Category: Grow a Home Business

    Ten Reasons to Add Webinars

    Webinars should be an important part of your online marketing mix. Webinars have the ability to bring in new potential leads from all over the world, as well as help you engage with your audience in new, more personal way. If you’ve not tried having a webinar yet, maybe these ten reasons to add webinars will convince you.

    1. Connect with More Customers – Just like video is shared more than text content, webinars are enjoyed on a higher level than other types of educational materials. Webinars feel more personal, even though they can actually be recorded and replayed.

    2. Build Your Email List with Qualified Leads – People who will pay to attend a webinar of a certain topic are your ideal audience and will consist of highly qualified leads that want what you’re offering.

    3. Establish Your Expertise – If you need a way to prove what you know, webinars are a great way to choose. Giving talks about what you know has long been a way to show authority on a subject, but doing it online is even easier than flying all over the country to do it. Both are fun and useful, but webinars offer some benefits over in-person events because you can do them from anywhere for anyone anywhere.

    4. Develop New Information Products – Due to the ability to record webinars, you can use them as future information products. Not only can you sell the recording as is, you can also transcribe the recordings and turn them into eBooks.

    5. The Cost to Entry Is Low – The software involved can be very expensive, but there are some great choices to use that aren’t as expensive, such as InstantTeleseminar, Adobe Connect and GoToMeeting. These vary in price and features, so check them out. There are other systems, too.

    Links:

    InstantTeleseminar – http://instantteleseminar.com/
    Adobe Connect – http://www.adobe.com/products/adobeconnect.html
    GoToMeeting – http://www.gotomeeting.com/

    6. Engage Audiences Easily – There are many different types of features that you can use to engage audiences, such as the ability for the audience to ask questions live during the event, and the ability to hand over the speaker controls to a guest. Not to mention the ability to screen share and watch videos together and more.

    7. Add a New Stream of Revenue – Not only can you charge for webinar attendance if you want to, but you can also turn the webinar into information products as mentioned before and sell them that way. There are so many things that open up to you. For example, you can turn each good question into its own new product.

    8. Easy to Repurpose – The recording ability makes webinars simple to repurpose. Turn questions into blog posts, break up videos into eCourses, put the transcript of a webinar into book form, and more. The sky is the limit; you can even make cuts into short YouTube videos.

    9. Great Way to Network with Others – The webinar itself, if you add in an intermission with an open chat window, is a great way to network with others. Plus the preparation for the event, finding guests and JV partners (joint venture) is going to help you with reaching out to others.

    10. It’s Not Hard to Do – Believe it or not, if you can use your online banking system, or Skype, you have the technical knowledge to use any of the webinar software mentioned. You may need some help with planning, organizing and implementation, but the technology should be straightforward to use.

    Planning and hosting webinars isn’t costly, and they’re not hard to do either. You’ll gain so much more out of hosting webinars and adding webinars to your marketing mix that you’ll wonder why you did not start doing them sooner.

    Categories: webinars Tags: Tags:

    Ten Ways to Make Use of Online Communities

    Building an online community, and participating in online communities, is an important way to market your business online that is going to really take off  and beyond. The technology has become simpler, and anyone can start a community today. The trick is building it into a productive and valuable extension of your business.

    1. Start Your Own Community – If you have your own community focused on a certain niche, you will be able to control what happens and market yourself easier without having to follow anyone else’s rules.

    2. Release Limited Programs – If you release limited programs only to the group, they’ll feel as if they are special and unique and be more likely to give you a good testimonial and referral when the product goes live to the rest of the public.

    3. Ask Questions – Keep the discussion going by asking at least one question of the community every single day. Not only will it keep the community active for others who are just visiting for the first time, it will help people get to know you by seeing your name and face every day.

    4. Conduct Polls – Some online communities have a way to conduct a poll. This is where you ask a question but have set answers that they can choose from. It’s a great way to ask about your future products, such as, “Should I Name my Product X or Y?” By making them part of the creation they’ll be more likely to purchase.

