There is a lot to do to host a successful webinar. But, if you arrange to do each thing in advance and have a cheat sheet or a to-do list to help you not forget anything, then you’ll run through it with no problem. Let this be the start of your cheat sheet.

* Choose Software – Write down the functions you want the software to have so that you can run a smooth webinar. Try out some different types of software, and then choose the software you want to use.

* Define Your Audience – Who do you want to deliver your message to? It might seem weird to choose your audience first, but doing so will make it simpler to choose the topic. If you know who you’re talking to then you can customize any topic to fit them.

* Write Out Descriptions – When you know who your audience is, it will help to write down exactly who they are down to descriptions of them as individuals. Choosing two or three specific personas is very helpful moving forward.

* Develop a Narrow Topic – Your topic should be something that solves one major problem for your audience. For example, perhaps your audience consists of home-based service providers like virtual assistants. What is one big problem that they have that you can solve? Summarize the topic and the event so that you can market it to not only attendees but also to potential JVs.

* Set a Date – Setting a date early in the planning process is essential to getting it done. If you wait too long to perfect everything, you won’t do it. Set a date, and then work your way backwards in your calendar setting everything up. The least amount of time you need to put on a successful webinar is six weeks.

* Choose a Title – Using this information, develop a working title. You can also use the working titles to tease your audience a bit. You might develop a poll to let them choose one of the titles.

* Set Your Goals for the Event – Set specific goals for your webinar, such as adding 100 targeted subscribers to your email list, or selling five new memberships to your exclusive inner circle club. Write it down so that you can look at it each time you start to develop copy.

* Create an Email Autoresponder Series – When people sign up early for the event, it’s great to have them on a list with an autoresponder series plugged in to keep them informed and excited about the coming event.

* Build a Landing Page – Using your title and the summary of your event, add on to that and create a landing page that makes people want to sign up for your event. Make it as simple as possible; don’t ask too many questions of attendees or they’ll run away and you will miss out.

* Develop Any Forms You’ll Need – Both your JVs and your attendees are going to need forms. You’ll need to use forms to collect information on everyone from both sides of the fence. You can use something like Gravity Forms or even Google Forms.

* Invite Joint Venture Partners – Once you know the focus of the event, you can invite JVs to do the event with you. Decide on the rules and the speaker responsibilities ahead of time, and then invite about four times as many as you think you need to apply to be speakers.

* Craft the Web Copy – Get to work on writing the copy for the event, or have someone do it. Even before the rest of the work is done you need to start marketing your event as soon as possible.

* Get Art Created – Find someone to create graphics for the event. Consider graphics for the sales page, for the speaker information, for attendee gifts and more. For example, wouldn’t it be useful to have a graphic to say an attendee is attending, which can easily be tweeted after they purchase their ticket?

* Prepare an Event Page – Using that information, make your event page with all the information on the speakers, the topic, and benefits of attending.

* Collect Speaker Information – As speakers turn in their information, which needs to have a strict deadline, add it to the event page.

* Send Out Press Releases – As soon as the date is set, the title chosen, and the event is scheduled, you need to send out a press release regarding your event.

* Invite Everyone – It might seem like something you’d think of, but invite everyone you know on your lists, and have the speakers invite people on their lists. Create a deadline by which to start doing that.

* Create a Bonus for Attendees – Everyone loves unannounced bonuses and opportunities. You can use these bonuses as they come in to tease your audience that has not signed up, but keep them secret from people who have signed up.

* Collect Speaker Slide Shows – You never know what can happen, so it’s a good idea to collect the speaker slides. They are also great bonus material for webinar attendees who may want to download them to follow along with a speaker.

* Practice – Have a practice run with the speakers about a week before the live event. Make it private, and just have each speaker show up, share their screens, check their volume and just take five minutes to make sure everything works.

Successful webinars are possible with the right advanced planning and with specific goals in mind. You can host webinars and add another income stream to your business fast.