Kenlyn Services Limited

Introduction to Joint Ventures

Hello, and welcome to the course. Throughout our time together, I’m going to be taking you through the nuances of JV’s from how to score them, how to pave the way for future relationships and how to change the outlook of your business overnight. I’m going to take you through the crafting of your first contact through to last contact and at the same time solve some of the biggest problems that face new and experienced marketers alike when stepping into the JV territory, including how to find prospects and create personalized and specific deals to suit practically any situation

What JV’s Can Do To Your Business Overnight

I wasn’t joking when I said sheer speed and power. Get it right and it’ll hit you with such a force you won’t know what happened until weeks later. So what’s the difference between paying for ads to be sent to lists and JV’s? Well to begin with, the main difference is the effectiveness of personal lists. The response rate, targeting and conversion rates are unmatched. I’ll give you some idea of the scope of this with some statistics in a second. For now, though, all you need to know is that there are many marketers out there with huge lists, (I’m talking up to half a million subscribers, sometimes more). Very few of them ever sell any ads to their lists because eventually this dilutes the response. It takes a lot of work and dedication to run a successful list that does sell ads and is open to the public. You’d see the difference immediately if you subscribed to a private marketers list. You wouldn’t get a bunch of random ads, and in most cases you actually get far less content than a standard ezine, but the response rates they see are immense for several reasons:

1. The subscribers fully trust the editor and are familiar with the list owner. Every mailing they get is from one person. Even the ads they receive for other products are fully endorsed and the majority of the time, sent directly by the list owner.
2. Subscribers are not just there for quality content.

So what changes with the private list owner? I’ll show you. Think of the biggest name marketer that you can. Someone that you really look up to, someone that you admire, someone that’s reached their goals and is somewhere that you want to be with their business. Now imagine you’re subscribed to their list and again I ask you to tell me about the writer of those regular mailings. You see what changes? They’re not just a publisher anymore. They’re a trustworthy authority who’s already proven themselves to their subscribers. No longer are you receiving random ads from unfamiliar people anymore.

This person is very highly qualified, they’re an authority and they’re where you want to be. Because of this familiarity and trust, you are far more likely to listen to them as one of the most successful online business owners on the face of the planet instead of someone who just publishes a mix of third party ads and articles every week or so. This is why the response rates are so high on marketers lists that provide next to no content compared to a regularly published ezine in the majority of cases.

But hold on a second, don’t be fooled into thinking that I’m going to teach you how to e-mail your favorite and highest earning marketer and suddenly become their best friend and have free reign on their list. That may come with time, but if there is one thing that I have to tell you right now it’s that rarely is anyone ever trusted from ‘outside’ of these circles. Why? Don’t worry, it’s nothing to do with you personally, but ask any big name high earning marketer and they’ll be able to tell you stories about how they’ve been approached by those who just see dollar signs in their eyes and expect to be made rich overnight.

Don’t fret though, because I bring you good news. The majority of those new to the marketing scene only see the biggest names as potential prospects. This is not the case at all. It is common for new marketers to think they can’t JV because they feel out of the loop. The biggest marketers are all in contact with each other, promoting all their products between them ensuring their success long term. “What chance do I have?”

Let me reassure you right away. Yes, all the big names generally keep to themselves and their circle of reliable contacts and, because of the trust factor we talked about earlier, rarely let anyone in until they prove themselves. Famous name or not, the majority of us marketers get into that frame of mind when we’re established and profitable. We have to protect our own interests and our reputations, not to mention there’s only so many hours in one day.

But you know what? There’s nothing stopping you doing the same.

What to Expect For Your New Ventures

A moment ago, I mentioned established JV marketers having a circle of friends and contacts that they can rely on to make each other a success. Always keep this picture in mind. This is what I aim for when I get into a business. Marketing consists of so many aspects that it’s way too time consuming to master them all. When I wake up in the morning and have a problem, I know that someone on my contact list, through the JV’s I’ve been carrying out, can point me in the right direction towards solving it. And you know what? They go about things the same way. If I can help them solve a problem they have, I’m going to do that, and they will approach me to assist.

It is a case of they scratch my back and I'll scratch their's.

All of this happens within reason, though. It is certainly possible that you develop a JV relationship where the two parties mutually make money. In other cases, you may be turned down because your offer clashes with their's or they simply don't want to do your work for you. Don’t make the mistake of thinking your JV’s will do your work for you, make you rich, run your business for you or say yes if they don’t have the time or the resources. Join ventures come in a variety of shades of gray, including:

• Standard one-off add swap
• Full blown partnerships
• Sharing of resources
• Sharing knowledge and research

It’s give and take.

So there we have it. From quick results, short-term ad swaps all the way through to establishing long-term partnerships and building your own circle of contacts. We’ll be talking about it all in this course.

So let’s get JVing. Enjoy the course, take regular breaks to let everything sink in, but most of all, head out and give it a go. I assure you, the content of this document has the potential to change your business outlook overnight.

Everyone Can Do Joint Ventures

Even if this is your first day

The two main problems that we're going to be solving are:

1. You're new to marketing
2. You're new in your market

So, just what do you give to a marketer who has everything?

I often found myself in this situation and you may just be there right now. It's hard to find something to give someone that they don't already have. You could just give them higher commissions but that's very basic and it's extremely likely that they get loads of them all the time. That's not going to do much good when they have their own products to promote and don't particularly have time to carry out anything other than the most special joint ventures. When you're vying for the attention of someone in high demand this makes things even more difficult for you.

Even if your prospects have no use for your information

Problem number two. Are you creating some sort of info product? How do you expect to JV a 30k a month marketer with a ‘how to’ product? How do you expect to pull in joint ventures from the best in your field if your product teaches them what they already know? Giving your product away in itself isn't going to be enough for you.

This is the second issue we're going to address and provide solutions and workarounds for different circumstances. This will be coupled with the other joint venture sections throughout the course that will allow you to score some good joint ventures even if you've never released such a product in your field of expertise before, and even if you don't have a big name or reputation that you've built up to go on.

These are the two main problems we’ll be solving in this course.

The Key to Securing JV’s

There are many ways to do business with others and no two will ever be the same. Keep this in mind when looking at how you're going to go about each joint venture. Some common mistakes people make when trying to pitch a JV deal are:

• Contacting people in markets not compatible with your's
• Offering things in return for a JV deal
• Sending bulk, form-letter style JV pitches

With those things in mind, let's look at ways to get into JV.

Selling Yourself & Products

Joint venturing, as with all other aspects of online marketing, is all about selling yourself and what you're offering to your joint venture partner. But there's one single thing that I want you to keep in mind when trying to pull off joint ventures: Don't just go out there, do the research, find people that you want to joint venture with, and mail them with a generic offer. There's much more to it than that.

Think equal gains all the time. You already know what you want from them, and that's an ad to their current customer base or any resources they may have suitable for your product. That's the easy part. What you have to think about is: what do they want in return? If you can figure this out before doing your mailing, tailoring your offer to specific people and their situations from the outset, you're going to do a much better job of attracting a YES rather than using generic mailings and hoping they'll come back with a counter deal.

Of course you will, without a doubt, encounter counter deals. People will try to get more out of you for their time and money. This is business. It’s quite acceptable and to be expected. But, if your original offer isn't even in the ballpark or close to what’s going to be requested in return, you'll be flat out denied. It's up to YOU to draw up a good offer. Don't wait for the other person to do it. Always remember that. It's likely they'll be very busy, have products of their own, and possibly even more joint ventures to deal with. Again, why would they look at your offer if it's not what they're looking for and spend time firing e-mails back and forth trying to agree to something more acceptable to them? They just won't do it, and your margin of error is very small.

Old Ways That Don't Work Anymore

The method that most people seem to use for approaching joint ventures is unfortunately backwards. They create a product, put a price tag of a thousand dollars on it, send out a bunch of joint venture offers and wonder why they keep getting denied over and over again. This is because they're not looking at equal gains from the right perspective.

You could have a great product. You might think it is the best thing ever offered. But, when trying to secure a JV deal, you need to step into the other person's shoes. Will that person find your offer useful or unique? Will that person make money with the offer? Will their reputation be bettered by promoting your product or by you introducing a special offer that you tailor to their list? This is the way to think about it.

You need to look at it from their point of view and not yours, as hard as that is to do. With a little bit of prolonged observation, it's not hard to spot exactly what type of deals you should be approaching these people with. The worst thing about this is that often the products are good but the deal is shoddy, and people aren't getting these big joint ventures that their products deserve. Even though they have the right idea, they're still way off.

In the next setion, I’ll show you exactly what I mean..

Example Attempt To Get a JV Deal

What A JV Attempt Looks Like From your prospects point of view.

Let me give you an insight as to how this kind of thing happens and how JV deals usually come together. This is an example of an incoming approach for a JV deal.

So here I am sitting at my computer at three in the morning. The milk float woke me up so I decided to grab breakfast and get started writing nice and early so that I would have the rest of the day free. I jump on the computer, check my mail, reply to some people that I know about a mix of personal and business topics and reply to my programmer giving him an overview of the next project we're going to be working on. After the standard stuff is out of the way, I sit down to start doing some writing. After working for several hours, I get an e-mail from a budding online marketer who I haven't heard of before (which wouldn't have been a bad thing if they had introduced themselves).

