12 Fatal Webinar Mistakes… and How To Fix Them … · Create your content. Do a trial run of the...

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12 Fatal Webinar Mistakes… and How To Fix Them (includes bonus webinar checklist & tools)

Transcript of 12 Fatal Webinar Mistakes… and How To Fix Them … · Create your content. Do a trial run of the...

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12 Fatal Webinar Mistakes… and How To Fix Them

(includes bonus webinar checklist & tools)

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Part I: 12 Fatal Webinar Mistakes

Webinars are great ways to stand out from the competition by providing unique value to your target customers.

How can Webinars help you? Some of the ways they can help you include: They can build your email list They allow you to reach new audiences They allow you to get closer to your current audience They’re an “event” for the attendees (they get excited about

events) You can sell at them You can educate your target customers You can record and use them over and over again

The Webinar Process By using the right process, you too can start using webinars for your business. Here are the elements of the process that I use:

Target your highest priority product or service offerings

Target the most important buyers of those offerings

Document what they care about. Their hopes, their fears, their needs, their desires.

Use this to pick a webinar topic that will be compelling to them.

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Create your content.

Do a trial run of the webinar to test the content, the timing and the technology. Adjust as needed.

Market your webinar. Use high impact methods such as inviting your mailing list, working with partners (and getting them to invite their list), guest blogging on popular blogs or presenting to relevant groups or organizations.

Do the webinar and present an offer to the audience.

Do post webinar follow-up including posting the webinar recording and inviting your list to view the replay.

Do post-webinar sales calls as appropriate.

Webinar Mistakes

I hope you consider doing webinars for your business. Since it’s a live event, a webinar presents us with several differences from other kinds of marketing. To help you avoid making some of the more common mistakes, here are 12 to avoid when you do your first (or next) webinar.

1. Picking the wrong topic Good attendance is key to the success of your webinar. One of the most critical decisions you can make is your choice of topic. I usually recommend that you concentrate on your most important target customer type. Focus on the things that they really care about. What issues do they have? What are typical questions that they ask? What’s top of mind right now? Once you’ve got that documented, pick a topic that you can really deliver value on. It can be on a topic directly related to your product or it can be a topic not directly related but that your market cares about.

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For example, an accountant could deliver a presentation on how small business owners can save money on purchase. Or how to sell better. The audience is the same as their accounting business, she can add value, and she can then provide an offer for her accounting business. Picking the wrong topic limits the potential of your webinar. Picking the right topic can greatly increase the interest level and attendance – and lead to a lot more word-of-mouth referrals!

2. Marketing it in too few places (or in low-impact ways)

One major problem that I’ve seen my clients and associates doing is marketing one way in one location and then expecting to fill a webinar. If you have a huge audience, that can work. For most of us, it’s takes a little more creativity. For example, you can market to your own email list and post it in a Facebook group or LinkedIn group. This may get a few sign-ups but do you really want a full webinar or do you just want a few people? If you want a full house for your webinar, consider these high impact methods:

Promote to a partner’s mailing list: o Many businesses with a mailing list want to add value

to their audience. You can be that “value” that they’ve been looking for! In other cases, you may need to

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compensate them for sales that you close as a result of their referrals.

Write a guest blog post on a popular blog in your niche: o A guest blog post is a great way to get in front of the

right audience. Make sure you plan well enough in advance and write a value-added post. If you do this, the blog owner will usually let you plug your upcoming webinar in your byline.

Present to an existing group: o This applies to in-person events or online events. If you

can find an organization, society or group that meets regularly or has regular presentations, get on the schedule!

Other ways to market include:

LinkedIn groups

Posting on your website and blog

On your LinkedIn profile (via updates)

Facebook events

Facebook ads

LinkedIn Events

LinkedIn Ads

On Twitter

Using Google Adwords

Creating a YouTube video promotion

Getting your other partners involved (so they have a reason to invite their contacts)

Be creative!

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Be creative, don’t depend on just one method and make sure you take advantage of your partners or your network!

