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But how do you set up a webinar? Aileen Barker wrote a post on how she planned her first webinar, which includes a prep kit. The first thing she did was set a date, so she could work backward. After setting a date, she decided on a topic. In her case, she wanted to teach people something and allow them to come away from the webinar with something tangible. She chose how to fill up your editorial calendar when blogging.
Next came the slides, the workbook, and the script. After all her content was created, she set up all her tech, which included lead pages, Google Hangouts, her webcam and mic, and tested everything. She went live and recorded herself, and afterward she edited the recording so she could easily share it with future watchers.
Wonderlass also shared a guide to doing webinars. She advocates using webinars to build up your email list and to make sales. When picking a topic, she also recommends keeping the scope small, and using popular content you’ve written as a starting point. Also make sure to have a strong title, and set up landing pages so you can easily promote the webinar.
Additionally, The Book Designer shared tips for people doing webinars, which includes allowing time for questions at the end, offering downloads and a transcript of the webinar, sending out calendar reminders, and displaying the webinar in multiple timezones.
If that sounds like too much work, there are always joint webinars. Femtrepreneur posted a guide to joint webinars, which emphasizes having a contract so that everyone involved knows what to expect. It also makes it clear what the deadlines are, and what the plan is for marketing.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in July 2017.