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Home Refinance Stimulus Plan – Based on Present Property Value

There are lots of people suffering from the non-repayment of their home mortgage loan in America and the present government has taken a solid and smart step towards the betterment of the situation. But there are many people who don’t know exactly how to qualify for them and how this home refinance stimulus plan will help them out of this traumatic situation. Here are some tips that would help in realizing the eligibility criteria fixed by the government for this refinance stimulus plan.

If the borrower finds that the value of his house has dropped more than 15% of the real value, then he is eligible to take the advantage of this stimulus plan. This plan has made refinancing of home loan simple, easy and fast so that the homeowners are able to get benefited by the Government’s fixed rate of interest of 2%. Both the President and the Federal Reserve are trying to fix the rate of interest on home loans on 2% and they are working out the solution and the result will be soon in front of the people.

The only condition for applying for home refinance stimulus plan is that the borrower should be living in that house and should have the amount to pay off the remaining debt. This is also very important because to get your loan refinanced you have to pay the outstanding loan amount or get it adjusted into the present principal. It depends upon your lender what option he chooses as you can also negotiate with him for the purpose. The main intention of the plan is to help homeowners save their house from foreclosure and also save some money every month from their present income.

The streamlined refinance option is going to help borrowers get out of this situation spotlessly. This means that even if they had been not able to repay their loan installments since last few months, if they choose home refinance option they will have to pay off the outstanding debt and this will improve their credit score, which will be of great help in future.

Also there are different types of people with dissimilar temperament and thinking. Some would like to get their current loan restructured but some would like to finish off the past and make a new start with the home refinancing loan option. The financial condition also depends here.

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Why Smart Presentations Start With an Office Binding Machine

You put a lot of work into your presentation. You want to make a good impression, but bringing a load of loose papers is going to be risky. And even though the popularity of electronic documents is at at its peak, people still respond positively to holding something in their hands to refer to or make notes on. Hard copies of electronic documents also provide a safe backup plan in case your presentation equipment malfunctions or is not available. With ease you can show everyone that you mean business by coming into your meeting with a professionally bound report. What is the secret? You buy an office binding machine that will keep all the pages of your report together.

There are several different types of binding machines to choose from. It all comes down to what type of binding you are wanting to use. Your choices include wire binding, comb binding, or coil binding. Types of machines exist that can do a combination of these methods. Wire binding can be done in a single spiral or a double loop coil.

Office binding machines can can be purchased for $50 per unit, and the cost increases depending on your office needs. If you will only be needing your machine on certain occasions with small projects, a smaller unit might be appropriate for your needs. However, if you are planning on creating lots of documents on a regular basis, you may find a combination machine to your liking not only because the machine is designed to operate on heavier workloads, but it may also include some time-saving benefits that their smaller counterparts cannot deliver.

When you need to show the world what you are made of, you do not have time to be concerned with losing part of your research. Make an impression at your next big meeting by coming prepared with a professional looking presentation. The right office binding machine will turn your load of loose documents into a bound report that is sure to get their attention.

Raise the Temperature of Your Presentation With Thermal Binding Covers

It takes a lot of time and effort to put together a really good presentation. And, if you have to create several reports to pass around the meeting, you do not want to avoid losing pages or getting them mixed up. It only takes is one accidental drop to distract your thoughts and cause you embarrassment while you take the time to put them back in order. Those are the times when you might want to add thermal binding covers to your important documents. Not only will this mean all your pages remain together, but it will give your presentation with an extra boost.

Thermal covers provide you the ability to produce bound pages, like a book. There is no hole punching required, and most thermal binding machines come with pre-set heating so you never have to worry about damaging your presentation. These thermal covers come in clear or in a wide array of colors. They also come in several sizes, so you can choose just the right size for your work.

Thermal binding covers work with practically any thermal binding machine. Additional covers and thermal strips can be purchased at your local office supply store or online. They usually run between $3 and $30 per box, depending on number of sheets per box and size of the covers. Putting together the perfect document has never been easier or more affordable.