What they're wanting from me is a joint venture. They want to get their hands on my resources, my list and my customers to advertise their product. His product is a light, ninety or so page version of his techniques and how he sees the world of online marketing a whole. So he offers me his product along with higher commissions for promotion to the tune of an additional 25%. He shows me I'll be put in at the top of an elaborate payment plan. Let’s ignore the fact that I have no idea who he is and he didn't introduce himself. Let's look directly at what he's just offered me. If you were in my position, would you have accepted?

Let me tell you that I didn't accept and there were many reasons behind my decision. Let’s look at them. First, his ideas were way off. They may have been good in his eyes, but in the end I find it hard to believe that anyone else in my position would have accepted. Remember we talked about equal gains? Well to put it bluntly, even though the commissions were quite a solid chunk higher than the standard, the gains were not equal. The reason why we'll look into in a moment. But, bear in mind I was busy, I'd almost reached the end of my working day and I was about to log off and enjoy the rest of the morning. Are your prospects going to be in the same position? Most likely, yeah they are.

I didn't have time to counter offer such a proposal that was way off in the first place. In the end, it would have taken up a heck of a lot more time than was necessary. However, there is a situation in which I'd have counter offered, and that would have been if what he was offering me was of any value in the first place. I might have been seeking to increase my gains from the deal, but as it was, it would have ended up having to be me who created the deal and not him. This is because he hadn't done much forward thinking about what was valuable to me. Without even knowing what the problem was, this should demonstrate to you how the average joint venture proposal goes. If you're way, way off, the other person will most likely not have the time to draw up a brand new deal for you. This is also a part of why I talk about joint ventures being very personal and fluid in nature.

Here’s The Mistakes He Made

First let’s look at the specifics of exactly why I didn't accept his proposal on the basis of what he was offering. First, look at the commissions. This is something pretty valuable that forms the base of many joint ventures of this sort: earning more money from sales than the standard affiliate. The only time that commissions may not come into the equation is if you’re dealing with long-term contacts from an already established business relationship. There's nothing wrong with that, in theory, but look at what I was doing already. He'd written a generic marketing report that was in competition to something I was already writing. Why would I promote something so similar to my product for 75% gains when I can promote my own stuff for 100% of the gains?

You might ask, though, how would you expect to partner with similar-minded marketers to promote your products if they're creating material so close to your's? The answer boils down to presentation. You want to pitch something that talks about a specific aspect of something they want. Perhaps create a more fine-tuned, free report that targets a particular niche but is designed to market your actual product.

Unless I know him personally, or knew he had already built the resources to return the favor with my products, I wouldn’t have considered promoting products in direct competition to mine.

And Here’s How He Should Have Done It

You can see from the above example what goes through the mindset of the person you are approaching for a JV deal. Since the product is potential competition, the most important thing to me is that I get access to the bulk of resources that he's built up already. So I would change the initial deal right away to include access or a long-term relationship, allowing for alternating cross promotion at a date of my choosing. Either this or I would have initially tailored my intro product into a specialist subject that can serve as marketing for the main product.

It is important to look at the activities of your potential JV partner so that you know what they are offering. You don't want to pitch a product that is direct competition to their's. There is no reason to accept an affiliate commission on a product when they can sell their own and make 100% of the profit.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the person's product was, if effect, preaching to the choir. A generic "internet marketing" report is not going to interest a person who has been doing internet marketing, and writing about it, for a long time.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying I know everything there is to know about online marketing. Things change all the time. I'm also not saying that I never want to learn anything new or new ways to do things, but without some sort of specialized differentiation between his product and all the books and guides I own, why would this be of any value to me? I don't need to learn how to make money online anymore, so his book is moot. With a little use of the powers of deduction, he could have figured this out, and offered me something of real value. A specialized product or an offer of turnaround JV’s to return the favor in the future.

So you see, the above should show you how a little research, forward thinking and deduction on your part will save you from the black hole that is no joint ventures to add to your list.

This also goes to show that you cannot simply send form-letter requests for joint venture deals. Each request has to be tailored to the marketer and to their target market. It requires thought on your part. It requires knowing what they are doing. The best way to find this out is to subscribe to their mailing list and observe what they send out. By knowing a little more about what they're doing, your success rate of scoring new JV deals can go up tremendously.

Lets Get Personal

I can hear the groans now as people start to realize that they have to take the time to set up individual deals tailored to each person. No one said this was going to be easy. However, with all the research you have coming to you, without you having to go out there and try to search out your answers, it's real quick and easy. The only catch is it won't happen overnight. Give yourself around two weeks of receiving regular mails before you try to pick out your joint venture partners so that you can get to know them better and thus be able to accurately deduce a solution for the circumstance.

Remember, this isn't something that you have to do over and over again regularly. Over time, you will find that you don't have to always following this procedure of watching a mailing list and tailoring a JV offer to them. Joint ventures will continue to happen of course, but as we spoke about earlier, they will come from other sources. In the beginning, pitching JV deals can make you feel like a used car salesman. In fact, I have yet to meet anyone who thoroughly enjoys doing this. It's from this I'll conclude that most of you reading won't particularly love it either. Until you start to find yourself with a bunch of long-term contacts, of course, then it's a different matter. Rest assured though you won't have to do this forever but you will have to do it, in some form or another, at some point if you want to launch your marketing career with a bang. But hey, given the rewards, surely that's not such a bad thing is it?

Time To Get Practical

In the next report we're going to take into account everything that we’ve just discussed, and I'm going to take you through five examples. Through a process of elimination, we'll deduce the correct ways means and methods to approach people, depending on your situation, their situation, and how your product and your deals relate to both of those factors. Once we have a few examples down, much like the one above, you will be able to produce solutions for these situatioThe Beginnings Of Your Million Dollar Business Empire

OK, we've talked about getting into the mind of your potential JV partner. We've talked about offering something that will make them want to pay attention.

In this section we're going to take that a little further. You may remember the example from part one where we looked at someone who had approached me and received a no answer. We also looked at why they got a no answer and exactly what they could have done to turn the outcome in their favor. In this section, I want to give you a framework to work from. We’ve already spoken about how much joint ventures differ. However, I want to give you more insight into how to make correct judgments when trying to tailor an offer to a particular situation.

What this is going to do is form a base for you. We're going to go over and talk through several examples that you will most likely come across through your joint venturing. This relates to the different positions each person is in, the state of the resources they've gathered, and how you get them to say yes to you when they're saying no to others only taking into account the weight and quality of your original deal.

Yes your deals will vary, but after we've finished up here, you should be able to spot where you've been going wrong. If you've never done any joint ventures to this point, you'll be able to see how to do things correctly. What I really want to achieve with you here is to show you that you must get into the habit of stepping into another persons shoes and seeing things from their point of view. What do they have and what can you give them that they'll want to trade for some marketing power for your business.

The Five Main JV Situations You Will Encounter

As most of your joint venturing will be about approaching people with their own lists, we're going to use that as a base and take a look at five examples of different people in five different situations waiting for your offer. Remember, just because I talk to you about online marketing and that particular field of expertise, it doesn't mean that you have to be writing info products to get the most out of these guides. In fact, I'm guessing most of you won't be writing marketing info products so don't worry about this only working for one type of product or service as it's very adaptable to your needs.

So, let’s take a brief overview of the different types of people that we're going to be giving you examples of now.

1. The first is the private list owner who only promotes their own products to their list.
2. The second is the private list owner who only promotes affiliate programs.
3. The third is the private list owner who's running reward schemes for long term customers and has a large and very valuable customer base.
4. The fourth, which is where most successful marketers seem to lay, is the private list owner who promotes both their own products and products as a result of joint venturing.
5. And lastly, we'll be looking at the public list owner.

To be specific about this, when I refer to private list owners, these are the people that keep their lists to themselves. They rarely, if ever, sell ads to anyone, and for that reason the subscriber base is there to listen solely to the marketers themselves. It isn't saturated by ads and is therefore far more valuable in terms of response compared to the public list owners. Public list owners are the opposite. It's much harder to find public lists with a good response rate compared to private lists.

The Private List Owner

Your first example is the private list owner that only promotes their own products. Now deducing and coming up with an offer that suits the situation involves only one thing: putting yourself in the shoes of the person that you're contacting. Ask yourself questions, lots of questions. Who am I contacting? What is their target market? Do they have the resources that I'll need to get my promotions out? Am I in direct competition with them? And most importantly, judging by what you've seen through their mailings, what do they want more of, or what will be most valuable to them?

So let’s identify what you need out of this deal first. What do they have that you want? The first thing that you should think about when forming a deal is ‘how valuable is it?’ Different types of deals involve different values or resources. For example, a private list is far more valuable than a public list in most cases and therefore it's likely that you're going to have to do more if you want to be accepted.

So what do you want that this person has got? Well, for a start look at what they have. They have this list, which is most likely comprised of previous customers, people who have experienced this person and have been around them for a long time. What this should immediately tell you is that you don't just want an ad to their list, but you’re going to want them to say something good about you and your product. An endorsement. This will immediately increase response rates compared to the standard ad due to the element of trust on the list owner’s part.

After a little jump into their shoes let’s see what we can dig up in the way of making the deal more successful and accurate to avoid those big no's.

The first thing that I can see is that their priority is not commissions. They're not promoting affiliate programs, but as we already mentioned, just their own products. This tells me that affiliate commissions aren't the way to go because, lets face it, this person is creating their own products and making 100% on each of them. That’s reason number one why commissions are unlikely to work on their own. Number two, they're interested in keeping their prized lists nice, clean and tidy. Trying to get them to promote something for commissions is as good as asking them to open up their lists and start promoting affiliate programs. You’re very unlikely to get a positive response from that on its own as you can see. We need something more.

