More Online Webinar Meeting Services: AnyMeeting.com and Spreecast.com

I have previously used Skype, MeetingBurner and Google+ for small meetings with clients and webinars and now it seems like there are ever more competitors in this space.

And the services seem to become ever more affordable.

Two more services to add to your evaluation list:

• AnyMeeting.com offers meetings for up to 200 participants for free (ad supported)
• Spreecast.com seems to offer free webinar streaming for unlimited participants

Consultancy in the USA

Or "We don't need no stinking consultants... unless they are from a big consultancy company"

I periodically get requests to consult in the USA.

Great.

So how do I get a visa to do that?

• http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_2665.html#5

Whoa, I need my 'prospective employer' to file a petition with a bunch of government agencies. Because they will do that for a couple of days consultancy from an independent consultant.

Oh, and if they do, then any contract that I had with them would probably come under IR35 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IR35). Which for a small independent consultancy pretty much doesn't work.

From http://london.usembassy.gov/root/visa-wizard/pages/visawizard006a.html

"The performance of any skilled or unskilled labor - even if it is unpaid - is most always prohibited. This includes performing work in the U.S. as a trainer or consultant"

Note the - unpaid part there. So even if you turn up for 'meetings' because you want in on the Waiver scheme, and don't get 'paid' for work. You are not allowed in.

Apparently there used to be a " B-1 business visa" which allowed for this. But no longer.

A B-1 Business Visa does not allow "consultancy" work.

• http://london.usembassy.gov/niv/b1apply.html

The UK is part of the Visa Waiver Programme, which allows British Citizens to travel to the USA for less than 90 days - and it includes business, so long as the business activity isn't money related i.e. you could do meetings, but not paid work.

So where does consultancy fit? It doesn't. there are no Visa's that guarantee entry into the US for 2 or 3 days of short term paid consultancy to companies in the USA.

You have the risk that even if you get to the states, immigration don't let you in. You might mention 'work' instead of 'business' and then you are likely to get turned away.

It seems as though a "B1 in lieu of H1B" is required where someone from a foreign company, paid by the foreign company can work in the USA. If the consulate issue one, and if the immigration officers allow you entry via it.

Most consultants and trainers then, I suspect are essentially illegal migrant workers. Whoo hoo, way to go government immigration rules. Of course the UK has very similar rules and visas to the US, so US consultants should find it equally hard to gain entry into the UK.

Of course there are no restrictions on remote working.

Collating content for e-mail Newsletters

Some of my blogs are 'non-core'.
Like this one.
I set them up so I have a topic related channel and can write up what I need to, without polluting my 'core' brands.
At some point, this might become core, so I try to keep it very focussed and add value.

For my core blogs, I've started writing an e-mail newsletter. And I wanted to collate content for it, over a month, so that when it came to write the newsletter, I had all the content I needed at hand, to make writing the newsletter fast and easy.

There are a lot of services out there now which 'seem' to want to help you do that. Pinterest, Flipboard, etc. etc.

So I tried a few of the popular services that seem aimed at doing this:

• Flipboard didn't seem to want to let me collate individual items, it seems to want to pull in feeds. Well I already use NewsBlur for my RSS feeds. So I don't need that. Account Disabled within 15 minutes.
• Pinterest wants to help you collate individual items so that you have a pin board of 'stuff'. Sounds good. But as soon as you create an account, Pinterest throws up a 'follow 5 people' dialog. I don't really know what to do with the system at this point, so I randomly select 5 people, just so I can move on to see the site. But now I hav a Pinterest home page filled with random junk. Should be simple to fix - just unsubscribe from those 5 random people and... no can do. Account Disabled within 5 minutes.

Clearly, its just me. All I wanted was something to pin things to that I found on the web and share it and ...

So I fell back on the old stalwart. EverNote.

I created a notebook for each newsletter, then started adding items into the notebook.

I tend to copy and paste stuff, rather than use the browser EverNote plugins.

