I often get asked this question: 

"Kersten, why do you produce your own web show? Do you actually make money at it?"

Let me try to answer this in parts.

First of all - I use my web show to promote my skills.  The process of running a web show also accomplishes multiple tasks all at once:

1) It keeps me focused on communicating
2) It offers a forum for me to discuss new ideas
3) It allows me to network with industry leaders
4) It creates instant content that I can then distribute through blogs and video syndication
5) It flips our sales process from pushing services to people calling us for help

How did we start?

I was approached by a client in Calgary with a serious crisis.  They held weekly webinars to investors and had a large audience expected for a series of presentations planned around Christmas/New Years.  At the last moment, their service provider encountered a critical system failure and had no answers as to when they would be back up. 

I GOT THE CALL. In a pinch I was able to build a website that, very basically, delivered their PowerPoint presentation and we offered the audience a toll free call in number so they could listen to the presenter.  It was a very basic solution, but it was simple, with no confusion to the audience members, and it worked. 

That solution led me to help this client redesign their web event delivery format.  I convinced them to move away from  PowerPoint webinars to a more personal presentation style using video web-casts.  

The web show was born. 

When testing this system I started to run a few shows of my own. A few months later I connected with Chris Hamilton, a local sales and marketing blogger http://salestipaday.com, who immediately latched on to the concept.  We joined forces and created our weekly marketing web show at http://NetCastEvent.com/

At first, it was just the two of us sharing ideas about web and marketing strategy.  We discussed Twitter tips, how to stop cold calling, email marketing, google search engine tips, creating video etc... Our audience grew as people appreciated the information and enjoyed our interaction.

These early shows helped us get noticed by the publisher McGraw Hill, who asked if we would interview their business authors on our show.  We accepted and the rest is history. They now supply us with a steady stream of authors for our interviews.

This relationship has turned into a fantastic opportunity for both parties.  The interviews offer a constant supply of fresh content and we help promote the authors' books.

A one hour interview accomplishes so much:

a) Live and recorded events that we host on our site
b) A call to action that builds our lists
c) Dynamic traffic to our event site that gets us noticed on Google
d) Transcribed audio to text that becomes search-able content on Google
e) Fresh event material that can be syndicated accross multiple social networks, in groups, forums and profiles.
f) Chopped up parts of the interview that becomes topics in blog posts
g) A chance to get to know very influential authors and business thinkers
h) We are the hosts of a show... This builds trust and enhances credibility.

I could go on and on about the benefits.

Do we make money on each show? No.

Is all this worth a couple hours a week preparation and production? Absolutely.

If anyone would like help building their own web show, please feel free to contact me.  I can answer any of your questions on my help site: http://AskAWebStrategist.com/

Cheers!

kersten Kloss