Webinar Wire

Charging For Web Events

Posted by Ken Molay January 19 2009 4:54 PM EST

1 comment

We're rapidly running down the list of Top Ten Webinar FAQs. Today's topic is whether to charge for web seminars and how much to charge.

I have taken heat on this issue in the past. I wrote a post on the subject on The Webinar Blog that received quite a few comments. Paul Colligan even wrote a post in response where he referred to my "silly blog post." So I wrote a follow-on post with more thoughts on the subject.

The fact is that it takes more planning, more technical integration, and more administrative attention to run a webinar with paid registration. You have fewer technology vendors to choose from if you want a complete, integrated do it yourself registration/payment/delivery system. You need to be ready to manage refund requests. You have to decide how much security you want to invoke to guard against "shoplifting" by people who pass out their login information to friends and colleagues. And despite protests from the masses, I continue to assert that in general, people have come to expect free information on the Web. Charging for a public event will cut down your potential registration.

But that doesn't mean charging for webinars is a dumb idea. Far from it. Information has value. If you are delivering value, there is no reason in the world to assume you have to give it away just because it's delivered in a web seminar. If you would charge people to attend your training session in a room setting, you can charge them to attend online. If you are delivering information that has bottom line worth for attendees, it is reasonable and proper to expect them to pay for it.

There are hundreds of different reasons to give web seminars. If you are building awareness, marketing your company/product, or performing public service, your event will most likely be free. If you are offering business services or custom training, you'll charge. If you are raising money for a nonprofit you might try it either way... Perhaps charging to attend (the idea of the "$500 a plate dinner") or perhaps making the event free and then soliciting pledges from the attendees (the PBS fund drive approach).

Now, are there guidelines for how much to charge? The short answer is no. Brainshark has recorded content on its Content Network that you can view for as little as $10. Business Expert Webinars has an entire catalog of business education seminars for a flat rate of $79 each. One of my long term clients conducts training for physicians and their staff where they charge $250. I have seen special big-name guest speakers advertised for associations and affinity groups where registration can be as much as $400-500. And if you are conducting specialized training as a business service, only you know what you can get away with. I imagine that nuclear power plant certification training delivered by an expert in the field would go for a pretty penny.

This is the perennial pricing problem faced by product managers the world over. How much should we charge for this thing? All I can offer is the usual advice in such cases... Look for examples of similar situations to the one you are planning and see what is being charged. It's a heck of a lot easier to justify your pricing if you can point to precedent elsewhere. I've given you a few examples, now you need to go canvass your competitors and industry trailblazers to see what they are getting away with.

Good luck!