Creating and hosting a webinar

Webinars are a type of digital product that let you host live events for your audience — free or paid — directly from your beehiiv website. Whether you're nurturing leads toward a more premium offering, rewarding paid subscribers with exclusive access, or simply connecting with your audience in real time, webinars give you a flexible one-to-many format that lives alongside your newsletter, website, and other products.

In this article, we'll walk through how to create and publish a webinar in your account. Once it's live, you can add it to your website or drop it directly into a post using /product in the editor.

Webinars are created the same way as other digital products. To sell paid webinar tickets, you'll need a connected Stripe account.

1. From the left panel, go to Products.
2. Your Products Overview will open. Click the + New product button.
   
   
   
3. On the Product access screen, select Paid (or Free) product, then click Next. 
   
   
   
4. On the Product type screen, select Webinar, then click Next. 
   
   
   
5. Fill in your webinar details on the Product details screen. 
   
   
   
    
   Product details include:
   • Product name: The name displayed on the event page and product card.
   • Description: A short summary shown on the product card.
   • Product details: Additional information displayed on the event page.
   • Call-to-action copy: Customize the text on the registration button (default is 'Book Webinar').
   • Post-purchase redirect (optional): Send attendees to a specific page after registering.
   • Price: For paid webinars, enter the ticket price and select your preferred currency. Supported currencies: USD, AUD, BRL, CAD, DKK, EUR, GBP, INR, MXN, NZD.
   • Original price (optional): Enter a higher price to display a strikethrough amount, indicating a discount.
   • Calendar integration: Connect Google Calendar so attendees automatically receive a calendar invite with the join link after registering. You can also add your own link (e.g., Zoom, Google Meet) if preferred.
   • Event date and time: Set the date, start and end times, and timezone for your event.
   • Number of seats: Set the maximum number of attendees.
   • Reminder emails: Schedule up to 5 automated reminder emails before the event starts.
   • Product page URL: Customize the unique slug for your webinar page.

   • Images: Upload a cover image for your webinar. Recommended size is 1280 x 720 (16:9 aspect ratio).
      

     Tech Note: The maximum number of attendees to your webinar is determined by your beehiiv plan: 
     Scale plan: Maximum 50 attendees.
     Max plan: Maximum 500 attendees.
     
6. When you're ready, click the arrow next to Save as draft to save your progress, or click the arrow next to Save as draft and select Publish to make it live.
   
   
   
7. Upon publishing, you'll receive a confirmation with your product link and options to share it directly to social media. Click Close when done. 
   
   
   

Your webinar will now appear on your Products dashboard alongside your other active products.

Once your webinar is published or saved as a draft, you can manage it directly from your Products dashboard.

Click the 3 dots icon next to any webinar to access the following options:

• Edit product: Reopen the product details to edit and save your changes.
• Manage tags: Add or update product tags.
• Duplicate product: Create a copy of the webinar.
• View in Stripe: Open the product in your Stripe account.
• Copy Stripe product ID: Copy the product ID to your clipboard.
• View on website: Open the live webinar page on your site.
• Join webinar: Access the webinar as a host.
• Add to post: Insert the webinar into a new or existing post.
• Feature product: Highlight the webinar on your website.
• Archive product: Remove the webinar from active sales. Existing registrants will retain access, but new registrations will be disabled.
• Cancel webinar: Cancel the event.

Once your webinar is published, you can track registrations from the Upcoming Events tab in Products.

1. From the left panel, go to Products, then click the Upcoming Events tab.
   
   
   

From this tab, you can also:

• Filter by status to narrow the list to draft, published, or past events.

• Search and filter by date created, event name, or product.
  

  
  Tech Note: The Upcoming events view is another location where you'll find the Join as host button. 
  
  

  

2. Click on any event to select and open its detail view, where you can see your list of registrants and watch your attendee count grow as people register.
   
   
   

Before your event starts, you can run a full test session to rehearse and confirm everything works as expected. This is a good way to reduce last-minute surprises for both you and any co-hosts.

1. From the Upcoming Events tab, click on your event to open it. Then, click on the Test Your Webinar button. 
   
   
   
2. The webinar test modal will open. Enter email addresses, separated by comma, to send emails to testers. They will be sent a one-time link that lets them join as attendees without using a seat or requiring a purchase. When you’re done entering emails, click on Send invites. 
   
   
   
3. Your testers will receive an email to join your webinar. Once they’ve received their email, they simply need to click on Join the test session to join, check their audio and video, and fully test the webinar set up. 
   
   
4. If you’ve sent a test email to yourself, once you've joined, you can move through the full host experience, including camera, microphone, and screen share controls, exactly as it will appear during the live event.

Once live, your webinar has its own page on your beehiiv website. You can easily promote it directly in a newsletter post by typing /product in the editor and selecting your webinar.

When someone registers, they automatically receive a calendar invite with the join link via email. The event streams directly in beehiiv — no external software required for attendees.

When it's almost time for your event, you'll receive a prompt at the top of your Products dashboard to join as host. Click the Join as host button to open the webinar room.

From there, you can preview your camera and microphone settings before the session begins. When you're ready, click Join webinar to start the event.

You can add co-hosts to help run your event. Once you confirm a co-host, they'll display with their own label when they join the webinar room.

1. From the left panel, go to Products, then click the Upcoming Events tab.
2. Click on the event you want to add a cohost for. 
3. Your cohost will need to have signed up for your webinar. Find them in your list of attendees, and use the Role dropdown menu to add them as a cohost. 
   
   
   

Once you've joined as host, you have access to the following controls:

• Mute or unmute yourself.
• Turn your camera on or off.
• Blur your background.
• Share your screen. Select Stop sharing to return to your camera view.
• Switch to grid view to see all participants at once. This is most useful once you have co-hosts or attendees on camera.
• Start a recording. Recordings are saved to your webinar's product page and can be accessed from Manage Recordings after the event ends. See "Can I sell a recording of my webinar?" above for how to turn a recording into a standalone product.
• Open chat and participants. From the participants panel, you can take action on individual attendees, including muting them or promoting them so they can be seen and heard.
• React with emojis, and switch between light and dark mode for your own view.
• Leave the event when you're finished.

Attendee permissions: As host, you control two default behaviors for attendees:

• Allow attendees to unmute themselves. By default, attendees can raise their hand to request to speak; this permission lets them unmute without host approval. Attendees still have to unmute themselves, this setting only determines whether they're allowed to.
• Allow attendees to share their screen.

Can I sell a recording of my webinar?

Yes. Once the event has ended, the recording is available to sell as a standalone digital product, just like any other product in your catalog. In order to access the recording, you will go to the three dot menu for the webinar and select Manage Recordings.

From there, you can select the recording and choose Create digital product. This will take you through the digital product flow to customize your webinar offering.