Additional Information on Online Focus Groups
Online focus groups can be conducted with participants from around the USA or even the world. The only issue that comes into play is the time zone. The groups need to be scheduled at a time that is convenient for all participants.

Participants receive a cooperation fee in cash to compensate them for their time and increase the likelihood of their attendance. With online groups, participants are invited to a website on a secure server where they meet the moderator and other participants in a virtual lobby. The group then "moves" from the lobby to the virtual conference room and the focus group begins.

A trained moderator guides the focus group discussion by introducing new topics and questions to the group, similar to a chat-room setting. In this setting when the moderator poses a question, participants can type and submit their responses simultaneously. This format helps reduce any bias that may occur when participants know others' responses prior to sharing their own.

As in traditional focus groups, visuals can be shown to the participants for their feedback. For example website tours, where the moderator guides the participants through a website and asks for feedback along the way are possible. Additionally, website usability tests can also be conducted with each individual's movements tracked as they move through the site.

During this entire process a technical support engineer is available to help participants and clients arrive at the online facility and monitor the entire process to ensure that it runs smoothly.

Since traditional focus groups and online focus groups are both qualitative in nature, any numbers or percentages should not be projected to the population as a whole. Also, the typically small sample size of online focus groups makes the results appropriate for general impressions rather than for statistically reliable results.