Sometimes you come across those business questions that just have you stumped or slow down your progress. Personally, this has happened to me, especially when I was just starting my online marketing business. Within this article I'm going to answer one question I had about teleseminars, hoping to help you with your business success.

Here is the question:

Have you ever had any luck charging money for a teleseminar? Would it be better to just have free calls and then try and sell from there?

I like to do both - charge and do free calls. I'm going to give you a few things to think about here.

When doing a free call, you will get more people on it, but they are going to be less qualified. What I mean by this is if you are going to try to sell a product or service, they aren't as good as a prospect compared to someone who has paid for the call.

You can take a variety of stances on this situation. One method that I like doing is holding a free call, but giving people the opportunity to purchase the mp3 and transcripts right away as an up sell. The transcripts and mp3s aren't given away because by selling them I am establishing a sense of value on those products. Often times I will put together a registration offer, something that will grab their attention right after they have registered. It may say something to the effect of, "Congratulations on your registration. Since you have just registered, there is a special offer available to you which includes getting the mp3 and transcripts for $10, would you like to take advantage of that?"

In a nut shell that is my up sell process. They have the opportunity to purchase the mp3 and transcripts for $10 and I let them know that after the call they will be sold for $47, or whatever price you want to sell them for. For them, it is a great deal to begin with and will save them a lot of money by buying it right away. For me, it gives me the opportunity to gather people for a more qualified list.

By doing this, I am able to address both markets at the same time. For the freebie seekers they are able to receive valuable content for free by joining me on the call. The kicker is that they have to make the point of being there on the call in order to listen to the content or they will miss it.

The people who actually purchase something are actually helping me build a sub list of qualified people. These people are willing to go into their wallet and take out their credit card and invest in learning materials, it doesn't matter that it was only $10. I don't want it to be a huge hurdle to get over, that is why I keep the price fairly low. The main purpose is to capture those people who are willing to purchase materials and also establish value for the mp3 and transcripts. By doing this people will now know that they are something of value and will be willing to purchase them again in the future because they know they won't be free.

I do not like giving everything away for free. I do not think it helps your whole back end sales. I like to try to qualify people as much as possible, establish value where I can and this model has worked really well for me. Provide the call for free so the freebie seekers still get what they want. Provide the mp3 and transcripts for an up sell price. I like to offer them a deal at the time of registration. So again I give it to them for $10. And I let them know that after the call I will be selling it them for $47 or $97 or whatever the price may be.

Then at the same time you have also created a sub list of more qualified prospects. You could probably follow up with that sub list a lot harder than you could with your freebie seekers because they have expressed more of an interest based on the fact that they have proven that they will pull out their wallet.

Doing a teleseminar you have the opportunity to both charge for the call and give it away for free and get qualified buyers another way. Think about what you want to accomplish for the call and the type of market you might have if you are charging for it.

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