Should you charge for your webinars? And if so, how much? This really depends on your goals. If your main purpose is to promote a product or service or to build your audience, you may decide to offer your expertise for free, thereby maximizing the number of people who participate.
The benefits of hosting a free webinar:
- You’ll get more registrations.
- It’s easier to implement. You won’t have to worry about processing payments or integrating a shopping cart with your sales page or email service.
The drawbacks of a free webinar:
- You won’t make any money upfront.
- It can be difficult to get your speakers to mention your call to their list if they won’t be making any upfront money from it.
- Sometimes, something offered for free is perceived as having a lower value than something that comes with a price tag.
If your main goal is revenue generation, you could offer free participation initially and then charge for access to the recording and/or a transcript of the webinar. This way, you maximize the number of people you get to add to your list, but you’ll also raise some revenue as well.
The benefits of hosting a paid webinar:
- You’ll make money with each additional person who signs up to attend.
- Your speakers will be more likely to promote the call if they can earn a commission (through their affiliate link for example).
- Your webinar might be perceived as more valuable if people must pay to gain access.
The drawbacks of a paid webinar:
- The more you charge, the fewer attendees you are likely to have.
- Implementation is more complicated, as you’ll have to set up a way to take and process payments as well as process affiliate commissions in the event that you’re offering an affiliate program.
If you’re just starting out, I’d recommend going with a free webinar. That way, you can work out the kinks, figure out the technology, and focus on learning the ropes without the added stress of dozens of people expecting a top-notch, glitch-free experience. Once you’re comfortable with the process and have gained experience you can move to charging for premium webinars.
Only you can know what will work best for your situation and your business. Take a look at the benefits and drawbacks of each model, and choose the one that feels right for you.
Have you tried running a webinar before? I’d love your feedback. Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv. This is a plug-in that allows you to leave a link back to your own site when you leave a comment.
Until next time,
Robin