A useful feature I like on my Android devices is the twitter integration. With Twitter you generally have to 'favourite' tweets, but that is a little too public for my sensibilities. But on Android I can 'send to EverNote' and the tweet I want to follow up on, or curate, is added to my EverNote without anyone noticing.

Sometimes, it pays to keep it simple.

Trim your LinkedIn groups on a monthly basis

Linkedin groups are a massive source of frustration.

I was starting to lose all hope of finding any value in them.

But since I was investigating online training, I wanted to find some linkedin groups for that. As I wrote about previously.

Linkedin has a limit on the number of groups you can join - probably to save your sanity. So I had to unsubscribe a few groups.

Linkedin hide the 'leave this group' option. You need to be in the group, then use the 'more...\ Your Settings' link and there you will see the [Leave Group]' button.

My strategy for choosing groups to leave was:

If the number of members is small then, check the recent posts:

• If there were none of interest in the last month - leave the group
• If the questions, or answers annoyed me, leave the group
• If there were no posts in the last month - leave the group

I stayed in a few groups just because of this size of the membership base, and purely for future marketing reasons.

I will repeat the above 'trimming' process on a monthly basis. This will probably help keep me sane.

Working Remotely with Google Hangouts

I recently spent a day working remotely with a team in Romania through Google Hangouts.

We had a few connection issues along the way, I don't think any of that was from Google Hangouts, it was because of local wifi connection issues.

Google Hangouts makes it really easy to setup a group meeting, and remember this is all for free.

You can keep them private and only invite who you want.

The participants can all see each other, and you can share your screen easily. In fact, any participant can share their screen.

There is a chat window for sharing links.

Most impressive of all, was the remote desktop sharing. So I could operate their computer remotely.

I'm not sure I'm ready to use this for webinars yet. But certainly for face to face calls I'll use this as a default rather than Skype,

Online training resources

Are you an independent consultant? Do you conduct online training?

Actually, I don't mind either way, because I do.

So far I've been using Udemy.com. They make it free and easy to get your training to market and I've had no problem being paid on time by them.

As an independent. I wanted to start looking around for other routes to market.

Udemy have some forums on facebook, but this is for discussing Udemy stuff - I wanted to find other places where people discuss online training.

I asked around and was told about a few LinkedIn groups:

• Camtasia Users Group
• eLearning community group
• eLearning edge
• eLearning Global Network
• Instructional Designers
• Instructional Design and E-Learning professional's group
• LMS and e-learning group
• Rapid e-learning group
• The elearning guild

I haven't been subscribed to these long enough to know how much value they will add, but they look pretty good so far.

Some good resources came through as a result of signing up for these

• http://elearningfeeds.com/
• http://www.elearninglearning.com

Hope this helps, and if you know any good additional resources, please leave a comment below.

It seems as though I need to search for things like "LMS" "MOOC" and "e-learning" and not "online training" like I had been. Half the battle is often learning the specific language of the domain when you are a beginner.

Using Twitter for marketing

It seems as though rules of etiquette around twitter exist that I did not know.

I thought:

• If I wanted to read what someone tweeted then I would follow them
• If someone wanted to read what I tweeted then they would follow me.

It appears that this falls in to the naive category.

Apparently, based on what a twitter marketeer told me, and on what I've seen people who outsource their twitter management do:

• If someone follows you, you have 3 days to follow them, before they unfollow you.
• Similarly, if you follow someone, and they don't follow you back within 3 days then you should unfollow them.

Why? Because this increases your reach and influence.

Note, these people don't use twitter for marketing. These people operate as twitter marketeers, who teach other people how to use twitter for marketing. And I have read their twitter feeds, but since they adopt the - 20 tweets a day, regardless of relevant content - strategy, I don't think it works in terms of engagement.

Personally. This all feels wrong to me. And if something feels wrong to you, don't do it.

Although from a marketing point of view I understand the following.