    5. Have Weekly Twitter Parties – Choose a topic or goal for the week and ask the members of the community to participate in a Twitter party with prizes, special hashtags, and fun during the Twitter party.

    6. Plan a Monthly Webinar – Your community is the best place to tell about the monthly webinars and they are the ones you should invite to it. Plan it around a particular topic that is applicable to your niche.

    7. Promote Yourself Via Your Signature Line – It’s important to have a really well filled out profile as well as a good signature line that sends the members of the community to a special sales page just for them.

    8. Invite Others into the Community – Seek to selectively grow the group by inviting others who are interested in the same niche to the community. Keeping new members coming in on a regular basis is a way to keep the community fresh and active.

    9. Don’t Allow Anonymity – If you own the group, ensure that people are themselves and aren’t allowed to be anonymous. The reason is that if people are required to use their real name, they’ll be much less likely to be scammers and you need to keep your community safe.

    10. Become the Go-To Resource – Within the boundaries of your niche and subject matter, seek to be the go-to resource by always answering questions when they come up. In addition, start discussions and share content that relates to your niche.

    Using online communities to build relationships with other people is an important way to grow your business. This is because businesses that have longevity have always known that putting the customer at the center of everything is what works.

    Categories: Membership Tags: Tags:

    Strategies for Crafting Beefy Copy without Being Wordy

    Many people sit down to write, and suddenly they seem to think they need to add extra words. You may have found yourself doing that too at some stage – using words you know are unnatural for you to use and just adding fluff to your writing. The truth is, the best writing (especially online writing) is writing that makes the reader feel as if you’re talking right to them. In order to do this you cannot use extraneous words, but you can’t leave out what’s important either.

    Craft a Working Title

    Starting with a title is a great way to narrow down what you’re going to tell your readers. You can always perfect it later. Crafting a title involves understanding the reason for your message. When you understand the reason for your message, you’ll be able to write beefier content without being wordy.

    Make an Outline

    After you’ve written your working title, it’s time to make an outline. Don’t be afraid. You don’t have to worry about Roman numerals and lower case letters to make an outline. Just write a few bullet points about the issues you want to tell your audience.

    Talk Your Blog Post or Article

    It is helpful for some people to use voice-to-text technology to “talk” their writing. Most Microsoft-based computers and Apple computers already have this technology available. But, you can also purchase professional programs such as Dragon Naturally Speaking. When you talk your copy it will resonate with your audience in a new way.

    Link to Dragon Naturally Speaking – http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_25?url=search-alias%3Dsoftware&field-keywords=dragon+naturally+speaking&sprefix=dragon+naturally+speaking%2Caps%2C218

    Avoid Redundant Words

    Common redundancies like “absolutely perfect”, and “actual facts” can either add to or subtract from the meaning of your words. Most of the time you want to avoid needless redundancies such as “last and final” because it adds nothing to the meaning of your words. There can be an argument for certain types of irreverent writing to include these redundancies but for concise writing, avoid them as much as possible and edit for meaning.

    Combine Sentences

    You were likely taught in school to write short, to-the-point sentences. But sometimes it’s appropriate to combine sentences for more concise copy. Combining short sentences helps you avoid boring your audience. When you can combine two sentences easily, without creating a run on sentence, you should do it. It will improve understanding of the copy and improve the flow.

    That, Who, Which

    Sometimes these words are needed, but when you are editing your work, pay extra attention to times when that, who, and which are being used. Try the sentence without these words to see if the meaning changes or if it changes the emphasis of the words.

    Use Active Voice

    It’s very easy slip into using passive voice when writing. But, most of the time using active voice is more appropriate. A key to knowing when passive voice sneaks in are the words, “it, is, was, and by”. If you notice those words while editing, try to arrange the sentence by switching the passive voice to active voice.

    Example: “He got scratched by the cat.” Passive | “The cat scratched him.” Active

    Watch Nominalizations

    When an action word becomes a noun, it becomes a nominalization (e.g. “illustration” versus “illustrated”). These should be avoided. They have a negative effect on your copy by making reading it monotonous and easy to misunderstand. Instead focus on making sentences active and using nouns as nouns and action words as action words.

