The next logical step for the Internet involves moving closer to interactive television.

People love to watch TV, they love to surf the web, and tens-of-millions enjoy interacting with other people on "social networking" websites like MySpace.com.

Now imagine if you could combine all of these elements people enjoy so much into a single technology which enabled you to bring together up to a thousand people in one place to teach, demonstrate, sell and interact - all without anyone leaving their home or office.

Well you can, and this technology is called a "webinar!" Though webinar technology existed for almost a decade, it remained strictly the domain of well-funded, high-tech companies.

However, as with most "killer apps" online, advances in technology now places powerful webinar capabilities within reach of virtually any business person.

Webinars enable you to make presentations to up to a thousand people or more at once using audio and video.

Though webinar technology has advanced greatly, delivering the audio and video together through the Web still lacks stability.

I've personally found using a telephone conference line to deliver the webinar audio much more effective than trying to stream the audio live through the Web.

As for interactivity, webinars allow you to chat live with viewers, conduct real-time surveys (polls), and see exactly which of your customers and prospects attend your live webinar.

So not only can you see exactly which of your hot prospects attend your webinar, you can chat directly with them, answer their questions live, and poll the group for valuable feedback in "real time."

Over the last few months many of my subscribers and customers have asked me basically the same question: "What groups of people will benefit the most by using webinar technology?"

My answer: Anyone who would normally make any type of public presentation in front of a group of 2 or more people in a boardroom, meeting room, or convention center can benefit immediately by using webinars.

The following examples will help you see the power of webinars to help make sales, develop information products, and save massively on travel expenses.

- A sales person who travels all over the country giving the same presentation over and over could use webinars to make that presentation without leaving her office.

- A software developer or marketer could use webinars to demonstrate his new software and receive immediate feedback from existing or potential customers.

- A trainer could make a webinar presentation to their customers and prospects, record it, and turn it into a valuable info-product for sale or archive it as an on-demand training program.

- A speaker could create a series of paid webinars and deliver them live to customers all over the world, earning speaking fees without ever enduring airport security again.

- An affiliate marketer could use webinars to demonstrate products for vendors and earn commissions from products they didn't even create.

Any company, large or small, that sells virtually any product or service online can benefit from adding webinars to their online marketing arsenal.

In fact, any online business person who fails to do so risks putting themselves at a serious disadvantage.

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