Today I’m doing a review of a new browser based software called Run a Webinar

To start with I asked Sam to not only show me the system, but to answer my questions, and do an actual live webinar just for me so I can make sure everything works. You can see the recording below:

Its pretty easy to understand what Run A Webinar is. It might have the most descriptive name of any software I have ever reviewed. Of course it is a webinar software.

This is not the first webinar software I have looked at, and in fact I wrote one myself a while back. However Run a Webinar stands out in many ways from the others (and even my own). Ill cover that in a few minutes but first I want to explain exactly why multiple product vendors have put out webinar software. It really comes down to two simple reasons.

First webinars just work. They are a great way to engage your audience, to sell a product, or even to build good will. Nothing compares to webinars in fact. Best of all they work for people doing offline sales as well as online sales. People on a webinar feel a stronger connection to you than they do through any other source. They can ask you questions and they can engage with you in real time. This simply leads to more sales. Period.

The second reason we see multiple webinar products is because the most popular one, GoToWebiner, which has become the industry standard, while an excellent tool is super expensive. When I run a webinar its normally myself and one other person presenting and we normally have around 300-400 people who attend. At that level the monthly cost is $498 and I could get a bit of a discount if I pay $$4776 yearly.

For may people the cost is prohibitively expensive. Heck I’m pretty well established and I don’t want to pay that much. $498 a month is a lot of money no matter how you look at it.

Because of the fact that webinars work and the standard service is so expensive product creators have often looked to come up with a more cost effective solution. Normally however these solutions rely on Google Hangouts and there are a couple of big downsides with a Google hangout. Probably the biggest of which is the fact that hangouts have a 30 second delay in them. When you speak or show something in a live hangout the people attending any webinar that is built around a hangout wont hear or see it until around 30 seconds later. This is inherent in hangouts on air and there is nothing that product vendors can do about it.

This is also the first way that Run A Webiner stands out among other webinar products. It does not use Google hangouts. Instead it uses Amazon streaming services and while there is still a bit of a processing delay, its only about 1 second or so, which is short enough that in conversation or in a presentation it appears to be instant. This makes the webinar smoother and easier to run, especially if your doing any kind of Q/A session. Imagine doing one on a hangout on air, where someone asks a question, you answer it, and they dont hear your answer for 30 seconds. That can be really annoying. Run A Webinar solves this issue with its much shorter and acceptable processing time.

Run A Webinar is a browser based system which uses a clever combination of Java, Flash, and FireFox add-ons to function.  Its important to note that the present must be using the FireFox browser. However people viewing your webinar can still be on any other browser they like.

When I first logged into my review account I was presented with a screen like this:

The first thing I noticed is that there is a link for training and support built right into the system, though to be totally fair I completely ignored those and instead jumped right into creating my first webinar to test with.

To start setting up your webinar Run A Webinar the first step is to create your webinar signup page. You can do this with one of the premade templates or you an get a IFRAME form code to embed in a page you make with some other page builder. I chose to use a template.

Though the template editor is not drag and drop it is very easy to edit. The templates are also fully mobile responsive and there is a live preview sos you can see exactly what your page is going to look like as you do your editing. I personally liked the system for building your signup page and thought it was flexible enough and easy to use.

After your signup you set your webinar details. The presents name and also an email sequence to go out. This is another thing that I think puts Run A Webinar ahead of many other solutions. It has a built in email sequence system that not only messages people when they signup but also reminds them periodically as per your settings that the webinar is about to start.

This is great addition to the system that works well but is a bit clunky to set up as far as the interface goes. I think they could probably refine this section a little to make it a bit more intuitive. The way it is now this page is cluttered with different options all over the place. Also though I think that sending out reminder emails is a good thing to make sure as many people as possible show up for your webinars I did not like that the system requires at least one be set. People should have the option not to send them if they choose.

