Thursday, January 31, 2008

How to Dump Long Distance Charges With Web Conferencing

Dear Small Business Owners,

Do you ever have international conference calls? Are you paying exhorbiant long distance fees for these calls?

If so, then web conferencing can eliminante these charges. With VideoLive conferencing, which includes VoIp, it allows you to talk to anyone in the world using only your PC and a web camera if you want to be seen.

And there are no outlandish conference call fees. Or frustrating dropped calls either.

You can have as many ad-hoc meetings as you need. Plus talk as long as necessary to get your work done.

Stay tuned for more ways video web conferencing can decrease your costs!

Best,
Sonja

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

5 Tricks of "Free" Conferencing

Hi Everyone,

Everyone likes to get free services, right?

If you google free conferencing services, you get pages and pages of companies claiming to be free.

But as my Economics teacher often said in class, "TINSTAFL! There is no such thing as a free lunch!" He drilled it into our heads that there is ALWAYS a cost.

So let's look at the 5 ways you are actually paying for that "free" conferencing service:

1) The conference access number is what’s known as a Non-Geographic Number (NGN). NGNs normally cost more, sometimes much more, than calling a normal landline number.

Ask your service provider to tell you how much your conference calls will cost including costs of the phone calls to the conference bridge.

2) You're charged for calls from the moment each participant dials in, whether or not you're on the line yet or not! This is the biggest rip-off.

Make sure you know when the charges begin and end.

3) Charging high rates for services and hiding them by not providing a detailed breakdown in the hope you’ll just pay the bill without questioning it.

Ask for a detailed break-down of itemized charges.

4) Charging for guests who were booked on a conference but didn’t attend.

Ask whether no-shows are charged for or not.

5) Charging for guests even though their call has been dropped.

Demand refunds for dropped calls.

If you want reliable, unlimited video or web conferening capabilities without hidden costs or fees, then consider VideoLive conferences.

We're not free, but we're one of the most affordable providers in the industry.

Best,
Sonja

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

It's All About the FREE Stuff

Hi Everyone,

Our heat wave here in Wisconsin was short lived.

Now we're under a winter weather advisory...

Schools were let out early...and all after school activities were cancelled.

And it's a whopping 40 degree change in temperature!

But here at VideoLive Conferences, we're toasty warm because none of us have to leave our home office to have a team meeting.

All I have to do is set up my marketing meeting in 3 clicks, send an email invitation to my team for a direct link, and we're meeting live!

Pretty convenient - especially during a full fledged Wisconsin blizzard!

We offer not only state of the art video conferencing affordable for any small business budget, but we include two FREE web cameras as well.

And these aren't cheap web cameras we're trying to get rid of. They're high quality 5.2 megapixels with automatic infared lighting and built in microphones.

The reason we include these is so that you get crystal clear video - just like watching T.V.

Plus if you hop on over during February, you'll also get half off the one time licensing/set-up fee of $479. So you save $239.50.

Thanks for stopping by!

Best,
Sonja

Monday, January 28, 2008

Enlightening Wainhouse Report Re: Video Conferencing

Happy Monday everyone!

Here in Wisconsin, we've finally come out of the deep freeze. For the past 9 LONG days, we've been averaging about -15 below freezing!

So today it's a balmy 32 degrees! I read that it's been colder here than in Siberia.

Did you know that 99.7% of U.S. businesses account for approximately 44% of the overall U.S. private payroll? And they create more jobs than any other sector of the marketplace?

Alan Greenberg, senior analyst and partner at Wainhouse Research, reports that "Next-generation Web conferencing solutions give SMBs the capability to impact local and global economies as never before possible."

Wainhouse Research recently released a new study on web conferencing and its impact on small businesses.

It surveyed over 1,500 participants, of which 75% worked at companies with less than 500 employees.


Here are the Highlights:

"Outbound" Web conferencing applications that involve customers and prospects are most important to SMBs.

75% of SMB respondents believe the ability to involve/reach more people and save travel costs and time are major reasons to use Web conferencing

59% say it makes meetings more productive.

55% of SMBs (and 44% of large enterprise respondents) say that in addition to the more predictable improvements in business practices, Web conferencing enables users to solve problems they could not solve before.

69% of all respondents use Web conferencing to enable new meetings that could not be held in any other way due to cost constraints, timing and several other issues.

It is evident that even the smallest of small businesses need web conferencing to drive sales and keep costs at a minimum.

Are you using video web conferencing in your business?

Best,
Sonja

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

8 Ways Small Businesses Are Using Video Conferencing RIGHT NOW

Happy Tuesday everyone,

Here is a short list of 8 ways more than half of small businesses are using video conferencing right now.

Are you taking advantage of meeting online to save both time and money?

1) Meetings With Prospects and Clients

2) Company Meetings

3) Sales Meetings

4) Employee Trainings

5) Customer Support

6) Product Demonstrations to Potential Customers

7) Product Launches

8) Virtual Classrooms

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Startling Video Conferencing Prediction

Dear Small Business Owners,

Did you know that top Industry Analysts at Wainhouse Research predict that as early as 2009…

“Desk-top computer video conferencing software will be as essential to your business as your phone, fax, and email.”

