Have you ever joined a teleseminar and found your mind wandering after the first 10 minutes or so? You begin checking your email and surfing the web a bit.
Before you know it, you've lost your place and you're completely disengaged from the call.
I've had that experience many times, and as a learning designer I've figured out a few tricks to keeping my audience engaged and wanting more.

1. Create a bit of scarcity.
   I've learned that when you limit the number of seats, people tend to decide more definitively whether or not the class is for them.
   Many will register and not attend live, but in my marketing I specifically encourage people to join live if they can, because I create activities and conversation during the class.
   However, if you're offering a free teleseminar as a list-building strategy, I wouldn't recommend setting a limit on participants.
   
2. Be specific about the 1 or 2 things the participant will take away from your teleseminar.
   Not the 10 or 15 things.
   Our memories can only hold so much information.
   For adult learners, these takeaways must be immediately actionable.
   As the leader, you should instill confidence in them that they will be able to complete the takeaway actions.
   
3. Leave the lines open if the situation permits.
   This isn't always feasible or applicable to your situation.
   I recently led a class of 25 participants and left the lines open.
   Because of the lower numbers I was able to leave the lines open and create great conversation.
   This is much more engaging that listening to my voice the entire time.
   
4. Create a change every 10-15 minutes.
   No matter how engaging the instructor, after 10 minutes attention spans begin to fade.
   Counter this by introducing periodic changes.
   These changes can include an activity, story, or poll.
   
5. Offer relevant activities during class.
   This can be accomplished during a teleseminar if the activities are short and meaningful.
   It's OK to have silence on the lines for several minutes while participants are working on an activity.
   If the lines are open, they can also ask questions.
   
6. Offer additional resources.
   Where it permits, provide 3-5 resources for participants.
   It creates more credibility if you have useful resources from other trusted sources in addition to any that you have created.
   
7. Keep it to an hour or less.
   Start and end on time.
   Once a teleseminar goes beyond an hour, participants will fade.
   When you begin and end on time and maintain good pacing, you earn the respect of the participants and keep them engaged.
   

Keep these keys in mind for your next teleseminar and you will have an engaged audience that comes back for more!