Once your ready to start your webinar the first thing you will have to do is approve several browser authorizations. As I said the presenter is will need to be using the FireFox browser and you will have to give it permission to run the Run A Webinar apps. You will need to do one for your microphone, for your webcam (if you want to share it) and one to share your desktop screen with your visitors.

These authorizations look a bit ‘scary’ but they are no big deal, its just the browser making sure the app has permission to do this. There was one at least that they might be able to remove though with a system update.

This only showed for me because of my browser security settings and if they update their apps security certificate it may prevent it from showing at all. I will be suggesting to the vendors that they look into it.

When I initially tried to run my test webinar the system crashed on me. However it turns out that was my fault. My Java was outdated. Once I updated to the newest version the webinar loaded up fine after approving the permissions.

I tested the voice with my microphone, screen sharing, and my webcam. I even tested the systems built in drawing tools and all seemed to work well. The one thing I did notice and did not particularly like was the chat. The chat is public, all attendees see all other attendees questions and answers. This is not the end of the world but I can imagine on a live webinar with a few hundred attendees it can get a bit cluttered in there.

Another thing I realized is that since this is a browser based it can be a bit of a pain trying to follow questions if your doing a screen share presentation. If your sharing your screen your going to want close your browser (since if you don’t people will just see the webinar and not your screen). If your browser is closed, that means you cant see the chat box. There are a couple of ways around this issue though. First if you have a partner doing the presentation with you, they can monitor the chat. Second if you have a second computer such as a laptop or tablet you can join your own webinar and watch the questions on that as you do your presentation. Finally you can state at the beginning of the webinar that there will be a Q/A session at the end and people and that they need to hold their questions until then (though I can say from experience they wont listen to that).

So what do I think of Run A Webinar over all? Well I’ll be honest and say I still think that GoToWebinar is the best system. If you can afford it. However if you cant afford $500 a month then Run A Webinar is going to be a viable alternative to get you started that is worth considering. Webinars are a great way to engage with people and get sales that I really think everyone should take advantage of.

Run A Webinar is the only webinar system I have seen that does not use Google Hangouts. It uses Amazon services so it has high user capacity. There is no limit to the number of webinars you can run, and no limit to the number of attendees on your webinars. Also it is for a limited time available at a very low one time price (no monthly fee at all). Combine that with the automated emails, mobile responsive signup page builder and the fact that it has all the expected functionality of a webinar system and I think this is well worth considering for anyone who cant afford the super high price of GoToWebinar (or who just does not want to pay it)

UPDATE: When I originally tested this it worked well. However at the time of my testing there where not hundreds of people running webinars. Since its launch a bug appears to have surfaced where the different webinars are getting mixed together. While I have no doubt that Sam and his team will correct this issue (and in fact they have told me they are working on it right now), I feel its only fair to remove my original APPROVED rating until such a time as they have this issue corrected.

UPDATE 2: This morning Sam told me that they corrected this bug, I tested several times this morning and it all seems to be now. I think it says a lot about Sam and his team that they fixed this so quickly even in the middle of their launch.

Sam gave me a coupon code so people can still get it at the lowest price. Use code “5offtoday” at checkout to get $5 off the advertised price!

BONUS: Sam has provided me with the following bonuses which are provided right inside of the Run A Webinar members area.

Sams training that teaches exactly how he is able generate huge pay days with the power of webinars.

You will also get:

Click here to get Run A Webinar as well as instant access to all of these bonuses (and more) right inside of the members area.

 A quick note about the reviews I do on this site. The product vendors give me access to their products for free in order for me to do my review. However I make no promises to them regarding the results of my tests or what I will write in my review. Should you click a link that takes you to a sales page for a paid product for sale this link will be an affiliate link and I will be paid a percentage of the sales price should you decide to invest in it.

About the Author

Brett Rutecky

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Brett Rutecky is a full time online marketer, web developer, and entrepreneur. He has developed scores of Facebook apps, dozens of custom web sites and hundreds of scripts.

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