5 replies to this topic

[Jen Keller]

I'm thinking about putting on a webinar (a SEO 101 for newbies) for my local market -- specifically geared towards small businesses. The obvious end goal would be to get a client -- but quite frankly, if I did not get any new business that would be ok. I 'd enjoy the experience.

Has anyone else done something like this? I have taken Dan Theis' linking building class -- which was great! But, I would love some advice on how to put on a 2 hour webinar (Dan -- you have any?).

What are the possible pittfalls?
What company to host the webinar?
Should I charge something (under the theory that if it is free, it is not worth much -- plus that weeds out non-serious attendees?)?

Any and all thoughts appreciated.

P.S. My 5 year old son (who is waiting for me to finish this post) wants me to add the "smiley with the flowers". Here you go buddy:

Edited by Jen Keller, 18 January 2007 - 05:18 PM.

[qwerty]

ClickTracks runs regular webinars for free. I think they run them via WebEx. They're usually about an hour long, and while they're usually part of the sales process, I've found that they're often useful to me as a user of the software, so they're really for anyone who's interested in their product, whether they own it or are just thinking about it.

I imagine it costs them rather a lot to run these, but since their product is fairly pricey, I'll bet it pays for itself, both directly and indirectly (for example, here I am mentioning ClickTracks in a professional SEO forum).

[torka]

At the very least, people can "pay" for their attendance by giving you their contact information (require name, address, phone number and email in order to get the "how to attend" instructions). This will allow you to build up your contact/prospect list for future marketing efforts.

You should also consider recording the webinar so you can offer it later as a download (again, download made available in exchange for their contact information) for those who for whatever reason couldn't attend (or didn't know about) the "live" event. That way you can get an ongoing "bang for the buck" out of the original webinar.

--Torka

[Scottie]

Jan, based on the alt attribute post you had in another thread, the first thing you'd want to do is double check that the information you are going to teach others is actually accurate stuff. There are so many people spreading myths out there... you don't want to be one.

GoToMeeting has a good structure for handling online courses, but I wonder why you'd do an online class for locals? Why not go to there they are and teach them face to face?

There are usually groups looking for speakers- chamber of commerce meetings, business networking groups, niche business groups (minorities, women) and so on that would love to offer a class or seminar to their members and you might actually get some business out of it.

[Jen Keller]

Thanks for the advice, Scottie & Torka. I appreciate it.

Scottie, as far as your comment about my alt post -- I'm going to try to not take offense. I'd only teach from my strengths and what has actually worked for me and my clients these past 9 years. No myths -- just revenue & profit results -- which in the end is really all that matters

Every year, I try to take a training course, primarily to see what others are touting out there. It's good to sit uninterrupted for 2-3 days (no kids, no husband, no clients -- you get the picture) and be absorbed. I find that if I pick up a tip or 2, it's money & time well spent. So, when a very well-known SEO consulting, training & "certification" company (not to mention SES Sponsor) offers up details on their approach (in this case alt tags), it's nice to get a community gut-check -- which is precisely what I was doing through that post.

P.S. BTW, it's Jen -- not Jan.

[DanThies]

Jen,

You may find that 2 hours is a LOT. I shoot for 45-75 minutes, and leave lots of time for questions. You can do 10-seat webinars with Gotomeeting, with the $50/month account. The 25-seat version runs about $300 a month with a 1-year contract.

If you're trying to get clients, webinars on 'mistakes' pull very well in my experience and get people in the right frame of mind to consider professional help. 5 Deadly Pay-Per-Click Myths... 6 ways to waste your money on SEO... etc.