Free webinars are a trend at the moment. Many well-known internet entrepreneurs are sharing valuable information for free on various topics. In the last few months, I have listened to dozens of these webinars. Here’s what I’ve learned.
We don’t do bashing on ChurchMag, so I won’t name names. But I can tell from experience that there’s a vast difference in the quality of these free webinars. Amy Porterfield is excellent for instance (she teaches primarily on Facebook marketing). I first heard her through one of Michael Hyatt’s free webinars and started following her. I’ve attended a few of her webinars and they’ve all been high quality.
And speaking of the man, Michael Hyatt‘s webinars are solid as well. He shares tested strategies and often has some cool and handy bonuses to share. One webinar of his I attended had a short equipment guide for instance, where he shared the best tools and equipments for creating digital products, differentiated per budget. Very practical and valuable.
If product or service marketing is something you’re interested in, Jeff Walker is your go to guy. He has absolutely great content and shares a lot for free. I absolutely love his stuff. And I’m not the only one, because a I see a lot of folks applying his principles.
But…
But other webinars and free videos have been slow and offered little value. This happens when people talk more about themselves than share information. Or they talk about lofty principles and broad guidelines that are hard to put into practice, without any actionable steps. It’s tough to complain about this, since they’re doing it for free, but I’ve definitely ‘blacklisted’ a few people as a complete waste of time.
You have to keep in mind, that free webinars serve a purpose. These folks really aren’t handing out information out of the goodness of their hearts. There’s always an agenda and that’s often to sell something. Usually they’ll start the webinar with a little intro, share a bit about themselves, then they’ll dig into the topic and the end is almost always a sales pitch for something.
I’m fine with that by the way. Sometimes you can even learn from the sales pitch and if not, there’s always the option of quitting. They like to hand out bonuses to those who stay till the end and if the bonus interests me enough, I’ll just keep it playing in the background and do something else in the meantime. Yes, multitasking isn’t efficient nor effective, but in those cases it serves my purpose.
The sales pitches can be tempting though, so if you know you’re susceptible to them, be careful. A lot of these marketers know every psychological sales trick in the book and they’ll use them too. Again, I’m fine with that (as long as it stays ethical, but I haven’t heard one cross that line yet). Then again, I’m not an impulse buyer 🙂
You can learn tons from free resources, like webinars and video series. I’ve certainly expanded my knowledge on many topics, especially about Internet marketing. But here’s the thing (and I didn’t realize this until I had watched at least a dozen or more):
Watching free webinars or other resources ultimately won’t get you anywhere.
When you invest time in these free resources, you’ll constantly be reminded of how much you don’t know—which of course is a technique to make you buy the product they’re selling. That awareness may prevent you from executing your plans however. If you constantly chase more knowledge, more free resources, you’ll never make the step into creating something of your own. Every webinar you watch, no matter how good it is, is another hour or longer you’re not investing in something else. So be choosy in whom you entrust your time to.
What’s your experience with free webinars and similar resources?
[Computer screen and keyboard image via XiXiDu via Compfight cc]
Chris Wilson says
I can definitely relate Rachel. I’ve had some very similar experiences where the webinars were either just long product pitches with almost no details or very vague general ideas. That’s fine to get a grounding in a topic, but when you want to really get into the meat of the topic, the webinar is over and you’re asked to fork over a handsome sum.
I think I just delete most webinar invites I get now. I certainly learnt a lot when I was first learning about internet marketing but now I gain more value from experiments and putting things into action.
Rachel Blom says
Part of it is because we grow in our skills and experience and many webinars are aimed at relative newbies. But despite the general consensus to share great content for free, I see many entrepreneurs shortchange potential customers here and only hand out crumbs. I’ve certainly become way more selective in the webinars I attend!
Eric Dye says
I concur.
Rachel Blom says
Well, you know what they say about great minds 😉
Eric says
Thanks for the important warning, Rachel. Actually taking action instead of studying it is critical to moving the ball. I think where this gets hard is for when we ARE taking action and not quite getting the results we’d hoped. It seems to be human nature to keep looking for the “something” that is missing!
Rachel Blom says
Your last line is spot on. We’re all looking for the magic formula, consciously or subconsciously. I agree, especially when we’re doing something but aren’t quite getting the results we want it’s hard to decide whether we need more research, change course, or simply try harder…But I do know that becoming a passive information hoarder is not the answer, nor the solution!