3. Not delivering on your promises I’d say one of the most frustrating things for webinar attendees is when their expectations go unmet. Since you have a compelling topic and marketing message, you’re going to get a lot of interest. It’s your job to make sure that the webinar delivers on that promise. Make sure you double-check your webinar messaging against what’s actually going to be presented (and adjust if you’ve forgotten something!).

4. Too much sales, not enough content Generally speaking, people are willing to hear a short sales pitch as long as you’ve provided them significant value during the webinar (but see #9). What people don’t tolerate is when you pitch “early and often” during the presentation. In fact, many webinars are a sales pitch from the word “go”. Make sure that your presentation includes a significant amount of valuable content. Some ways to teach people include:

Showing a process for doing something

Doing a demo of a useful tool

Showing the inner workings of something

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Leading a workshop where they can actually follow along and work on their business (or interest or hobby)

Sharing a useful list of tips (with proper explanation)

5. Slow to get started and generally wasting time People’s time is one of their most valuable assets. They are becoming increasingly impatient. With a great presentation, you may overcome a first bad impression but don’t take the chance. Try to respect your audience’s time and keep the introductions short and the host/co-host chitchat to a minimum. The key rule here is: Respect Your Audience (and their time)

6. Overloading people with detail It’s important to add a lot of value, but be careful about having too much detail. Too many words, too many complex concepts or hard to read slides may be tough for many audiences. Consider including the following to reduce detail overload:

Pictures to make points visually

Graphs or charts to communicate concepts

Icons to replace bullet points in some places

Screen shots

Video (if technically feasible)

Your screen shared as you show something

Pictures of the presenters to get the audience familiar with them

7. No audience interaction

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If you have a monologue for the entire presentation, that can be a problem. You may have your audience drifting off on the other side of the computer! One way to help with this is to have a co-presenter who asks questions, fills in or generally helps add a dose of variety to the presentation (but don’t overly chit chat or share inside jokes). Additionally (and more importantly), you should keep them involved. Some ways you can get audience involvement:

Find out where they’re logging in from

Get their buy-in on what you will be teaching them - get their positive responses

Run surveys or polls

Ask your audience to add more points or options

Workshop topics and get their answers

Allow questions throughout and answer shorter ones

Ask for their examples, pet peeves, biggest issues

8. Poor time management

Another thing that frustrates attendees is poor time management. I’ve been at webinars where they went longer than expected in a section but kept droning on and the webinar went long. In other cases I’ve seen Q&A get cut short – I think that’s a mistake! Still in other case, the presenter didn’t do justice to the second half of her presentation because she was rushing to the finish line. That was the most important part. What a wasted!

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How to solve timing issues?

Practice the timing

Cut out unnecessary slides

Put slide you may need in the back (you probably won’t need them)

Don’t forget to factor tech issues or a slow start into your timing

Know what can be skipped if you get desperate (and what can’t)

Keep your cool and don’t panic. You’ll be fine!

9. Not giving people a reason to stay until the end

Remember the part about the sales pitch? Well people are getting smart and leaving after 45 minutes when you start your pitch. Some people are solving this by pitching early or throughout the webinar. I don’t think this is the right solution. The other way to solve this is to give them a good reason to stay until the end. It’s just like how the movies are adding funny scenes during the credits or bloopers to get people to stay until the very end. Add something at the end that compels them to stay:

Give away a couple of copies of your eBook to people at the end

Tell them something that’s in the sales pitch that will intrigue them

Give away a free membership to your program

Be creative!

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10. Not practicing Some of the problems that we’ve covered are caused by lack of practice. With practice you’ll get more comfortable with your presentation, your delivery, your timing and, importantly, the technology. Do these things to make sure you have it down:

Do a dry run of the technology by yourself if you can. Do you have two computers? Have one be the presenter computer and the other as the attendee. Try out the polls, chat functions, screen sharing and dial-in (get two phones too). This can take 15 minutes but is important!

