What I’d like to do today is share some of my thoughts on how to re-purpose your lectures to increase your revenue. Let me begin by saying, I believe genealogical speakers are underpaid and I think this is a two fold problem. I think many speakers underrate themselves. Perhaps they have a fee they charge for their lectures, but as soon as they get push back from an organization, they modify their fees. When this happens, you undermine not only yourself, but all speakers, because organizations learn that they can push back and the speaker will capitulate. So not only do you do the job for less than you’re worth, but you’ve reinforced a behavior on the part of the organization. I will frequently thank an organization for considering me, but will not change my fee. I explain to them that not only is it time consuming to create and update a lecture, but it also isn’t fair to the organizations that are willing to pay my fee (and guaranteed…the word will get around that you’re willing to deal and you’ll never get your fee!). I suggest that if perhaps they might want to budget for next year or if they have an annual seminar or larger I hope they will keep me in mind. I find most (not all) of these organizations find the money...especially if they hear from other organizations that you are a good speaker. An organization that told me they didn’t pay their speakers one year, contacted me the following year and booked a lecture (paying my regular fee). Some one from the organization had heard me speak somewhere else. At the end of the lecture I was told that it was the best lecture they had ever heard…the point is, they got what they paid for. I’ve since been asked back to that organization to speak again.

A number of surveys have been done on how long it takes to create a new presentation...some estimate up to 100 hours.

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