In the past I have used webinars and will probably start again in 2012 with a new project I’m putting together. 

I’ve used http://www.GoToWebinar.com but have switched to http://www.Join.me as it’s very inexpensive (or free if you go with a basic plan). The only missing component I would possibly use would be the record feature.  However, it’s just as easy to use a screen capture device such as Camtasia if I need a recording. 

When I was doing them, 1 to 2 times a month.  As for getting people to listen, I’d plan the event/training and email my list. 

 I’m curious to test and try some of the Facebook apps for webinars in the future (although at the moment I believe the only ones I know about are pre-recorded webinars…but that can have a benefit too). 

@deairby when I was doing them they were on sales and marketing tactics and strategies for salespeople in the merchant services arena. 

For 2012 I will probably be focusing on tools for growing retail business and share ideas and how to implement what I’ve implemented for clients and seen positive results.

@deairby I’m not, I guess I’ll have to look them up. 

@deairby  Thanks, I’ll take a look. 

Oh, yah.  Webinars will make you an authority in your field.  When done right, they can be an introduction to your business.  You can also create entire information products with the recordings.  This year I am going to do a few (ok, more then a few) of them. Many of them will be in partnerships with other people.  I host my recordings so I also have a URL for each one. That way, I can use 

How do you get people to listen to your webinars?  They need to know, like and trust you first.   Also, good sales copy (words that sell) on any of your marketing materials make all the difference in the world. Stick with your keywords for the titles!

@dakotalocal et al.: Thanks for the tips and suggestions. Webinars are definitely on my to-do list for 2012.

  @randithompsonYour advice on Webinars was spot on, I would also suggest that when you run a webinar always give great free content for 90% of the webinar and I always inform the attendees that they will be getting great usable content but I also have a special offer at the end of the webinar.

If you use webinars strictly as a sales pitch you will find it hard to have your attendees signup for future webinars where as if you provide quality information they will be looking forward to your upcoming webinars!

As a marketing consultant this is what I always tell my clients before they schedule a webinar.

@deairby   Webinars, when done correctly, will make you an “instant expert” of sorts.  The key, as others have stated above, is having the right presentation.  Which means nothing if you do not have a customer list or followers who know, like and trust you.   I would recommend that most people start with a trial period on a webinar system.  Then practice!  Create your webinar rooms and play with what you can do.  I like having screen sharing abilities and being able to have more than one host speaking at a time.  Not all webinars allow that.  (I am now using Gotowebinar)   I would also suggest starting with the interview type of webinar until you are comfortable with the process.  To do this, choose a guest presenter that is a leader in your field, or has valuable information that your followers need. Create a webinar around them and the benefits they can share with your followers.  You might even know somebody who has a product that they would love to have your promote to your followers through a webinar preview.    By partnering with successful people in your field, your reputation and credibility will go to the next level.  

Learning how to use Powerpoint is also important.  Having the right “slides” to work with makes a huge difference in how we present with a webinar.  

Hi

I started webinars last year, I do a mix of training and case studies.  At the moment I focus on social media help for small businesses.  I find having a few webinars recorded when I get asked for help.  It means I can avoid those ‘can I just pick your brain’ conversations and I have examples that I know a bit about what I do. 

I promote them through Facebook adverts and on my blog.  It was all a bit haphazard last year but I have put in a plan for 2012 with 1 free webinar a month to help build up my email list.  It also helps build my reputation for my larger corporate clients and they appreciate the ‘free’ gift when I send them.

@themusclediva @marketmy @randithompson @rich-brooks awesome input, great resource for webinars, you all rock! I hope to work webinars into my plan at some point. Still working on content.

@allenroberts good summary…so why don’t you do them? how much time does it take to get one webinar done from start to finish?

I got tired of paying Go To Webinar fees and the constant drop off of the signal so I purchased my own webinar software and couldn’t be happier!

@alremetch I’ve not tried Anytime Meetings or Talk Fusion (although I’ve heard some negative things about the latter). 

GoToWebinar is used by a lot and for the longest time were my solution of choice, however for the cost and functionality I needed Join.me was just an overall better choice. 

@seancookceo-salyrisstudios  great questions, Sean. What can you offer of value for free that people would want to have? This would entice people to listen and keep it interesting. What would be your goal for doing a webinar?

@seancookceo-salyrisstudios I think I’d go with a case study style webinar for your type of subject personally.

I may be the odd one out there, but I love learning what has worked for others as it gets the wheels in my head turning about how I could migrate it to the project/business I am working on.  

Lately, the most interesting webinars I’ve been on have included audience survey questions as well as give away items. 

To get people to join, I would probably go with an offer that one of the participants will get a full review of one of their current systems.  The offer could end up being expensive, but my guess would be that the lifetime value of your clients is probably pretty high so it could be worth it. 

At the end I would offer a phone consultation to see if there’s a fit.  Rather than trying to “sell from the stage” let the participants know that you may not be a great fit so it’s best to chat to make sure there is one. 

You may want to check out http://www.paullemberg.com as, although I’m not sure it’s a direct match to what you’re doing, he’s got a great way of presenting and drawing an audience in and moving them to want to take action in small steps. 

Hope this was a little helpful.  I don’t know your industry very well, so I may be totally off but hopefully it will at least get the wheels turning for you. 

@seancookceo-salyrisstudios @dakotalocal What great information. Sean, sounds like you are really on the right track. Thanks for the dialog.

@laurachristianson Be careful choosing inexpensive webinar software, there is nothing worse than having your webinar crash right in the middle of it, and a lot of inexpensive ones don’t give the option to record the webinar, also find one that allows you to have a webinar on demand feature.

@laurachristianson They also have great customer service and they are continually giving updates and new templates.

