If you missed this ReadyTalk webinar the other day, you can catch a recorded version here.   We had special guest Don Campbell, one of the world’s pre-eminent experts on the WordPress platform and President of Expand2Web. In short, if you have no money, no resources, and no technical skills– no problem! You can get an easy to use site for free– just pay a few bucks a month to have it hosted somewhere. Let’s go over some of the key takeaways from the webinar, plus answer a few common questions we received:

• Isn’t WordPress just blogging software? While that’s what it’s most commonly used for, WordPress can be your non-profit community, a video gallery, a shopping cart, a news publication, or anything in-between. There are modules called plug-ins that you can add to your site to perform nearly any function you can think of.  With a community of tens of thousands of developers and millions of sites on WordPress, it’s likely you’ll find what you need.  There are also thousands of free themes, which are pre-made templates– some you can pay for, too.
• How is this free? The open source software movement is about software that is designed by a community versus a corporation. This volunteer effort has built Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, and most of the technology that powers the Internet and the largest sites on the Internet.  While you don’t have a support contact, you can ask questions in the forums and get help from thousands of others.  Odds are that you’ll not need to do this, since you’ll probably be able to get what you want without needing a programmer.
• Is it safe? Like any software, there are always security concerns.  Our advice is to keep your version up-to-date, so that you have the latest security patches.  Do this and you’re unlikely to have any issues.  Your bigger concern will likely be spammers who will leave fake comments on your site– a nuisance, but one you can filter out, just like via your spam guard in your email.
• But I’m not technical. No worries– if you can use a web-based email tool, you can update your website without a hassle. This software is designed for ordinary people to use.  But if you are a programmer or know one, there certainly are things that you can tweak.
• What’s the catch of free WordPress versus a site that would cost me $100k? That site which costs you $100k probably has time built in for design labor, project management, custom engineering to integrate different databases, and so forth.  Thus, if you don’t have a lot of money, hunt for one of thousands of free themes, so that you can either get by with no labor cost or can hire someone for $100 to customize something you already like that is close. A proprietary expensive platform is not “better” or safer– what you’re paying for is labor.
• What’s the offer of the free theme I’ve heard about? BlitzLocal is offering a free WordPress theme designed specifically for non-profits, as a courtesy to attendees of the ReadyTalk Non-Profit Webinar series.  There is no catch.  The theme is free– but you will need to find a hosting company for between $5 and $20 a month.  And if you want customization, you will have to pay someone to do it, whether BlitzLocal, a friend, or a freelancer on a job board.

Stay tuned for the next two webinars in the Non-Profit Series on Google Grants (featuring representatives from Google and NTEN) and then on Facebook (with special guest Jon Fougner of Facebook).

For more information on WordPress for your non-profit, please visit wordpress.org or expand2web.com.  If you have questions, feel free to reach out to don@expand2web.com or dennis@blitzlocal.com

About the author: Dennis Yu is CEO of BlitzLocal, an ad agency specializing in local online marketing and Google Grants management.

I hate to be late. When I’m attending a meeting in-person, I want to be the first person in the conference room, not the last. This same philosophy applies to web conferencing.

I sit on a lot of webinars that use competitive products, sometimes I’m doing competitive research and sometimes I sign up because of the topic (social media, word of mouth marketing, prospecting, lead generation, PR, etc.).

It’s guaranteed that I have a meeting right before, which usually gives me about 30 seconds to join the webinar on time. Guess what? That’s never enough time. By the time the software launches, I’m late to join the meeting. Plus, if it’s the first time using that web conferencing software, I likely have to download their application. This means I have to have an IT administrator install the software before I can join. If I’m lucky, I’ll only be 10 minutes late to the webinar.

For me, this is a big deal and is one of the reasons why I’m excited about the launch of Web Meeting 6, which is ReadyTalk’s new web meeting product that will launch later this spring. Web Meeting 6 doesn’t require participants to download any special software (not even Java). That’s right, no participant downloads required. Participants use a Flash-based player that makes joining a conference easy and FAST. More on Web Meeting 6 is available here.