So what else can we give them? The next thing that comes to most people’s minds is their own product. So you could mail them your product. Whether they would they find it valuable on its own is another matter. Put yourself in their place to find out. Are you sending out a marketing ‘how to’ product to someone earning ten or twenty thousand dollars a week? It’s probably not the best idea because it won’t hold any value. Are you sending out a marketing report or some astounding results you've received from some new research that no one’s heard about yet? Maybe you have an amazing new piece of software you use to run your business quickly and easily every day. These are the types of situations where I'd start to assume the product holds some value in this particular situation.

One catch, though. Aalways, always send over a copy of the product or, at the very least, a link to download it if you're having trouble with attachments. It doesn't have to be there to add value, but you're going to use it to add weight to the deal when you can and it's absolutely no good trying to do so if it's just not valuable to the person you're joint venturing with. The only reason you should be sending it over in this case is as a preview. Nothing more, nothing less. A simple method of showing exactly what you're promoting without having to write a five thousand-word explanation.

What else can you think of that we can use to close the deal with this person? Remember to ask yourself what is it they want and why do they want it? What would you offer in this situation? The key to being able to do this is to understand what’s most important to this person. Here are a couple of hints for you. Many successful people have already learned to think in other terms. Rather than money and sales they build their resources and their reputations in an indirect way instead.

Number one. The marketer promoting his or her own products successfully needs one thing: a reputation. Whether it spans the whole internet, or just the people on their lists and other people’s lists that they've JV’d with, it's highly effective when many people are mentioning your name. One way to immediately give them something to think about is to come up with ways of assisting their reputation. Every time you do something special for a customer or pull up a deal that no one else gets, when their friends are just getting the standard package, it's going to earn you kudos and do wonders for your rep. The same is true for all other marketers out there no matter what they're selling. Getting their good name out to their target market is invaluable.

The first way I'd suggest you do this is by offering them something special, but not for them, for their customers. Something that they can mail out and say, "Hey look what I arranged for you guys that no one else on the Internet has". While your friends are buying at higher prices, getting less for their money or getting smaller commissions, I have negotiated this deal. It's for my customers only, so you mustn’t share this link with anyone else outside of this list because it's only for you guys.
That’s an instant reputation boost for them right there. Not only that, but at the same time, they're endorsing your product so you've got what you wanted (which was more than a simple ad) and they've got something extremely valuable to them.

People who trust the list owner are going to stand up and start reading and taking more notice of the stuff they send, which is always good for response rates. I've found myself a group of successful marketers (half of whom actually found me before I found them) and I stick to them. If things are going well who wants change? So I'll continue reading what they have to send me, accepting their joint ventures and looking at their products. There's a list of around twenty marketers or so that I always make a point of reading their sales letters even if I don't buy their product.

So you see, something as small as turning heads and building a reputation in this way can bring in tens of thousands from one person over the years that they stick with you. That's pretty powerful stuff for the list owner and, what’s even better, no matter what product or service you're promoting, you're going to be able to do this and you have this really powerful offering that list owners want from you. Never again can you say you don't have anything to exchange for joint ventures.

But there’s more. Looking at what the marketer promotes, and how they're promoting it to their lists, you should start to see what is going to be valuable to them and move them forward as well as yourself. So what else can we do to increase the reputation of this marketer? I'll give you some clues. It's something that we can all do. It doesn't require any of your time up front and it's going to increase their reputation and their promotion power through the type of products they promote. Keep in mind what they're promoting and how they're promoting it. How can you assist them?

You guessed it, by offering up your promotion power. Putting all your cards on the table and saying hey, you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. All the promotion power that I have is sitting here ready for you to contact me and let me know that you've launched a new product. An offer of future promotion is as powerful, and has exactly the same effect as an offer of instantaneous sales or any other instant offers you can come up with, and this is important. The way I see things rolling out in front of me every day is that many marketers have a problem seeing exactly what’s valuable and what’s not, not just in terms of money, but in terms of time too. You do have the power to offer up things that you won't have to carry out until some time in the future. This, in many ways, is more powerful, not only to your joint venture prospect but also to you, because what’s going to happen when they contact you?

Well I'll tell you. Depending on your list types you might find yourself scoring higher commissions if you work that way. You might find yourself with a stash of products that are worth tens of thousands of dollars if purchased separately, and you're going to have created the basis for some sort of permanent deal. This doesn't mean that you're always going to say yes to them and they're always going to say yes to you. Don't be afraid of losing any sort of control by doing this. You are in fact gaining it.

I'm sure you've at least heard some online marketers names before, or picked up on someone that everyone’s talking about. Right now, take a second to think of the biggest and best marketer that you have in your mind. It can be anyone in your field of expertise. Someone that’s been doing this for a long time, is well connected and people know the name of. Once you've got that name in your mind, see what happens after you've left yourself open to counter offer or a brand new offer later down the line using the methods we've just discussed.

How would your list feel about you if you suddenly started sending out e-mails about how you've negotiated a special deal for them with this huge earner or big name marketer? It's the whole ‘it's not what you know, it's who you know’ theory all over again. It's not a rare thing either. I regularly see successful marketers get together and exchange ads such as this, furthering their reputation, cementing their authority on particular subjects, attracting new resources, new contacts and pulling in a bunch of sales at the same time as accessing new blood for their products. This is what online marketing is all about. Good networks, equal and good money, not just for you but in an equal opportunity situation for both parties. The way it should be.

So let me ask you, if before reading this you were worried that you didn't have anything to give away as a fair trade in a joint venture agreement, what do you think now? Not to mention, aside from what we've just been talking about, what other ways can you come up with to strike a deal with JV targets now? All you have to do is look at what they're doing, who they're doing it with and ask the question ‘what do they want that I have?’, not ‘what don't they have that I do have or have the power to grant them?’. There are literally hundreds of different types of offers you can choose from. Just make sure you select the right ones in the right situation. There's no way to list them all. There's no way I can give you every type of joint venture possible and an example of every deal that will come from every product. All I can do is give you some examples and leave you to come up with the goods that are applicable to the product you're promoting and the person that you're trying to get to promote for you. This is the key to successful joint venturing.

The Private List Affiliate Promoter

Now I'm going to get you to do the brainwork for yourself to prove without a doubt that you're selecting the right deal for the right situation. Let’s look at the private list owner who primarily promotes affiliate programs. Their lists are still as valuable as previously, because all the promotion is coming from them, they're not selling ads or anything like that. It's a purely private list. The only difference from the above example is how it's used.

So here we are. I've just sat you down in front of a computer with a product, a name and their contact details and provided you with all the information you need to see what they're promoting, to whom they’re promoting and how they're promoting it. I now want you to go ahead and try to joint venture with this person. I've typed out your intro, and your request, what you want in return, your signature and so on. All you have left to do is get them to say yes by offering something that's valuable to them. So what is the first thing that you're going to give them? Remember, something that they want.

If you answered higher commissions you got it in one guess. Of course, you're going to bundle your product in there too. That is the standard of all joint ventures, which although may not be adding value shows the marketer how good your product actually is. Great news.

The Relaxed Private List Owner

This is a private list owner who promotes their own products. You've seen them carry out joint ventures and they already mail these ads to you being on their list. Again, I've sat you down in front of the computer and we've done the intro, already pointed out what you want out of the deal, so how do you get these guys to say yes? More to the point, this time, think about how you're going to get this information.

The answer here is that there is no set answer. There are as many answers as there are possible variants of joint venture offers. Why? Because to understand what these people want you can go to the best place, far better than anyone telling you what you should do in this situation, and that’s straight to their lists. What types of products are they joint venturing and with what type of list owner? What can you see on the surface that's most important to them? Is it their reputation or negotiating special deals for their special list? In most cases, you'll find there’s just a plain link or tracking link to the site in question. Is it affiliate commissions, which you can spot through affiliate URL's a mile off when visiting the site advertised?

Get yourself on the other marketer's list too. Have they swapped promotion for something? What type of product is it? Are they in direct competition? All these questions you can ask and answer simply by watching what comes through on their lists, allowing you to draw a conclusion and understand straight away how to approach them and the means and methods that are going to give you the most likely yes response you're looking for.

What you should start to see now is that, when looked at in this way, it's quite obvious what many marketers don't get when they come to do joint ventures. They try and try and rarely get told yes because, quite simply, they don't know what the list owner wants because they haven't done their research (or let the research come to them for that matter). So you see how it's just a process of deduction.

• What do they want?
• What don't they want?
• How does it fit into the current situation and your product?
• How do you find that information under different circumstances?

Simple as that.

How To Do Joint Ventures

The Intricacies of the joint venture. So powerful, yet so fragile. With the power to make your business immensely profitable, but at the same time, with the power to ruin future possibilities of expansion and profit if done incorrectly. Getting it right first time around is something that we as online marketers can’t afford to sacrifice, as this is something that will form the base of much of our future promotion. It’s amazing how one small minor detail can ruin weeks of planning.

Listen in as I share with you some of the major pitfalls that have come about through my own joint venturing experiences, and in addition, some of the experiences that have come my way from people wanting to get their hands on my promotion resources

What is a Real JV?

So, what is a joint venture? It sounds simple enough taken at face value. It's a task that you undertake with other business owners to achieve a goal that’s beneficial to both parties. But I really want to spark your imagination here about the type of things you can get into and the type of deals you can strike with other online marketers that allow you both to reap the rewards. Time to get the juices flowing.

