WHAT ARE TELESEMINARS?

Teleseminars are basically seminars that are given over the telephone. Your guests will not need leave their homes; which means they don’t have to make extensive arrangements, or pay expensive travel costs to attend. They simply call a telephone number and enter a special access code to listen in to the seminar, hence, the term “teleseminar.”

WHAT ARE WEBINARS?

Teleseminars shouldn’t be confused with “webinars,” because although they are similar in the fact that they allow for virtual presentations, they do differ in some aspects. Whereas telesminars are done solely over the phone, webinars may use a combination of both the telephone and the Internet, or the Internet alone.

Webinars are interactive in the sense that information doesn’t just go in one direction (from presenter to listener), but rather in a “hands on” format that enables the host and guest speakers to intermingle with their attendees in a virtual setting.

A webinar is more like an actual seminar in the fact that is gives guests that “live” feeling through the use of on screen presentations, audio (computer microphone and/or telephone), and the ability to ask or type their questions. But not only that, it gives guests the ability to network in much the same way they would at an in-person seminar. They can mingle and chat with the other guests virtually, share their website address by typing it right on the computer (as opposed to pen and paper over the phone), while typically, most teleseminar guests won’t stick around for after call networking.

TELESEMINARS vs WEBINARS

As with all things, there are both positive and negative aspects to consider when determining how best to serve your target market. In some cases, teleseminars will be the best option for your presentation, and in others, webinars may provide the better teaching format for your particular seminar; so it’s essential that you know the pros and cons of each method in order to achieve the best overall results.

TELESEMINAR PROS:

• Conducted solely over the phone and you can record the call for use later

• Guests do not need a computer to attend

• No cold calling; people attend listen in because they want to

• There is no need to travel anywhere to listen to speakers because guests can listen from the comfort of their own home, which allows you to reach the people who don’t have the time or money to attend a traditional seminar

• Your out-of-pocket expenses will be low because there is no need to arrange for the rental of a conference room, meals, lodging, etc.

• When your costs are kept down, your guests will benefit by being able to access your teleseminars for a minimal fee, or even for free

• Your planning time is cut down because the only thing you have to focus on, is what you and your guest speakers are going to be talking about and when

TELESEMINAR CONS:

• Depending on where your guests are located, they may be required to pay high long-distance fees to listen to the call

• You won’t be able to visually show your guests anything, such as a slide-show presentation

• Valuable networking time may get cut short, or be non-existent due to long-distance charges, and because some guests won’t be comfortable talking on the phone

• Some guests may not feel comfortable asking questions over the phone, therefore they may leave the call feeling unsatisfied

• Guests will have to take written notes of important points mentioned on the call, as well as having to write out entire website addresses, and this may be distressing for those who aren’t able to write things down fast enough

• Connection issues can be a problem, and with no other way to let your guests know what is going on, they could be left hanging

• Since the majority of your guests are going to be listening to the call from their homes (which means there are bound to be interruptions) it may be difficult for them to stay on the phone for the entire call

WEBINAR PROS:

• Guests can choose to listen in over the phone or by using their computer speakers

• Text based conferencing for those who aren’t able to listen in

• Low costs for your guests to attend because they do not have to leave their home to do so, and allowing you to reach those within your target market who wouldn’t be able to attend a live seminar

• In-expensive for you to host, usually only the cost of renting an online conference room

• Guests can ask questions using their computer microphones, the telephone, or through text chat; whatever they are most comfortable with

• You can give presentations via slide shows or video, and even bring up websites right in the conference room

• Make notes on a white board that guests can see in real-time

• Poll guests on important issues

• The ability to record the call to an mp3 file for later use

• The capacity to use web cams so that guests can see you presenting, and if you want, you can see your guests

• There are no long-distance charges because attendees can use their Internet connection

• Guests are more likely to ask questions, and interact with other each other because of the text chat option

• After seminar networking will be more highly attended because people can stay in their comfort zone, and exchange information and website addresses easily

• You can simply type in key website addresses into the text chat area, or bring it right up in the room for guests to browse in real-time

• Note taking may not be necessary if you provide downloadable hand-outs and worksheets for guests

WEBINAR CONS:

• Connection issues may prevent people from gaining access to the online conference room, or boot them out of it for unknown reasons

• There are those in your market who are not computer savvy and would have a hard time figuring out how to attend a webinar

• Some guests may be intimidated by an online conference room, and perhaps have a hard time following along

THE BUSINESS BENEFITS OF TELESEMINARS AND WEBINARS

Both teleseminars and webinars have proven to be effective marketing tools for business owners. They’re not only a great way to teach your target market, but they give you the opportunity to introduce your business and products or services.