    Edit Carefully

    No one can write good copy in one draft. In fact, it may take you multiple drafts to perfect your copy. You want it to be beefy, full, and effective. Take the time to perfect each sentence for each type of copy you write. Start with free-flowing copy, leave it for a while, then come back to it and make it better.

    Writing beefy copy is not just about using fewer words; it’s about using the right words in the right place, at the right time. Following these suggestions will help you improve your writing exponentially. But, don’t allow these ideas to interfere with your flow of words – that’s what editing is for.

    Categories: Content Tags: Tags:

    The Truth about Multitasking

    Multitasking is a myth that has come to an end. Doing too many things at once does not improve productivity, and doesn’t make for high quality work or experiences. It can cause a lot of stress on individuals and cost businesses money. The problem is, many people still see multitasking as a virtue. You’ll even see job descriptions that say “must be an accomplished multitasker.”

    This is a huge mistake. Why do you think there are so many mistakes at the drive thru these days? Go observe how these employees must work. They have to listen to the order, input it into the computer, while counting change for another person at the checkout while also getting drinks for the next order.

    * There Is No Such Thing as Multitasking – People think they are multitasking but all they are doing is dividing their time between different tasks at the same time. Thus they are giving less attention to each task, which can result in more stress and less positive results in everything they do.

    * Trying to Multitask Makes You Crazy – Not only will it reduce your IQ during the time you’re trying to multitask, it will also make you feel as if you can’t do anything right. Our brains aren’t made for multitasking in the manner we try to do it these days.

    * It Reduces Productivity – Many proud multitaskers think that they can do so much at once, and get more done. However, studies show a reduction up to 50 percent in productivity when you multitask. This is huge when you consider how much more you could get done if you just focused.

    * It Lowers Quality – People who multitask may think they are doing a good job, but it’s been proved (as Forbes.com has reported) that the quality is reduced by up to 40 percent when multitasking and not focusing on one thing at a time.

    * It Causes Stress – Anyone who has a job that requires multitasking, or who forces multitasking on themselves by trying to divide their focus, will experience stress and feel as if they have no down time. For example, try turning off your phone when with your family. Your heart will thank you.

    * It Can Be Life Threatening – The stress that builds up when multitasking and doing everything essentially half way can actually affect your health. If you want to avoid high blood pressure and stomach issues, stop trying to multitask.

    * It Makes You Forgetful and Absent Minded – On a good day, most people have trouble to remember things without a calendar. But if you are trying to multitask, you’ll notice that you have trouble with short-term memory.

    * You Can’t Experience Life Fully – Honestly, you want to live your life in such a way that you can be proud that you’ve done the best that you can do. It doesn’t matter if it’s work, home life or other relationships with friends; giving each your all while you’re with them is important.

    If you have a habit of trying to multitask when you are working, spending time with your family, or just watching TV, try to find a way to concentrate on just one thing at a time instead. See if you don’t do better, feel less stressed out, and get more out of it too.

    Categories: Grow a Home Business, Mindset Tags: Tags:

    How to Choose the Right Membership to Join

    One way to move your business to the next level is to join inner circles, mastermind groups, and other types of memberships. These groups help you make contact with people who may want to use your services or buy your products. Or they might simply offer a “water cooler” type environment to help you socially and educationally.

    It can be difficult to know which memberships you should join. Here are a few tips to point you in the right direction.

    * Know Why You Are Joining the Membership – There are a variety of reasons why you may want to join a membership. Sometimes that reason is to find new clients, and sometimes that reason is to expand your network of colleagues. This is something often done by people who work from home and also who work at jobs such as an association of bookkeepers or a networking group that comprises only one member from each industry. Which kind you want to join is something you need to be clear about.

