I understand that if you\u2019re looking into running your own webinar or web seminar, you\u2019re going to have a million questions buzzing around in your head about how to do it and what to do right and what not to do wrong.\u00a0 One of these things is how long should the webinar last.\u00a0 I recommend your webinars go for approximately one to one and a half hours.\u00a0 You don\u2019t want to present for less than 30 minutes and you don\u2019t want to present for longer than three hours simply because you want to end with a bang and not a whimper.<\/p>\n
An hour is a good length of time.\u00a0 An hour is about the length of time as a TV show.\u00a0 Half an hour is not really long enough to present everything you want to present to people and when you get past an hour and a half, you get a lot of people dropping off, especially at the top of the next hour when people have plans.\u00a0 An hour also makes it easy for you to figure out how much long you need to talk.\u00a0 For example, if you start presenting your webinar at 10 o\u2019clock in the morning and it\u2019s over at 11 o\u2019clock in the morning and you look at the clock on your wall and you\u2019re at about 10:45, you know it\u2019s about time to start wrapping up.<\/p>\n
Why is it bad to present for too short or too long a time?\u00a0 Many reasons.\u00a0 First of all, people can show up late to the webinar and if your webinar is only 10 minutes long, they\u2019ve missed the entire thing.\u00a0 With a short webinar, you also don\u2019t really have time to get into questions or to demonstrate anything or really to show anything of value.\u00a0 All you can do is show some quick theory and you\u2019re done.\u00a0 Also consider the fact that many people took time out of their day to come to your webinar.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of a waste if people set aside half an hour or an hour and it turns out your webinar is over in 10 minutes.<\/p>\n
You also don\u2019t want to run too long.\u00a0 Most movies don\u2019t run longer than three hours.\u00a0 So, yours shouldn\u2019t as well because people are going to leave, come back, and miss information or just get bored and leave.\u00a0 It\u2019s a lot easier to keep your audiences\u2019 attention while your energy level is high during that first hour instead of grasping for straws at hour number three.\u00a0 You also don\u2019t want to last for too long because your webinar will end in a whimper instead of a bang.\u00a0 You want to end your webinar at a high note.\u00a0 You want to end your webinar where your attendees feel like they got something and now are going to move on to the next step which is why an hour is about the right time for your webinar\u2014not 30 minutes, not three hours\u2014one hour.<\/p>\n