I’ve recently been running some hands on classes that required the attendees to do some preparation work before coming to the class.  One of the students was struggling with a few of the assignments and I knew that if I could just show him the proper things to do, that he could get back on track.

The trouble was that we are about 90 miles apart! I needed a method that would allow us to quickly and easily establish a link between our computers that would allow me to demonstrate what I needed him to do.  And, I needed it to be free, too!

I’d heard of http://join.me an offering from LogMeIn, but hadn’t had a chance to try it.  So, figuring that there was nothing to lose by trying it in this situation, I gave it a go.

It worked flawlessly. All I had to do was to go to http://Join.me and click “Share”.  That gave me a code that I emailed to my student.  He clicked on the link the email contained and just that quick he could see my screen!  We both dialed in to the FREE conference call line and now we were both talking as I demonstrated what needed to be done.  In less than 30 minutes he was up to speed and when he attended the class a few days later he was totally prepared.

The service is free, you can have up to 250 people sharing your screen and you can pass control back and forth if necessary.  You can even have group or private “chats”.  Files can be sent back and forth to one participant at a time if you want. There is no facility to record the sessions, but if you are on a Mac you could use ScreenFlow to record the screen activities (For PC users I think that Camtasia will do this too, but I haven’t checked).  You’d have to have some other method to record the audio portion as the audio is on the phone lines only.

But even with those limitations, this is an excellent way to quickly set up a conference with a client to go over a contract or to present a CMA.

Did I mention that this was totally free? Go give it a try and then tell us how you are using it in your business!