    * Ensure That the Group’s Mission Aligns with Your Values – Check out the membership materials to ensure that the group’s mission fits in with your own ideas and values. There are many mastermind groups and memberships that will not, but there are some that will be right on the mark. Being in a group that’s on the mark is going to be more beneficial to you because you’re going to be proud to be part of the group.

    * Make Certain That They Are Active Memberships – If you can get a trial membership, that’s a good way to check it out before joining. You want to make sure that the members are active and that they are really doing things. There are many memberships where people just join to get on a list, but that’s not going to serve you very well. Make sure you’re involved with a membership that is active.

    * Determine What the Member Perks Are – Every group and membership has some sort of benefits and perks for joining. For some it’s educational opportunities, for others it’s a social type benefit such as weekly luncheons. There are even some that offer less expensive liability insurance or health insurance, depending on the state you’re in and the rules. Check out the benefits and perks as you narrow down your choices.

    * Make Sure It’s in Your Budget – When it comes to your business, joining a membership is tax deductable as a business expense. However, you want to make sure that you get a return on your investment. Think about the cost of the membership, what benefits you should get out of it, and whether or not that helps your business and bottom line.

    * Talk to Current Members – Interviewing members is a great idea because you can find out what they think about the membership. Ask them the right questions, such as what they have got out of the membership this year in terms of return on investment. Ask them how involved they are.

    * Talk to Past Members – If you can talk to people who used to be members and aren’t any longer, then that’s really great. Ask them why they left; it might be due to being too busy to be involved or some other reason, and the membership may still be wonderful.

    * Consider Whether You Will Truly Participate – There is no real point in joining a membership if you’re not going to participate, because only in participation will you get the benefit of the membership. Joining in and volunteering is how you’ll prove your trustworthiness and abilities.

    A membership is a wonderful way to gain knowledge, make connections, and boost your business. But, you have to choose the right type of membership for your goal, plus remember that you must dive in and participate to get the results that you want to get.

    Categories: Grow a Home Business, membership Tags: Tags:

    Promoting Memberships with Small Reports

    If you want to promote your own membership or someone else’s membership that you’re an affiliate of, you can do it in a lot of ways. You can write blog posts, reviews, eBooks, and share on social media, and so forth. But, you can also promote memberships using small reports. There are a lot of different ways to create small reports that are good to use in this way.

    * Use PLR – Small reports are wonderful uses for PLR. PLR means private label rights. These are articles or other content that you can rewrite and reuse as if it’s your own. You can purchase PLR from a reputable company like AllPrivateLabelContent.com. You change them a bit, add your affiliate links, and you’re done.

    * Combine New and PLR – Combine several types of PLR plus something new and relevant to your audience to create a report in which you place an affiliate link to the membership you’re trying to promote.

    * Write Something New – Take one problem that people who may join the membership have, and either define it or solve it with the small report. Offer up the group as additional support to help them maintain their solution or solve more problems that they may have.

    * Make Brandable Reports – Create a report that is designed for your affiliates to edit, make their own and brand with their affiliate links. Affiliates like promoting products that are easy to promote, and nothing makes it simpler than providing them with the raw materials to create their own report.

    * Use Pictures, Facts and Stats – A good use for pictures, facts and statistics is to compile them into a small report that has pictures, graphics, and images. The more you can spell out the benefits of a solution, the more likely someone is to want to join a group. What better way than a small report with pie charts?

    * Hire a Writer – If you don’t want to write the reports yourself, you can hire a contractor to write the reports for you. A short report is usually about 4000 to 4500 words long. You can usually hire someone from 12 dollars per page and up. So budget about 120 to 200 dollars for your short reports.

    * Give Them Away – Use the report to give away for free. You don’t even have to collect an email address, since the report has links for the membership. More people are likely to download the report if they don’t have to give any information.

    * Exchange Them for Email Addresses – Another way to do it is to give away the report for an email address. They’ll get the marketing inside the report, plus they’ll be signed up for your email list that is targeted to the people who downloaded the report.

    * Encourage Sharing – When you are using a report to promote something like a membership, you want the people who download it to feel free to share it with everyone they know. If you make it interesting enough, and able to stand on its own enough, they will share it.