Do not just hand your associates a pile of papers at the next meeting. Even stapling them together or binding them with a paper clip can send the inappropriate message, especially if it is a client you are trying to win over. Instead, give them a professionally bound report, complete with stylish thermal binding covers. You will make an impression while guaranteeing that all your hard work stays together. What better way to show off all your hard work and prove your worth to the rest of the team?

Presenting a Real Estate Investment Opportunity to Investors

The first step in raising private equity for any developer is usually to compile a detailed information package. This typically including comprehensive pro forma spreadsheets, investment vehicle structure, site details, and other such information.

However, the packages often neglect to include a snapshot of the deal from the investor point of view. At a high level – how much investment is required, for how long, at what rate of return and how will that investment and return be repaid.

Investors first want to know the basics and establish if a deal matches their investment criteria and how it rates against other deals currently on offer.

If a deal is presented in a beautiful, large package that has to be read from cover to cover to determine its essence it can be a major turnoff to the busy investment professional and casual investor alike.

The more detailed information is really only necessary when an investor has established its suitability on a general level. What is suggested is first producing a more simple deal overview for the potential investor to review.

Begin with the name of the project and a very brief description of the deal (it may be that this is the only document that the investor will look at to determine their interest in your project).

The next piece of information to be included is the cost of the deal and so the equity needed. This part of the document will resemble a traditional debt term-sheet. It shows the investor how much the sponsor is committing to the deal themselves and how much is being sought externally. A typical equity split involves investors providing 90% of the required equity with the sponsor adding the remaining 10% (a 90:10 split).

Moving on to one of the more important sections, for obvious reasons. One needs to display exactly what the investor will receive in return for their equity contribution – “Expected Returns to Investor”. You state what you are going to pay (typically per year) followed by an IRR calculation. The IRR tells the investor what their annual return would be if they invested in your project for x number of years.

The most common time frame for real estate investment opportunities is probably between 3 to 4 years. But, investors can also be sweet to deals that have a high long term return if the figures stack up. When the equity requirement and the associated returns over the timeframe have been established, the next step is proving the model. This requires presenting a breakdown of the various cash flows to the investor and sponsor, along with the refinance assumptions that feed the model.

On the supporting worksheets it is best practice to build the model in such a way that when an investor sees a number in the summary sheet that isn’t clear, they can follow the links and understand its origins.

Constructing an investment summary can be relatively easy, especially if you have the proforma model outlining all the costs and revenues – it is really just highlighting the right information and presenting it in a clear and concise manner.

Without it however, your deal can die before it is even reviewed by the investor.

Winnie the Pooh – Perfect Present For Children

One of the greatest cartoon characters ever drawn is Winnie the Pooh or more popular as Pooh the Bear. The famous bear has been around for more than eight decades already and has become a part of our lives. Until today, parents and children continue to become patrons of Pooh products that can be found in almost any items. Popular items include bags, shirts, stuff toys, movies, and video games to name a few.

For parents who are planning for special presents for their children, Winnie the Pooh products are very appropriate indeed. Aside from acquiring the huggable bear, Pooh is also represented with a kind heart and a very nice personality all the time. So offering this to children will allow them to recognize the bear as a new best friend. Educational materials such as drawing books and coloring books are also fond items kids will appreciate.

Like any other cartoon characters, Pooh is also present in many parties. Mascots and life size characters are of interest to children so, inviting Pooh mascot in a children’s party is a wonderful idea. Kids will take this as an opportunity to see their favorite bear in real life to play with them. Isn’t fulfilling seeing your kids happy while playing with the bear? It sure it!

Aside from these items, parents can also use other products to keep their children interested with the bear. Giving them cups, mugs, platters, and a set of fork and spoon all printed with Winnie the Pooh logo will definitely grab their attention. Just in case you are still confused on what to give your children, do not forget the power of the Internet. Search for interesting Pooh products online and make sure to find the most appropriate present for your children.