So really, what kind of joint ventures are there out there to be had? You know, this is a subject that I enjoy so much, simply because there's a huge amount of space for innovation and improvisation. New ideas, and new methods to bring in that all important deal that’s going to get your ad and your brand in front of hundreds of thousands, and even millions of the most hungry and ready to buy customers - The ones that will make or break your business.

These customers are the pre-qualified, 100% already interested in your product, customers that are extremely likely to buy from you. What you'll find here is that the response you're going to get far surpasses any e-zine ad or lead purchases in the majority of cases.

There's several different types of joint ventures on the market for your money making pleasure. Everything from simple ad swaps (where you might send an ad to your list while someone else sends an ad to theirs about your product) all the way up to full-scale partnerships. In fact, it is quite possible that you found PCMech EDU through a joint venture deal we arranged with somebody else. But, despite the number of different kinds of deals, I'm going to be concentrating on the kind of joint venture that gets your site, and your ad, seen by hundreds of thousands of people. However, I think it's important to understand the fundamentals and the 'whys' before we move on to the ‘how’s’. This is risky territory – we need to get it right first time.

Why Are Joint Ventures So Exciting?

It's real important to me that you get this type of information. I've seen so many products out there that talk to you about how to do stuff. That's great, but if you don't know why, it's very hard to adapt things and come up with new ideas for your business. If you haven’t noticed already, I'm big on inspiration and innovation, not breaking rules that are already in place that we know work, but twisting them to make them original and make you and your business stand out from the crowd.

So without further ado, let’s talk about ‘why’. If I asked you why do you do joint ventures or why should you do joint ventures, the likely response would be 'it makes me more money' or even 'Joe Bloggs told me to'. Not to worry, this would be most people’s response, but there's more to this than ‘I want to earn lots of cash’ – much more.

Hey, why not start out with the obvious before getting too heavily into this. I want you to know something, and that's your time is not being wasted here. To put it simply, it is so much easier to succeed when there are more people on your side and promoting with you. Forget advertising in e-zines for now. This is so much more powerful. I'm talking thousands of percent. So first tip of the day, even if it seems like you’re cutting your profits, never go it alone. Many are failing because of this one factor alone.

First, let’s look at what is so powerful about this type of joint venture. Aside from getting access to big lists, which is all well and good, there are so many advantages to this that people don't see. Not seeing the advantages and underestimating the possible returns is a sign of a disaster and very few closed deals, because people simply won't take it as seriously as they should. And heck, why should you take it seriously? Well, there are a lot of reasons, but to keep things short and to the point I'm going to talk about the two main ones that everyone has to know. The power of this is unimaginable; I'm going to show you that now.

When you're sending ads out to e-zines, you're doing something very expensive, whether you know it or not. What you're doing there is looking for new customers. Whether you're using the e-zines to directly sell your products or to gather new leads, when you pay for ads you're trying to get yourself new customers.

This is not an easy job. Far from it, in fact. It's expensive and isn't guaranteed to work as I'm sure you've already experienced. Now see what happens when you approach a fellow business owner or list owner with an offer they simply can't refuse? You get something massively important.

For some time now, many years in fact, e-zines have slowly been turned into personal lists. The big name marketers have their huge lists of people that they only use to sell their own products. Why do they do this? Because when you're bombarded with advert after advert from customers that have paid to advertise to you (ala normal e-zine) you're going to get bored, and all you're seeing are ads from random people when you see that ‘from: Joe Bloggs’ field in your inbox.

The bottom line is that the response rate starts to drop off. Adding to this problem is the fact that there are a lot of e-zines out there that just don't provide quality content anymore. It's all about making the money. Granted there are a few exceptional e-zines that do still do this, but they're few and far between. Many of them just turned into unresponsive ad lists.

When you approach a fellow marketer with a great offer where they gain, and they agree to send an ad out to their list, you're getting a couple of very important things. First off, you're getting access to some of the most highly targeted customers around. What makes them highly targeted? These people have purchased from these marketers that you JV'd with and there's no way on this earth that you would get access to their lists if you said "Hey, you do e-zine ads right? Here's a hundred dollars, send my ad to your list of one hundred thousand subs and we'll call it even". It doesn't work like that.

These lists are pure gold. They're customers who have bought from these guys before. They're customers who generally know their list owner is a success and is on their list because they want to either keep an eye on what they're promoting, to get new ideas, or to follow suit. They listen closely and take note.

Imagine how long it takes, and the work, not to mention the huge amount of cash you would need to get a list of just ten thousand people that have bought from you before and want to be on your list for those reasons. Oh yes, now it all starts to become clear. The highly targeted people that are guaranteed to be interested in your product are right there for the taking. Not freebie seekers, not people that are hit and miss. They are interested. They're spenders. They've bought before, and they'll buy again. That’s the big difference.

The people on these big marketers lists are the people that are going to see something they like and pull out their wallets to buy. They're deeply involved with the subject of the list and they have so much power to make a difference to your business when you reach them.

But, there’s more. Long term plans. The story here is the same. These are the type of people that once you've got them on your list, are going to be the repeat customers that come to trust you and buy from you again and again, reducing your need to go out and spend a crap-load on e-zines looking for new customers that just 'might' be interested. I sure hope you're starting to see the power of this.

What really hurts me is how so many people get it totally wrong and underestimate this.

How to Inspire Confidence With Your Prospect

Alright that's number one sorted. We know about the numbers and the type of people you'll be reaching, and why they'll be so important, but remember you're doing the actual deal with the list owner not the people on the list. So out comes this hugely important factor of why these subscribers are on this persons list anyway. That is the trust factor.

Imagine this for a moment. You receive two ads on the same day, both with the same copy, both with the same subject and website. It just so happens that it's a product you're interested in buying, but one of them has a vital difference. It states that the list owner totally trusts this product, even swears by it in the every day use of their business.

Remember, you're on this marketer's personal list already. It's likely you've bought a good product from them before or even look up to them. Which one are you going to go ahead and click on? That's not a trick question, but it's so simple it's overlooked. When you carry out your joint ventures, get the businessperson you're dealing with, the list owner, to say something good about what you're selling for the simple reason that it will inspire confidence.

Getting the message of inspired confidence to these very personal lists, a message from the list owner that people know and trust, is pure gold. It's worth going out of your way to get. Never forget that. Remember, these people are interested in your product, and they're going to be even more interested in it, and more interested in staying on your list and buying from you again if they're told you're being listened to by someone they respect.

It's as easy as that. It's one of the reasons corporations hire celebrities to be the face of their product. It is why they want celebrities to get up and say to people "Hey, check this out, I trust these guys, I trust their product and want to be associated with it". It works, and if you don't recognize it and start getting these joint ventures together now, you're going to be dead wood in a couple of years wondering where it all went wrong.

Ok, we've got a 'how to' section coming up with a pretty funny story about a couple of guys that really stick in my head that have approached me in the past couple of years. But before that I'm going to get a little personal on you. I'm going to show you some other obstacles that these type of deals can overcome.

JV Insiders: Overcoming Personal Hurdles to Succeed

I love business. I'm in it for the thrill of building something amazing up from nothing. I start with a blank piece of paper and in a few months time saying "Hey, look at this, I made this, and people are buying it, and liking it". A great feeling. I really like being independent and have a habit of doing things on my own and not letting anyone else in because it's something personal to me. However, I still carry out JV's.

The motto is: DON'T BE AFRAID. Don't think that you're losing a part of your business, or that you have to rely on other people to be successful. This is all part of the business world, wheeling and dealing, putting together mutually beneficial packages.

You know what I love about this whole thing? I can own my own business and work with other people without losing out. I might be sounding a bit strange and vague right now, so let me put it bluntly. Whatever you do, do not leave this course with renewed inspiration thinking you can do it all on your own. Many people try to make money online and end up asking the question: "Why am I not making any money?".

The answer is usually pretty straightforward: That they’re doing it on their own. Ouch.

Now, as I already mentioned, I like to achieve stuff on my own too. But don't fall in to the trap that almost every other marketer falls into. They go into their own little world not letting anyone else in trying to do everything on their own. You will likely go broke doing it.

If in doubt, JV. You maintain control and get access to a wide array of pre-qualified highly targeted customers without losing any control of your business. This, to me, is a very big advantage.

Team up with just one person, and you already double your chances of success. Don't follow the example of the masses out there. You will regret it. Been there, done that, and got very broke doing it in my first year online. Don't make the same mistake. I have made that mistake and it keeps things from taking off. Take my word for it.

Don't be afraid. I have spoken to people that don't want to act and approach people with email lists simply because they're worried about being rejected. Seriously, don't be. And even if you are rejected, it's business, it's not personal. I'll show you in the next section how to maximize your chances of success.

Understand that you don't have to hang about in forums or be super sociable for this to happen. It's most likely once you get started you'll be introduced to more and more people and your contact list will keep growing. (In fact, not a single successful marketer I know hasn’t had this happen to them in some form or another. Word just spreads, and that’s a good thing. Be mindful not to turn your back on the result).

Think Long Term Profit

There's another process going on here, too, that I'd like you to be aware of. Again, it's something that's little talked about.

What you give, you’ll get back ten times.

Once you've made a deal, it's likely you'll be returned to with another deal or you can go back to them with further deals without having to cold call/mail them from scratch. Once you have these contacts, it's a sure fire way to add solid reliability to your income.