• When I follow someone, they receive a message saying that I have followed them.
• They may check out my profile and timeline to check if they want to follow me.
• If they don't follow me then they don't see my timeline.

If I actually want to market to this person via twitter then they need to see my tweet. So I have some choices.

• I could unfollow - as the marketing strategists suggest. At which point I gain no insight into what they care about and couldn't structure tweets that meet their need.
• I could mention them in tweets directly. They will see these mentions in their twitter tool. They might choose to follow, or interact.
• I could unfollow, and then refollow later, in the hope that they will eventually follow. I don't know if this works, I've never noticed someone unfollow me and later follow me.
• Perhaps I should market to them off-twitter. Perhaps I should link in with them.

I need to do more research on this, but it seems that if you use twitter as a marketing tool you may well lose site of the engagement part because if you follow 6000 people (to pluck a large number out of the air). How can you engage with them or monitor the stream of tweets for information you find useful.

I suspect I'll adopt the following strategy:

• grow your follower base organically
• follow people I want to read, and people I want to market to
• try to create tweets that people re-tweet
• engage specific people directly through questions
• use linkedin and email for direct marketing approaches

I'll keep researching until I build a good model for this, but in marketing, and business, if it feels wrong and you can't justify it, then don't do it. Ever. Despite what the Gurus tell you, but keep researching, just in case they do have valuable information - and because you might change your mind.

Ask for, and give, recommendations

Do you ask for recommendations?

I don't mean for your CV in terms of references. I'm not even sure that people follow this stuff up any more or ask for them. I mean recommendations.

• "Would you recommend me or my work to someone else?"
• "Can you give me a quote that I can use that describes your recommendation?"

LinkedIn makes this easy to do, but I never asked for recommendations.

I would happily write recommendations for others. Unasked, because I appreciated the work they did.

I never had any concerns about writing recommendations for others. But I know that people sometimes feel they don't have to write recommendations because "this person is obviously good, they don't need a recommendation", or "it might seem too obsequious", or a variety of other reasons. This is simply a psychological barrier.

I wrote recommendations for people, as an easy way of saying thank you.

And I still have many more recommendations to write because I've worked with so many people who have skill sets and attitudes that make them valuable and I would want to work with them again.


But I never asked for recommendations.

When I look back on why, I can see psychological barriers

• I don't want to impose
• Will it seem needy?
• This isn't what I do

I wasn't concerned if they thought my work was good or not, because I believed my work was good. It just wasn't something I did.

But this is business.

And psychological barriers are not conducive to good business or good marketing.

"Social proof" is one of the key marketing strategies that we use to sell. Recommendations act as a simple form of "social proof". These people like it, you will too. I need to harness that to sell my work as a consultant.

So I recently decided to "just do it". I used the Linkedin features to ask a few people I had worked with if they would contribute a recommendation to my Linkedin profile.

With the act of doing so, and the receipt of each response, the psychological barriers lowered and changed.

It was easy. I didn't feel needy - if anything I felt manipulative. But the responses I received contained higher praise and more heartfelt praise than I would expect through manipulation.

I did feel like I was imposing, but people will either ignore the request or respond, and those that responded seemed like they valued the chance to say thank you for the work I'd done with, and for, them.

I will do this now more often. The responses help boost the Linkedin profile and add some social proof. But more important to me. The responses humble me. They will make me maintain my work ethic and quality of work, because I now have to live up to those recommendations, and keep living up to and exceeding those recommendations.

I'll ask for recommendations because the act of asking helps me overcome any marketing or social reticence. And if they honour me with a recommendation. I'll work ever harder to boost my skill sets and maintain my abilities so that I can live up to it.

Now I know that when I'm giving a recommendation to someone, I'm not just saying thank you. I'm giving them something to live up to. 

Using LinkedIn for marketing by connecting to everyone

When I first signed up to LinkedIn I only every connected with people that I knew. And had worked with. And was prepared to acknowledge as a professional contact.

