First impressions count, and your photo is probably the very first thing a meeting planner’s eye will land on as they look through the directory.
If you don’t already have a professional headshot, it’s time to get one. Many camera shops can do these for less than $50 USD. If you have a professional photo of you taken during a presentation, that works well, too -- but make sure it shows your face clearly. You want your face filling at least 20% of the image unless you have some sort of signature pose that’s part of your branding.
To upload the photo to your profile, you’ll need the image on your hard drive and in one of these file formats: JPG, GIF, or PNG. Every image editing software I know of can save files in at least one of these formats; they are standard photo formats.
Your image should be 600 pixels wide by 600 pixels tall. When you upload your photo the system offers tools to rotate, crop, and zoom your picture.
Choose Your Topics Wisely
Meeting planners want to know what you speak about. eSpeakers keeps a master list of hundreds of topics, and you can select up to 6 of them.
On your profile page, you’ll see 6 drop-down lists on the left-hand side. Each list contains the whole selection of topics. Use the first drop-down list to choose your most important topic -- the order is important.
You only need to select a single topic, but if you speak on other things you can select more topics. Some speakers like to use all 6 topic boxes so they come up under more searches. Other speakers like to use only 2 or 3 so meeting planners can see they are focused. Both are valid strategies, but be aware your choice does say something about you.
Your Bio Sells You
After your photo and video, your bio is the first place a meeting planner will look for information about you. This is where you have a chance to talk to potential customers -- let them know why they should choose you.
Your bio should be several paragraphs long, something that would take 2 or 3 minutes to read completely through. Don’t overdo it -- 3 full pages of text is discouraging enough that some readers won’t even start on it.
The opening paragraph should talk about your qualifications and what makes you unique. This is your value proposition, and you have to hook the reader enough to keep them reading.
After the first paragraph or two, stop focusing on yourself and talk about the benefits the audience will receive if they book you. Meeting planners have their audiences in mind, so let them know how the audience will be improved after hearing from you.
The bio editor section on your profile allows for some simple formatting options, like bold and bullet lists. Use these sparingly, but use them. Don’t leave your beautiful words lumped in one big ugly block of text. Use paragraphs to keep ideas separate. Use bullet lists to showcase your speech titles and impressive client names.
Streaming Video and Audio
If you’re serious about your online presence, you’ll want to add streaming video to your profile. Your profile on eSpeakers may be picked up by participating speaker bureaus all over the world in addition to being shown on association websites.
Adding streaming video requires an account upgrade from Basic to PRO -- just click the MULTIMEDIA tab in Basic for information on upgrading.
You can have up to 30 minutes of video on your profile. It’s most effective as several short clips of 3-5 minutes, rather than one long clip. Each clip can be titled to indicate what the viewer will see. For instance: “Change is Good” presentation; “Plants Need Water” presentation; “Robert with the large audience”; “Robert interacts with focus group” etc. This lets the meeting planner move right to the item they’re interested in.
Fees - How Much Should I Charge?
An emerging presenter in the early stages of their career will obviously start at a lower fee level and work their way to a higher fee. More established or seasoned professionals and those with a celebrity status are able to step in and demand a higher fee for their presentation based on experience or content.
$1,500-$3,000 USD is a common fee range for an emerging professional speaker. Also, never charge clients more because you think they have more money to spend! Fee ranges are fine, but should not exceed a maximum difference of $5,000 and a minimum difference of $500.
Make sure you always give your customer more in value than they paid in the fee. Your client should feel satisfied spending their money on you! Once you set your fee, you should emphasize the value you bring to the client in your biography and sales materials. A great way to know you should raise your fee is when your clients say your fee is inexpensive and your calendar is getting full.
When adding your fee to your profile, you have two boxes to list your fee. You can either do a fee range or one flat fee. You can also enter fees for local speaking events or itemize your common fees, expenses, A/V requirements, and other items that will affect the total fee to the client ("full day," "keynote," "international," "travel expenses," etc.).
Associations and Experience
If you belong to a speaker association, you should make sure you check the appropriate association (and in some cases chapter) box on your profile. This will help speakers bureaus and meeting planners who search the Marketplace database find those who belong to a particular association. Showcase your profile by selecting any of the appropriate designation and awards boxes like CSP, CPAE, or CAPS HoF, and entering years of experience. If you regularly use any of these credentials after your name, you should also type them in the CREDENTIALS box near the top of the form.
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