While attending a seminar series which was also streamed live online, I noticed the number of online participants versus the number of phone in participants was on average double if not more. One day, the seminar was held only on the phone. Participant rates dropped to an all time low. The next week we got back on both telephone and live streaming online, total number of participants rose. A simplistic observation but it is clear, given the choice people like to join a seminar session online.

Conference calls can be expensive.

Many teleconference services charge by the number of people and duration of the call. So if you have 15 people on a call together for 60 minutes at a rate of 4.5¢ per minute per participant, you’ll be paying $40.50 per session. May not sound like a lot but remember, if any of those variables change, your cost changes too.

Go global.

No matter where they are, if someone has an Internet connection, they can ‘tune in’ without the hefty cost. I’ve lived inside and outside the U.S. and believe me, no matter how great the information is, it is rare for someone to dial into a teleseminar with a U.S. number because the cost is too much and this sentiment is shared by others. For a great many people in the world, long distance is very expensive. No doubt, they are lower today than they were 5 even 10 years ago but it’s still not as affordable as dialing out of the U.S.

When’s the last time you dialed International?

Simple as a telephone is, many people do not know how to dial International. A lot of times they also have to go out of the home to purchase a calling card from a store. These are all barriers to attending your teleseminar call. If you’re already selling online, your customers undoubtedly have access to a computer with Internet connection. By streaming your audio (or video), you eliminate those barriers.

Who are they going to call?

Even within North America where long distance is very affordable, people still choose to spend their money wisely. In any given week, there are several teleseminars going on. If people choose to call in to several seminars, it could add up to a small fortune at the end of the month.

This doesn’t mean teleseminars do not work. They work very well indeed and have a great track record. But the world we know is changing; so are people’s preferences. And the technology available today makes streaming content and web conferencing easy and affordable. So if you could reach a few more people by streaming it online or adding a web conference component to your teleseminar, why wouldn’t you?

Lynette Chandler helps entrepreneurs recognize and apply the power of technology and its trends to their marketing. Improve your business with web conferencing today at Meeting On Now.

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