Run through your presentation out loud by yourself. Test the language and the timing. Make adjustments until it feels right.

Do a pilot webinar with at least 3-5 attendees. Go through every step of the process including the marketing, the communications, the presentation, the sales process and the follow-up. Stay in character throughout but get good feedback afterward and adjust.

11. A poorly thought out sales process Your sales process needs to be thought through. What are you pitching? If your not selling something but doing a giveaway (possibly for list-building), when will you give it away? Is the URL easy for people to type in? Is there a way to deliver a link to them during the webinar?

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If you’re selling something, do you have a proper explanation of the product? Do you have a sales page that they can get find? Do you have a way to check out? Do you have a compelling call to action? Is there a valid reason for this deal to end soon (forcing them to decide now versus 3 weeks from now)? Is the value compelling? I’d hate for you to have a webinar and not get what you wanted out of it. Make sure you think through each step of the process…

12. Lack of post-webinar follow-up The webinar’s not over when it’s over. Huh? Yes, there are some important things to do that can create a lot of value for you (and for your audience). Replay: Are you providing a replay? If so, get that up quick while people are still excited about it. Invite your whole list or at least everyone who registered for the webinar (whether they attended or not). You can get a lot of interest in your content and your offers via the replay. Sales calls: You can save a webinar that converts poorly after the fact! I sometimes offer free 30-minute consultations to discuss the program and the fit with the potential client’s business situation. This kind of thing can convert very well. Communications/Follow-up: Don’t forget to get your follow-up emails out quickly to talk about the replay availability, the offer or giveaways available and any additional sales activity. Also, after the event, you can start planning (and eventually communicating about) the next event.

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Webinars are a fantastic tool for getting close to your audience, for communicating on complex topics and for making sales. I encourage you to give them a try! I hope you learned a lot from these 12 common mistakes! Visit us at http://www.rightmixmarketing.com to learn more about webinars and free and inexpensive tools for managing and holding webinars. Ready to get started? Check out the process and tools section next!

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Part II: Webinar Process and Tools

Webinar Process and Tools: Whether you call it a webinar, a webcast, or a web conference, a lot of companies, consultants, authors and small business owners are learning the value of presenting live to an online audience. While many companies are used to presenting at in-person events (the local chamber of commerce, a convention, at a training event), online events offer some distinct advantages over in-person events. Advantages of webinars (over live events): 1. People can access them easily from their home or office –

there’s no travel involved 2. It takes much less time to attend without the need to get

ready and commute 3. People can attend them at all hours of the day or night 4. You can get people nationally or internationally onto the

same webinar 5. People have access to the web, including your pages for

signing up for things or making purchases 6. You reduce your own set-up, commute and travel time and

expenses

Whether you do an in-person or online event, people get a ton of value, excitement and inspiration from hearing you speak versus

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reading a blog post or seeing a pre-recorded video. Also, in a webinar, you are able to respond to their questions, interact with them, and adjust the presentation on the fly. Lastly, webinars are a great way to generate income from your audience or fans or from the audience of a partner.

Webinar Steps & Tool Options:

A) Registration Page (also called Opt-in page):

To put on a webinar, you need somewhere where they can register for your event. You also (ideally) want to have a place where you can describe the event and what they’ll learn by attending (always remember “what’s in it for them”). There are several ways to you can create this page where people can register for your webinar: Putting an Opt-in Box in the Sidebar only: You can have a registration box in the sidebar of your website only. The only downside of just having the registration box in the sidebar is that you don’t have a place to describe your event and to entice people to register. You’ll get less sign-ups with just a sidebar opt-in box. If you want to do this method, you just need one of the tools from B) A Way to Capture Emails. Creating a Simple Page On Your Existing Site: You can create a page on your site that is dedicated to the webinar. This solution works but one downside is that your URL is longer than a dedicated URL (e.g. www.rightmixmarketing.com/free-blogging-webinar vs.

