What is the procedure to producing my first Webinar? And what start-up equipment and software is required?

Hi, your question and your statement following are about two different things. A video recording and a webinar are not the same thing.

A webinar is a live event that is recorded into video format. You invite people to attend, get them on a list, remind them to appear at the right time and place, then present live. Afterwards, your webinar is available as a video--though some media type conversion may be required--and you can use it as a "rebroadcasting".

The second thing you described, in which you would be talking over a Powerpoint presentation to no one, is a marketing video.

Yes, the end product is similar; however, the webinar is presented to live prospects.

If you want to record a voiceover on top of slides, and then use this to present an offer at the end, this is called a Video Sales Letter or VSL.

At any rate, you have all the stuff you need to make a marketing video or VSL. You may benefit from buying a microphone or headset with built-in mic if you don't already have one, as laptop microphones are generally pretty bad.

Screen capture your slides and your voice, edit as needed, upload to Youtube, Vimeo or the platform of your choice. After this is done, you'll probably want to embed it into a web page with some sales copy around it and a Buy button.

Then you'll need a way of driving traffic to that page, and probably a squeeze page and autoresponder to capture the email addresses of those subscribers.

If you're going to run a webinar, you could use GoToWebinar, which is the sort of default standard (it's not great, but it has been around forever), another platform or even Google Hangouts On Air. After recording, you'll have the video file--convert from GTW with Handbrake or download from Youtube--to edit or embed as you wish.

So figure out whether you want a live audience or not. If you do, then you'll need a way of attracting and signing up that traffic, and then presenting to them. If not, you can simply record your presentation. But either way, to make use of the recording afterwards you're going to have to have a way of driving traffic to it, and a way for people to buy from you...and that's probably going to be a web page.

There's not necessarily a *requirement* to ever do the webinar live. You could record it as if it was live, and then use one of the automated webinar systems to put it on autopilot.

That said, my preference is usually to do the webinar live once or twice, and then automate.

Doing your first webinar can be a fun and, if done right, profitable experience!

As Josh mentioned, I would strongly recommend doing a live webinar once or twice before automating the webinar.

When building webinars…

1. I build my presentation in PowerPoint (you could also use Keynote)
2. Setup my webinar in GoToWebinar
3. Build landing pages for the webinar (I use leadpages for my LIVE webinars)
4. Setup an autoresponder for attendees (I used 1Shoppingcart & MailChimp)
5. Deliver a kick-butt webinar!!!

After I’ve done the webinar a couple times, it’s time to automate. I use http://hybridwebinars.com/ for this.

Here’s two examples of automated webinars setup on http://hybridwebinars.com/

1. Webinar Replay where attendees can choose the date/time they attend: http://www.onlinemeetingnow.com/register/?id=v8h12zpdm3

2. Webinar Replay that takes them directly into the replay: http://www.onlinemeetingnow9.com/seminar/?id=oa3ne72rj5

Let me know if I can ever be of assistance to you or your team!

Webinars are a fantastic way to get your message out and connect with your target audience. So for me - that connection is key and doing my webinar live it important. Of course once you've done it live a few times and you have a webinar that you know COVERTS really well - you can automate it.

But I would definitely start live and build up fans and followers. Once you have a reputations it's easy to sell from an automated webinar because folks know you already. The conversions are still going to be lower - but that's okay! Some conversions are better than no conversions!

I use GoToWebinar using a beautiful PowerPoint and answer questions live and make the experience fun for folks. That works best for me. I offer several live webinars and use the best one for the replay.

Always remember you are here to serve. If that is first and foremost in what you are doing you will always do well. If I can assist in any way let me know!

Congratulations to you!
Be sure to keep it simple or you may never get going. (Like 90% of people that are fiddling with complicated options)

Webinars on Air is highly inexpensive and the experience for your guests is better than most of the higher priced ones.(WebinarJam would be the other recommendation)

Create simple slides to teach a great bit of value. Pitch your offer clearly after 40 minutes or so of pure value.

Run a test Webinar alone - to get used to controls.
Get this out of the way. The first one will not be amazing so just do it ;)

Sign up for a free trial of GetResponse for your email marketing needs. (I favor this platform for robust features and major simplicity)

You can create an opt in page with Get Response (free for a month) to collect emails of attendees or you can go to leadpages.net and create an opt in.

I'd run ads on Facebook or possibly LinkedIn depending on your offer/target market to get attendees to show up.

Of course there are more tips and tricks to cover but the main idea here is to: get it done and get it out there. From there you will improve.

Use Camtasia for videos, no need for this. It will be recorded through the Webinars on air anyway.

Have fun and go execute!