Here Are 5 Ways You Can Benefit From Using Teleseminars & Webinars:

1. If you hold regular events for your customers, you can really add value to your business. These could be used as benefit of being one of your customers, and will give you the opportunity to sell more to those who are willing to buy from you.

2. Using this form of marketing is an easy way to build credibility within your niche. People are drawn to those they can learn from, and if you’re the one answering their questions or providing solutions to their problems, than they’re going to be more likely to buy from you.

3. It’s essential that you have a great relationship with your customers if you want them to buy from you, and by implementing teleseminars and webinars into your marketing campaign, your customers can truly get to know you. When they feel like they know you, they will be loyal to your business by returning again and again.

4. By having guests register for your event, you can build a list of people who are interested in what you have to offer. So even if they don’t buy from you during the actual seminar, you can send out promotional emails in the future reminding them of your business.

5. This is probably one of the best benefits to you as a business owner, and that’s using your presentation to create fresh products. By using the recording from your event, and the audio transcription, you can create an information product to sell to others. Even those who attended the seminar may want a copy for future reference.

TELESEMINAR & WEBINAR IDEAS

There are many different reasons why business owners hold these types of events, but if you’re not sure what you can do

• If you’re repeatedly asked the same questions about your products or services, hold a question & answer event where you answer 10 of the most pressing questions that your customers have. When you have people register for your event, be sure to leave a space for them to ask a question.

• Interview an expert in your field to teach your market, and follow it up with a question and answer session.

• If you have an ebook, hold a teaching session that covers the key points from your ebook and then tell your guests how to buy a copy at the end of the call.

• These types of events can also be used for training. You can increase the value of your current products and services by including access to a training session with you. Or, if you have an affiliate program use it to train your affiliates and to find out how you can help them sell more of your products.
• Create a paid tele-class that will teach something to attendees over the course of a few days or even a month. Then compile all of the materials into an information product (home study courses) that you can sell again and again without the work on your part.

• Teach people how they can use your products to their benefit, and then at the end of the call tell them how and where they can buy your products.

The ideas for hosting teleseminars and webinars are endless. Take note of how other business owners are using them, and come up with your own ways to serve your market.

TIPS

1. Have An outline: To ensure that your presentation goes off without a hitch, and to progress smoothly, make sure that you prepare an outline for your teleseminar. It will help keep you on track for the time frame you’ve allotted, and maintain a sense of professionalism. You may even want to provide a copy of the basic outline to your participants so they can follow along and take notes accordingly.

2. Keep A Drink Nearby: This is especially necessary if you are the only presenter, all that talking can make your mouth dry and you want to make sure you sound clear.

3. Backup Plan: If you have a guest to interview during your event, make sure that you have a backup plan or secondary guest on hand in case something happens and they don’t make it to the call.

4. Call Length: The average length for a teleseminar or webinar is about an hour; however, more detailed topics may need up to 2 hours. Just keep in mind that your guests are in their homes, so it may be difficult for them to attend for more than an hour.

5. Give Directions: Some of your callers will be experts and know what to do, and others will be on their first teleseminar call, so make sure that you give clear instructions. Let them know how to mute and unmute themselves in case of background noise, and tell them when you’ll be opening the line for questions.

6. Make A Recording: Always make a recording of your event. You can provide it to those who were unable to make the call, or use it in a future information product. Check to make sure that the teleseminar or webinar service you choose allows you to record, and then you can make an mp3 version.

7. Question & Answer Time: Try to make time for a Q&A session sometime during your event to encourage participation from your listeners, and to add value to the call.

8. Call To Action: End your teleseminar or webinar with a call to action for your guests. Give them an assignment, ask them to send in feedback, direct them to your message board, give them the link to your special offer, etc.

9. Transcribe That Audio: Don’t forget to send the mp3 of your call to a transcriptionist. You’ll want to have a text version to go along with your audio for your members

TOOLS

You Will Need:

- Bridge line
- An autoresponder
- A recording
- A transcript
- A squeeze page
- An outline
- For a webinar you may want a slide show or video presentation

Teleseminar & Webinar Services:

GoToMeeting.Com

WebEx.com

MeetingOnNow.com

ConferTel.net

InstantSimulCasting.com

InstantConference.com

ConferenceCall.com

InterCall.com

BudgetConferencing.ca

Let’s recap what my blog posts have talked about in the past in regards to making passive income on the internet.