How to Make Attractive and Effective PowerPoint Presentations

Microsoft PowerPoint has dramatically changed the way in which academic and business presentations are made. This article outlines few tips on making more effective and attractive PowerPoint presentations.

THE TEXT

Keep the wording clear and simple. Use active, visual language. Cut unnecessary words – a good rule of thumb is to cut paragraphs down to sentences, sentences into phrases, and phrases into key words.
Limit the number of words and lines per slide. Try the Rule of Five – five words per line, five lines per slide. If too much text appears on one slide, use the AutoFit feature to split it between two slides. Click within the placeholder to display the AutoFit Options button (its symbol is two horizontal lines with arrows above and below), then click on the button and choose Split Text Between Two Slides from the submenu.
Font size for titles should be at least 36 to 40, while the text body should not be smaller than 24.
Use only two font styles per slide – one for the title and the other for the text. Choose two fonts that visually contrast with each other. Garamond Medium Condensed and Impact are good for titles, while Garamond or Tempus Sans can be used for the text body.
Embed the fonts in your presentation, if you are not sure whether the fonts used in the presentation are present in the computer that will be used for the presentation. To embed the fonts: (1) On the File menu, click Save As. (2) On the toolbar, click Tools, click Save Options, select the Embed TrueType Fonts check box, and then select Embed characters in use only.
Use colors sparingly; two to three at most. You may use one color for all the titles and another for the text body. Be consistent from slide to slide. Choose a font color that contrasts well with the background.
Capitalizing the first letter of each word is good for the title of slides and suggests a more formal situation than having just the first letter of the first word capitalized. In bullet point lines, capitalize the first word and no other words unless they normally appear capped. Upper and lower case lettering is more readable than all capital letters. Moreover, current styles indicate that using all capital letters means you are shouting. If you have text that is in the wrong case, select the text, and then click Shift+F3 until it changes to the case style that you like. Clicking Shift+F3 toggles the text case between ALL CAPS, lower case, and Initial Capital styles.
Use bold or italic typeface for emphasis. Avoid underlining, it clutters up the presentation.
Don’t center bulleted lists or text. It is confusing to read. Left align unless you have a good reason not to.
Run “spell check” on your show when finished.

THE BACKGROUND

Keep the background consistent. Simple, light textured backgrounds work well. Complicated textures make the content hard to read.
If you are planning to use many clips in your slides, select a white background. If the venue of your presentation is not adequately light-proof, select a dark-colored background and use any light color for text.
Minimize the use of “bells and whistles” such as sound effects, “flying words” and multiple transitions.
Don’t use red in any fonts or backgrounds. It is an emotionally overwhelming color that is difficult to see and read.
Many free templates are available for download at http://www.brainybetty.com/MENUPowerPoint.htm and http://www.soniacoleman.com/templates.htm .

THE CLIPS

Animations are best used subtly; too much flash and motion can distract and annoy viewers.
Do not rely too heavily on those images that were originally loaded on your computer with the rest of Office. You can easily find appropriate clips on any topic through Google Images. While searching for images, do not use long search phrases as is usually done while searching the web – use specific words.
When importing pictures, make sure that they are smaller than two megabytes and are in a .jpg format. Larger files can slow down your show.
Keep graphs, charts and diagrams simple, if possible.
Use bar graphs and pie charts instead of tables of data. The audience can then immediately pick up the relationships.

