Show Me The Money: A Review of Lee Salz’s "Stop Speaking for Free"

Anyone who even lightly peruses my blog knows that I am a big fan of “The Webinar Minute”, a video series hosted by Lee Salz, CEO of Business Expert Webinars. Lee bases this series on the ideas presented in his new book “Stop Speaking for Free! The Ultimate Guide to Making Money with Webinars“.

Now I thought I was quite knowledgeable about webinars and I always viewed the production process as pretty straightforward. Lee’s book at once daunted me and comforted me. On the daunting side is just how much one has to think about when launching an AFW (an acronym coined by Lee that stands for Attendee Funded Webinar). On the comforting side, Lee leaves nothing to chance. Every nuance of launching an AFW is covered.

The first hurdle Lee guides you over is busting the myth that you are doomed to offer your webinar for free. We’ve all attended so many free webinars that it is easy to assume no one will pay for one. Lee’s first lesson for us is that the boundary between free and fee is content. There is content people will pay for. Lee spells out what distinguishes pay worthy content.

Then, using his extensive background in sales, Lee teaches you how to put virtual butts in seats. It isn’t sufficient to just have good content. You have to sell it. Lee devotes a good portion of the book to crafting your webinar invitation. This invitation should spell out what tangible benefit your audience will reap from your webinar and why you are uniquely suited to deliver it.

Lee understands that the new marketing paradigm is inbound and how social media plays a key role in your AFW marketing plan. He devotes a full chapter to using LinkedIn to market yourself and your webinars.

So you’ve got your content and you know how to sell it. Two things can still sink your webinar. First, what technology are you going to use (e.g. Webex, Adobe Connect, omNovia)? Second, how does your actual presentation, the PowerPoint pitch that you’re going to use, convey your content? If either is mediocre, your webinar is toast. But Lee has you covered there also. He discusses the factors you need to consider in choosing technology. Then he lets his colleague Susan Stoen write a “guest chapter” on making sure your presentation optimally conveys your content. Her guidance on the proper balance between words (or bullet points) and graphics is right on the money. I have one minor quibble with her in that she mentions Apple’s Keynote product without telling the reader just how hard it is to use Keynote for webinars. I have not found a single webinar product that can handle native Keynote presentations, so they must either be translated to PowerPoint or broadcast in screen sharing mode out of the native Keynote product. The latter approach is not possible for some webinar platforms that don’t allow screen sharing on a MAC.

My only other quibble with Lee’s book is a self serving one! In discussing webinar platforms, Lee highlights that some webinar platforms come with technical staff who will moderate your webinar for you. Lee neglects to mention that there are independent webinar producers like me who will do the same thing! Maybe Lee will give us independents a nod in his next edition?

Overall, Lee has written a comprehensive guide book to giving AFW’s, with no fluff and all actionable material. To supplement the excellent contents of the book, Lee provides private access to a web site with additional materials that help you act on his instruction.

The bottom line: in this tough economy, why go to the poor house when you can stop speaking for free?