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www.BetterBloggingCourse.com). Also, make sure you take away the distractions as any opportunity to click on a menu a link or another button will likely lead to less people registering for your event. To create a simple page on my site, my theme (built by Copy Blogger Media – maker of Studiopress Themes) has a simple function to take away the sidebar (see example here). See if your theme (if using Wordpress) has this option and take out that sidebar for your opt-in page. Making a Weebly site (free): Weebly is a simple tool that allows you to make simple websites fairly quickly with minimal web skills. This option allows you to buy a dedicated domain name for your site and to have one main opt-in page with very few other distractions. Weebly has free and paid options. I don’t recommend you use Weebly for your main site if that will be including a blog (their blog technology is sub-par). Using the Optimize Press Theme (Wordpress): Optimize Press could be considered one of the industry standard opt-in and sales page themes for Wordpress. It allows for easy set up of opt-in and sales pages using the pre-formatted templates and buttons that it includes. I’ve used this for several landing pages and membership sites with their own dedicated URLs. Using Premise on your current site (Wordpress): This new tool created by CopyBlogger media (also the makers of my StudioPress theme) allows you to add custom landing pages

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to your existing Wordpress self-hosted site without changing your theme. Caveat – I have purchased but not used Premise yet but I’m a big fan of the Copyblogger tools.

B) A Way To Capture Emails (and Send Invites)

When you have an opt-in page, I recommend that you have a way to capture the emails of the people who want to join your webinar. Once you have the emails you can let them know about the details of the webinar, send them reminders and even send them follow-up emails about the replay or other offers after the webinar has ended. Note: all of these email systems require a learning curve so take advantage of their support options and tutorials as much as possible. There are a lot of email options out there. Here are two that I personally use: Mailchimp (free): Mailchimp is free up to certain limits that most people won’t exceed (up to 2000 subscribers and 12,000 emails/month at the current writing). It’s a very flexible system. Aweber: Aweber is a very popular email system. I’m migrating from Mailchimp to Aweber as we speak. It has a monthly charge so check into the pricing before you register. There are a lot of other email systems including other popular ones like Constant Contact and iContact to choose from.

C) A Webinar Platform

To present, you need to have a platform to show your slides and to allow people to hear you speak. There are a lot of platforms but because the technology to deliver the visuals and audio

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simultaneously is complex, there can be glitches with certain systems. Make sure you test them out before you use them on a large scale. Here are several options you can try. All of these options include ways to record your webinar. Anymeeting (free): Anymeeting has free (ad-supported) and paid options. It has several interesting capabilities. One limitation (which I hope they address) is that you can either do an option where people all have to listen via phone or everyone has to listen by computer. You can’t have some people (at this time) listening by phone and others listening by computer. Fuze Meeting: I use Fuze Meeting for my coaching program and for some of my webinars. It’s a very innovative system that is fairly affordable. It has some great features but doesn’t include some of the additional bells and whistles that other systems use like polls. Instant Teleseminar: Instant Teleseminar doesn’t look as high tech as some of the others, but has a lot of advanced features including allowing you to do scheduled, pre-recorded webinars, to upload your own audio files for replays, and to load replays of audio onto your site. I used this service to record and replay my entire Business Blogging Telesummit. GoToWebinar: GoToWebinar could be considered one of the industry standard applications. A lot of the big online marketers use this system and

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for their events. Whenever I have an event that may go over 100 people I use GoToWebinar (but that may change if Fuze has upgraded to go above 100 people, mainly due to cost). GoToWebinar has a lot of great features (chat, screen share, polls) and has a lot of flexibility in terms of allowing for different presenters or organizers to be part of your event. It’s affordable for webinars up to 100 people but gets very expensive for events over 100 (check their pricing).

D) A backup plan for recording your webinar

I can’t tell you how many times the recordings haven’t worked, I forgot to push the webinar record button or something else happened. I always make a backup recording and have used it several times as my replay. Here are some tools for doing recordings of your webinar. ScreenFlow (for Mac): ScreenFlow is what I use and I find it very user-friendly. Camtasia (PC or Mac): Camtasia is a popular tool for recording screens on the PC. They also have a Mac version available.