Well, I don't know if desktop video conferencing will ever be as important as my cell phone! But even now, VideoLive Conferences is working on our next release to have video conferencing on your cell phone.

So maybe it WILL be just as important?

What do you think? When I think of a video phone - I think of the Jetson's cartoon!

Pretty awsome.

Best,
Sonja

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

SEO & Google: Use Video Conferencing for the Big WIN

Dear Small Business Owners,

Do you know that your customers use Google 57.7% of the time? That's according to the November 2007 Nielsen Netratings report.

And Google has more marketshare than MSN and Yahoo combined! (MSN has 17.9% and Yahoo has only 12%)

What does this have to do with video conferencing? Plenty. You see, google loves business sites with lots of good content - the more, the fresher, the better.

So you can use video conferencing or webinars to interview experts in your industry, promote a new service or product, or do a live on-demand teaching seminar to your customers.

And you can bet Google will take notice - and increase your SEO position.

Sonja

Mind Your Manners - 12 Video Conferencing Etiquette Rules

You wouldn't interrupt your boss while he was giving a presentation in an office meeting, would you?

Here are 12 video conferencing rules to follow so your meeting runs smoothly:

1) Have an agenda

2) Start and end your meeting on time

3) Introduce yourself and others who are in the meeting

4) Identify yourself when speaking

5) Use names to direct questions to specific people

6) Don’t speak over people or interrupt

7) Mute your microphone when not speaking

8) Let people know who’s in the room if they are not on camera

9) Speak clearly

10) Make eye contact with the camera

11) Turn OFF your cell phone

12) Avoid drinking coffee, shuffling papers, covering the microphone, tapping your fingers, or clicking your pen. These noises are easily picked up by the microphone and can be very distracting.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sonja

Monday, January 14, 2008

Never a Dull Moment For Small Business Owners

There's always a fire to put out when you own a small business. Life would be better if things were boring, right?

Just last week, our server went on "vacation", leaving us scrambling to set up a back-up server. The lesson learned here? Back up, then back up again, then back up again.

I'm sure we're not the only small business who's ever been interrupted with server issues.

But for some good news, if you have a loved one stationed in Iraq or Afghanistan, you can use videoLive conferencing for free. No strings atttached.

It's the least we can do to support soldiers and their families.

All you have to do is email or fax us a copy of your order papers and you'll be good to start video conferencing as often as you can access a computer.

So please help us spread the word!

Thanks for stopping by!

Best,
Sonja

Friday, January 11, 2008

Beta Testing VideoLive Conferences Software

Hey Everyone,

I can't believe it - we've actually been beta testing the program the past couple of days.

There are a few minor glitches in the program - like the video freezing but that will be fixed by tomorrow.

That's IF the programmers do their part! Some times I wonder if they really know what "tomorrow" really means.

But things are moving right along. It's been a rocky road at times but we are so close to having a great product for small businesses to not only help you cut costs and be more efficient, but also to go green.

We all need to be good global citizens, right?

By meeting online instead of taking to the skies or the lonesome highway, you can reduce thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide pollution. Not to mention adding more quality time to your day.

Have a great week-end!

Best,
Sonja

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Warning: Funny Story!

Hi everyone,

When you run a small business, you have to wear many different hats at different times. And in my case, I had to wear the hat of interpreter.

I mentioned that we have programmers from India, right?

Personally, if I had it my way, I would have hired American programmers. No offense to you Ven if you're reading this, but Americans speak better English and it's easier to communicate.

But Ron (AKA: my partner) already had an agreement established when I came onboard. So mute point.

On to my funny story...

I told the programmer, Ven, that we needed a home page for the program. "No problem" he said. So the next day I checked to see if there was a home page.

Yep, there was...a blank page with a picture of a "home" on it!

It was pretty darned funny...Frustrating - but funny!

Best,
Sonja

Monday, January 7, 2008

Video conferencing for Non-Techies Like Me

Hi everyone,

Since this is my very first post to my new blog - I wanted to make sure you know how completely and utterly NON-TECHNICAL I am!

You see, I just recently figured out how to change the colors of text in word documents! I know enough about computers to be dangerous - mostly to myself.

So what does this have to do with video conferencing? It means that if I can figure out how to have a video conference - so can ANYONE else.

My husband of 20 years even started laughing when I told him that I was going to help launch a company to develop software for video and web conferencing. He knows I'm not the most technical - hey, I even have trouble with the DVD player - but I'm learning!

So how did this all start?

On Craig's List!

One day I was poking around the business ads on Craig's list and I saw an ad that read:

WANTED: Business Partner to Launch Marketing & Website For Revolutionary Software Company.

I was curious...so I sent an email.

To make a long story short, I met with Ron several times (at Dunn Brothers Coffee shop in Hudson, WI - my husband didn't want me getting murdered...or worse!) and we hit it off.

He demonstrated the software to me...I jumped right in...and we formed a partnership.

I'm finding that a partnership is a lot like being married. Sorry Andy, if you're reading this!

You have your good days and bad days. And some times I just want to wring Ron's neck!


More on that later...so here I am blogging!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sonja