I wanted to find out exactly what ‘fast’ meant, so today I did some time trials on joining a meeting. As a participant using Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome, I was able to join the meeting in 11 seconds. I could join via Firefox in just 9 seconds. Oh, and it only took two mouse clicks to join.

Want to try it out? Web Meeting 6 is currently available in an exclusive Preview environment. Current customers can access Preview at http://www.readytalk.com/preview using their current ReadyTalk access number and pass code and get started. Not a ReadyTalk customer? Contact sales@readytalk.com and they’ll set you up with a free 30-day trial account that also includes exclusive access to the Preview environment.

Please comment below on how quickly you’re able to join a meeting. Also, please share your thoughts on the new interface and features like enhanced polling. We love getting honest feedback.

ReadyTalk is preparing to roll out our next product launch, Web Meeting 6. But first, it’s time for a Preview. This afternoon, ReadyTalk Beta moves into Preview, bringing Web Meeting 6 one step closer to launch. Web Meeting 6, internally known as Native Client, has been in beta testing for several months. Thanks to continued feedback from our beta testers and the hard work of ReadyTalk engineers, we have been able to greatly improve the product before its release.

Our customers will be able to use Preview for scheduled meetings as well as on-demand meetings. Conference Center will be integrated with Web Meeting, so they can manage all pre- and post-meeting activities in the Preview environment.

Some of the new features you’ll find in Web Meeting 6:

• A redesigned and simple-to-use interface
• Flash-based participant entry to a meeting – this means your participants will be able to join your meeting even faster than before with no downloads required
• Enhanced polling with the ability to create six difference question/response types
• Application sharing with display resizing and rescaling
• A new ReadyTalk Control Bar puts all the chairperson conference controls at your fingertips without taking up valuable screen real estate
• Slide reordering can now be done with a simple drag and drop
• Audio participant name and number matching

Preview will be available on January 29; current customers can directly access Preview at http://www.readytalk.com/preview. Just use your current ReadyTalk access number and pass code and get started.

Not a ReadyTalk customer? Contact sales@readytalk.com and they’ll set you up with a free 30-day trial account that also includes exclusive access to the Preview environment.

Before we launch Web Meeting 6 we want as many customers as possible to experience a free preview and give us feedback. I will be announcing details of our Preview program in the next few weeks. Providing feedback is simple – tell us about your experience using the form at the end of your conference.

Preview gives customers an opportunity to test new functionality while helping us identify any minor kinks. Participating customers enjoy free web minutes while using the Preview environment in addition to experiencing new features.

Stay tuned for my weekly posts as I give you a detailed, sneak peek on the new features you’ll see, best practices on how to use them in your meetings and events, and keep you up-to-date on our progress during this pre-release time.

In the meantime, if you have any questions you can contact me directly at teresa.lawlor@readytalk.com or comment here.

Web conferencing services have expanded their uses beyond simple collaboration. Many organizations are spending a great deal of money on conducting educational webinars, training videos and sales demonstrations. These conferences are often of high production value and with a hired speaker. It only makes sense to record this conference and re-purpose it for later.

If you are going to put all that money into creating a webinar, you should also think about how you are going to distribute the content and archive it after it is made. The demand for tools that allow you to easily record, publish and distribute conferencing recordings is increasing, as organizations do more produced webinars.

We have always led the industry in content distribution and recording. With our integrated audio and web platform for one-click recording and our industry first podcast ability and hosted RSS feed. We have supplied these things to our customers at no extra charge.

With Conference Center 4, we have re-done the ReadyTalk Media Player and have added several nice new features that add to the production value of your conference recordings.

Check out this short video of the ReadyTalk Media Player.

1. We have re-skinned the player and gave it an up-to-date look with embedded controls, a new thumbnail view and thumbnail previews. It also scales to fit in your browser to avoid scroll bars and clipping
2. You are now also able to embed your recordings into your website or social media site of your choice. This meets your audiences viewing expectations (think YouTube) and also allows viewers to stay on your site while they watch your content. No more annoying pop-ups to watch recordings

A guest post by Dennis Yu, CEO of BlitzLocal– providing local online advertising for professional service firms.

