Recently a VA was asking whether she needed a long distance phone plan to attend a webinar. I responded explaining that there is a difference between a webinar and a teleseminar, i.e. sometimes a teleseminar will have a web based presentation but generally webinars don’t have the phone involved (at least not those I’ve been involved with and I’ve attended quite a few!).
A webinar is just that – it’s on the web. So you don’t need a long distance phone plan. Usually you are given a web address and sometimes you might have to download a plugin. Then make sure you have your speakers on and if you have a microphone, attach that too so you can participate in Q&A time – but most of them allow you to ask text questions too.
Perhaps a webinar might also have a telesminar attached and if that’s the case, then you might need long distance but I’ve not been in webinars that needed the phone too. More the other way around – a teleseminar that has had a web based presentation included. I’m in Australia and since many of these are in the US I’ve bought a $10 phonecard at the post office that gives me around 700 minutes for US numbers I dial. The card runs out in 3 months or when the time is used up but you can top it up anytime you want.
webinar, teleseminar, phonecard, virtual assistant
Karalyne Eckerle says
Kathie — You bring up an interesting point, living in Australia. Can you tie into Vonage? I had a Vonage phone at my home in SoCal that I used with an ordinary phone, via my computer cable hookup. I also had a local Sarasota, FL, number through them for my brother to use to call me (he’s in a skilled nursing facility). Since I’m on the road now, I still have Vonage (the number was for a nonprofit organization I head up and I can forward the number to my cell phone).
I’m on the road now, conducting my VA business from my RV, so I recently added a SoftPhone through them that I use via my computer. I have a SPRINT AirCard that I use when I’m on the road with no cable hook-ups — or I can use WiFi if I need to. So I got a Missouri Area Code on that one since my kids live there now. In short — I have 3 area codes and can forward all of them to my cell phone, but can also use the Softphone via the computer, which is handy for teleconferences, etc. Are you able to utilize something like Vonage from where you are?
Kathie Thomas says
Hi Karlyne, no we don’t have Vonage here in Australia but we do have other services. However when I’m away from my office I generally log into an available wireless network or connect via a LAN cable – depending on where I am.
The lady I was referring to in this post was asking whether she had to use a phone line to access a webinar and my understanding is she meant from her home office. If it were someone out on the road like you, then that would be a different story altogether I expect.
Thanks for sharing about how you are set up – it’s always interesting to find out what people do in different geographic locations.