The circle effect I'm talking about is something that I've witnessed many times, on many different levels. That's when there’s a group of marketers out there with lists or promotion resources of some kind that are being shared with a circle of friends who are in regular contact about business. Each promotes the other's new product, and you know, once you have this circle of friends amazing things start to happen. This is when you know you're getting somewhere.

Don't forget this when building your contact list. Don't just JV with someone once. Get them to come back to you to get an ad to your list at a later date. We'll be talking about how to do this in the next section. For now, though, remember JV prospects and partners are just like your affiliates and your previous customers. Once contact has been established, make the effort to keep it and you will prosper from it, and so will everyone else in your 'group'. Long term success for all involved.

The Easy Way To Succeed

Last, but definitely not least, is something I believe if everyone did, the people struggling to make money would be in a minority. That is:

GO FOR IT.

Yeah, that's all it take sometimes. Bite the bullet, put your personal feelings aside and just say "I'm going to go for this" and actually getting up off your seat and doing it.

Never underestimate the importance of these joint ventures. Never pass one up if the offer is in your favor, and never pass up the opportunity to offer one to someone new. But please, when you're taking this advice, remember, it's important to start out well. If you can catch a deal on the first pass you've won half the battle already.

The Intricacies Of JV’s

If you want this to be a big part of your marketing, you have to do it right. It's especially hard to make contact with someone again if things go really bad the first time around. Although all is not lost when you get denied, it sure makes things more problematic in the long run. Get it right and you'll have great ammunition for future promotions, a massive flow of all important customers that are interested in buying your product and, of course, wads of cash which we all love.

So without further ado, let’s start from the very beginning looking at some solid and blatantly proven effective joint venture methods. We're primarily talking about getting your ads to these special lists we're familiar with previous sections, although there's many other types which we'll get into a little later too.

Who Are We Contacting?

Who are we contacting here? The answer is pretty straightforward really. Anyone that has access, owns a newsletter, e-zine, private list or any other form of contacts that will get the word out about your business. People with access to highly targeted customers.

Simply put, people that can send information about your product to lots of other people. Easy enough right? Well, it's not all that straightforward. Without trying to put you off, I've personally had some hysterical moments when I've been approached for joint ventures. Don't be worried yet, though, these were very extreme, and I'll tell you a little about some amusing 'That's definitely how not to do it' encounters a little further down this section. First though lets get down the facts.

How To Find An Endless Supply Of Prospects

Your first thought reading the prior sections of this course may have been something along the lines of "Great, it's all well and good that these things are powerful, but where exactly do I find these people?"

Well, there's a pretty straight forward answer to this one, too. Contrary to a lot of people’s beliefs, it doesn't involve waiting for someone to see your website and your offer. Nor does it involve spamming, bulk mailing or any useless stuff like that.

You want to be on THEIR lists. These are the valuable lists made of pure gold that you want to be contacting. You want to be on them. It really is easy to do too. It's not exactly a challenge to get yourself on some lists. Take your existing e-zines, take well known marketers and get on their lists. Ask your friends and any contacts you may have already made what do they subscribe to? It doesn't take long to do and if your own contacts are recommending them, there's already some likely candidates to start out with.

Now you may not necessarily be contacting all these people or every e-zine owner or private marketers list you're on with JV offers. But, this way, all you'll be left with is an organized list of e-zines and personal list mailings being sent to your inbox weekly. What I've found seems to happen, too, is that through these lists you're hear about some other reputable people. So you get yourself on their lists too, and so, after the initial boost and well rounded subscriptions to trusted people, the ball starts rolling and your list of possible JV prospects grows and grows.

Simple really, so simple that I get the feeling that's why people seem to overlook it. Where do I find joint venture offers? Everywhere is your answer. Start getting yourself on people's lists.

This does a lot for you when it comes to relating to the sales of your product, future contacts and new lists to get on. This is why it's important to keep them organized. You'll likely be looking through them a lot.

Your New Found Information Network

So lets look specifically at what you're achieving through your new subscriptions.

1. You're getting more subscriptions. By reading the emails coming in from these various lists, you will find yet more marketers out there you may not have known about. This will lead to you finding even more potential contacts and partners.
2. By reading the emails that they send, you can get an idea of what type of marketer they are. Do they market only their own products? Do they also market other people's products? What kinds of products do they usually like to promote to their list? By observing this information, it makes you better able to tailor a JV offer to them that maximizes the chances they will accept.

Tailoring Your Deal & Signals

Just like we're always told as online marketers, you have to target your customers. No good trying to sell your golf clubs to an athlete enthusiasts list. The same rings true for joint ventures. They must be targeted. Always keep this in mind, and always ask yourself, for the sake of your business and the list owners time "If I mail this person with a joint venture offer, and they were guaranteed to say yes, would my ad be going to my target market?". If your answer is yes, see how the first hurdle is jumped already? If it's no, move on and look elsewhere. It's not worth your valuable time.

How To Make Your Prospects Immediately Familiar With You

Here's an example of the power of this for you. Imagine for a moment you have a list of say, fifty thousand highly responsive and valuable customers that you know people want to get their hands on. Which would you be more responsive to? Someone who approached you that you'd never heard of, and didn't make any effort to form any kind of bond with you, or someone who mentioned one of the products you've recently created, or one of the ads and joint ventures you've sent out to your list already?

See how just this little addition here starts to create an empathy with your JV prospect and lets this concept begin to fall into place? The fact is, no matter how busy they are, people like to talk about themselves. The effect you get when a response or some sort of reaction to something you've done comes from someone is similar. You've been acknowledged, and suddenly this random person you don't know isn't such a stranger after all.

They've been buying your products, reading your list, taking your word, and you're one of their valuable customers. Instant ice breaker, and a really soft change from the cold call or mail or the "Hi you don't know me but.." approach. Don't go overboard and declare you're their biggest fan or anything like that. No sucking up is needed either, but a simple acknowledgment of what they do demonstrates to them that you yourself know why you're there. That is important. Don't Forget to mention at the start of your introduction something about them and their product, or their e-zine. Remember it, and do it. You'll see that people are far more receptive to you.

How To Know What They Want

When working out JV's, put yourself in the shoes of the person you’re contacting. What kind of reservations would your customers have about your product? What kind of thoughts will stop them form buying? The same is true for joint ventures.

You're still selling here, and even though it's not a hard sell, you're still trying to get someone to say yes to giving you something in exchange for something else in return. What would you say to your offer? If it's “get lost", that's more than likely the response you'll get from them, too. Never forget to look at it from the other person’s point of view. You'll find yourself pulling in more responses than ever. That goes for sales letters, ad copy, and any ads you run and pretty much any deal you're striking that relates to marketing.

You don't have to be the best salesman in the world at all. I suck at sales, especially hard selling or pushy tactics (which I absolutely hate if you hadn’t guessed already), but if you can do this and sort out people's problems, and get their reservations thrown out before they even think of them, you'll reap the rewards. And that's a mighty fine introduction to the next section coming up.

Alright, we now know what to expect when joint venturing, and I hope I've managed to inspire you. By now you should have all sorts of possibilities roaming around in your head. That's great. That was my aim. I wanted to wake you up and stir your brain to recognize the possibilities. Now we know why, who and when to approach, and how to find the people to approach in the first place. It's time to look at the real nitty gritty. And that's how to approach to maximize your chances of success and to build on something for the future.

Avoiding Devastating Mistakes

There's a couple of instant rejection lines that seem to happen quite often. So, lets look at what to avoid.

First, if you want to get anywhere you have to be a little personal about it. Unless I'm specifically on someone’s list, seeing 'Dear friend' or 'Dear Joint Venture Prospect' or 'Dear Online Marketer' at the header of a joint venture proposal screams SPAM to me. I don't want to see bulk mailed joint venture offers unless I'm on the persons list. It's as good as spam. With the increased amount of people doing this and trying to make contacts nowadays, this is definitely something you want to avoid if you want to get any sort of response at all.

Keep in mind what you're aiming for here. Surely it's worth more than just a bulk mailed junk email to hundreds of people. Again, we're looking for quality over quantity, so bulk mailing a large list shouldn't even cross your mind. Some may take note, but the important ones with the personal lists won't look at you twice.

Subject Line

The same applies to the subject line. You'll likely be talking to these people directly. I know you're trying to sell them on something, but there's no need to try and trick them into reading your mail. Make sure your subject line is personal, simple and to the point. In this case, ads are different. You don't want your prospects overlooking your offer because they mistake it for another ad or another bulk mailed piece of junk.

A little time and personalization gets you everywhere. You know what I like to see and what brings me the most response? A simple, non confusing "Name Here, Joint Venture Proposal", or something to that effect. It doesn't have to be any more than that to be intriguing. Who wouldn't open it up to see what they're being offered and what they get out of it? I sure would and indeed do.

Here's a couple of bad ones that I've run into on occasion. "Wow, we are going to make so much money". Or "This is the most important deal you'll ever make". That screams SPAM to me. The people you're trying to really get hold of here are established and hold more interest in other people trying to further their current business than trying to sell them stuff.

How to Personalize For High Acceptance Rates

Remember earlier in the course I talked about subscribing to lists, getting to know people and their products, and the market they have access to? Well it wasn't just so that you get access to the right kind of lists. It was much deeper than that. It has to do with empathy. A little connection that you need to make if anyone is going to take any notice of you at all.

This is so easy to do, yet from my experience hardly anyone does it.

