Gary North

If you are in business, you absolutely must have a dedicated FAX line.

Nothing says "amateur," "newbie," or "old guy who is still struggling financially in his career" faster than someone who answers a FAX number with "Hello."

"Hello" says, loud and clear, "This is someone whose business is so poor that he/she can't afford a dedicated FAX line."

For appearances' sake, you don't need a dedicated FAX phone line for FAXing out items. Your home phone line will do just fine. You only need a dedicated line for incoming items.

This is why I signed up for a dirt-cheap incoming e- mail FAX service.

With an e-mail FAX service, someone dials your unique phone number into his outgoing FAX machine and then transmits the FAX. It is then forwarded to you as an e- mail attachment: a PDF file.

You can pay $13/month for this as a two-way FAX service, but I'm way too cheap to pay that much money for (say) one incoming FAX a month. I have a $15/year service.

If I wanted a FAX number with my local prefix, it would cost me $5/month, which is a lot cheaper than a dedicated FAX phone line. There are other similar services. One service, eFax, offers free incoming FAXes. Free is good! It's probably worth trying.