Remotely sharing what is on your computer screen can be a very powerful way to interact live with prospects and clients without having to be physically present. While there are several Web sharing solutions available, I only know of one that has a price anyone can handle —absolutely free!...

You have seen me extol the virtues of my favorite screen/program sharing tool "GoToMeeting" several times in this newsletter (see the July 2004 MAIN ARTICLE). This is because it is (in my humble opinion) the quickest, easiest, and most affordable full-featured Web tool available to connect up to 10 people in a virtual meeting. However, at near $500/year it is out of the budget range of many sales professionals that need this capability only occasionally and to have a virtual meeting with only one other person (usually a client or prospective one).

If you don't need all the bells and whistles of GoToMeeting there is another solution that costs nothing. ShareItNow is a free service that lets you share any portion of your computer screen with any other person online at any time. It requires a one-time registration and program download/install on your computer (the one you want to share) and you are good to go.

Once installed on your computer you can launch a new meeting by clicking the ShareItNow icon in your task bar. The other person for whom you want to share your screen simply goes to the ShareItNow Website, clicks the "Join Meeting" button and then enters your e-mail address. It's that simple.

ShareItNow only allows you to share a portion of your screen.  When launched, it opens a rectangular picture frame which you can size and move around your screen. The person on the other end will only be able to see what is within that rectangle. In most cases that is not going to be a problem. For example, you can use ShareItNow to walk a prospect through your Website by sizing the showing window to just the content part of your site. If you double-click the top of the window frame it will expand out to its maximum size which is almost, but not quite, full-screen.

Clearly ShareItNow is not as refined, fast, nor does it offer any where near the features of GoToMeeting. However, if you are on a tight budget, or you don't need to share your screen with more than one other person at a time, then this is definitely the way to go for your on-the-fly virtual meetings.