So there we have it, it's all plain sailing so far. Simple subject, personalized greeting and an introduction. Putting it like that, it's putting it in terms of real life and is just the basis for meeting new people. A greet, and an introduction. It seems just like common sense. Maybe that's why people don't do it? It's just taken for granted. Don't fall into that trap though, whatever you do.

"Hey [your name here], this is Joe Bloggs, a subscriber of your Marketing Tactics E-zine" or "Hey [your name here[, this is Joe Bloggs, a subscriber to your personal list".

Now that's something that I'd like to hear. I don't have a problem with reading my subscribers' e-mails, especially when I know it's a real person and they've proved it by naming my list or one of my products in the introduction. Fact of the matter is, if you're an outsider or some random person I probably won't have time for you. And neither will any other list owner you e-mail. But if you're on my list and know the names of my products and the market my list is aimed at, I am going to listen. Why? Simple really, because you're one of my long time customers or my long time affiliates. Something that makes you pure gold and a valuable asset to me. I want to keep you because you weren't cheap or easy to get hold of in the first place.

This is another reason why bulk is out of the question for this type of method. You can't bulk mail hundreds of joint venture prospects and tailor the whole offer to them, their lists and what you've learned whilst being subscribed. It's more effective to do this one by one, the non-automated slow way. The results that come back sure are worth it too.

Being Different Helps Your Cause, But Be Careful

You cannot forget to actually tell your prospect what they're dealing with here.

A quick short, sharp introduction to your product is the next step. I've seen this one done in a strange way, too. Somtimes you see a big long-winded sideshow about what I'm going to get out of it. By the time I'm done reading, I'm even more confused than before you explained.

Whatever you do, don't forget to tell people what your product is. It doesn't have to be a sales letter or anything like that. Make sure you introduce your product. The result is really kind of amusing when people don't do this or when they do it in a boring and non caring way. Here's an example of the boring non caring way for you: "I'm writing to you because I just launched a new e-book about marketing and thought you might be interested it promoting for me". And then this person proceeds to talk about how much money I'm going to make out of it.

Hmm ok, that doesn't tell me anything. You wrote a new book, congrats. About the only thing that's right with that sentence is it's short and to the point. Where’s the twist? Why do I want to sell this to my customers instead of the other twenty offers I got to sell e-books today? This is something that you should have thought about before your product even got off the drawing board. What's your twist? If it's just a plain old e-book called 'Online Marketing E-book' I'm very unlikely to be interested.

Then there's the ultimate classic "Hi yeah, I launched this product and if you promote for me, we'll make so much cash, and I'll give you higher commissions and stuff, and it'll be really excellent because you'll make a lot more money than the other affiliates and stuff blah blah blah". Now emphasizing benefits of a deal is great. Showing what your JV partner will get in return is equally great. But I have to worry a little bit when people blab on about this stuff before they've even told me what the product is.

Don't forget! Or you may find the people you're mailing will just decide they're too busy for this and delete your email without replying. They don't want to have to reply to you and ask what your product is, what the site is, and so on. It's not their job to chase you. It's you who wants their business. To get it, it's your job to make things easy and quick for them.

How about this, "The reason I'm mailing you is because I've just launched a brand new, original, intensive marketing guide that takes people from start to finish and guarantees they'll create a product, put up a site and successfully launch within thirty days...". It's still short and to the point. Two lines, but there's a twist. It's interesting, and I'm more likely to actually say yes here rather than take the "New Marketing Site, New Marketing E-book" approach.

Be confident and be excited. Be personal, but don't take a corny hard sell approach. Avoid cliché’s and you're now headed in the right direction. People will start to take notice and take an interest in your joint venture offers.

Structuring the Proposal

Alright, we have gone over the following:

• How to find your target market through lists.
• How to start gathering prospects to approach with JV offers
• Most importantly, the beginnings of a very personal e-mail where you created a link to your prospect by showing them recognition, and you got yourself noticed without being chucked into the "Deleted Items" folder.

You've already won half the race. With what we have already covered, you could potentially beat out 99% of the other internet marketers out there who don't know this. You'll make more important contacts before they get a look in. They won't know what hit them.

Straight back to business, then. Let’s follow on our e-mail from where we left off last time, and that was right after the introduction of your new and exciting product.

Lets Put Your Offer On The Table

Here comes the good part. This is where you offer them something and you get access to this all important, highly targeted, list in return. This is also where more of the lazy research comes into play, when you were reading a little bit about the people you're dealing with and their list. I call it "lazy research" when we do things like this really because we don’t have to do anything aside from a little reading to get this all important information. Good deal if you ask me. Now, all that reading and "lazy research" comes into play here because we're getting to the point where you have to start making the offers to these list owners. It's really important to have a good understanding of their main concerns at this point. Again, putting yourself into their shoes and tailoring your offer to suit their needs and their status.

Don’t Underestimate Anybody

Something that I'm always aware of is that if the list is a personal list of people that these marketers have built up, made up of what they know to be real in demand customers, you might just get a plain 'no' no matter how good your offer is. There are simply people out there who will not promote anything to their own lists but their own products.

Another thing to keep in mind is that your offers have to be really water tight and beneficial to the personal list owners. E-zine owners that sell ads that you can pay for are a little more flexible even if you're asking for a personal recommendation for your product. Expect personal list owners to get as much as they can out of you. They know what they’ve got, they know you want it, and to get these people on your side takes effort and some sweet deals that they'd find useful and beneficial.

In short, expect to have to offer more to these personal list owners than e-zine owners.

Don't fret though. There are some basic rules that I can give you and some information that not many people seem to contemplate. Let's talk about this now. Then we'll use this info to get back to the e-mail template we started earlier on so we can complete this section.

Why Money is Worthless in at Least 50% of Your JV’s

The number one rule that most people overlook, especially when trying to get access to these super special personal lists, is the money factor. Most people seem to assume that the higher the commissions, the more likely they are to promote for you. This is incorrect. Granted, OK, I don't disagree, higher commissions are a good thing. But there's something working in the background that's even more important to your prospect. You'll do well to keep this in mind, too, for when you have your own list and start getting offers like this if you don't have one already. If you do check this out.

The amount of money should not be the deciding factor simply because it's such a short term thing. Fire out the ad and, if you're JV'ing with someone, you'll get higher commissions. That's all well and good, but what else is there that you'll be looking for as a business person and a list owner?

If you didn't guess, then let me tell you what these guys are looking for. They want to look good. They want to get people talking about them and their list. They want to spread the word about the great things they give their subscribers and the people close to them simply because it spawns even more joint ventures and opportunities for them. You can take advantage of this pretty easily. It's amazing that most people totally overlook it.

Always remember when doing a deal that, in addition to bigger profit and commissions, list owners want something for their list, too. Something that they can give their customers and say "Hey look, I negotiated a deal with these guys and their awesome product and they're giving you a whopping 25% off of this seven hundred dollar price tag, but only because you're on my list."

Oh yeah, that's SO powerful because it's going to get people on their list to do even more than put money in their pockets. It's going to build their reputation. It's going to build the trust people have in them. If they're getting good deals like this, they're not going to be going anywhere right? And if they're not going anywhere, once again, they become the list owner's long time subscribers, long term customers and affiliates.

The people that cost a lot to get a hold of in the first place are cemented on peoples’ lists because they get good information or make good money, learn a lot of stuff and, of course, get some good deals along the way. Don't forget this when doing your joint ventures. If you have forgotten this factor in the past when trying to carry out joint ventures, add it in and see what a difference it makes.

I guess people overlook this because it seems so insignificant to them. I mean, seriously, who really worries about the future of someone else’s customers? Even your competitors’ customers? They do. And if they see you taking this into account, they're going to love you for it and pave the way for a great deal to be made. Again, instant sales and money isn't always the prime motive to do something in any business.

Although in today’s fast world we all like instant gratification (me included), there is always the future to think about. It's those of us, me, and you now after reading this guide, that are going to build a solid base for ourselves whilst others will struggle to even hold a couple of hundred dollars a week in profit.

Securing JV’s Regularly Without Even Looking at Commissions

Next up come the heightened commissions we already talked about. This is the one I call a raw ingredient in these types of deals, mainly because when approaching others to promote for you, and they haven't come to you first, this always seems to be something that's in there. Why? Easy. Because, coupled with the above technique, it works like a charm.

Try not to make the mistake of approaching someone with just one of these offers. Generally it's far easier to get a yes and to appeal to people with a few good offers rather than one great one. Think of it as just adding ammunition to your campaign. Something I like to think of when writing sales letters too.

Don’t Be Afraid to Give It Away, But Do It Right Or Get Denied

This one makes me laugh. It's another idea that you can add to the two above.

When you offer your joint venture ideas, give your product away.

Now there's nothing wrong with this one at all. Give them the product to test, to check through, or send them a demo to try out relating to your product. It's quick and it's easy. But please, don't fall into the trap of assuming they will ever use your product.

More often than not, if you're trying to reach people with these big lists, they're already established. They're making wads of cash and they're happy in their ways. They've been around a long time to get a personal list like this, so don't e-mail them and simply offer your 'How to make five thousand dollars a month online’ report in return when they're earning fifty thousand dollars a month online.

I know, it sounds big headed and all, but don't be offended. The lesson here is to not ever assume that they need your product. Remember, you're trying to show them that it would be in their money making, brand building interests to send this out to their customers because it's a good product. You're not trying to get them to use it on a daily basis. Remember what your goals are, and don't assume anything.