E) A Presentation Creation Tool

To have something to show during your event, you should have a way to create a presentation. Tools that you can use include: Google Docs (free): Free presentation software. Google Docs has some limitations versus the other two mentioned below but it is free! Microsoft PowerPoint: The old standby. I use the Mac

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version (this is Office suite). The PC version is here. Keynote: Apple’s answer to PowerPoint. A lot of people swear by it. I’m just very used to PowerPoint. See Keynote in iWork here (it’s bundled just like the Microsoft products).

F) A way to sell something

During the webinar, you may want to sell a product or service. If so, you can use the tools in A) to create what is called a Sales Page (Optimize Press, Premise, Weebly or a new page on your website). If you want to do payment processing, two inexpensive ways to do that include: PayPal (free to start, minimal charges): Allows you to accept payment from people via their PayPal account or by credit card without getting an expensive payment processing service. Google Checkout (free to start, minimal charges): Google Checkout allows you to accept payment by credit card. You can also get a shopping cart (that’s a much bigger discussion) but one simple cart that I use is: e-Junkie: e-Junkie is a no-frills, inexpensive cart to deliver digital products like eBooks and audio files.

G) A way to follow up via email

After the webinar, you want to make sure that you reach out to your email list with follow-up about: • Any offers you made

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• How to access a replay (if you have one available) • To invite them to other events (using the email tools from

section B) (e.g. Aweber and Mailchimp)

Now you’re armed with the process and tools!

I hope this helps you with the webinar process and to understand the tools that you need to run a good webinar. If you’re interested, I would recommend starting small by doing a trial run with some friends and family. Like anything else, the more you know about the process, tools and technology, the more comfortable you’ll feel!

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Part III: Webinar Checklist

1. Did you pick the right topic?

Do you know your target audience for this webinar?

Do you know their wants, needs, desires, worries and information “gaps”?

Is the topic that you’re choosing important enough to them?

Is it top of mind?

2. Are you marketing your webinar enough and in high impact ways?

Have you tapped into large sources of qualified traffic (like partners, existing organizations or big blogs/websites)?

Are you depending on just one route for traffic?

Are you using your own site, blog and social media pages to maximum effect to promote this webinar?

3. Does your presentation deliver on the promises you made in the marketing materials?

Are you adding significant value to their lives?

Do you have actionable lessons?

Will they come away feeling like they gained something important?

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4. Are you teaching versus selling?

Are you focusing on teaching first, selling second?

Will people feel like this is a “pitch-a-thon”?

Are you using teaching methods like the following? • Showing a process for doing something • Doing a demo of a useful tool • Showing the inner workings of something • Work-shopping certain tasks (where they do it as you

speak) • Sharing a useful list of tips (with proper explanation)

5. How long will it take to get into the meat of the presentation?

Are you comfortable with the technology so glitches will be minimized (and time saved)?

Do you know how to respond to people who can’t log on? (there will be a replay – there will always be some people who can’t access your webinar)

Are introductions and chitchat kept to a minimum?

Are you respecting your audience’s time?

6. Are you overloading people with detail?

Are your slides readable or very dense with text?

Are there slides you can cut out?

Can you replace text-heavy slides with the following?

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• Pictures to make points visually • Graphs or charts to communicate concepts • Icons to replace bullet points in some places • Screen shots • Video (if technically feasible) • Your screen shared as you show something

7. Have you built in audience interaction triggers? Have you built in the following?

Find out where they’re logging in from

Get their buy-in on what you will be teaching them - get their positive responses

Run surveys or polls

Ask your audience to add more points or options

Workshop topics and get their answers

Allow questions throughout and answer shorter ones

Ask for their examples, pet peeves, biggest issues

8. Have you addressed the timing of the presentation?

Have you done the following?