Mindset
First of all, the mindset. The mindset must be right. Making passive income isn’t about getting rick quickly (for that, you are looking at high risk investments and activities such as gambling and any type of short-term trading).

Getting something for nothing simple doesn’t work, and if you are really determined to make passive income online, then be prepared to work hard - at least initially. The thing that sets earned income and passive income apart is that with passive income, you are able to gain future income without having to work for it, but this is not to say that you will never have to work for it. Passive income is the result of once earned income - engrave this in your brain.

Learn as much as you can about internet business, and investments. If you have read Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad or The Cash Quadrant, then you are familiar with the four quadrants. You want to have the mentality of an investor and business owner. Those two type of people have one thing in common - they look for high-leveraged opportunities.

Empower yourself with knowledge, just enough to get you going, and not too much for you to over analyze and paralyze. Some people think going into a particular type of business or investment is risky. Well, that’s because most likely those people don’t have any knowledge in the type of business or investment they are getting into. Risk is in the eyes of the beholder.

Get Comfortable With Selling
Ok, now that we have established the right mindset to start building your passive income online for life, let’s start selling. “What? Selling? But I don’t like selling!”, that little voice in your head is probably screaming right now. Relax, and admit it, professional sells is one of the top, best paying profession in the world, and there is a good reason for that. Believe it or not, even if you work for someone else (aka you have a J.O.B), you are still selling - you are selling your skill to your employer. Most people associate selling to car salesman, but the truth is there are many type of sales you can get into.

Be Careful What You Sell!
Some things you sell will only pay you once. In other words, you get paid only so much as what you sell - such as going to work for 8 hours and get paid for those 8 hours, or get paid commission once for selling a car, a piece of real estate, etc.

There are affiliate programs that can help you build passive income online - ones that pay you recurring commissions. Many web hosting referral programs were like that, but nowadays many have opted to pay just once due to stiff competition in the hosting industry. Look for affiliate programs where the nature of their business is of a membership or a recurring service, where customers pay a monthly subscription. Most likely the merchants will also pay out recurring commissions.

Internet marketing memberships tend to have recurring commission, have a look at these recurring commission products:

Earn $1,000 A Day Membership

Blogging to The Bank

Lazy Affiliate System

Some programs has a 2-tier structure or multiple tier structure where you can actually refer an affiliate, and earn a percentage from the affiliates’ commissions whom you have referred.

Many CPA networks have a 2-tier affiliate program.

Climb To The Top Of The Food Chain
While selling an existing product or service of another merchant seems like easy money (afterall, you don’t have to create the product or service yourself), keep in mind how much more money you could have made if you had owned the product or service yourself (it’s like keeping 100% commission :)).  Also, keep in mind, when you are the owner of a product or service, you can recruit affiliates and have them sell for you.  See Big Money Writing Little Books.

Make and Keep As Much $$$ As You Can Today
The other approach to making passive income online is to start making and keep as much money as you can today, doing whatever that it is you do (employee or self-employee) and then transition yourself to become an investor.  When you make investing as your business, you are now leveraging your money - you are putting your money to work for you.

There are many online investment opportunities that you can get into, once you have some money in your pocket.  For example, you can buy domains that have existing traffic, and make passive income from them.  You can also purchase established websites that require little attention and just have them run on autopilot.  If you are not familiar with buying a web property (be it a domain or a website), then start out small.  There are many revenue generating web properties that are just waiting for buyers to snatch them up, and for a very good multiple, too.  A typical web property investment will have a break even price of 2 - 3 years, which is much faster than a brick-and-mortar business, and much higher ROI than a real estate rental property.

More to come later…

I got this email from Stephen Pierce today about his new product launch “Instant Traffic Expert” system where he gives you the blueprint to 21 traffic generation techniques that are “outsource-ready.”

It is not so much about the 21 ways to generate traffic, but the fact that he has them down into a blueprint so that I can easily hire a few virtual assistants and get them to perform these traffic strategies for me.

Back in 1996 when I first started my own web design service, I quickly learned that having a website is simply not enough. After all, what good is it that no one knows about your pretty-looking website, right?

If you are serious about generating traffic to your website, then I highly recommend his “Instant Traffic Expert” system (currently selling at $197 and will go up to $497 on Tues. March 31st, 2008). Top that with a 90-day “free-look” refund guarantee, you simply can’t go wrong.

I am a client of Stephen Pierce and has been for a long time (in fact, I purchased his “The Whole Truth And Nothing But The Truth About Internet Marketing” back in 2003) and I know Stephen’s products are always top-notch.