Also, don't be afraid to give your product away. I can see how sometimes people hold their pride and joy of something they've created close to their hearts. I remember how it felt a little strange to start giving free products away on a pre-launch product that hasn't sold any units yet. Don't worry, though. Take it from me, you'll reap the benefits in the long run with the deals and new contacts you'll make.

Deduction and Targeting

Alright, back to our e-mail then. We've already got the subject, the personal greeting, the connection or relation to the joint venture prospect you've been talking to, the quick sharp and concise product description as well as an explanation of who you are and why you're here. Next up, you'll need to start giving out those benefits. For a start, make sure the list owner would be interested again. I know I keep saying this and that’s because targeting is the key here. You'll just get strange looks if the list and your product are totally unrelated.

So here we go with the benefits to the list owner. Start strong to keep them reading the biggest benefit to them. "I have set up a personalized sales page granting all of your long time customers and subscribers a 25% discount off of the normal price of $697". Great start. Something to make them look great and something for their list too is very important.

Granted, this is just an example. Depending on your product, giving the list something is likely to be the most powerful hook in this situation. It doesn't even have to be a discount. If your product line allows you to offer something of equal importance to the same effect, great. Go for that instead. Be creative. Every product will have its own collection of extras that you can offer here.

"I have an affiliate system up and running with the current commissions set at 40/10 for regular affiliates, and a higher rate of 55/15 for joint ventures such as these ready for you." Awesome, here come the commissions. It’s always a bonus to be offered higher commissions. Like we talked about, it works and you're stacking on the benefits now.

"I'm also ready to forward you an unlimited use license for the full product for you and one other person of your choosing." Great they get the product free, too. Always a bonus. Notice I added in a sneaky little one extra free for someone of your choosing. I love doing stuff like that because you never know who they're going to talk to and where that can lead. Word of mouth is a really powerful thing and this will get them talking. It's to your benefit.

Alright, so there we are. In a few sentences we've met, greeted, got the notice of, made a connection with, and handed a shed-load of advantages to this list owner. It's short and it's simple, but as you can see there is a lot of reasoning behind it. Of course, like I said earlier, I like to talk about the ‘whys’ of methods and why they work, because if I didn't, it's hard for you to adapt them and use them in the future when things change and you start developing your own methods.

Layout and Presentation Tips to Get Noticed and Keep Attention

"Yeah and I'll give you higher commissions because my current commissions are like forty percent on level one and ten on level two, but if you like I'll up them a little for you, I think ten percent is enough, do you think it's enough? if not feel free to mail me and we'll sort something out next week".

There’s actually two mistakes in one there. Spotted them yet? Let’s take a look. First is the blabbering. Lots of info we don't need to know there, for sure. Lots of blabbering and small talk, jokes, laughs and so on. No matter how long you've been following this person or been on their list, and no matter how much it feels like you know them already, they don't know you and aren't likely to appreciate this.

Keep the benefits short, to the point, keep them powerful and bullet pointed, and they will be read. Write one huge paragraph and they won't. Whether it's because the busy list owner gets called away to do something else and forgets, or they just get offended, get the wrong idea or get bored reading the blabber and click off. Avoid it like the plague.

How Keeping It Simple Doubles Your Chances of Acceptance

See the undecided-ness compared to the previous versions there? I know that's a pretty blatant and harsh example but it happens to different extents. It's the time and hassle issue all over again. What you don't want to get into (at this stage anyway) is twenty or so e-mails going back and forth to this list owner who's likely to be very busy and pressed for time.

Keep it simple, set everything up, and get this ready and sorted before you even send the e-mail. It's much nicer receiving a concise offer that offers a clear advantage that’s ready to go rather than having to wait and fiddle around, get all messy and disorganized. People just won't bother with it. Don't make that same mistake because it will, in effect, ruin everything you've picked up in these reports so far and destroy your chances of a meaningful response.

Don't get me wrong, though. If they initiate conversation and bartering, fair enough. This can lead to some long term and very profitable deals for the both of you. Just know how to go about the first approach. Know when to stop and how to keep things organized.

Confidence and Inspiration. Making it Hard For Your Prospect to Say No

The last addition to the main body of your joint venture offer, and to complete the offer itself, should be a little bit of confidence and inspiration for your prospect. It's important to show them that you're serious and have gone out of your way to make this the best deal possible for them personally. This should be the case for everyone with big lists that you contact about promoting your business with a powerful endorsement.

You've shown off your product, put forward the deal and now it's time to cement it and really carve it in stone. "I have also carried out some preliminary testing of the product and the sales and follow-up process, which has produced pleasing results from an audience of fifty thousand e-zine subscribers. As well as personal endorsements from Joe Bloggs and Joe Bloggs Jnr, it is consistently bringing one sale for every twenty five targeted visits ".

Simple as that. All I'm doing here is bringing forward the point that it's not a dry sales process. By "dry" I mean untested. I want this person to know they're really going to get the most out of this deal. I want to make one hundred percent sure that they're not disappointed with their results and they're confident in what they're about to promote.

It's quick, it's simple and it makes a heck of a difference. Now here, as an addition, I also used Joe Bloggs and Joe Bloggs Jnr, who are my imaginary big name marketers that have given me endorsements and testimonials. You don't have to do that if you can't get hold of big names to endorse your products. That's fine. Just point them to the testimonials you have gathered from the purchasers of your product to prove that the product itself is actually a good one and their subscribers are going to like it.

There are many other ways of inspiring confidence, but many people seem to leave this one out. No space for that here. Do whatever you can to make sure these people are happy and comfortable. Make sure that they know they're getting a good deal and their subscribers are getting a good deal. This is most important, as especially with these personal lists, their reputation is very important to them. They don't want to be selling dodgy products. If they have any doubt, they won't do it and you've lost the deal.

Ethically Ensuring a Response and Feedback

Your initial e-mail contact is almost complete, but this is a big downfall in the sales process that people seem to have a problem dealing with. I can see why, too. It's because it's blatantly asking for something. In the real world it's known as closing the sale. In this case, you're not asking your prospect to "order now" or to hand over their cash, but to simply reply. Imagine the e-mail we've just put together without a call to action at the end. It would seem pretty meaningless and you'd probably be left thinking "ok and...? Did I miss something?". It all seems pretty random without a reply request.

People do forget to do this often. You’ve got to get these guys to reply to you, even if it's a straight up ‘no’. Asking isn't such a bother. It doesn't have to be complicated either.

"Thanks for your time. I'm looking forward to hearing from you" or "Thanks for taking the time to consider this joint venture offer, looking forward to your response". Just whatever you feel comfortable with. Make sure it's polite and asks for a reply and you'll be fine.

Lastly, it's important to include your full contact details, nice and clear, at the bottom. Not just your email address, but your telephone number, too. Some people like to call you up to have a talk or re-negotiate some more aspects of the deal.

If they don't have the chance to call you, who knows what kind of deal you may have lost due to someone forgetting because they can't get in contact right away and don't have the time to wait for a reply. It's all about the details. This course is rigorous and full of tiny, seemingly minor details. But understand that missing just one of them could mean one lost joint venture deal, which could have spawned scores of sales and affiliates for you, not to mention thousands of leads and who knows how much lost profit.

And That's Your Proposal Email

Well, that's all of it. Now your e-mail is complete and you know who to go to and why things happen. I'm confident that you can tailor these rules to your own business and your own products, and innovate on top of the basics that I've given you to follow here to grab new and fresh angles on the subject. Keep to the rule base and smother it in creativity. If you're not a creative person, that's not a problem. Ideas will start to flow once you get more products out there and have a larger and wider audience to promote to through the general techniques we've been talking about.

Wrapping Up your JV Knowledge

By now, if you've read through the previous sections, you know how to find and grow your list of joint venture prospects and you know how to watch them like a hawk and select the ones that are appropriate to your business.

You know when, and how, to approach them and not get your offer deleted right away and how to put your offer forward in a beneficial way that doesn't just involve instant extra profits. Put all these together and you have a great base for your joint venture journeys. Now getting them in the first place is probably the hardest part, but sending out an e-mail and just waiting for a response is only half of it.

Following Up Your Prospects

Now comes the part that hardly anyone does for one reason or another. Maybe they're too busy or it'll cost too much calling internationally. Maybe they're shy or worried about being told no, or being intrusive. If any of those describe you, put them aside right now. Remember, this is business. Nothing personal, and if you call someone up the worst that can happen is they'll say no. It's not like you're cold calling them trying to get them to spend money or anything. It's a mutually beneficial deal, so it's likely if the deal is good, they'll be glad to hear from you.

The reason that it's more effective to go for the email then call approach, rather than a straight up call, is two-fold. First, you've got all the time in the world to plan and set your deal out on the table through the email. This is far easier to do when you have time to write rather than have to try to explain it in person. Plus you don't forget to mention anything, and you're more likely to get your initial point across.

Secondly, it's far easier to grab someone’s attention when they already have the details as you've already contacted them via e-mail. They have a hard copy of your deal that they can refer to rather than having to take notes on the phone at a possibly bad time for them.

The reason it's important to call in the first place is simple. How many times a week, or even a day, do you see things and think to yourself "Hey, yeah that's cool, I'll check that out later" and you just plain forget or get distracted or called away to something else. Prepare for your call. Have the basics in front of you for a start. There's no guarantee that your mail actually got read. Be ready for that, and be ready with some back up plans and to change your original offer. The better the list, the higher the profile, the more you're likely going to have to offer.

