So you've heard how powerful webinars can be.
It's on that big ol' To-Do list of yours:
- Look into webinars as a possible marketing strategy.
Unfortunately it keeps getting pushed back down the bottom of that to do list due to it being ↓ Too hard ↓ Too expensive.
If you're just starting out, or you only want to run the occasional webinar, it can be incredibly hard to justify the cost of dedicated webinar software. So much so, it stops you from even starting.
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Even if you've had some success with webinars, say you've run them from time to time and are slowly building up their effectiveness, over the months it can get harder and harder to ignore the chunk that software price is taking out of your bottom line.
So There's a Cheaper and Easier Alternative to Running a Webinar?
In the latest Thrive University Course How to Create a Live Webinar Funnel (Without an Expensive Webinar Service) you'll learn everything you need to know to set up a webinar right on your WordPress website, with tools you're probably already using.
The course will show you:
- How to set up live streaming/screencasts
- How to set up a no hassle link for your subscribers to register with one click
- Add real-time comments (with moderator capabilities)
- How to save recordings of your webinars
- How to get the most out of your content by repurposing webinar recordings
The step by step guide is designed to take you from having never run a webinar, to having a live webinar up and running on your WordPress website.
Get Practicing
Even if your not ready to run your first webinar, I'd recommend taking the course and having a play around so you're completely ready when the time comes. Familiarity is our top tip for keeping the nerves at bay.
Don't have a Thrive University account yet? Don't worry, that's free too. You just need to register.
If you have any comments, questions or course suggestions we'd love to hear from you. Just leave them below!
I am fairly new to Thrive Themes, but I sure love what you guys do! I only glanced at this Thrive University course, but I can tell it will guide me right into what I need to do to pull off a successful webinar, which I plan on doing soon for my own business. (The complexity and cost of webinar funnels was definitely a barrier for me, and you just knocked it right down.) Thank you for your excellent product and resources!
Thanks Mark!
Stephanie, this was amazing, so much value. Happy to be a customer.
I’m going to go for a stretch though. Is there a way after we did the live stream for the first time to automate the registration process so it always plays the replay with the countdown and comments populating themselves like some other software can do out there.
Hi Rinaldo,
To get that kind of functionality you’re going to have to start looking at dedicated webinar solutions. With Thrive Themes and your email provider you could set up a landing page for the webinar that sends the webinar replay link to new registrants, and include a Facebook comments box on the replay page that already has comments collected. But countdown timers and populating comments is in the realm of paid webinar solutions.
cant this be done with only tcb
Hi Bjorn,
TCB and Thrive Landing Pages are actually linked at this point, so if you have TCB you automatically get TLP. But you could so this all in TCB if you didn’t want the already prepared webinar page templates. Also the Sign Up Segue link is just a nice shortcut so your email list does not have to enter their details twice, so it is also not required.
The bare bones of this setup is TCB and a YouTube account.
How do you get a similar Seque link when just using the Thrive Content Builder without the Thrive Leads plugin?
Hi Michael,
Signup Segue is a function of Thrive Leads. If you don’t have Thrive Leads you can just send your subscribers to the registration page where they can enter their details to register.
GREAT content, wonderful way to do webinars. Was struggling with liking my previous provider but you just eliminated the need for them 😉
Great to hear Lisa
Thanks Stephanie – great info.
Question… Is there a way to track which registrants watched the live stream and which ones didn’t (so that you can segment the followup emails more accurately)??
Hi Megan,
Unfortunately you cant accurately track that with this free solution. Depending on your email provider you can monitor who clicked on the link to the live stream, but there’s no way to tell if they watched it or not. For this kind of functionality you do have to start looking at the paid software.
If you intend to seriously orient your business around webinars and use webinars to promote your products I think it is worth to consider paying options for more options and features.
I completely agree Kasa
Forgive me if this is an ignorant question, but I am creating my email notifications for my upcoming webinar (my first actually) and I am trying to figure out how to create links that the contact can click (within the email) so they can add the date into their respective calendars’. Can someone point me to a resource that shows how to do this? Thanks in advance :-).
Hi Santiago, you can do this, just Google search ‘click add event to calendar’ and you should get an array of options.
I have Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages, but when I go to Thrive Dashboard, I do not see a ‘Thrive Leads’ page/link. This is to get the Signup Segue. Has this moved? Where can I find it?
