaging - E-mail to fax, fax to email and desktop faxing. The service was previously named FaxSav.

Large corporate solutions - not meant for small businesses or individual users.

eFax

[http://www.efax.com]

Send faxes, Receive faxes, anywhere you can get email.
They have a free service with limitations. Standard service is expensive.

FaxMate

[http://www.faxmate.com]

E-mail to fax, desktop to fax, broadcast fax, and fax to fax via the Internet. Its U800 service allows users a personal toll-free number, which automatically forwards faxes and voice mail to e-mail.

International send rates are standard. $30/mnth, $0.15/min

Faxaway

http://www.faxaway.com

Internet fax & unified messaging service. Faxaway gives customers faxing tools at their desktop.

No local numbers available. Competitive rates and many features and options.

FreeFax

http://www.freefax.com

Send via web, receive as email

Ad supported. Only web-based interface available.

IntelliFax.com

http://www.intellifax.com

Allows you to send and receive Internet faxes. Provides middleware for other Internet fax vendors.

Limited local numbers available. Good send rates. Limited features and options.

Internet Fax Provider

http://www.internetfaxprovider.com

Email-to-Fax, Fax-to-Email, Broadcast faxing. Best Internet faxing solutions and rates available in the US. Simple to use with powerful options.
Offers toll free numbers with 50 free incoming faxes included.

Best rates for broadcasting service. Web-based interface included.

Interpage

http://www.interpage.net/sub-faxing.html

Offers a variety of Internet and Telecommunications-based services - including E-Mail Paging, Web and E-Mail Fax Services, Remote Site Monitoring & Internet Voicemail. Focus is not on faxing services. Competitive rates - meant for large corporations.

MaxEmail

http://www.maxemail.com/

Allows you to send and receive faxes via the Web or e-mail and includes voicemail. You can receive notification of incoming faxes and voice messages directly to your digital phone.

Expensive service. Offers local fax numbers, but not as many as eFax and not as convenient as a toll-free number with free service.

Our Fax

http://www.ourfax.com

OURFAX, is the world's first, easy to use, ad supported 100% FREE service, that allows any email user in the world, to send faxes directly from their email address, to almost any fax machine in the world.

Free - Ad supported, Amateur website

SuperFax

http://www.superfax.com

Super Fax is a small internet fax device that replaces your fax machines, receive your faxes, and emails them to you, on your email address.

$495US per unit. Still need a fax line

ZipFax

[http://www.zipteam.com/zipfax/]

ZIPFAX.com will allow you to send from your desktop e-mail to fax machines. It offers text only with no attachments.

You must prepay for online postage with a minimum opening balance of $9.99. Rates are 14 cents per page for most US states.

Internet marketing for lawyers - advice that counts

Lawyers face the same challenges any business does. In order to get new business they must market their services, i.e., advertise. And lawyers deal with the same marketing and advertising challenge every business does - how to beat the competition. Plus lawyers have to assume that any Internet or non-Internet marketing or advertising they do may well produce little or no results for the amount of time and money they spend -- regardless of what an outside marketing or advertising advisor may say to the contrary.

Prior to the Internet the main non-Internet marketing option or advertising choice for any lawyer was to advertise in the yellow pages. To this day the print yellow pages contain plenty of colorful, one page display ads that feature lawyers offering their services, and lawyers pay a lot for these ads. How effective these ads are is anyone's guess -- it's hard for your colored, one page display ad to stand out when you have 20 other lawyers doing the exact same thing! The yellow pages companies, however, continue to promote their marketing and advertising philosophy that "bigger is always better" and "everything we sell is an opportunity," so they often present a lawyer with a non-Internet marketing and advertising solution that costs plenty but often produces little.

This line of thinking, along with the use of print yellow pages in general, has gone the way of the dinosaur at a very accelerated pace. The yellow pages in print form had their heyday for many decades, but the population now goes to the Internet for the information they seek, so most print directories are collecting dust. A lawyer who advertises in the print yellow pages may well get calls, but they'll most likely be from vendors using the yellow pages as a cheap source of leads.

The major paid search providers (pay per click search engines) tend to offer lawyers Internet marketing and advertising solutions in a manner similar to the way the yellow pages do with their print directories. "Bigger is always better," so rather than realistically discuss with a lawyer a pay per click Internet marketing and advertising campaign that makes financial sense and produces a decent ROI, the pay per click providers will tell the lawyer to go for as many top listing keywords (the most expensive) as their budget will permit and bid as high as they can. The lawyer may go broke in the process, but at least they'll get exposure! Many lawyers get into pay per click as a quick way to get leads but quickly exit a month later after spending lots of money for Internet marketing and advertising results that produce nothing but expense.