How To Stand Out From The Crowd

Ok we're almost done now. You should be on the way to having some of those hugely powerful endorsements sent out to some of those private lists. I'm a big believer in treating people like individuals, something that’s increasingly rare these days with the anonymity of the Internet. If you can pull this off, they're not going to forget you and it's even more likely that you're going to be able to reach similar agreements with your list of contacts in the future.

Something that's very important that a lot of people miss, not just with joint ventures but marketing in general, is that you pave the way to the future and leave yourself open to these kind of repeat offers. As I mentioned earlier, it's so much easier to sell a product, or in this case make a deal with someone, if you've been successful in the past. So my proposal; once you're done with your JV, the ad has gone out to their lists and you've set up your site to make the most of these hugely important opportunities, you want to have the opportunity to repeat this. Which bring us nicely onto…

Cementing Future Relationships

So, what can you possibly give someone who already has a huge list, most likely one heck of an income, and pretty much all the knowledge they feel they need about their specific field of expertise? Well, that's an easy one. Forget giving them free e-books, reports and dodgy stuff like that. Everyone gives away free e-books to everyone else. You won't be remembered for that. You need to be a little smarter about this one.

So, to make an impact and benefit both of you in the future, what do you offer after the deal is complete? That's easy. You offer them the opportunity to do the same to you. You create a gap for yourself as one of these people and your status is immediately elevated. When this happens, you'll find people start coming to you with these types of offers. You offer them your list. "Hey [name here], a quick mail regarding the joint venture we carried out last week. Just to let you know that I also have a private list of people with one heck of a response rate that I don't promote affiliate programs to, just my own stuff. In light of our recent deal you're quite welcome to add me to your list of contacts ready to promote your products when they initially launch in the same fashion".

Great, I'd jump at that offer. Granted, in my eyes, the list would first have to be relevant and substantial, but that won't be too much of a problem if you managed to set up the joint ventures we've been talking about here and successfully prepared to capture leads rather than just initial sales. Don't fall into that trap, because you're missing out big time. The more you have to put on the table, the more you're going to get in return. Things get easier after your first set of joint ventures which, of course, builds your list and your personal contacts as well as your sales and reputation. This is most important.

Stay Within The Lines Of Acceptability

Alright, now your joint venture offer is complete. You know how to go about finding joint venture prospects and how to approach them to maximum effect, quickly, efficiently and effectively and you know how to pave the way for future offers. We're almost there. But before we finish up, there are a couple of general tips I'd like to give you.

Now even though they're general tips and tricks, don't underestimate them. I can't tell you how ‘not to do’ and how ‘to do’ these right off the bat but I can show you what to avoid. This is going to fill the gaps now and really give you a solid foundation of knowledge and confidence about these joint ventures.

The first piece of advice I'd like to personally give you is: Don't try to take advantage of people and, most importantly, don't be taken advantage of yourself.

The idea here is that the offer is even. We give something, we receive something in return. That's business, right? Sure, for most people it is, but either through ignorance or negligence, or through their sheer desire to make money, there will come a time when you find someone who is going to try and milk you for everything you have.

Now, the experienced guys will be able to spot this a mile off. So will you after this. But, sometimes the problem is that this starts off small and before you know it, it grows and grows. They've got so much from you and you've got little to show for it in return. You don't have to be gullible for this to happen to you. Some people just have a knack and try it on every chance they get. Learn to see it, and when you see it, if you have doubts, cut the ties and know when to stop.

The world of business is indeed harsh. It's the same online as it is offline. Don't be taken advantage of no matter how big the name you're dealing with. Not all of them will be nice enough to stop you and offer you something in return for your work. Don't give a whole lot away then expect something in return here. Lay your cards out on the table first and make one hundred percent sure you know what's going on. This is the dark side of online marketing. Trust me, people will try, and when they do, it's going to be up to you to say no.

How Not To JV

Here's a real life example of a joint venture approach that is an example of how NOT to do it.

So here’s me, sitting at my computer in the late evening, listening to my relaxing ambient music, while at the same time briefing a freelance programmer on some work I wanted doing to some affiliate software. From nowhere, up pops a message through my instant messenger "Hello". Now, I don't like to give out my IM addresses to just anyone, I generally keep them to the people I know or have had previous joint ventures with.

Anyway the conversation started with me trying to figure out who this was "Sorry do I know you?". "No" came the reply. "Ok, are you one of my customers?". "Yes". Jackpot, so this is a customer of mine that somehow managed to get a hold of my instant messenger handle. Not a problem. I politely requested that if he has a problem to submit a ticket. "Oh no, I'm not here for that, I wanted to ask you to do something for me". Ok now we're getting somewhere. "Right ok, what's that?" I replied. "Well, I'm launching a new website and wondered if you would promote for me".

At this point I thought hey, joint venture offer. Strange approach but I have half an hour before heading out with a few friends. It's a rare ‘not busy’ moment for me now I'm done with the programmer so I'll hear him out. Normally I wouldn't have had the time. I would have apologized and asked him to e-mail me but it was just a lucky break for him.

So he proceeds to send me to this website. It didn't look too bad at first glance, but after reading the sales letter, something jumped out at me. I recognize this. I asked him when he wrote the product, which happened to be a very basic marketing training guide. He told me, in a round about way, that he didn't write it at all. It was a re-sell product from the late nineties, not even a re-brandable one.

Yikes, ok this is where I start to back away. So the best way I know how I tell him, sorry no can do, and of course, why. The reason, this time around, was because he had a weak product. To be honest, with his indirect hidey type approach that took fifteen minutes longer to explain than it should have, he was lucky to get this far and even get my attention, or anybody else’s for that matter. However, I'm a patient guy.

Anyway, off I go thinking no more of the encounter. I return home, have some food, grab forty winks and jump online again to meet the programmer who I'd arranged to talk to later that day. By this point it was about three in the morning. On goes the computer, on goes the messenger, and take a guess what pops up. "Hello". Uh oh. "I wonder if you've reconsidered my offer". Well I hadn't to be honest. "No sorry, the product isn't strong enough".

Alright so granted his product wasn't strong enough, and the approach he used wasn't exactly to his advantage, but if those two factors had been all present and correct, would I have said yes? Not likely. Where's the evenness, the give and take of it all? He's given me nothing at all that I would want in return. It was clear he hadn't planned this well. I couldn't resist it. Out came a little friendly advice.

"Look man, I'll be honest. If you want to secure a joint venture like this with someone, you need to offer them something in return. A bit of give and take ya know?". Big mistake. "But I want you to be my marketing manager". The phrase which would eventually become the bane of my existence that week. He proceeded to tell me that he'd give me a dollar per sale on his fifty dollar product, which would go up to four dollars if I sold over a hundred copies.

So not only was his product dodgy and something I wouldn't recommend, and not only would he not even give me it to see (He pointed me to the order link at the bottom of the page when I asked), but he was offering me the worst possible commissions ever. Everything about this deal is totally negative and a huge no. After a week of him messaging me every time I got online telling me "I want you to be my marketing manager" he was blocked, and it's safe to say I'll not be doing business with him anytime in the near future.

So you see what I'm showing you here? I'm not saying you're like that at all, far from it, but what I am trying to demonstrate is no matter which factor we remove from the lessons you've learned in these reports, no matter which section, no matter how minute the detail, once it turns from a possible positive into a negative, you've totally lost your deal.

If you've forgotten anything, or you're ever unsure of anything come back to this course, and read over these sections again. One slight mistake, one slight slip up, no matter how insignificant it seems to you, is the difference between a surefire "No leave me alone" response, and a "Yeah that sounds great, lets do it" response. There's absolutely no room for sloppy work where joint ventures are concerned.

Another little thing you may have picked up from that story is that this guy was trying to hide something from me. He totally neglected to tell me in all his explaining about this product and what it did for his customers to be, that it was a re-sell product. Now I don't have a problem with that at all. Re-sell products aren't such a bad thing, especially when there are only a limited number of them that have gone out, but when they’re so old and decrepit that's another story.

Whatever you do, don't hold back information that could be important. When you have a good product, and you're comfortable with it, and confident about it, more confident than you've ever been about something, then you shouldn't have anything to hide anyway. If you do, then there's something wrong.

Go back and fix the problem before offering up any joint ventures. To put it quite bluntly, if it sucks and you do fool someone and get them to promote it, when their long time customers come back with complaints or it dents their reputation because of it, they sure aren't going to be happy. Remember, be open, be honest, and don't hide stuff. If stuff needs to be hidden in a joint venture of this nature, there's something wrong with your product and sales process. Go fix it, or you'll have big problems later.

Adding to what we've just said above, if you're not sure about something, fix it up, finish it and perfect it until you are sure. If there's any doubt in your mind about your product, about your offer or your sales process, get it sorted for the same detrimental reasons we talked about above. Get it wrong, have it blow up in your face, and you may have just wrecked future business relationships. We know how fast word of mouth travels and how quickly people find out about bad stuff like that. Not good for your all important reputation.

Keep Track Of Your Offers

We're coming to the end of this course now. But before we do, there's one last piece of advice I'd like to give you and that is to plan well and keep a record. Who are you doing what deal with, and when? Who have you e-mailed for what product and on what date? Who have you called and who have you yet to call? Who replied who didn't? And so on.

It's a serious problem if you start to lose track of any of these details. It can hurt your joint venture possibilities now and in the future. Keep everything in order, clean, and tidy.