There is now an abundance of free teleseminars and webinars available online if you are willing to do your research and look for them. Professional business people will recognize free teleseminars as a great way for you to get to know them, their product and/or service and how they can help you, so they are worth taking advantage of.

A teleseminar is an event that is hosted by telephone using a conference system. There will be a host who arranges the call on a specific time and date. On that date and at that time participants dial in to listen to them talking on their particular topic. You can have anything for 2 to 200 people on a teleseminar call.

Webinars are exactly the same except using a conference room with video facilities. Usually you will be watching the host perform a task and you will have full view of their computer screen. They take you through a particular system or process so that you can learn how to do it yourself.

Assuming that the teleseminar, tele-class, webcasts or even free offline seminar has the intention of providing value first and selling second you will have alot to gain from attending and listening to what the speaker has to say. Many teleseminars are USA based but with the uptake of webcasts - being able to listen to the teleseminar from your computer without the need to dial in - there is nothing to stop anyone from around the world taking advantage of what’s on offer, time zone permitting! I have stayed up until 2am to listen to a teleseminar in the US because I love the speaker.

Many times the audio of the call is made available to those people who register so it can be worth registering even if you can’t make the time and/or date because then you get to listen to the call and the questions asked/answered.

If you are looking at attending a free teleseminar, before you join the call think about any questions you may want to ask. Sometimes teleseminar organizers offer an opportunity for you to send questions in advance to the speaker and this is a great way of getting the speaker to focus on what you want to know.

Don’t feel shy about speaking up, that’s the great thing about being on the telephone, no one can see you so go ahead and ask as many questions as you need to in the time allowed.

Its so easy to be taken advantage of on the internet and free teleseminars are a way of helping you to feel more secure about the person you are thinking about buying from and their product, plus they are an excellent way of learning something new and maybe interacting with some new people from around the world.



Thanks to Diane Corriette for contributing this article to our Conferencing blog:

Making Money Online

Can you answer freee80’s question about Conferencing?:

Hi,

I use gotomeeting to give my webinars. The webinars can be one or two hours in length. Gotomeeting offers a way to record in windows media player format, but it is very unreliable. It often stops recording or does not play-back properly.

I want to stay with gotomeeting for my webinars, but need another software tool to record my computer screen and audio.
I use a PC with Vista and need the webinar recording software to be able to convert to ‘Quicktime’ or ‘Flash’ with small fie sizes. Mac users must be able to review the webinars too.

Thanks.

Web Based Video Conferencing

If you’re still marinating the thought of a second income generating project, how about a career in webinar hosting? Your ebullience and charisma will carry the whole thing, even if you failed a screen test at Fox Pictures. How about trying it?

What is Webinar Hosting?

If you’re beginning to be confused about all that jargon calling a webinar by many names then stick to this definition - a webinar is just like your face-to-face seminar but it’s on the web. A palette of software tools make it possible to use webinar hosting features like sharing files and exchanging ideas on real time.

What actually goes on during a webinar? During the web based activity, participants or presenters can use audio conferencing just using their computer speakers, show off their computer screen for product live demos and use the recording mode for playback.

Webinar hosting becomes easier when the tools allow for registration and presentation of survey polls and animation. In the workplace, knowledge about the variegated features of web hosting can earn you the admiration and envy of techno-phobics. You can shop around for small and medium businesses needing techies to manage their webinars. See the potential?

For starters, you can tell your potential customers that they need to have a computer, Internet access, and a phone line just for the webinars. Suggest headphones so they can free their hands during the live discussions. At this point, you can also encourage them to avail of promotional discounts on gadgets to save them money - if there are offers flooding the market.

Starting Your Career

Don’t be intimidated by the big companies providing hosting services for webinars. Not that you are going to invent a software, you’ll just provide technical service for those starting out or testing the viability of web conferencing.

You can smuggle a slice of the pie into your own plate. But how? Enterprising people have great ideas. First, you’ll market yourself after you’ve mastered the software, then sell your ability to small and medium businesses struggling in the technical fog.

You can serve as the webinar facilitator to relieve workers from having add-ons to their already long list of to-dos. Talk to the company head about the advantages of having you around. You can help them reach a larger audience, help them reduce travel cost, and spruce up their PowerPoint presentations.

You can also walk them through the maze to show how they can efficiently streaming files on their desktops and much more. By just showing them around, you’ll gain their approval to handle their webinar hosting. By adjusting your schedule you can have that extra income by just staying at home too.

Sometimes business ideas are hard to come by and if you’ve hit on something it should be new and relevant to the times. Being your own business is appealing but opportunities are far and in-between. Why not strike when the iron is hot?

If the idea of a career in web hosting on the side is appealing, start brushing up on the etiquettes of web conferencing. Go web hopping and look for more great ideas and tips to develop your expertise. You’re selling yourself as a consultant and an expert; you can’t afford to slip on your first outing.



Thanks to Nahshon Mediros for contributing this article to our Conferencing blog:

Phone Conferencing Equipment