“Seminar, meet the web”…”Webinar!” Get it? Webinars are mainly used to present information on a certain topic, or to stage an online meeting.
Thousands of companies and individuals are using this technology to meet their goals. Using webinars you can save money on travel costs, connect with people who are geographically removed and get your message out to an expanding audience. This is not something that should be ignored. So, let’s cover the basics.
First, decide what type of event best meets your goals. An informational webinar on raising honeybees, followed by a question and answer period for your bee keeping supply customers? An online meeting of company managers to review sales numbers? Think through your objectives and choose a webinar or meeting format.
Now you’ll need to choose a host. Different companies offer different features. Fortunately, you’ve already thought about how you might be using this service, so you’ll know which features are most important to you.
Here’s a few popular hosts you could check out:
- MegaMeeting (www.megameeting.com)
- Cisco Webex Meetings (www.webex.com)
- Adobe Connect 9 (www.adobe.com/products/adobeconnect)
Costs range from free to about $100 per month depending on how many users you’d like to include and what features you need.
Once you’ve chosen a host, take the training and then practice, practice, practice. Get comfortable with the software and with dealing with issues that will arise.
Now it’s time to prepare your material and schedule your event. Decide on a date and time and invite your attendees. Some hosts offer ticket sales to your webinar through PayPal. Or, maybe your webinar is free. You decide.
When the scheduled date arrives, you get to host your first online meeting or webinar! Expect some bumps in the road, you’re learning something new, right? But give yourself a pat on the back, you’re adding to your skill set and this technology can expand your meeting space infinitely.
I’ll leave you with another great post on hosting webinars by professional writer Carol Tice, whose excellent webinars draw large crowds. Click on over to Entrepreneur.com to learn more.