THE PRESENTATION

If you want your presentation to directly open in the slide show view, save it as a slide show file using the following steps.
1. Open the presentation you want to save as a slide show.
2. On the File menu, click Save As.
3. In the Save as type list, click PowerPoint Show. Your slide show file will be saved with a .pps file extension.
When you double-click on this file, it will automatically start your presentation in slide show view. When you’re done, PowerPoint automatically closes and you return to the desktop. If you want to edit the slide show file, you can always open it from PowerPoint by clicking Open on the File menu.
Look at the audience, not at the slides, whenever possible.
If using a laser pointer, don’t move it too fast. For example, if circling a number on the slide, do it slowly. Never point the laser at the audience.
Black out the screen (use “B” on the keyboard) after the point has been made, to put the focus on you. Press the key again to continue your presentation.
You can use the shortcut command [Ctrl]P to access the Pen tool during a slide show. Click with your mouse and drag to use the Pen tool to draw during your slide show. To erase everything you’ve drawn, press the E key. To turn off the Pen tool, press [Esc] once.

MISCELLANEOUS

Master Slide Set-Up:

The “master slide” will allow you to make changes that are reflected on every slide in your presentation. You can change fonts, colors, backgrounds, headers, and footers at the “master slide” level.

First, go to the “View” menu.
Pull down the “Master” menu.
Select the “slide master” menu.

You may now make changes at this level that meet your presentation needs.

Preparing the Handout:

In PowerPoint, choose File | Send To | Microsoft Word. In the Send To Microsoft Word dialog box, choose Outline only to create a text-only document, and click on OK. Minor modifications on this document will give you a handout that can be distributed to the audience.

Create visually appealing slides by adhering to these tips, to ensure that the audience is not distracted from the points you have to make.

Christmas Gift Wrap Ideas to Make the Perfect Present

Gift wrapping is part of the ritual of giving and receiving that we all treasure. Whether it’s simple Christmas wrapping paper, colored tissue or an elaborate gift bag with all the trimmings, the way you wrap a gift tells the recipient how much you care.

It’s interesting that very small children often value the wrapping as much as the gift. They are excited not just by the act of ripping open the package but also by the box and the paper itself. Many moms will remember having to rescue gift paper from a toddler’s mouth and vainly trying to interest the child in the actual gift.

Many people save Christmas gift wrap and ornaments and recycle them for future use. It’s always a good idea to keep a stock of paper, ribbons and small trinkets handy to ensure that you can produce a present wrapped in a way that reflects your own taste as well as that of the receiver.

It’s so easy to personalize your gift with unusual tags, decorations or colored ribbon. Here are some suggestions:

You can create your own tags very easily by recycling cards that you have received and cutting around the images you like with pinking shears. All you need to do then is make a hole with a hole-puncher and thread pretty ribbon through it to attach it to your gift. This works especially well at Christmas since you can create the tags from the previous year’s cards and make the new season’s card list at the same time. Children love helping with this task — although you need to be sure to give them scissors that are safe for them to use and it may be better if you avoid giving them the hole puncher.
Another recent trend is to add dried flowers, sequins or feathers to your gift. These can be a charming touch especially if you use scented varieties, and you can be sure that they will be treasured and probably passed on to another happy recipient.
Seasonal themes work well with these types of additions, whether it’s spring flowers or fall leaves. You can find a lot of these materials at craft shops for very reasonable prices. Use these stores for inspiration too. One novel idea was to add a range of pretty buttons to the outside of a gift to create a unique look. Of course, you can also add scent yourself by spraying lightly with your favorite perfume.
Some people also enjoy adding wrapped candy or chocolate, either on the outside or in between the layers of paper enclosing their gift. This is reminiscent of the traditional children’s game ‘Pass the Parcel’ in which one layer of paper was removed from the well wrapped gift each time the music stopped. Thoughtful moms made sure that there was at least one small treat inside each layer.

Overall, you want to be sure that the experience of receiving and unwrapping a gift is rewarding in itself, not just because of the item inside. Both the giver and receiver will know how much thought and care has gone into the giving. It may not be just the thought that counts, but thoughtfulness adds an irreplaceable touch and great gift wrapping is a way to showcase that.

Perfect Birthday Presents For Men

It can often be a struggle trying to be the perfect birthday gift for the man in your life. Fear not, however, as birthday hampers offer the easiest of solutions.

