As long as your attendees aren’t paying anything more, I think this practice not only serves them, but makes financial sense for YOU, the seminar leader.

Here is what I do.

If I think a given site and that site’s resources will be of great value to my seminar students I’ll reserve a domain name specifically for that site.

As an example, I often tell people about where they can reserve domain names. I send them to http://www.UltraCheapDomains.com.

I am NOT in the domain business, but I do get asked all the time where people should go to get them. I send them to the above site and I end up getting a VERY SMALL “piece of the action”.

My attendees don’t have to pay more and I am essentially serving as a straight commission salesperson for them.

IF you do this, make sure and reserve a domain name for every site that you send people to.

Make it easy to remember and spell. Another one of mine is:

http://www.CoolSpyTool.com.

Easy to remember and spell. Do the same for yourself. Go to UltraCheapDomains, reserve a domain name and then insert your affiliate code in the forwarding box in that domain.

If this makes no sense to you, take a look at the video on the site which explains this.

Then ask yourself, which of the companies you listed would make the MOST sense to approach first. The most sense for THEM! Which companies would benefit the most from getting in front of your group at your event.

Who do you talk to? Start with the vice president of marketing. In some companies they will be the right person to “pitch” on sponsoring your event.

If not the VP, then he/she will direct you to the right person. The decision maker will make their decision on a number of different factors.

They will include:

• How much are you charging for sponsorships?
  
• Are their competitors sponsoring your event?
• How many people are you projecting to attend?
• What is the possibility they will purchase?
• Are the attendees likely to be INFLUENCERS?

All of these questions are critical to be able to answer whomever you talk to sponsorships about.

They will want to feel that the price they pay you for the sponsorship will give them more value than what they paid for it.

What will you give them for sponsoring the event?

Will they be able to put up banners and signs or will they just have an booth or table at the back of the seminar room?

Do they get to sponsor a meal? Will they get to speak in front of the whole group?

What should you do? Sorry to say, but it DEPENDS on what you’re trying to do. If you want the MOST money, you let them have “face time” with your audience. The more time you allow them, the more money you should try and EXTRACT from them.

I’ve also seen people sell the back cover of the seminar workbook to a sponsor. The possibilities are endless. Just put your thinking cap on.

You should always TRY and write the copy yourself You may find you are very good at it. If you’re like me you’ll find that you are NOT particularly good.

No worries.

You can have a professional copywriter write the copy for your seminar or event. IF you have a LOAD of cash!

Hiring GOOD copywriters to write an entire site will NOT come cheap.

If you’re on a limited budget, I suggest you write the copy yourself and then have someone like Sabrina Brick TWEAK the copy that you write.

This will save you a lot of money AND allow you to promote your event with some very well written copy.

You can find Sabrina at:

http://www.SuperFastTweak.com

(Make sure to tell her where you found her!)

This is not just about YOU making money. Sure, that’s important, but you’ll make plenty of money by making sure that you serve those who attend your events.

What makes the most sense for your particular event? Is it suited to a LARGE space or would it be better to charge MORE per head and do the event in a smaller space.

At large events, you’ll probably make more on registration dollars, but I’ve had MUCH BETTER success in converting those who attended my smaller events into solid, long term consulting and coaching clients.

Bigger is NOT always better when it comes to doing seminars.

I have a number of clients who will be providing me with some very good long term revenue who came to a smaller event to start.

If they had been at one of my larger events, I would NOT have been able to build a relationship the same way and I suspect it would not have worked out as well.

There is a place for events both LARGE and SMALL when you do seminars!

You need to start STRONG and end STRONGER!

Hopefully your entire event will be memorable, but when someone asks one of your attendees what they thought of your event, they will think back to how the event ended.

And how it started.

When you start putting your event together, think of how you will open and how you will close. There are NO two sections of your seminar or workshop that are more important.

If you’re looking for an example, go rent the video: The French Connection with Gene Hackman from back in the early 70s. Take note of how the film opens. This will give you an idea of how to start your event.

As for the close, make sure that do two things. First, give people a PLAN of ACTION for what they should do NOW to make things happen.

Second, give them something REALLY solid that you end with. Similar to how you started, hold back one KILLER idea until the very end. One that people will leave saying: “WOW, that one idea was worth attending the entire event!”

Not having products at a seminar to sell that relate in some manner, shape or form to your topic is NUTS. You must have some.