I use classified ads website to market my products and services quite a bit, and I know how profitable these “free” traffic sources can be (See my Craigslist Slap Report)

Even if you do not have a product or service to sell, you can still drive classified ads traffic to merchants’ websites and earn affiliate commission.

The game gets trickier because more and more marketers are aware of these classified ads websites and the site operators are also aware of their presence and are coming up with different measures to reduce the number of spamvertisements.

Let’s take a look at Craigslist.org - according to Alexa ranking it is the 10th most popular website in the U.S. trailing eBay, MSN, Wikipedia. From first hand experience I know for a fact that the traffic is enormous.

However, not everything will do well when marketed with classified ads websites. If you are into building VRE websites, for example, then what are you really selling here? Nothing! At least nothing that is tangible. You are selling information. What do you think the mentality is for people that come on to the classified ads websites?

Traditionally, users of classified ad sites, much like your yellowpage book at home, are consumers looking to buy or sell real estate, electronics, furniture, financial services, jobs & gigs, etc.

So if you want to advertise your information website in classified ad websites, you’ll need to come up with an angle.

For example, let’s say you set up a website on acne - information on different types of acne, and treatment options. How would you sell this on Craigslist? What ad can you possible write and post and not have people think it’s spamvertisement? Ask yourself what category in Craigslist would you post your ad in.

Post your thoughts in the comments, and I will share with you how I’d go by doing it without getting flagged. Be sure to add yourself to the announcement list (upper right sidebar).

P.S. For more ideas on how to make money from Craigslist, see my Craigslist Slap Report

Check out payperpost.com

Simply put, it’s a marketplace (like Google’s contextual advertising program Adwords & Adsense) for advertisers to post jobs for bloggers to fulfill. Bloggers get paid for writing to their blogs about advertiser’s website, product or service, etc. As an advertiser, you can typical pay around $5 to $10 for a blogger to post about your website.

So I decided to check it out, and this is what happened:

On 6/2/2007 I signed up for an advertiser account just to check out what their service is all about. To create an advertiser account you do need to enter a valid credit card number. At that time I didn’t have a website in mind that I would like to use the service to promote, so I moved on.

On 7/29/2007 I received an email from payperpost that they have just credit my advertiser account $100 for me to try out their service! Wow, that’s awfully generous of them! If I post a job for bloggers and pay them $10 per blog post, with backlink to my website, then I have just received 10 free backlinks!

So there you have it, that’s how you are able to get $100 free advertising spend from PayPerPost.com. I’m not saying this will work for you, and you do have to wait around for it. I am only telling you what happened. Also keep in mind that payperpost is probably a growing business and they may not be so generous as more people are familiar with their service.

Ok, I’m back! My son was born on 4th of July, 2007! I’m a happy daddy.

Let me share with you one traffic strategy that I used a while back when I was promoting for Partypoker.com. In fact, I did so well I was getting 4-figure bonuses from my PartyPoker affiliate manager.

Now, I am not going to disclose the specific strategy that I use to recruit players, but I can tell you that I started a Yahoo! Groups intended to “bribe” players to sign up using my affiliate link. I was able to recruit 100’s of poker players each month. You can imagine what the commission is like at $75 per player and on top of that a monthly 4-figure bonus from my affiliate manager.

The key in getting traffic from Yahoo! Groups is by finding existing groups with sizable member base AND group settings that allow members to post without moderation. This strategy will work for any niche, not necessary for poker. Go ahead and head over to http://groups.yahoo.com and do a search for your niche. Hopefully you are able to find existing groups with members in your niche market. Click on the group setting tab (once you get to the homepage of that group, it’s located right underneath the navigation menu):

If it says “Messages do not require approval” then you are free to post a message to the group without having the moderator of the group to approve your message. I’ll leave it to you with what you are going to post in this group. Also, you may also start your own Yahoo! Group and use this free platform as a mailing list manager.

Bottom line, use your creativity in this. If you are not in my blog announcement list, then you would want to get in (subscribe with the box in the upper right hand corner). I will be writing a report on the exact steps and strategies I took to become a PartyPoker.com super affiliate.

Are you keyword-centric?  What I mean is that most internet marketers, especially those who are in the PPC arena focus a lot on keyword research.  They often forget the market that they are trying to sell to, or the people behind those keywords.