Stuck when deciding what to buy for that special man in your life? Birthdays can often become unnecessarily stressful if you’re worried or unsure about what to buy your father, brother, husband or male friend whose birthday is looming just around the corner. The usual options exhausted, why not turn your hand to a hamper – a thoughtful and personal gift that can be jam-packed with your recipient’s favourite things?

So, once you’re decided that a birthday hamper is an ideal solution for you, the question begs – what to fill it with? Food stuffs and bottled drinks are a traditional choice and certainly a fail safe option. Since hampers come in a variety of shapes and sizes, there’s also every opportunity to spoil your recipient rotten with mounds of their favourite foods or stick to a budget. For birthday food hampers for boys and teens, why not opt for a hamper full of sweeties and candy? Alternatively, for ‘big kids’ and gentleman, you could create a hamper loaded with their favourite lagers, ales or whiskies.

If food isn’t your recipient’s thing, you could up the stakes personalisation-wise and create a hamper with a sentimental twist. Framed photographs, CDs or records from their youth and postcards or books from favourite holiday destinations make for a hamper that’s not only a wonderful birthday present but also packed full of memories from yester-year. Given the sentimental edge a gift like this has to offer, why not reserve this hamper for a really special occasion like a milestone birthday such as a 40th or 50th

Finally, if you still feel stuck trying to work out what to buy your recipient, why not opt for a little bit of everything? The joy of birthday hampers really is the ability to be as flexible as you want to be and there’s nothing to stop you popping in a few bottles of your recipient’s favourite beer, the latest release from their favourite band and perhaps even a couple of tickets to their favourite sports team or band.

To top it all off, the presentation of your birthday hamper alone is enough to bowl most recipients over; and that’s even before they’ve begun the enjoy the contents!

Presentation Layer in Website Design

As we are all aware, there are always two sides of every website design. The visual side that all users see with all the graphic elements, buttons, pictures and the side behind it, which is the code that is responsible for the functionality of the website. How to achieve the balance?

The enabling side does not contain only one type of code, but it encompasses different ones. First off all it is HTML code, which creates a framework in which to embed CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) or programming languages such as PHP. In other words HTML is used to structure the content on the page, while CSS allows treating your website content and its style separately and programming languages communicate instructions to the computer.

HTML itself does not power such effects as drop down menus or carousels. There is a code which is expressively dedicated to the user interface while other code is used to process data and connect to database. The ‘presentation layer’ refers to graphical interface as well as to the code that powers it, including the code that controls interactive elements such as drop down menus.

Presentation code includes:

HTML and HTML 5
CSS
Scripting languages such as JavaScript, jQuery and Ajax.

Usually all those languages are skilfully weaved together in order to create a visually attractive and highly functional website design.

1. Creating multimedia interface

Animated and immersive design is achieved through the use of either Adobe Flash or combination of HTML, CSS and other scripting languages mixed together.

For many years Adobe Flash was in the lead, but it started to change. Nowadays with the development of HTML 5 and CSS we are able to increasingly replicate much of the interactive and animation effects.

HTML 5, the most recent edition of HTML has made a huge step forward in terms of presentation layer design capabilities. It provides an improved toolkit of elements and properties and acknowledges the way designers work and use particular elements. For example it allows designers to define a navigation group with the new ‘nav’ instead of the previously used ‘div’ element. The animation and interaction design support features of HTML5 have also improved impressively, and the fact that HTML5 is supported on mobile browsers such as Apple’s Safari has opened up the web design possibilities.

A few words about Adobe Flash

Flash is an animation and interactive technology that enables to create highly immersive interface. As for implementation of Flash element in website design the process is quite simple. The component developed in Adobe Flash is exported as a self- contained .swf file and in exactly the same way as an image, the .swf file is embedded within a HTML page. The .swf file can either be a small portion of the page or it can literally be the entire interface. It must be noticed that users must have the Flash player installed in their browser in order to view a page featuring a .swf component.

