Host A Webinar? Yes, You Can!
Host a Webinar Before you can show your information to hundreds of people at the same time, you have to choose a webinar hosting company. There are several including GoToWebinar, Web Ex, Omnovia, Adobe Connect and so on.
Most webinar hosting companies require your attendees to "register" for your webinar. You decide how much information you require for the registration, but here is a million dollar tip. If you require FULL CONTACT information, then you can remind your attendees the day of the webinar with an email ...or even an automated phone call using VoiceShot. How cool is that!
Another benefit to getting full contact information, especially a mailing address, from your viewers is that you can send a piece of direct mail to gather more sales. If you want, you could even follow-up with a personal phone call in order to make more sales.
In addition to registering your viewers, webinar hosting companies also handle the technology behind your webinar: your computer presentation and your voice, whether by phone or computer mic.
Conduct a Webinar Once you chosen your webinar host and set up your webinar, next you will actually conduct your webinar. Usually this means your power point in "slide show" or "presentation" mode, but don't be afraid to show other things such as a spreadsheet, your favorite web sites on the Internet and even a video or two.
Be careful with videos. While the sound will come through fine, a full-motion video can fall behind. So your viewers might hear the person talking but not see them moving. As an alternative, you could post a still picture of a successful client or student giving a testimonial, and that can do wonders for your sales.
Another tip when conducting a webinar is to use the "polls" feature. Your attendees will love the interaction and you will get a good sense of where their obstacles are. If you identify their problem and then offer the solution, you will have a VERY successful webinar!
Produce a Webinar From your live webinar, you cna make a recording for a replay. This is not only courteous for those who could not watch your webinar, but it's also strategic. Those who did not originally see it, can watch it and can even share it with others. By making a recording, you can increase your sales.
So, to produce a webinar replay, you need to record the webinar on a separate computer using a software called Camtasia. The second computer logs in as an attendee, hit the record button and away you go.
You will want to separate the recording into 8-10 minute chunks to avoid buffering problems for your viewers and then render the files in swf format. Camtasia allows you to combine these swf files into an attractive table of contents that makes it perfect for replays.
So there you have it...host a webinar, conduct a webinar and produce a webinar. It is really not that complicated and can make you a ton of money if you do it right!