LinkedIn also recommend that you only connect with people that you know.

I'm changing tact.

Now, if someone asks to connect with me. And if I view their profile and can see they are a 'real' person, with some relation to my area of expertise. Then I connect to them.

Why the change of heart?

You never know where the next work is going to come from.

As a consultant, we rely on, word of mouth and connections to get work. So the person you connect to, that you don't know now, might get in touch for some work later.

Also, when I accept their request I can send them a pro-forma 'hello' letter, with some upsell links and promote my work. With no guilt. Because they wanted to connect with me. And who knows, my free work might help them.

I have a pro-forma response in Evernote, so when I reply I just copy paste.

Warning - when you copy and paste into linkedin, make sure that you select the white space in the response box, otherwise the copy and paste process will convert all the new lines in your email into double new lines, requiring you to edit the response.

My basic response looks something like this. I refine this all the time, so this is my current iteration:


Hi, 

Thanks for connecting with me on LinkedIn.

As my new connection, you might be interested to learn that:

1. I am running some free webinars that you might be interested in signing up for, I have a mailing list which you can sign up to for details <insert link here>

2. I am running a 25% discount on my <details> course so it now only requires <details> to join <insert link here>

:)
Thanks again, and if you need any consultancy or training, and you think I can help, then feel free to get in touch,

Alan
----


P.S. visit my websites if you haven't been there before:
<details>

Combine SlideShare and YouTube for increased reach

I upload a lot of my presentation slides to slideshare.

Two reasons:

• Marketing
• Backups

The main reason of course is marketing. And since my slide decks normally have a presentation associated with them. If the presentation has been recorded and released to YouTube then I normally add youtube links into the slideshare deck.

Now Slideshare have added a feature where you can embed the youtube video into the deck itself.

Steps:

1. Goto "My Uploads"
2. Select the slideshare deck
3. either
• Edit Settings
• Use the Tab Edit YoutTube video
4. or
• click "Add Video"
5. Choose where in the deck you want the video to appear

Done.

I usually add the video at the end of all the slides, since I assume people use slideshare for reading rather than watching, but it is a new feature worth experimenting with.

Upload webinar videos to youtube

I upload the lo-fidelity version of my webinars to youtube.

By lo-fidelity I mean:

• minimal editing - only start and end, and any major mistakes in the middle
• the meeting burner recording with audio - rather than my local mic
• edited video to remove start and end elements
• edited video to add additional slides or music required
• I don't edit out any ums, or ahs - that is for the later premium version

Why would I give these away when I plan to turn the webinars into a premium product that people pay money for?

• I monetise these with ads - I don't expect to make much money from this, but every little helps, and avoiding ads is a benefit of a paid premium product.
• I don't have to schedule timed re-runs of the webinar, so they are available for view.
• I can link to my other products and services for organic upsales.
• It is faster to release than a premium product.
• I gain tracking statistic information that helps me see which types of content people are looking for.

So what would a premium product add?

• Better audio
• No Adverts
• Better Editing - split into logical chunks for easier viewing
• Additional content for explanations
• The Q&A sections - expanded with more detailed explanation

At least this is my current plan and theory.

Checklist for uploading Webinars to Youtube

I have listed below my current checklist for uploading to Youtube:

• This video
• Edit video
• save as mp4 720HD
• Upload as private
• Add description
• Add Title
• Add annotations to link to previous webinars
• Choose thumbnail
• check monetised
• Make public
• Previous videos
• amend description to link to new video
• add annotation to link to new video
• Slideshare
• amend slides to have link to the youtube video
• upload slides to slideshare
• add youtube video after the last slide
• Tweet the video has been uploaded
• Blog the video has been uploaded with links to slideshare and embed youtube video

Lessons Learned from Conducting Webinars

I have conducted a few Webinars now so the time has come to document some lessons learned.

I have conducted webinars both live, and recorded. I prefer recorded, but it still requires a lot of work because it has to be even more polished and professional.

