Make Money As A Conferencing Media Star!

Erika Lawal

Conferencing is a tool which is widely ignored by online sellers. Learn how to cement your relationship with your vistors and subscribers by sharing content via telephonce and web conferencing.

Make Money As A Conferencing Media Star!
(c) Erika Lawal 2003 So...have you thought about cashing in as a media star? Strictly speaking, if you're earning money from your online business, you're already a media star :), but I'm talking about using tele and web conferencing to consolidate the relationship you have with your subscribers, and in doing so, increasing your selling power as someone whose word is to be trusted. If you look around, you'll find that more and more webmasters are using new technologies to access their customers - it's the ultimate form of online selling, and the good news is it's still so new a concept (especially outside the porn industry) that you have lots of opportunity to tap into people's fascination with the novelty. Bottom line is they haven't become cynical and hardened to this special form of marketing.
WHAT IS CONFERENCING? It's simple really. You want to talk to several people at once; to have them talk to each other? You simply use telephone conferencing or web conferencing to bring them together.
HOW DO I MAKE MONEY FROM CONFERENCING? If you've stuck with me this long, you know that I'm not going to suggest you go out and sell snake oil! Sure, you CAN use conferencing to hard sell your customers; if you have a born talent for mesmerizing people into believing they've gotta have the latest crock of you-know-what, go do it. However, my bet is you don't (or else, why would you be reading this?) I don't have that particular "talent" either, in fact, the last thing I want is earn a pile of money through deception. The good news is that I don't have to, and neither do you! What we're talking about here is using conferencing to extend what you're already doing on your website; that is, offering information about your subject. It doesn't matter what you sell on your site; you might be selling a copywriting course, golf clubs, or mortgages. Your conference, whether on the telephone or the web, will aim to provide additional information to your customers in each of these areas. You could offer a Q & A on copywriting, a teach-in on golf club care (or even on golfing technique), or you could advise on the different types of mortgages available. If you don't have the expertise on any given area yourself, haul in someone who does (easy enough to find a golf enthusiast or mortgage advisor locally), and split the profits with them! You can make your conference a one-off or regular event; the frequency with which you run these events depends only on the level of interest you can generate and your willingness to play host. Likewise, the methods of income generation you can achieve by marketing through conferencing is limited only by your own inventiveness. Here are just a few of the methods I've come up with; Charge conference participants an "entry" fee (this is most successfully achieved when you've established a solid reputation for yourself, or have something extra-special to offer, like a live interview with a known figure in your field). Promote your products during the conference call, including offering special discounts to participants buying within a given time frame after the event. Record or transcribe the conference (this can often be done by the teleconferencing company) and re-sell the event online. Send follow up mail after the conference to highlight products which are related to the subject of your conference.
WHAT DO I DO AT A CONFERENCE? As I've said, your aim is to fill people in on the subjects that both you and they hold dear. There are many ways of doing this, but a common format would be to lecture (or interview your "expert") for 15-20 mins, then open the floor to questions from participants, with the conference lasting 60-90 mins in total. Once the questions start, time passes very quickly, so you need to be boundaried about maintaining a structure for your conference - far better to round things up at the allotted time, leaving them breathless for more, than to ramble on responding to more and more questions, or to be rudely cut off by an operator who's watching the clock when you're not. If you feel a little intimated at the prospect of organizing and managing your own conference, you can get some or all of it done for you by opting for an "operator-assisted" conference. You'll pay extra for this service, but it's worthwhile, particularly if you've no-one else available to help you manage things.
TELEPHONE OR WEB CONFERENCING? There's no doubt about it; for the moment at least, the technological superiority of pure telephony makes telephone conferencing a better bet, at least where visual input isn't a crucial element of the information exchange. What do I mean? Well, if you want to explain the pros and cons of different types of mortgages, you don't really need to be televised to get your point across. Under these circumstances, you might just as well use telephone conferencing, because the picture quality and time lapse between sound and pictures can be irritating for participants. However, if you're trying to explain the correct stance to take a shot in golf, or how achieve pucker-free quilting, you might just want to think about web conferencing, because you aren't going to get very far without a camera :). Under such circumstances, your participants are much more likely to put up with the technological shortcomings of web conferencing, not least because they've got something other than a figure with disorientated speech to distract them!
HOW MUCH DOES CONFERENCING COST? Rates vary widely depending on what type of service you use. You can access "free" conferencing. By free, they mean that you're not charged a set up or conference fee; all you and the participants will pay for is the cost your call. The cheapest I've seen is 8 cents/minute. You may also purchase your conference by paying per slot (hour or half hour), by number of participants, or by a combination of the two. Where you pay for slots and/or participation numbers, prices start from about $25 per hour. Such services can be tailored either to provide a toll-free number for participants (you pick up the tab), or for them to meet the call cost themselves. Neither you or your participants will need any special equipment for telephone conferencing, although if paying for calls, it would be advisable to use a long distance provider. For web conferencing, it's possible to use companies for which you need no special software, other than a camera and microphone. As I mentioned above, you can have varied levels of input from the conferencing company to help make sure the proceedings run smoothly, leaving you to concentrate on the job of presenting.
SUMMARY If you've been hiding behind your PC, now might just be time to make a gentle foray back into the "real" world. If you've already got a mailing list, you're halfway there, as your subscribers know who you are, and trust you enough to keep reading your mailings. Now you need to cement that burgeoning relationship by giving yourself a voice, maybe even a face! Try it, you'll be amazed at how much fun and PROFIT it generates! To learn more about telephone or web conferencing services visit the following; CallBack4U
http://www.dailyinternetmarketingtips.net/callback4u.html ContactCall
http://www.dailyinternetmarketingtips.net/contactcall.html ActionConferenceCall
http://www.dailyinternetmarketingtips.net/actionconfcall.html TeleBridge
http://www.dailyinternetmarketingtips.net/telebridge.html ConferenceCall
http://www.dailyinternetmarketingtips.net/conferencecall.html EasyConference
http://www.dailyinternetmarketingtips.net/easyconference.html
UK-based Conferencing Shout99
http://www.dailyinternetmarketingtips.net/shout99.html ***************************************************************
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About the Author

Erika Lawal writes Daily Internet Maketing Tips for beginning and intermediate webmasters who feel overwhelmed by the steepness of the learning curve they need to climb in order to start serious selling. She provides a plain english, no-nonsense guide that moves the reader towards running a successful online business without employing expensive or nasty "tricks".