If you don’t know how to put them together, that problem is EASILY solved. If you don’t have to proper knowledge or content in your field, then I can’t help you! That you’ll need to acquire yourself before producing products.

Often times when an event is being audio or video taped, the presenter will offer those recordings for sale to the audience members. Not a bad idea, but it’s not going to bring you in a ton of revenue!

Why?

People have just paid to be at your event. Presumably they’ve been paying attention. It’s a very hard sell to get them to pay for what they’ve already PAID FOR.

If you have an event that costs $1000, there is probably a good chance you can get people to cough up $100 for the audios and a bit more for the videos, but not much more than that.

IF you do that, announce it at the very beginning of your program. That way people won’t feel the need to feverishly take notes.

In addition to the products that your guest speaker may offer your audience (that you will get 50% of the dollars from), you may also want to consider a package of YOUR products that are RELATED to the topic.

Make people an “irresistible offer” and they will usually. go for it.

The reason for using something other than a hotel will be because:

1. It fits what you are doing.
2. It’s cheaper.

If you are doing a workshop on Filmmaking, it would make a lot of sense to do it at a movie theatre.

Many of the movie theatres will rent you their space. Particularly in the mornings when they aren’t showing films.

If you’re doing a program about how to do TV interviews, it makes sense for you to try and hold them in a TV studio if at all possible.

You get my drift!

As far as getting a less expensive facility there are many places that will be able to rent you space. Churches are always a possibility.

The best way to find “cheap” space is to ask around.

Some cities like NYC have spaces that are used specifically for this purpose. I use a place called the New York seminar Center. They are cheaper than a hotel and do a lot of events.

Just remember, hotels are NOT your only option!

My response is always: I AGREE! I’m sure you’re great. I’ll then add: For US to make the MOST money I think it would be UNFAIR for me to merely pay you a fee for the ad. I think we should split the money 50-50.

So let’s have you run the ad as OFTEN AS YOU WANT and just split the money. That will make you even MORE than my PAYING for ad space.

Anyone who takes you up on that deal, go for it.

If not, do NOT spend money with any of the people who approach you. Remember that most ad reps get paid by the amount of dollars in advertising they book. Their compensation does NOT depend on YOUR results!

My goal is to make it so that like me, you NEVER lose money on an event.

If you follow my advice, I only HOPE to get you as close to that goal as I possibly can.

When people come to me and say they are doing a seminar in 3 months and want my help to market it, the first question I ask is: “how big a targeted email list do you have?”

If they say NONE, I always suggest they take the money they were planning to spend on advertising and donate it to their favorite charity.

The money would be MUCH BETTER spent!

As an example, I have a 1 day program on marketing and selling information products that I have sometimes given RIGHTS to for attending AND completing one of my events.

RIGHTS in this context means giving the individual(s) the RIGHT to sell the product and keep all of the profits for themselves.

The only stipulation that I give is that people MUST sell the product in its entirety and it cannot be altered in ANY way, shape or form.

This is a HUGE value to the attendee.

I have often sold rights like these to the same product for anywhere between $500 and $1000.

WHY am I doing this? Because of all the BOUNCEBACK offers in the products I am granting the rights to. I make mention in that product of all kinds of different websites where I make money.

So the person who gets the rights and sells a boatload of the product makes money, but in the final analysis, so do I!

Win-Win as they say.

I suggest you consider doing the same with a product of yours if you have one that fits the bill.

(IF after reading this tip you want the RIGHTS to one of my products, I’ll give you 50% off if you mention the word BONANZA when you contact me).

I suggest you take control of this process. The wrong mood can really hurt you.

How do you create the mood at your event?

There are a number of components:

What music do you play? I remember going to an event a few years ago. The seminar leader really like hard rock. So do I but it was NOT appropriate for the event.

He tried to SHOE-HORN this genre of music into the event. It didn’t work.

The music you pick to play at your event is one of the components for the MOOD you create.

Are you trying to create an event which is FUN or SERIOUS. Sure there are plenty of points in between, but your event will LEAD in one  direction or the other.

My own events tend towards the fun, not the serious. This works for ME because of how I am.

I suggest that you try and THINK about what kind of MOOD you’re trying to create at your  event and make sure EVERYTHING you do contributes to making this THE MOOD that you are creating.

It’s not as important what the mood is. It is critical that it match your content and topic.

Make a conscious choice and stick with it! Make sure everything you do contributes to that mood.