If you have any questions regarding the software send me a pm and we can discuss it, I don’t want hijack this thread!

@laurachristianson great question and I’ll try and give as much input as I can. 

Join.me Pros:

• 250 attendees can attend the meeting
• Pro version is $19 a month I think
  
• You can create your own room name such as http://join.me/dakotalocal
  
• You can leave room open to all or invite only
• You can schedule meetings in advance
• You can still switch presenters like GoToWebinar in Pro version
  
• Free version is still 250 can attend but you don’t have control over your link, scheduling or attendees (which allows for stragglers to wander in hypothetically)

Join.me Cons

• No record feature for webinar (can still use Camtasia or other screen capture software)
• No interactive polls like GoToWebinar (if you have smaller groups, you can open up the lines or use the chat box to get same results and provide more 1 on 1 interaction) 
  
• No video capabilities like GoToWebinar has added

Because of the cost difference and the features I personally need, I am happy with Join.me.  The interface is easy and responsive so I’ve been pleased. 

I think it really depends on your group and needs.  If you need more features than Join.me has, I would personally recommend GoToWebinar as I’ve always had great luck with Citrix products. 

I’d suggest signing up for a free account on Join.me to take a look, worst case scenario is you have taken up a few megabytes of hard drive space and you have an additional tool. 

Hope this helps

Jon

@dakotalocal You are a great resource for this club.

@rlmosca @dakotalocal totally agree with Rick, thanks Jon

@sebinomics Webinars, l as I understand it, help to establish yourself or your company as the “go to” person and build trust by giving good content. Both are invaluable for creating your own uniqueness that sets you above (not just apart) from your competition. @rlmosca @dakotalocal Do others agree?

@webempresa20  I would say using a free service is ok for a short period of time but if you want to be doing webinars as part of your business you need a high quality webinar platform that have you considered buying your own?

I did and would recommend doing this, you pay for it once and never have to pay monthly fees. Plus you get all the functionality of GoToWebinar and more.

@rlmosca are you using your own server, Amazon S3 or Evergreens servers? Which is the best performance and bang for the buck solution if you get serious with webinars? Thanks for sharing Rick.

@seancookceo-salyrisstudios I am using the Evergreen servers and have had great success, but I will be using my own servers later this year.

Can someone respond to Cas’s question here about webinars? You all have such great knowledge. @rlmosca @randithompson @webempresa20 @casmccullough

@seancookceo-salyrisstudios @casmccullough Thanks, Sean. Did you get that question, Cas?

@casmcculloughI am not sure how Meetingburner handles the webinar, but looking at the site it seems that are still working out the bugs. What are the exact files you tried to upload? Are they .mov, .swf, .avi, .flv? Camtasia Studio would be the better option for doing screen-casting so you can record the audio and your screen at the same time or purchase a swf-to-mov convertor and use the software that exports the swf, then covert it.

Okay, with iMovie,  you can narrate your screen-cast video while playing it back in iMovie, or import your narration audio file or the import from iTunes method. Be sure the audio your trying to import is a .wav or .mp3 or so you can be sure iMove will import it.

I use software like Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro which has obvious layers for multiple video and audio timelines. I am sure iMovie has these as well, so be sure to expand the view them so you can edit your audio timeline on its own to be sure it syncs-up with your video screen-cast.

These are the basics, but codecs, compression methods, sound quality, frames per second (fps), steaming, etc. are technical stuff we can get into one-on-one. The end result of what you post has everything to do with knowing all of the technical stuff or really nice software that takes the need for expertise out of the equation.

I am not a user of SalesForce so I would not be able to recommend one, but if you tell me what you require of a webinar as a SalesForce user I will definitely research it for you.

@rlmosca once again, Rick, you come through with incredible information…Is meetcheap almost as good as evergreen for those who are starting out and/or don’t have the funds?

@rlmosca Thanks so much for the tip about meetcheap! I’m going to investigate soon.

@deairby, i’ve used  http://www.anymeeting.com/ it’s really nice to experience but i would love to have a couple more for future webinars. I had a webinar for my aussie clients re. social media marketing: awareness and importance

I have tried most of the webinar platforms, and have free versions that I can also record with.  I save the recordings at Screencast.com as Youtube will not hold an hour.  How are you doing that Cas? @casmccullough (uploading a file that size in Youtube?)  I also use Camtasia and agree with Sean @casmccullough Personally, I think that the Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro is for serious professionals.  

Skype will cause issues, and an echo.  I do not use it when I am recording a webinar.  I also find that adding videos can sometimes be an issue.   My first webinar was also a failure.  I was sharing training videos and trying to record with both Camtasia and Gotowebinar.  What a mess!  The sound quality did not work and the videos dragged.  I have not tried videos since… 

Since then I have also created a team around me to help me create the best quality presentation that I can. Pretty graphics, interactive Powerpoint, and people who are there on the live webinar to make sure everything is working right has made a huge difference for me. This weekend we are doing a Preview Webinar on “Make $$$ with Teleseminars”  If you like, once it is completed, I will share the link here so you can see what we have done with webinars.  

I have a client who uses Evergeen Webinar and I am setting up his webinars using that software. It is pretty good and easy to use.

@deairbyAlso, keep in mind that pricing ranges based on number of participants (normally).  So some do “the first 20 to sign up for this free webinar” or something like that because they only want to purchase or afford the $$$$ monthly charge.  Some have up to 100 participants ($79-99 a month), the 500 participants I think is the next level, then 1000 and so on.  So be sure to check out pricing on how many participants!!! Regardless of which service you use…check that number

I am interested in learning all the ropes for doing webinars, marketing them, etc. Thanks to you all for all the tips. If anyone knows any basic How To resources on this topic, please post them. Thanks.