While pay per click Internet marketing and advertising is the running favorite of Internet marketing advertisers worldwide, pay per click advertising for a lawyer is usually an extremely expensive proposition for what they get. How much a lawyer is willing to "pay for a lead" takes on a whole new meaning with pay per click. The cost per click for many lawyer related keywords, e.g., "personal injury lawyer," "criminal defense lawyer," can range from $5.00 to $70.00 per click depending on the market, and when the typical lawyer's conversion rate (the number of clicks it takes to generate a lead) of one to two percent is factored in, the lawyer can find themselves paying upwards of $500.00 to $7,000.00 per lead, and a lead is not a client.

Part of the problem lawyers face when they work with pay per click (and this translates directly into poor conversion rates) is that (1) they spend little time creating their pay per click ads and (2) the ads direct traffic to the lawyer's website. Any Internet marketing professional who knows something about pay per click knows you never send pay per click traffic to a website. Instead you create special pages, i.e., "landing pages" for pay per click traffic to be directed to. The landing pages perform the job of convincing traffic to do what the lawyer requires, which is normally to contact the lawyer via e-mail or by phone.

Legal Internet directories and portals offer the lawyer a potential Internet marketing and advertising option because of their popularity and enhanced Internet visibility. How effective a listing in a legal Internet directory or portal can be for a lawyer in terms of marketing, advertising and Internet exposure will depend upon the particular attributes of the legal Internet directory or portal in question. All things being equal, legal Internet directories or portals that charge a fee to be listed in them make more sense as an Internet marketing and advertising choice than similar sites that offer listings for free. The lawyer has to be particularly careful, however, when they consider advertising in legal Internet directories and portals that "look" like they offer a lot -- and a price to go with it -- but for whatever reasons simply do not produce enough leads for the amount of Internet marketing and advertising money the lawyer must spend.

Many legal Internet directories and portals exist that have a very strong Internet presence, and they are excellent resource centers for lawyers, but this does not automatically make them good places to advertise. With Internet legal portals especially it's not how many lawyers the portal attracts but how many people the Internet legal portal attracts who are searching for legal services. People have paid thousands of dollars for advertising in Internet legal portals that have produced nothing in the way of Internet marketing and advertising results. A very wise idea for any lawyer who considers advertising in an Internet legal portal is to get some very accurate user demographics on what kind of specific traffic the Internet legal portal is actually attracting.

What is a lawyer supposed to do? Everywhere the lawyer looks, whether the marketing and advertising media is Internet or non-Internet, considerable financial risk is involved, and a guarantee that the lawyer will get good, solid results for the amount of money they spend is often hard to achieve.

Ultimately the best way for a lawyer to go with Internet marketing and advertising - the way that will ultimately get them the best long term results for the money they spend -- is to focus on getting their website to rank high in organic search results. When all things are considered, people on the Internet who search for goods and services mainly search for websites to find their answers. They may look to legal Internet directories and portals, and if they don't find what they want they may turn to pay per click listings as a last resort (only about 30% to 40% of users bother with pay per click) but ultimately people who search the Internet are looking for websites that provide them with the answers they seek.

If a lawyer is looking for an Internet marketing and advertising solution that doesn't require being part of the pay per click crowd, the lawyer may want to look into pay per phone call programs. Pay per phone call is like pay per click, but the lawyer does not pay for a call unless they receive one. And the costs for pay per phone call are normally substantially less that what the lawyer will pay for a click in many cases. A smart lawyer may even want to consider getting involved with several pay per phone call providers with the idea that between the providers the lawyer will receive enough leads in the aggregate to make involvement with these programs worth it.

Many of the Internet marketing and advertising solutions that a lawyer chooses to look into must be tried on a case by case basis. Absolutely nothing can be assumed. A pay per click advertising campaign that works extremely well for the lawyer with one search provider might fail miserably with another.

One last thing that a lawyer should be aware of when it comes to the Internet and a website presence is that appearances really do count. Many people have been on the Internet for 10 years and have correspondingly seen websites of all types and styles. People are used to seeing professionally designed websites. The lawyer's website should be too.