Do you ever ask yourself what you think is an innocent question involving a bit of internet research only to find two weeks later, you know way too much about what doesn’t work and why?
I researched different web conferencing software packages including GoTo Meeting, Teamviewer, WebEx, iLinc, DimDim, and MegaMeeting. (I am only listing them here to make myself feel like I did something during that seemingly wasted work time!)
Besides doing a lot that didn’t work, here’s what happened:
I found Skype (with the Mikogo add-on) was perfect for holding free and productive web conferences.
I was looking for a cost effective (read: free or cheap) way to hold virtual meetings. It began with Skype until I realized that I couldn’t share my screen on a group conference call. After this, I tried all kinds of different web conferencing solutions including the ones that didn’t work above. They were either cost prohibitive ($50 or more per month) or they lacked in an important way (like having a 2.5 second sound delay).
I thought I had figured out the workaround: Use DimDim for the free screen sharing but mute participants and Skype for the audio part so there was no sound delay. I created an entire presentation around this.
The morning of my presentation, I checked my slides one last time and thought I’d watch a quick Youtube video about Skype to make sure I wasn’t missing any key sound features. In that video (which I can’t find again for the life of me!), the presenter mentioned the Mikogo add on for Skype that allowed web conferencing for up to 20 participants. And you could take over people’s computers (with permission, of course), offering virtual tech support. This was more than I had asked for… and at 9 am, I began redoing all my slides for the 1 pm presentation.
I’ve tried this with a few people and it seems to work really well. Here’s hoping I saved you some research if you were thinking of looking into this!
I began planning (and promoting) our third Downeast Learning monthly workshop.
Matt and I’s last workshop on search engine optimization was not super well-attended but we did cut ourselves some slack for 1) at least paying the room rental rate and 2) having a rather narrow topic.
For the next workshop, Matt will be out of town so I’ll be doing a workshop all about Facebook for Business. I’m beginning to promote it now versus waiting until the last minute like last time. If you want to come, admission is $25 and it’s an evening of fun (well, 6-8 pm) with me. To learn more, see www.downeastlearning.com.
I’m so excited about this one, I’ve even started the slides!
I’ve revisited my business plan.
Looking at a business plan is kind of like reading back a high school English paper. You remember writing it but it seems really far away and sort of cute (as in, awww, I really thought that?). Sort of a mixture of pride and embarrassment. (Awww, I really thought I’d be hiring someone by the end of this year? How cute.)
I touched on it a bit in a post I wrote about planning on Almost Frugal. I mean let’s face it, things change within a year but it’s as important as ever for me to have a plan and stick to it, especially if I want this business to grow beyond just me (which I do… by next year hopefully). Yup, revisions in the works…
Don’t you love too much information? Sometimes I think if I learn one more thing I’ll explode… but then my brain expands and it works out alright! Have you over-researched anything lately?