It seemed like it came from out of the blue: All those golden opportunities to meet people in person, speak in person, do your own live event and enroll scores of clients flew out the window. Gone, just like that.
And suddenly you had to figure out this virtual thing. And figure it out fast.
But with:
Livestreams
Webinars
Interviews
Facebook Lives
The learning curve became a learning cliff.
And while I can’t make that magically disappear, I can make it easier: With my recommended Virtual Success Resource List.
Because I’ve done business online since 2003. And video since 2005.
And while you won’t be seeing me on the Red Carpet any time soon, I’ve spent a lot of time playing with (and making money with) a lot of the online tools you’re just starting to get to know.
So … here’s my list of what I’ve used to build my business. And other tools I’ve looked at that come highly recommended!
Webinar Creation
From basic to shoot-the-moon, these are the tools you use to craft your webinar slides:
Microsoft PowerPoint (PC): The old standard. Comes with the Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, etc.)
Keynote (Mac Only ): The presentation program that comes bundled with every Mac. It’s what I’ve built my webinars on for over a decade. If you’re on a Mac, it’s the gold standard.
Prezi:
You’ll want to check this one out! An amazing platform to craft animated, zooming presentations that keep your audience mesmerized. And they’ve just added a new feature that allows you to appear next to your content as you present.
Canva:
Yep! That cool tool known for building your social media graphics fast, can also help with beautiful webinar slide decks.
Haiku Deck:
Make beautiful presentations easily, on your desktop or tablet.
Inspiration
Want something more than a run-of-the-mill slide design? Check these sites out for examples, ideas and inspiration for an awesome new look for your webinar slide decks!
Pinterest:
A great way to discover presentation designs and templates. In fact, if you want to see your jaw drop, hop over to Pinterest and search for “presentation design”. Ideas for days …
Slideshare:
Think “YouTube for Slide presentations” and you got the idea. Check-in everyday for their featured presentations to get cutting edge ideas for your own.
The BEST of Slideshare:
An awesome collection 20 must-see examples the coolest presentation designs.
Jesse Desjardins (@jessedee) on Slideshare:
Jesse is one of the most talented designers featured on Slideshare, with a flair for presentation design. If you find yourself hitting a creative brick wall, check out some of his slide decks.
Cool Webinar Design Templates
Don’t have time to search for inspiration? Why not hop over to these sites for low cost presentation templates!
Canva:
You can not only build your slides in Canva, but use their colorful presentation templates as well.
Creative Market and Graphic River:
If you’re not a talented artist, you can still tap into an amazing pool of great slide design at bargain rates. With designers from around the world offering awesome templates (that usually employ fonts you can get for free), you’re bound to discover what you’re looking for.
Free fonts / graphics / photos
While you will want to read the license that comes with each font or graphic, most of these are free to use for both personal and commercial projects. A limited (or non-existent) budget no longer means you have to settle for a boring look.
Free Fonts:
Free Photos, Graphics, and Icons:
Low-cost photos & graphics
Sometimes it’s more than worth it to pay for images and graphics that convey the exact vibe you want for your presentation. These sites give you quality photos without the hefty price tag some of the higher end sites have.
Presentation Platforms
After you’ve built an awesome presentation, how can you broadcast it to the world? Whether it’s presenting slides decks, live video (or a combination of both) these platforms are the proven choices:
Zoom:
Rapidly becoming the consensus choice to present live to any size audience. Some of their coolest features include the ability to drop in any background (if you have a green screen) and the ability to broadcast to Facebook Live.
GoTo Webinar:
One of the most stabile platforms, but pricey. Best to delay using this unless your price point and audience demands the highest in reliability
Livestream Platforms
One of the BIGGEST impact tools you can use is Live Video.
Yep, it’s scary.
But the upside is worth it.
And the good news is, many of the tools make it easy to get started going live to a worldwide audience.
In fact, if you have a phone and you’re on Facebook, you could go live NOW. And it won’t cost you a dime.
Excited? Good!
Nervous? It’s OK!
Here are the tools that came make you look great going live!
Facebook Live:
If you don’t need slides, why not just use Facebook’s free live video broadcasting capability? From your desktop or your phone, a few clicks and you’re live worldwide.
You will find it right inside Facebook on both your desktop and mobile. You can search Google or YouTube for how-to’s, but be sure the tutorials are recent. Facebook changes the interface often.
BeLive:
This paid platform takes Facebook Live up a notch, with screen sharing, titles and even interviews.
eCamm Live:
Amazing tool for Facebook Live is Mac only. But it’s like having a live broadcast studio on your Mac. Interviews? Yep! Talking head? Yep. Screen sharing and slides? You got it.
StreamYard:
StreamYard is a cool live streaming platform that allows you to go live on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and other platforms. You can do interviews, share your screen and even stream up to 20 hours a month on their free plan.
Opt-in Pages
A great webinar demands a big audience. And these landing page-building tools allow you to create professional looking webinar opt-in pages to build your list, maximize your sales and follow-up with your viewers. Use their drag-and-drop toolbox to design your own pages or use their ready-to-go templates:
Replay Video Hosting
Not everyone who signs up can attend your webinar live. Which is why it’s good to have a place to host your webinar video for replays and on-demand viewing.
YouTube:
It’s famous (and it’s free!) And if you use the “Private Link” option for your videos, only viewers with the link will be able to access your video.
Vimeo:
Want more control over how your video player looks? Or protect your replays with a password? Vimeo’s affordable monthly video hosting offers you both.
Amazon S3:
If you’re more of a geek, Amazon S3 will host your videos in the cloud, and coordinate seamlessly with the custom-built viewing pages you create in Optimize Press
EXTRA TIP:
Platforms like Facebook Live, YouTube Live and LinkedIn Live save and display recordings of your livestreams. So if you’re broadcasting on any of these platforms, your replays are handled for you automatically.
Tech & Design Help
If it’s all feeling too complicated, don’t let that stop you! Affordable help is just a few clicks away for both the technical and design challenges. And yes, even if you’re starting out, it can be cost effective to pay someone to handle something that’s over your head.
That’s going to take weeks to handle if you try to do it yourself.
So … you’re off to a GREAT start!
With a list of proven possibilities.
How do you start?
Focus on the one area where you’re ready to take action.
Don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis
Bookmark this page so you can return to it
Again and again when you need to.
The goal here is not to become an expert on vitual tools. The goal is to use the ones you need to boost your following, and connect with & enroll awesome clients.
And of course … I may have missed your favorite resource.
The goal was to keep this focused and digestible. But if you have a worthy addition, feel free to add it to the comments below.
And if you know someone who could use a jump-start into going virtual, please use one of the buttons below to share it with them!
Thank you Rob. Don’t have time to check all these out now but bookmarking them for later.
Great to hear you’re bookmarking it Andrea. But don’t forget to circle back to it!
Wow. You must be psychic. This is fantastic!
Not psychic … but glad this was helpful, Carla.
You did it again! Yep, sharing valuable tools, inspiring us to think bigger and over-delivering with links and options… it’s all in a day’s post from Rob! Thank you for this great list-I found some I didn’t know about (like the ‘up your game’ Facebook Live one!) that I will have to check out.
Awesome Ann! So glad this was helpful, and that you made some new discoveries.