Practiced the timing

Cut out unnecessary slides

Put slides you may need in the back (you probably won’t need them)

Figured out what can be skipped if you get desperate (and what can’t)

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9. Have you given people a reason to stay until the end?

Have you added one of these in?

Give away a couple of copies of your eBook to people at the end

Tell them something that’s in the sales pitch that will intrigue them

Give away a free membership to your program

Other creative ideas to keep them until the end?

10. Have you practiced the three ways? Do these things to make sure you have it down: • Do a dry run of the technology by yourself • Run through your presentation out loud by yourself • Do a pilot webinar with at least 3-5 attendees.

11. Have you thought through and tested your sales process?

Answer these sales process questions:

Do you know what are you pitching (and all the details about it)?

If doing a giveaway (possibly for list-building), when will you give it away?

Is the URL easy for people to type in?

Is there a way to deliver a link to them during the webinar so it’s easy to access?

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If you’re selling something, do you have a proper explanation of the product?

Do you have a sales page that they can get find?

Do you have a way to check out?

Do you have a compelling call to action?

Is there a valid reason for this deal to end soon (forcing them to decide now versus 3 weeks from now)?

Is the value compelling?

12. Lack of post-webinar follow-up Answer these post-webinar questions: Replay:

Are you providing a replay?

How quickly can you edit it (if needed) and send out a message for access?

Sales calls:

Do you have a post-webinar sales follow-up process in place?

Do you communicate about that during the webinar and/or in the post-webinar communications?

Communications/Follow-up:

What follow-up emails are you sending?

What’s the next event coming up?

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Part IV: Webinar Tools List

A) Registration Page (also called Opt-in page):

Weebly is a simple tool that allows you to make simple websites fairly quickly with minimal web skills. Optimize Press could be considered one of the industry standard opt-in and sales page themes for Wordpress. Premise is a new tool created by CopyBlogger media for building landing pages on your existing wordpress site.

B) A Way To Capture Emails (and Send Invites)

Mailchimp (free): Mailchimp is free up to certain limits that most people won’t exceed (up to 2000 subscribers and 12,000 emails/month at the current writing). It’s a very flexible system. Aweber: Aweber is a very popular email system. I’m migrating from Mailchimp to Aweber as we speak. It has a monthly charge so check into the pricing before you register.

C) A Webinar Platform

Anymeeting (free): Anymeeting has free (ad-supported) and paid options. It has several interesting capabilities.

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Fuze Meeting: Fuze Meeting is a very innovative system that is fairly affordable. Instant Teleseminar: Instant Teleseminar doesn’t look as high tech as some of the others, but has a lot of advanced features. GoToWebinar: GoToWebinar could be considered one of the industry standard applications.

D) A backup plan for recording your webinar

ScreenFlow (for Mac): ScreenFlow is what I use and I find it very user-friendly. Camtasia (PC or Mac): Camtasia is a popular tool for recording screens on the PC. They also have a Mac version available.

E) A Presentation Creation Tool

Google Docs (free): Free presentation software. Google Docs has some limitations versus the other two mentioned below but it is free! Microsoft PowerPoint: The old standby. I use the Mac version (this is Office suite). The PC version is here. Keynote: Apple’s answer to PowerPoint. A lot of people swear by it. I’m just very used to PowerPoint. See Keynote in iWork here (it’s bundled just like the Microsoft products).

F) A way to sell something

During the webinar, you may want to sell a product or service. If so, you can use the tools in A) to create what is called a Sales Page (Optimize Press, Premise, Weebly or a new page on your

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website). PayPal (free to start, minimal charges): Allows you to accept payment from people via their PayPal account or by credit card without getting an expensive payment processing service. Google Checkout (free to start, minimal charges): Google Checkout allows you to accept payment by credit card. e-Junkie: e-Junkie is a no-frills, inexpensive shopping cart to deliver digital products like eBooks and audio files.

G) A way to follow up via email

After the webinar, you want to make sure that you reach out to your email list with follow-up about. Options include Aweber and Mailchimp.

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