My live Webinars that I do to promote my consultancy work and products I use MeetingBurner.com and I have done Webinars for other people they have typically used Gotomeeting.com. I like MeetingBurner.com because it is affordable and easy to use.

I've created this braindump list, and might revisit it in the future if anyone wants me to elaborate any of the points, and as I learn more.

Webinar Lessons Learned

• If you are just using slides then use presentation mode and share the full screen. Drop your screen resolution down to the recording level you are going to use.
• This helps prevent issues with screen resizing that I've seen happen with GotoMeeting (i.e. people watching only see the top left of your screen)
• If you are switching between apps etc. then use your normal resolution but share only a portion of the screen at the resolution you want people to see e.g. 1280x720
• Use a good microphone
• Test the audio quality from your microphone using Audacity or your screen recording tool
• If you use a headset mic then position it to avoid breathing noises as much as possible (test for this using audacity)
• Practice the audio level you need to speak at to get a consistent sound throughout the Webinar
• I now use a Blue Yeti and have it on a microphone stand rather than the desk stand to avoid 'desk bashing' 'mouse moving' or 'keyboard noise'
• Practice
• Know what you are going to say
• Run it through at least once
• Logistics
• Set the expectations at the start of the webinar for logistics e.g. use chat for questions, I won't support you for sound, this will be recorded etc. etc.
• Maintain a checklist of logistics for your webinar and keep it up to date e.g. anything you learn in the webinar - add to the checklist so you don't forget

Recorded Webinar Lessons Learned

• Use a recorded webinar if you are not going to answer people's questions verbally
• Use a script. This helps it stay to time and make sure you get your message across clearly.
• Edit the recording to remove uhms, ahs etc.
• Say it adhoc, write it down, create slides around content, repeat
• Add more slides than you would if you were presenting because you need to keep the visual elements moving. So don't use bulleted slides, use a slide per bullet. Keep the visuals changing every 30 seconds or so.
• Use a good microphone. I know use a Blue Yeti and have it on a microphone stand rather than the desk stand to avoid 'desk bashing' 'mouse moving' or 'keyboard noise'

Live Webinar Lessons Learned

• Play music During the setup before you star the meeting
• Play this so that the microphone you will use picks it up - this is a good test that your audio is working
• Practice - this helps create more slides than normal and so you know what the timing will be
• Have a recording of your practice session so that if it all goes wrong you can at least upload the practice session to youtube
• Create a local recording as well as any Webinar hosting recording. Your local recording will be better quality.
• Talk
• even if you are fiddling trying to solve a problem e.g. your microphone slipped, or you are answering a chat message of someone on the webinar
• the audience don't know what is going on, you have to tell them

MeetingBurner Lessons Learned

• Configure your account prior to any meetings
• Use the "My Account" tab to edit all your defaults
• Ensure your meeting room URL sends the message you want, amend it to your company name if you want to brand it as your company.
• Edit your profile if you want to brand your page with your company logo
• Configure your default Meeting Room settings (I've listed the important ones below)
• I don't:
• show the participant list
• because people can be anonymous if they want to
• take the meeting temperature
• it would only distract me
• have screen sharing only mode
• because I want people to be able to chat and use headsets
• I do:
• Allow chat 
• becuase I want people to interact and help each other with sound issues etc. while I get on with the webinar
• Enable full size recordings
• This is incredibly important and I think should be the default, but it isn't so make sure you set it.
• Show the listen button
• because I want people to use computer speakers and headsets
• Require Registration
• so I can contact people
• Allow sms reminders
• set Sharing Quality to "Best Quality"
• The screen portion doesn't show sizes so have a size window on your screen so you can tell what size to make your sharing window - I setup Camtasia Studio to record a portion of the screen of the correct resolution then use the Camtasia Studio on screen recording guide to size my MeetingBurner window.
• Make sure you switch screen sharing on before you start - add this to your checklist