Did you know you can have a personalized high-converting soft-sales campaign that is completely automatic? That’s right—you can make money on auto pilot!

In this post we’ll show you how to reel the customer in with semi-personalized message and then upsell them over a period of time with auto responder messages.

Here’s how the system functions.

There are several types of content that can be used here to “soften up” the customer:

• eBooks (can be used to educated and sell, or sometimes can even be what is sold as the solution)
• Automated emails (usually the primary upsell method after the potential customer is sucked into the system through a landing page). These emails should seem personal and should be sent out at regular intervals. Some variations might have an additional “exclusive” email series as the sold solution.

Of course, the goal of these ebooks or emails is to do some light education around a thorny problem, then show how the product for sale is perfect solution to the problem just described.

Here’s the model for using this method spelled out. First, you need to establish pain, then you create rapport, after that move on to framing the issue. Now, you’re ready to provide the solution. This is completely different than the direct sales model of sell, sell, sell:

• Establish pain: People won’t buy unless they are in pain. At Blitz, we do this right from the start by showing how the prospect doesn’t show up in search results when people are actively looking for the very service they offer. Jealousy also plays into this, since they can see what competitors are doing. Some of the tools we are building appear to be rank checkers, but are really pain generation tools—they point out what is wrong with your site.
• Creating rapport: Rapport is a fancy way of saying identification and comfort being around you, which is a low level of trust. The casual, conversational tone and revealing of semi-personal details and emotions humanizes the seller. They still wield an iron fist, but it’s covered with a velvet glove. In other words, they’re still trying to sell you, but are doing it an apparently gentle way. People buy from their friends, people they like. Do you feel empathy for the seller while reading? Good—his techniques are working on you. Often times the email series or ebooks will be written from the first person and appear to be from the CEO himself, sent apparently from his own email address. It’s a nice personal touch, and one that is fairly easy to mimic (if you want to adopt this strategy for yourself).
• Framing the issue: When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. The recent Borrell Research report on local framed the high churn issue among local resellers as one of insufficient PPC management software. Therefore, the solution is more PPC software, provided by Clickable, who just so happens to be the sponsor of the report (imagine that). A recent piece by a software company takes 30 pages to basically say one thing—that email autoresponders are the key to selling, since it’s automated, warms up the prospect over many touches, and allows them to respond when they are interested (not when you want to sell them). There, in one sentence and I’ve perhaps saved you 57 pages of reading. But look at how clever that formula is.
• Providing the solution: Now that he has you all worked up– you’ve intensely felt the pain of not having enough revenue, you identify with him as a friend, and he’s described the problem in a way most favorable to his solution– he mentions the answer. At first in passing and then more strongly as you get to the last few pages. Of course, he’s been talking about his product the whole time, you just didn’t realize how this trap was being set. He’s got you right where he wants you. And he didn’t have to spend a millisecond of his own personal time to get you there, the whole thing was automated. You perhaps watched a 2 minute video of him talking to you– like a good friend would chat with you. He’s been talking about your needs and you feel like you kind of know him. Time to buy!

And he, meaning the system, will continue to send out automated emails until you cry “mercy” and sign up for his software. Meanwhile, he’s sitting back, letting the automation software run, and the sales come rolling in.

But after reading through all the material, consider how you feel emotionally (I’d like to buy this software and I like this guy) versus what you’ve actually learned about what type of industry the product addresses (what specific steps and techniques can you implement?). If you’ve gone to a Baptist church, you may know what I’m talking about—call to action at the end, where people come up and confess. Probably not rationally-based, but one of emotion. The music is playing and you’re feeling spiritual. Ever seen “Leap of Faith”, the Steve Martin movie where he plays a huckster preacher, faith healer, caster outer of demons, and revenue generator extraordinaire under the big tent?

There really is little difference—think about it.

The “smarter” people think they are, the more easily they will fall for these sales techniques, since they’re thinking with the left side of their brain (rational), while really this system hammers them on the right side (emotional). This is how you can sell to anyone, no matter how “logical” they are.