    Promoting memberships with small reports is a very effective way to get people to come to your membership. You can give them a discount based on which report they are coming from, for example, whether from an affiliate or from you directly.

    Categories: Grow a Home Business, membership Tags: Tags:

    12 Ways to Use Market Research for Your Business

    Market research is the best way to ensure longevity of your business. Many small business owners often overlook market research – to their detriment. Market research is an essential and ongoing component of all successful businesses. Here are twelve ways to use market research for your business.

    1. Discover Your Target Market – Many people make products, and then try to find a market for them. However, the truth is that you should first find the market you want to work with, then create products for it. But, even if you skipped that, you can now find your target audience so that you can get your marketing materials right.

    2. Get to Know Your Potential Customers – The market research that you conduct will allow you to get to know your potential customers better. When you know them better, you’ll be able to create customer personas that help with creating content and marketing which really gets results.

    3. Develop New Products and/or Services – When you know what is going on in the marketplace you’ll get more ideas about products and services that your audience needs. You may get the ideas from reading industry news or from what the competition is doing.

    4. Refresh Your Marketing Efforts – Sometimes marketing becomes stale and even though your audience doesn’t change who they are, they do change how they feel about things. For example, what was acceptable marketing for companies in the 1960s isn’t acceptable today. You need to refresh your marketing as needed.

    5. Determine Who Your Competitors Are – It’s important to identify your competitors so that you can keep an eye on them and what they are doing. Sign up for their lists and purchase some of their products. Don’t copy them, but do use them as a standard bearer so you can be better.

    6. Educate Yourself to Become an Expert – The more information you learn about your industry and the market for your products and/or services, the closer you’ll become to being an expert. Reading as much as possible keeps you up-to-date and knowledgeable.

    7. Confirm Your Ideas – It’s important that when you have an idea or assumption about anything to do with your business, you do the research to determine if it’s right. Sometimes anecdotal stories are wrong; sometimes a result is an outlier and not true. Only market research can help determine what is genuinely right and wrong.

    8. Learn New Opinions – During the market research you’ll also learn totally new ideas and opinions you never considered. You may find during your research that they are wrong or you may find out that they’re right. Only proper research will help.

    9. Keep Up with New Technologies in Your Industry – Keeping up with market research will also help you learn about technology as it happens. Every day new technologies are being discovered that can help you with your business. Without research you won’t know about it. It’s easy to get trapped within your four walls and not realize what is happening.

    10. Identify New Trends – As you’re doing your research, you’ll start to be able to identify new trends that are happening right now. These trends are things that you need to jump on because as fast as they come, they change.

    11. Avoid Marketing Snafus – Business owners who avoid market research are prone to making horrible marketing mistakes. They are at risk of believing their own biases. If you want a laugh and a cringe or two, see Ad Week’s list of advertising and marketing fails.

    Link to Ad Week – http://www.adweek.com/topic/fail

    12. Track Your Own Brand – Many people don’t realize that during market research you’ll also be able to determine how you’re doing as a brand getting information out to the public. If you do not run into your own articles, interviews, blog posts and research while searching, then you need to start working harder.

    The fact is, without market research your success is in jeopardy. Some business owners will achieve accidental success but it will be hard to keep up. If you plan for success by conducting market research for your business, you will be set up for success from day one. If you started already, it’s not too late to conduct market research to ensure that you achieve and maintain success.

    Categories: Marketing Tags: Tags:

    Remember the Call to Action

    When it comes to online marketing, nothing is more important than your CTA. The call to action tells the viewer what exactly you want them to do. Usually when it comes to CTAs, less is more. You want your audience to have one or two choices of actions to take for each video, no more. Some will be “share,” some will be “like,” and you may ask people to comment. There are different ways to do it all without seeming like a used car salesman.

    You know that CTAs are important in all your written content, but you may not be so sure how to go about it with your video content, or why it’s so important. But, CTAs are important in all your communication with your audience. Having said that, each video will have a different purpose, therefore a different type of CTA.