Despite the capability of creating impressive user experience using Flash has some disadvantages. The most significant one is the fact that the Apple mobile platform simply does not support Flash files. Therefore, the website created in Flash must offer an alternative version of the site for (Apple) mobile viewers (of course only if the market is important enough to them). The invitation for the user to download the latest version of the Flash player on the iPhone is an irrelevant button, since even if they did download Flash the site would still not be accessible.

HTML5 – Flash alternative

As mentioned earlier, combination of HTML 5, CSS and jQuery code now make it possible to reproduce animated websites that were only possible in Flash. Using ‘canvas’ element it is now much easier than ever to design rich and animated user interface. Most modern desktop and mobile browsers support the HTML5 standard which makes it possible to create design that works across a multitude of platforms.

1.1 DHTML, JavaScript, jQuery, and Ajax

Bear in mind that HTML just forms a structure for a content. Scripting languages such as JavaScript, Ajax, and jQuery which control the behaviour of user interface elements and content displayed on a page are woven into that structure.

JavaScript is a dynamic scripting language that is capable of complex animation and interaction effects, such as creating a drop-down menu or an expanding window layer. It allows to interact with the user, control the browser and alter the web page content that is displayed. When JavaScript is implemented into HTML, the HTML is then referred to as ‘DHTML’. Dynamic HTML (DHTML) allows to create interesting interactive components and animations.

jQuery is a simplified form of JavaScript that focuses on the commonly-used interactions between JavaScript and HTML. It is designed to make it easier to navigate a web page. jQuery is a free, open-source software and is available online. You can copy and paste ready scripts into your web pages and customize them to serve your purposes. Using jQuery, you can create animation and interaction design effects with much less code than would be required with JavaScript.

Examples of jQuery effects:

Expanding and collapsing according windows
Carousel image rotation
Image zoom upon rollover etc.

Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) allows data processing such as sending or retrieving data to occur in the background (asynchronously) without interfering with display or behaviour of the web page. Therefore reloading the page or clicking an “update” button is not required and data on the page can be refreshed/updated automatically.

1.2 Advanced CSS Graphic Effects

In the past, in order to create a graphic element, a button for example, we used to rely on bitmap graphics such as jpeg or gif. Not only do they increase the load time of the web page but also they have to be created by designers familiar with software such as Photoshop, and then they have to be hand-changed every time you wish to change the look of the site.

Nowadays CSS is offering increasing levels of stylistic control over the appearance of elements. It’s now possible to add gradations, rounded corners, reflections, and soft drop shadows to text and elements simply through code.

There are quite a few useful CSS graphical style controls that we can be implemented to avoid the use of bitmap graphics in building user interface.

The advantages of using CSS for our user interface include:

Faster download times – CSS code is written just once, and can be applied as a style to any graphic or text element;
Scalable design – CSS code allows you to apply scalable attributes to fonts and elements;
Easy maintenance – In order to change the size, colour, and visual effects of a button, text, or design element, we simply change values in the CSS code, and the change will be applied to all elements assigned to the particular style;
Accessibility – in CSS we are using actual text for our buttons and interface elements, and these are tagged and identified in a way that screen readers can digest and translate for users who rely on such devices.

1.3 Responsive design

The most recent trend in website design is ‘responsive design’. It is an approached aimed at creating websites in a way that provides an optimal viewing experience, easy to read and navigate across the wide range of devices. When the user changes the size of their browser window, the web page updates immediately in order to optimally display in the ‘view port’ size. View port is a new term designers use to refer to not only different desktop browser sizes, but also mobile devices which all have different fixed screen sizes.

Responsive design is possible thanks to the ‘media queries portion of the CSS3 specification. It recognizes the browser’s size and tells the page to load the appropriate style sheet, for example ‘widescreen.css’ or ‘mobilescreen.css’. It is possible because different style sheets contain different layout systems, font sizes, and image optimization settings.

