Have you ever participated in a live webinar?

I have participated in several. I have found the ones that I enjoy the most are the ones that have been set up by a group or organization that I belong to who do a complete webinar with no sales pitch at the end.

Sales pitch endings — yes, these are the webinars that I have come to strongly dislike. Why? Because they send you an invitation with lots of promises, like “in this webinar you will learn how to make money selling ebooks on Amazon”. There is also information offered about the speaker of the webinar which usually says things like “I used to be a struggling writer, trying to sell my work to feed my family” or something similar to give you a picture that the person had decided to try to have writing as his/her only job and wasn’t doing very well. He/She was struggling to pay bills, make ends meet, feed the family, etc. Then there’s usually something like “I hope you are not in a similar situation, but if you are, I want to help you. That’s why I’m sharing my secret for selling ebooks on Amazon with you. Just sign up to join my webinar, and hurry because space is limited and seats are going fast.”

So, you think to yourself, I relate to this person’s circumstances, and I would really like to be able to sell my (or more of my) books on Amazon. This sounds like a good marketing webinar. Therefore, you sign up and block out the date and time on your calendar to be sure you don’t miss it. (Of course, they send you several email reminders the day of the webinar, right up to start time).

Then with excitement and hopefulness, you tune into the webinar at the appointed date and time with a notebook and pen by your side so you can catch all of the important information. The webinar starts out well, giving you tips, advice and information that you think will be really helpful, but as the end of the webinar time approaches, the tips, advice and information slow down and eventually stop, just short of completing the information you were expecting and looking forward to.

What happens next? The speaker of the webinar begins a sales pitch. Yep, the information was to lure you in to pitch some new website or resource or online classes for writing that will cost you hundreds of dollars.

What happens to your excitement and hopefulness? Well, if you’re like me, it plummets into the pit of your stomach, and you think, “What? I thought you wanted to help the struggling (translate to starving) writers. How can wanting them (me) to spend hundreds of dollars they (I) don’t have, to get the complete information and help your webinar promised, help them (me)?

So, you turn off your computer, completely disappointed/distraught. And if you’re like me, you think, if they really wanted to help me, the struggling writer, why couldn’t they give me the complete information and offer their sales pitch on another webinar, or, why couldn’t they have been honest and informed you that to get the complete “formula”, you would have to purchase something at the end of the webinar? They claim they have made thousands of dollars with their “formula” and they want to “help others who may be where they were”, but in the end, they’re really not much help at all.

The last webinar I participated in, the speaker admitted, about halfway through the webinar, that he uses a pen name and if you search for his name (that he gave for the webinar), you’ll never find him, and he didn’t give his pen name so you couldn’t even look him up to see if his self-proclaimed success was factual or not.

(Sigh) These are all of the reasons I have sworn off webinars that are advertised on the internet or through email. If the webinar is offered through a group/organization that I am part of and know I can trust, I will participate. Otherwise, I’m not interested. I’m tired of empty promises from writers who claim to have found success that others could attain just as easily, only to have them want to make more money off of someone who can’t afford their prices, which also makes me really wonder if what they’re selling is really worth the money they are charging. Oh, sure, they have those little quotes they share that are supposed to be legitimate quotes by people who have learned their “formula” and are using it to become successful, but we all know, those quotes can easily be bought for a price for such purposes.

How about you? Have you participated in any of these webinars? Have you found any of them helpful and legitimate without your having to invest hundreds of dollars? I’d love to hear your story(ies). Please leave comments in the “Comments” section below.