Today’s article is an excerpt from a conversation I had with one of my online marketing small business clients who wants to “Act big on a small budget” by offering her customers paid webinars with a free small business tool.

My client wants to re-purpose her content by using webinars:

• to create new streams of revenue

• to increase customer loyalty

• as a cost-effective tool for marketing her business

A little background information…most of the tools in Your Small Business Toolbox are at least free or have a try before you buy option. It’s always good as a small business owner to have these two choices. If you’re like me, the last thing you as a fellow small business owner want to do is blow your technology budget on a tool that doesn’t fully meet your needs.

Below you will find straight talk about a secret weapon you can use to turbo-charge your income and turn your re-purposed content into gold!

Question:

What low cost small business tools can I use to conduct professional paid webinars for my business?

Answer:

I have tried a few tools for hosting webinars. I frequently use DimDim for my master mind group as a way to share information or get feedback. This is one of my favorite free small business tools in my toolbox.

With DimDim you can start small but finish big. You can host unlimited 20 person webinars for free. As you grow
you can upgrade to their extremely affordable 50 or 1000 person option.

Question:

One of the biggest reasons I’ve avoided adding this service is because I’m not a techie. Do I need to install software?

Answer:

Not only is DimDim very easy to use, there’s no software to download or install. You can simply create an account in like 15 seconds then almost instantly start your webinar.

But just in case you need that extra bit of support. DIMDIM offers a few options which include:

• Daily demo webinars

• A knowledgebase with frequently asked questions

• A downloadable PDF users guide

It doesn’t matter which type of account you have, all of these support options are available.

Question:

Scheduling and promoting your webinars are things they never have built-in or tell you about. Do I need to integrate additional tools?

Answer:

With this tool you’re in luck! When it comes to scheduling and promoting your webinars, again they make it super easy. These services are built in and offered at no extra cost.

All you do is select a meeting name, date and time. The tool will automatically create an awesome widget with the meeting details and a cool countdown timer.

As for promoting your webinar, they have you covered there too. You can paste your widget anywhere you like including your website or blog. Or use their built in share widget feature to promote in emails, Twitter, Facebook, and many other social media sites.

Question:

Now for the HEADACHE… accepting payments. How does that work?

Answer:

Relax!

DIMDIM lets you forget about shopping cart integration drama. Once you schedule your meeting you can do a quick sign up for a free account with Eventbrite(another easy tool-for online event management, more on that in a future post).

Just to be clear, there is a payment processing fee in addition to the fee Eventbrite collects to sell tickets.

Fortunately, there are no set up cost or additional hidden charges. You only pay a fee when you make a sale.

Question:

Okay, I have heard enough! You had me at free and easy 🙂

Answer:

LOL!

But the only way to prove the value of DimDim is to try it for yourself.

Have you tried DimDim or do you use another no-cost or low-cost web conferencing tool or free small business tools? Let me know in the comments below.

UPDATE:

DimDim was sold and is no longer available. Take a peek inside my small business toolbox for the latest no-ost and low-cost (free) small business tools.

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