Starting an Online Business All-in-One For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Becoming a Community Leader

Building a business is not only time-consuming but also rewarding and educational. Your work, however, doesn't end with your own Web site. Interaction with the community is essential for any business, whether you hang a shingle or code a Web page. On the Internet, you have ways to participate as a business owner that lend credibility and raise the collective energy of your community, who will remember those qualities when it's time to buy.

Speaking out with Webinars

In the past, you could make connections with potential customers by agreeing to speak at their Rotary Club or Chamber of Commerce meetings about your chosen subject area. The Internet and high technology have combined to create a way for you to deliver that same talk — without the rubber chicken and the echo from the borrowed sound system. A Webinar, (short for Web seminar) combines video, audio, and graphics to give the audience an experience similar to sitting in a lecture hall.

When you prepare and deliver a Webinar, you can give the same set of information to an unlimited number of people in your topic area, and at any time of the day. You control the message, the delivery of that message, and all the accompanying information that goes with the message. The formatting of your presentation is always the same with a Webinar, and your presence cannot be deleted, because your image, voice, and slides drive the presentation.

One leading company that produces Web seminars is WebEx, shown in ...