The last but not least is getting a creative ideas for user interface. There are plenty of inspirations online. It would be advised to analyse good design practices, break them down to essentials, and see how some of them can be adapted for application in our own field.

Presenting in the 21st Century

In the middle of July, 24 publishers awaited the marketing presentation about to be given by nationally-recognized expert speaker, Brian Jud. Attendees settled in their seats. Brian and I chatted as we prepared to begin. When everyone had gathered, I began to describe the event and then introduce our speaker.

But these weren’t ordinary presentation circumstances: I was deaf and blind to our audience, I couldn’t see or hear a soul. I had first-timer nerves. I had to have faith that the system was working.

Welcome to my side of our first Webinar (a Webinar is essentially a seminar held over the Internet). Our attendees were sitting in front of their computers at home or in their office, watching Brian’s graphics and listening on the phone. We could not hear the attendees, but we were able to receive written questions from them.

Although it felt a little clunky (my part, not Brian’s), the Webinar went well and we got good reviews from the attendees.

In fact Leo Dewey, Elvenwork Press told us “Very fine presentation, most informative, and best of all, fun.”

Patti Kokinos, Author of Angel Park: A Novel wrote, “Wow! Terrific…By the way, your (Brian Jud’s) personal manner over the phone felt very friendly and engaging, without the typical hype that others may offer. Thanks for keeping it real–and useful!!”,

Everyday I am learning and teaching and the Webinars are no different. Two days after the event, I wrote an evaluation over a big cup of strong coffee. Here are a few lessons learned.

1. Message–Never assume people know what you are talking about. Of course, the “never assume” rule is variable. If you are talking about making a cup of coffee, most people have a pretty good idea what you are talking about.

With the Internet and other high tech tools, if in doubt, explain. I started advertising our “Webinar” and people asked where it was being held and if they needed a computer. This was my fault, not theirs.

I ended up writing an explanation of what a Webinar is and what people needed to participate. Here is the copy I wrote to describe our Webinar:

“A Webinar is a Web based seminar or Web conference. At our Webinar, participants will sit at their computers connected to the Internet while Brian Jud gives his presentation. They will watch the PowerPoint type slides while listening on the phone.

“We will send two pieces of information to all participants on how to connect to the Webinar. The first is a Web address and access code for your computer and the second is a phone number and access code for the Webinar phone call. You do have to pay your usual long distance charges for the phone call.”

2. Understand your software–We use GoToWebinar.com Internet based software to set up the Webinars. Brian and I both took a Webinar class presented by GoToWebinar.com to learn how to present and communicate with the attendees. It was a good thing, too, because I had been sending out the wrong login information. I had to scramble to get the correct information out on how to connect to the computer and phone network.

The software has a feature where we were able to have practice sessions in the days before the Webinar. As all speakers know, one of the major rules is to practice, practice, practice. It is the same for Webinars. The presentation may be similar to a live speech, but there are little unfamiliar buttons to click on the screen to make things happen during the Webinar. Practice and a few real live Webinars make this flow smoothly.

3. Be really clear about the time–Although we clearly stated that the Webinar started at “7:00 pm Eastern”, we had people show up at 7:00 pm Pacific. Again this was partly my fault for not being clearer about those pesky time zones.

4. Plan follow-up contact–We recorded the Webinar and provided it to all the participants after the event. Also, Brian sent the participants “handouts” via e-mail afterwards. If you are selling training, books, or other products and services, your audience is interested in what you do and feeling good about you. After the Webinar is a great time for continued communication–it allows you to extend the value of this tool even further.

Webinars are the wave of the future. Seminars, especially, when people have to fly, are on the decline. Security hassles, the expense, and many other factors have made on-location events less attractive. People are living, working, and training on the Web. Try out a Webinar. You’ll be glad you did.