If you have spent any time on the Internet, you probably have seen plenty of ads for free seminars - Real Estate seminars, stock market investing seminars, Internet marketing seminars, Ebay store seminars, and many more. Most people that are exposed to those ads just ignore them. But I’ve got news for you. The people who click on those ads and go to the free seminars do find plenty of value in the form of learning something new or receiving a little inspiration and motivation. And most attendees even subscribe to additional services at the events.

I’ve been to several free seminars over the last few years, including:

  • Robert Kiyosaki real estate
  • Robert Kiyosaki stock investing
  • Investools seminar
  • Donald Trump real estate
  • Get rich and stay rich seminar
  • Stores online


The seminars, despite their differenes, are very similar in nature. A typical seminar will be 2 hours long and offered at several convenient times and places in a city near you. After being greeted and signing in, you are given a name tag and pointed to your seat. If you have arrived early the conference room projector is already on, and displaying several motivational, and yet slightly subliminal messages designed to secretly motivate you to sign up later: “If you always go where you have always gone, you will always get where you always got.”

When its time to begin, there are the customary reminders to turn off cell phones and hold all questions until the end. Then you are treated to a very entertaining, informative, and interactive session on the topic at hand. The interactive portion usually involves the “How many here…” type questions where the applicable audience members raise their hands. The seminar holders must use the same comedian as their humor consultants, because at the end of a series of questions there is always the “how many here are not going to raise their hands no matter what I ask” question, at which point the audience laughs. Beyond the interaction, there is a healthy mix of effective marketing, more motivational quotes and statistics, and a few humorous jokes. The actual meat of the free seminar - what you signed up for - probably only lasts for 25% percent of the 2 hour period, but the audience stays alert and engaged the whole time, and I have never seen anyone walk out early.

Of course the real intention of the companies to host these free seminars is as you expected, to sell you something related to the topic you came for. What starts out as a free 2 hour seminar gradually turns into a sales pitch for a weekend intensive course. I’ve seen the intensive classes sold for as little as $50 (stores online) to as high as $3000. But $500-$1500 is a good range you can expect for the weekend classes they attempt to sell you. I’ve rarely seen any pushy sales tactics, but nonetheless, their conversion rates are truly amazing. Anyone studying business should attend these free seminars just to see the power of an effective marketing campaign. I’ve personally witnessed up to 80 percent of a free seminar audience sign on to the fee based intensive weekend seminars.

If you do sign on to the weekend courses, you can expect additional up sell attempts beyond that. I’ve only been to one intensive weekend seminar so far with Investools. The Investools “graduate” programs were selling from a few thousand to as high as $25,000. But don’t let any of these costs scare you. There was never any high pressure sales tactics. People made their choices based on the perceived value of the program. And they must have done a good job presenting that value, because plenty of people signed up for more.