Hi Rachel,
Thrive Leads is a stand alone list building plugin. If you do not have Thrive Leads, you won’t be able to use the Signup Segue link.
If I want to simply record webinar to send out later what pre event stuff can i ignore?
Hi Patricia, If you just want to send the webinar replay to your existing list you can pretty much just skip to the webinar replay section. Make a replay page then send the link to your list.
Hi, I don’t have the full Thrive Themes package, just the landing page. What is the alternative to creating a Signup Segue link in Thrive Leads? I am with ActiveCampaign.
Hi Kalyani,
The Signup Segue link is mainly for your subscriber’s convenience. If you don’t have Thrive Leads you just need to send your subscribers to the registration page, where they’ll have to enter their details to register for the webinar
Is there a way to install HyperComments soley on the broadcast page? For some reason, Hypercomments overrode my preferred comment platform which is Disqus. I want Disqus to handle my blog comments and only use HyperComments for the broadcast page.
Hi LaTosha,
HyperComments was just the most convenient free third party app we came across for live comments. If it’s giving you issues you may have to purchase a separate live comment plugin, don’t use live comments or use dedicated paid webinar software.
Thanks for sharing this informative article. I have a niche blog and this content is so useful for me. I want make webinars for the produts that I promove.
With Best Regards,
Hey Team, did I understand it right. The last Mail in Lesson 4 for the replay webinar did I have to Send out manually? Or how can I do it technically?
Best regards
Hi Géra,
Yes you can send that out manually (so that you have time to make sure the replay is looking good) or you could scedule it and simply add the right link before sending.
Hi Stephanie, In one video your recommend using hyper comments, and in another you recommend using the Thrive themes Facebook comments option. Which is best? Thank you!
Hi Sabine, Facebook comments doesn’t update once the page has loaded, so once someone’s on the page they can add comments but they cant see everyone else’s real time comments. Hypercomments is better in that regard because it has live comment functionality, so comments will update while the page is open.
Hi
THANK YOU 🙂 Great training (easy to follow) and works brilliantly!
Just one question – when setting this up, the webinar becomes available on my YouTube channel. What if I want the webinar to be visible inside my website (for those who have signed up) and not be open to anyone on YouTube?
🙂
Hi Ragnhild,
You can set it as unlisted on YouTube, this way it wont show up on your channel but when you embed it on your site the video will still play.
Hi. I want to be able to take questions during the webinar but don’t want all the participants to see other people’s questions and comments. How can I do that?
Hi Josee,
This isn’t available with much ease with any of the programs we’ve used for this tutorial. Private comments is more in the relm of paid webinar platforms.
I was under the impression google hangout is being stopped by google no ?
Hangouts is being split into two products, because Google decided that the dozen different communication apps they already have aren’t confusing enough yet. They’re also discontinuing their API, which is bad news for many apps that rely on it.
However, the principle of what we’re talking about in this post will still work. We might have to switch to YouTube live streaming instead of Hangouts. We’ll keep an eye out for this and make a new tutorial if needed. 🙂
It’s just I need to start make webinars. Thank you!!!
Yeah that’s the hard bit!
When I send a link to my broadcast page and if this link is shared to someone not registered for webinar, I guess he will be able to participate even without subscription, right?
Hi Nace,
Correct, unfortunately with the free setup there’s no inbuilt security.
Thank you for sharing!
Great post! excellent!
Hi Stephany, When using Hypercomments all the viewers can see all the comments. This is in a webinar not preferable. Is there away to have the comments only visible for the administrator?
For this you would have to use paid webinar services unfortunately.
Hi Stephanie,
I am working with Thrive Architect now, and some of the features have changed. For example, I can’t find the “Event manager” when pushing the button on the registration page in order to integrate my e-mail-provider. Can you help me with this? Or is there any other resource I could use?
Thank you very much!
Hi Heide,
You can find this in the settings (cog on the right side) and then in the advanced settings. Full tutorial here: https://staging.thrivethemes.com/tkb_item/new-user-interface-what-changed-and-why/
Hope this helps!
Hi Stephanie! So this tutorial was made in 2017. When I followed this lesson, I noticed that youtube doesn’t have google hangout anymore. Do you have any other alternative? Your timely would be highly appreciated. Thank you in advance! <3