NOTE: This is part of a series I am doing here, which explains how I am marketing my new book, Ask, Believe, Receive - 7 Days to Increased Wealth, Better Relationships, and a Life You Love. If you enjoy be "behind the scenes" info on this promotion and feel the book would help you, please purchase it. :)
Online marketing is great, but it often lacks the "personality" of getting in the same room with people.
But getting in the same room with people is time consuming and can be a lot of work...
A good compromise is the teleseminar, or in other words, a big conference call. People call in and listen to you make a presentation. And sometimes, if you want they ask questions.
I've got this new book called Ask, Believe, Receive - 7 Days to Increased Wealth, Better Relationships, and a Life You Love, which is about the Law of Attraction. It talks about using the Law of Attraction to make more money, have better relationships, and maintain excellent health, so I'm doing a 3-part teleseminar, each concentrating on one of these segments, to promote it.
The first one is tonight and the focus is MONEY. If you want to call in, here's the info:
Date: Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Time: 9pm Eastern
Number to Dial: 1-712-432-2323 (Iowa)
Access Code: 927690
If you've never been on a teleseminar, just call using your phone like you would any other number. Again, it's just a big conference call. And for this one (and any call during this series), there is no charge other than whatever your phone company charges you to call Iowa.
HOW I SET THINGS UP:
If you're doing a teleseminar, you obviously want people to call in (or listen to a recording later). And getting this to happen is perhaps the hardest part of the whole process.
I'm lucky in that I have other books on Law of Attraction as well as a blog on the subject. This as well as other promotion I've done in the past (articles, speaking engagement, interviews, etc), has enabled me to build a nice following and mailing list.
But yet another teleseminar isn't enough... There are dozens of them going on every day...especially in the "make money" niche.
I decided to make this series interactive. I'm taking questions that people have about the Law of Attraction and how it relates to money and then personally answering them, live on the teleseminar. And, as I'm an expert on the subject, this makes the call more of an "event."
This "event" feeling is what you're looking for. If you want people to call you, it can't be "just another call" or something they'll be able to make at another time.
And on a side note... When I do something like this, I concentrate on content. My purpose is to answer the questions which have been asked. If I do that, the book I am doing a soft promotion for will sell itself. When people know they're going to get good content, and not an hour long sales pitch, they're more likely to call in.
There is obviously a bit of effort involved when it comes to making yourself into an expert that people would want to call, building a mailing list so that they'll be aware the event exists, and getting a reputation for delivering content worth calling in for, but in a nutshell, this is pretty much the process of putting something like this together.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
1. Obviously, you need a phone. My suggestion is to call on a landline, as they sound much better than other options such as a mobile phone, VOIP setup like Vonage, or Skype. But if you don't have a landline, don't let that keep you from doing something. :)
2. You need a conference line. I've used several over the years, both paid and free, and there is little difference...except perception.
If you're selling some kind of "make money" product or you're charging people to be on the call, you don't want to use a service like FreeConference.com. A company like Black and White Communications has several options, including a private label version, which will give callers a message like, "Thanks for calling the WorkYourSelfUp.com Conference Center" when they call.
With that said, people are often worried about being charged per minute (beyond normal long distance fees) for a conference call, so something like "Welcome to the conference line, brought to you by FreeConference.com" on the front end message is actually a great sticking point that will help you ease the fears of people.
3. There is a saying in the speaking business that "if it's worth saying, it's worth recording." I agree.
If you're going to go through the trouble of creating content for a call and doing the promotion for it, it's a wise idea to record it. You'll then be able to post the recording for people who didn't make the call.
And a lot of people won't make the call, by the way... For one, there is a big learning curve about this medium. People don't understand how it works, they feel they'll have to speak in front of others, they feel they'll be charged a lot of money per minute, or, if you're using the Internet to promote, they're on the other side of the world and are asleep!
WHAT HAPPENS IF NOBODY CALLS:
It happens. When I started in radio, I'd do giveaways on the air and nobody would call. When that happened, I'd just come back on and say, "Congratulations to [MADE UP NAME] who was our 7th caller! He's taking home a [INSERT PRIZE]."
Nobody knew. And nobody will know if they're the only one on the line with you.
Bottom line, the show must go on. People call in late, they drop out early, etc. You can't let that distract you. Plus, if you're recording everything, you've got an audience that will benefit from the recording later, so who cares if nobody is around to hear you do things live?
THE BOTTOM LINE:
The bottom line is you just have to do it. Not having people is no excuse. In fact, if you don't have a book yet, that's not an excuse either. Start now and you'll have lots of people calling you by the time you do have one.
One the most common things I get from people is that they don't like the sound of their voices. Well, welcome to the club. You don't hear your voice in the same way other people do, it takes a bit of getting used to when you listen to a recording of it.
I never thought of myself as a guy with a "great" voice...but now I'm host of a weekly, syndicated radio show. And every week, somebody tells me, "You've got such a great radio voice."
So get out there and go after it. Chances are, when you start, nobody is going to be listening anyway. And, much like dancing, it's a lot better to work through all the kinks when nobody is around than when you're surrounded by a crowd.
If you have any thoughts, please post then below.
Good luck!!