For example, let’s assume you are trying to sell an ebook on “parenting.”  Ninty-nine percent of internet marketers would start by performing keyword research with their favorite keyword tool or keyword research service on “parenting”, and they would brainstorm other related keywords and hopefully to land on some longtails.  While this is fine, but can you imagine how many other internet marketers are doing the same thing you are doing?

So, let’s look at another approach.  Forget keyword research.  Brainstorm the market.  Ask yourself who are the people behind parenting.  Who are the people who would be interested in the subject of parenting?  What age group are they?  Are there magazines or tradeshows on parenting?  Are there existing communities online for these people?

Once you start brainstorming in that perspective, you will discover other mediums where you can advertise for your product.  You can try out buying an ad in the magazines, hit up the owners of the parenting communities and do a deal.  The advertising possibilities are not limited to just the search engines.  You are probably thinking to yourself, “Oh, gosh, this is more work than PPC!”  Well, you are absolutely right, and that’s the reason why few internet marketers are eating the whole pie while the majority are scrounging on the crumbs.

Do you want to be the 2% who create Clickbank products or the other 98% who sell them?

Dr. Mike and Eric Louvieres had created the AffiliateSalesLetters.com membership site where each month you will receive several re-written and highly converting sales letters for products in the Clickbank network. They will also provide you with keywords that are ready for your Adword campaigns. So what does this mean to you?

If you don’t already know, Dr. Mike is very involved in the health niche and having been a member of his AffiliateSalesLetter.com I know majority of the re-written salespage are indeed for info products related to health. So if you are a smart internet marketer, go and create your own clickbank product in the health niche and most likely it will be picked up by Dr. Mike and Eric Louvieres to have your salespage re-written and sent off to their members to be promoted!

Don’t have a Clickbank account? You are crazy! It only takes $50 or so to get a product included in their marketplace which exposes your info product to other affiliate marketers to be promoted. Remember, affiliate traffic is one of the best traffic you can get.

Here are 3 processes for you to get a new website indexed by Google in 24 hours (speaking from my own experience, but no guarantees on the time frame for which your site will be indexed):

1. Use QUIT. QUIT (QUick Indexing Tool) submits your site to several social bookmarking tools and other “secret” places that the author does not disclose. It’s currently free so take advantage of it, but be sure to make donations to keep it that way.

2. Have an existing website already indexed by Google? Link the new website from it. Don’t have one? No problem. Install a copy of Wordpress on a subdirectory of your new website and install wp-autoblog plugin and use it to pull in relevant feeds for your website. Then include a link from the blog to the new website’s index page (assuming this is what you want indexed).

3. If appropriate and not violating Craigslist’s TOS, post an ad in the appropriate category with a direct link to your website (be sure to use anchor tag to link it, ie. <a href=”http://www.yoursite.com”>anchor link</a>). Do the same with Backpage.com, USFreeads.com, and other free classifieds website, when appropriate. A good way to minimize the chance of having your ad removed is to post in a remote city.

It is not necessary to do all 3 processes to get your site indexed. However, if you want speedy inclusion in the Google Index then you would naturally want to perform all 3 processes.

There is another way that I use wp-autoblog plugin to get 1) top ranking in Google as well as other search engines, 2) affiliate commission for a very popular program in CJ.com. The beauty of it is that I do not need to do any SEO, and zero promotion and still get first page ranking for keywords that are possible long tails. Talk about passive income. I’ll share with you how this is done at a later post. Be sure to put in your name and email in the announcement list to be notified of my next post.

In my previous post I mentioned that I recommend using free classifieds ads to drive traffic to your website. When it comes to free classifieds, Craigslist.org would no doubt pop up as the top website of choice. Indeed, Craigslist is one of the most visited website on the internet and can bring you tremendous amounts of traffic if you know how to use it.

However, it is because of the popularity that internet marketers use and abuse the most. Thus, Craigslist has since came up with more stringent posting requirements and smarter bots to detect “advertisement spam.” Whenever an opportunity presents itself, it is almost always abused by marketers online. Sort of like Google is now taking helm to crack down on “spammy” looking, page generated, Adsense websites. Most marketers would then give up, some will persevere, and others will move on to another “opportunity.”

Same goes with Craigslist and MySpace. If you shall choose to move on, then have a look at Backpage.com. The playing field is wide open even though it doesn’t promise as much traffic as Craigslist. Does Craigslist still “work”? Sure it does. You just need to be smart about it.

*hint* As an additional bonus to bringing traffic directly to your website, it can also boost your PageRank for your website if you direct link from your ads. I was able to bring a brand new domain from PR0 to PR6 in 3 months with no other backlink promotion.