My Current CheckList

• Meeting Creation and promotion
• Created Meeting
• Added meeting to my calendar
• Sent Invites
• Tweeted
• Blogged
• Double Check Meeting configuration
• Recording at high res
• Capture Emails and Names
• Created Intro Slides
• Logistics slides
• Practiced content
• On the day
• Retweet webinar existence with sign up link and time
• Conducted Test Meeting
• Checked Audio
• Checked Recording
• Checked transmission
• Cheat sheets printed
• Cheat sheets visible on screen but outside recording area
• Prior to meeting start - 10 to 15 minutes prior to meeting
• Start meeting
• Start Recording on MeetingBurner
• Start Recording on Camtasia Studio
• Play music so it can be picked up through the microphone
• In chat window say "Can you hear the music?"
• In chat window say "Can you see the slides?"
• Be quiet, but welcome people and answer any questions in chat
• Periodically say "We will be starting in X minutes"
• End of meeting
• Thank everyone
• Stay on to answer chat for a while
• Finish on time
• Stop meetingburner recording
• Stop local recording

Do you track your pitching time?

This is not a baseball post, I'm from the UK, I don't really do baseball.

However as an independent consultant I have to pitch. I have to pitch for work. And that takes time, unpaid time.

I have started tracking the unpaid time to see how much a client or future work (that I don't have yet) has cost me.

So for each client or inquiry for work I create a new tracking item. I'm doing this in Google Spreadsheets.

I total up all the small tasks, emails, calls, research and maintain a tally, which I put an hourly rate against, so that I know how much the client has cost.

I might use this to calculate rates for particular clients so I can offset the unpaid work against paid work. And I can also see if a particular client is costing me too much for unpaid work.

But I currently get benefit from this because I can see that certain activities take me too long and I need to identify strategies and techniques for making them faster.

e.g.

• Creating a proposal document takes too much time, therefore
• Create a template
• Automatically generate the contents from a mind map tool
• Create 'snippets' to reuse in proposals
• etc.

I'm not a big fan of metrics, but I do measure and track my time to help identify areas I need to introduce efficiencies.

Does anyone else do this? How are you using the information to guide your charging strategy.

Using Webinars for Marketing with MeetingBurner

I've recently started using Webinars for marketing purposes.

I had a look around at all the tools and services available - and there are a lot of them. And I settled on MeetingBurner.com

MeetingBurner.com had the features I needed:

• Simple to use
• Free to use for small meetings (10 people)
• Create recordings of sessions
• Automated replay of sessions
• Capture email addresses prior to sessions
• Chat during the session
• Affordable for larger meetings

I don't need a lot of features for marketing but I basically wanted to know who signed up and have the ability to market to them afterwards, and reschedule meetings automatically.

I did a bunch of test recordings prior to the meeting (you have to change your settings in your account to make sure that the recordings come through at a high resolution).

My plan was to:

• sign people up,
• host and record the meeting,
• reschedule the meeting for automated replay
• offer an upsell on my training to those who attended the webinar (that's why I needed their email address)

In the end I didn't reschedule the meeting automatically. I simply uploaded the recorded video to youtube. Why?

Because it would have taken me longer to reschedule the meeting across the multiple time zones that I have to support, and I probably still wouldn't have managed to create a good time for people to attend. So I save time by making it a pull on demand system.

I don't get their email address by doing this, so I can't upsell on the back of them watching the video. But I can nudge them towards signing up for my mailing list, because I plan to do more than one Webinar.

I think I will gain more 'reach' for my services and material by making the live recording free. Since it is the first in a series. I don't know if I will make every webinar free, or if I will keep them all out there free forever, but the first in the series is the basic one, it adds value by helping people get started, but doesn't cover everything that I can talk about.

It remains to be seen how well this will work. But I like the ease of use of MeetingBurner.com that helps me reach up to 1000 people in a single webinar, and do it affordably. The free account allows you to get started at no cost.