Is it just me or have you also noticed the recent increase in webinars made available from our favorite information marketers? There are nights when I am booked 3 deep with no hope of actually being on all of them. I can only hope for a recording but then when will I have time for that???

The latest trend is to kill people with kindness and give them some really great free content so they will be interested in what else is available. That’s the model and it is obviously effective based on the increased number of free webinars with excellent content.

One interesting thing to note is that many people may not benefit from every free webinar no matter how brilliant the content may be. The reason? The recipients have to have a certain level of Internet experience, marketing know-how, or at least an understanding of the terminology used; yes, that’s all true.

But the biggest reason more people do not benefit from every free webinar  is that most people will not take the time to sit and watch and/or listen to a presentation unless they are VERY interested in the topic being discussed.

This is both a blessing and a curse for those who create the webinars and those who attend. To make the format simple enough that anyone can put a webinar together, the vast majority of them are either very boring Keynote/Power Point slide shows or a slightly less boring mind map presentation. Both of these rely on a very good audio performance by the presenters. I have never stayed in attendance for a webinar where I wasn’t interested in what the presenter had to say.

Sometimes presenters are afflicted with a pronounced accent that can be difficult to understand. This is when having the text on-screen simultaneously works really well. But generally I prefer to see colorful graphics or images during a basically audio presentation that help stimulate other creative areas of my brain.

Telesemiars are working for me right now. Since the audio is the main conveyance of material, why bother doing a slide show for a video? If I have something visually important to impart I will use a webinar format. But if I’m relying on the audio, why bother?

An MP3 file is also the most versatile format for iPod or similar device and can be played and listened to while walking/running or doing mundane chores like going through the physical mail, dusting, laundry, or even vacuuming with headphones.

So while I enjoy a very informative and even visual presentation of material I am very interested in, I prefer to have MP3 files to play back when I’m doing mindless work.