    * Remember the Buying Cycle – Your CTA will depend on the part of the buying cycle the video addresses. Some people will come to a video due to wanting to learn more information; in that case they may want to “subscribe” so that they can learn more.

    * Use Specific Action Words – Instead of trying to be tricky when it comes to the words that you use for your CTAs, let them know what they get if they like, share or comment. “To get more videos just like this please subscribe.” “If you want to enter the contest, answer the challenge question in the video below.”

    * Avoid Niche Jargon – It’s tempting to use words that are considered jargon within your CTAs, but it’s a mistake. You need to use CTAs that speak to your audience in a clear manner that makes no mistakes about what you expect from them.

    * Remember the Audience – Everything is always about your audience, and never about you. Everything you say and do needs to be something that shows that you understand their pain and can help them.

    * Think: One or the Other – When it comes to CTAs it’s imperative that you don’t give them too many choices. You want to think in terms of “this or that” to ensure that they follow your CTAs smoothly.

    * End Cards Work – An end card is a picture or video added to the end of each video that gives them a CTA. The CTA can change depending on your purpose for the video. You can create various end cards to add to the right video, depending on the purpose.

    * Have a Contest – A great way to draw attention to a CTA is to host a contest of some kind. A contest can help encourage more shares of a video without even trying, while drawing attention to a different CTA such as engagement via commenting.

    * Send Them to Another Video – A CTA often not considered is to send them to another video via an annotation or link in the description. Sending your viewers to more of your videos is a great way to improve views.

    The CTA is likely the most important part of your video. Without it, people may not watch more, like your video, share it with others, or comment. While it may seem like you are selling and yes, you hate selling, if you don’t have a CTA in your video you’ll miss out on the benefits of having videos in the first place.

    Categories: website Tags: Tags:

    How to Write Social Media Posts That People Respond To

    One thing to do on social media is to write posts. Posts are what keep your social media active and your audience engaged. However, it’s imperative that you have a strategy so that you can get the most out of your social media interactions. For the most part, your social media strategy should involve building your email list or sending them to your website so that they can become customers.

    * Understand Your Customers – You need to know who your target audience is so that you can recognize what type of posts will get more traction with them. For example, some audience members will be insulted by certain types of comedy. Others will respond very well to it. Know who they are so that your posts can be targeted.

    * Watch Your Competition – It’s always a good idea to check out what your competition is doing in regard to social media posts. Don’t just copy what they are doing. Instead, observe whether or not the competition is getting a result or not from their actions, and note how you can do it better or differently.

    * Know the Goal of the Post – What action do you want your customers to take when they read the post? Do you want them to click through to read more? Do you want them to like, follow and share? You need to be clear about what you want them to do in order to get action.

    * Add a Relevant Image – People respond best to relevant images on social media. You can make memes and infographic using free software like Canva.com for your social media posts. A nice image, watermarked with a relevant quote will do wonders.

    * Write a Blurb that Gets Attention – When you share a meme or a blog post or other type of post on social media write a blurb about it, and what you want your readers to do about it.

    * Link to the Rest of the Story – Don’t just post most of your updates without linking to the rest of the blog post, more information about the meme, a newsletter sign up, or your website.

    * Ask Your Audience to Share – Never forget to ask your audience to share your posts. You can also invite them to take memes and infographics off your website to share. Just set up a new page that lists all the watermarked images that your audience can share.

    * Respond to Comments – Don’t just ignore the interaction that is happening on your social media pages. Always respond, and add comments to the discussion. Answer questions, and be kind. Even if someone is rude, don’t respond rudely. If you have to, delete the rude comment and let it go.

    Writing social media posts that get a discussion going and inspire people to share and interact is an art. You’ll need to try different tactics to see what works with your particular audience. But, be sure to always have a call to action on the post so that your audience knows what to do. Remember that your goal is to get them on your email list so that you can market to them on an ongoing basis.

    Categories: social media Tags: Tags:

    Webinar To-Do List

    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.

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