Nine Joint Venture Strategies to Help You Demolish Your Competition!
| Category: Marketing Strategy | Date: 2001-04-12 |
If it seems to you that more and more marketers are banding together and striking deals with one another, you are not wrong. Partnerships and joint ventures are becoming more and more commonplace as marketing on the internet becomes an even fiercer battleground than it has been in the past. Combining your marketing efforts with those of strategic business partners who are targeting a similar market to yours is by far one of the most powerful strategies you will ever come across. Here are nine killer ways to set up strategic alliances that will blow away your competition and have them begging to join you before you crush them completely.
1. Ezine Joint Venture Networks: I believe this is the future of ezine marketing.With a glut of ezines focusing on the same topics, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to attract and, more importantly, keep subscribers to your newsletter. Instead of fighting with other publishers for the eyeballs of your demographics, why not band together with them to share the wealth? Here is a simple way to do this:
Recommend each other on a Thank You page. After your website visitors subscribe to your newsletter, they can be sent to a thank you page where they can subscribe to other related ezines. This can be set up very easily using a CGI script. Why not contact other publishers who share similar circulations and focus on a similar target market to yours and suggest that you recommend the others newsletter on your respective Thank You page. This greatly enhances your exposure and gives you both a competitive edge over your competition.
As I mentioned in last weeks newsletter, William Bontrager has a fantastic script for setting up ezine joint ventures, if you want to set something like this up, I highly recommend it: Master Subscriber Pro script (http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?goldbar/willmaster)
2. Website Advertising Networks: Are you really selling all the advertising space on your website? I bet you aren't. Why not contact other marketers and offer them free advertising on your website in exchange for advertising on theirs. This is really different than the traditional reciprocal linking strategy. Instead of contacting everyone under the sun and shoving people on a links page on your website; setup small, highly targeted exchanges between complimentary sites. I suggest that you give (and request in return) premium placement for each others advertising message. For example, a text link or button (combining this with an endorsement of your product from the owner of the website is even better) on the side or top of a homepage will make this a highly profitable revenue sharing venture.
3. Sigfile exchanges: Talk about simple but effective. I noticed a famous article writer started doing this a while ago and I am sure it has done quite well for him. This method is most effective if you write your own articles and submit them to other ezines. Contact a prospective partner and suggest recommending each other in your sigfiles/resource boxes. So you say something like:
*****Article by Joe Blow, of www.joeblow.comb Read the "Marketing Report" at Joes website \ every Friday and then stop by Bill Bixby's site at www.thehulk.nett and subscribe to the highly recommended Green Machine newsletter*****
Have him do the same in the reverse order and you will both be maximizing your website visitors and subscribers.
4. Ezine Ad Swaps: This joint venture technique can be an effective way of increasing your ezine's circulation. The idea is quite simple: rather than selling all your available ad space, you trade some or all of your space to run ads for other ezine publishers, in exchange for the same from them. How useful can this be to you? How does free advertising for whatever you like for as long as you want sound? Most publishers find that way to maximize this technique is to get new subscribers but I have also used it to advertise my products and services in the past with good results.
5. Solo Mailings: Opt-in lists are sometimes the most valuable asset a website can have (see last weeks newsletter). Other marketers would love to have the ability to mail to a list with a circulation in the thousands but they either do not have the time or the inclination to grow that list. So many rent out their lists to other marketers so they can send out a sales message to the members of their list. This is effective but not nearly as effective as joint venture endorsements. The list owner can send out a private message to their list recommending the marketers product/service. If the list members respect their opinion, it will generally result in very good response for the other marketer. The list owner can take a cut of the profits or charge for the mailing but usually, a revenue split is the preferred payment method for this type of joint venture.
If you agree to endorse someone elses product or service to your list make certain that it is a quality product or the short term revenue gain may result in a long term loss of reputation.
6. Private Web Rings: I am sure that many of you know that webrings provide a way for sites that have viewers with a common interest to pass visitors directly to each other. What you want to do is join a ring that consists of web sites that would attract your target market.
That is fine but unfortunately you do not control the content of the other websites or who can join (your competion may be in there or inappropriate sites may be a part of the ring). By setting up a private web ring, you can control who can join based on their content and you can keep the members small so you all benefit.
Web rings are easy to setup, you can choose from several free CGI scripts at a site such as perlarchive.com (http://www.perlarchive.com/)
7. Upselling on Order Forms: One of the niftiest techniques that direct marketers use for making money is the upsell. When a prospect is ready to order your product, you make them an offer for another related product costing only a little bit more, this is an upsell. If you have ever ordered anything from television then you have more than likely experienced an upsell. For example, usually, just as you are placing your order, the operator will offer you a related product for only an additional $10. Upselling works well because, theoretically, someone has already made the conscious decision to buy from you and so they are more receptive to spending a little more money.
I know some marketers who have worked out joint ventures to offer each others products at the point of sale (the orderform) for a small additional fee to the customer. So for example, if I am selling chainsaws and a customer is about to make a purchase, I can work out a joint venture with someone who sells a chainsaw lubricant. I then place a small checkbox on my orderform saying for $15 extra you can have this lubricant to keep your chainsaw running in top form for the life of the product. Most times the customer would spend the extra dollars for the additional product.
8. Free Submission service upsell after submit: If you have ever used any free submission service (i.e. to submit your site to search engines, ezine directories etc.) you know that you often get a thank you letter in email or end up on a thank you page on a website. If you offer a similar service on your site consider this joint venture: Contact someone with a related product and ask them if they would like to put their product/service on your thank you page so your customer sees their pitch (whether it be a banner, text link etc.) right after they have used your service. And the two of you can split the profits.
You could not get a more targeted prospect! The best example I saw of this JV was when I submitted my affiliate program for The Ultimate Marketers Resource manually to the various Affiliate program directories. After I went through the form and typed the same information over and over, I ended up on a Thank You page where there was an offer to have this service done for me for only $40. Do you think a lot of people buy this service? I am quite sure of it.
9. Combining products/services and sharing the revenue. If you have a great product or service that is making you a lot of money why not contact someone with a similar product or service and offer to combine their product or service with yours and sell it as a package to both their audience as well as your own. You could discount the price of the combined product due to the potential increased volume of sales. The best example of this type of joint venture comes from Mark Joyner of: ROIBOT
Mark approaches many famous marketers and copywriters such as Conrad Levinson and Joe Vitale who are already successful internet marketers in their own right and then offers to add their products to the wildly successful Roibot program at a reduced cost and sales go through the roof.
If you are looking to find a potential JV partner to try out this strategy, here is a suggestion for you. Contact someone who sells a great product such as a book or audio tapes. Offer to convert their product into a digital format so they can sell on the web and have no delivery or fulfillment costs and then split the profits. Don't you think that someone who is not so web savvy would love the opportunity to increase their sales and decrease their costs? I think so.
If you can do well on your own, it's great and I highly encourage it, however, if you could take your success and combine it with that of other successful people you would dominate your market. Doesn't that sound even better and more profitable? It has certainly proven to be for me. So what are you waiting for, you need to start Joint Venturing today!
About the Author
Article by Marc Goldman, Goldbar Enterprises subscribe to The Marketers Resource Weekly: The Free Internet Marketing Resource for the New Millennium. Subscribe at http://www.goldbar.net Discover the exclusive members only website that will propel your business to dizzying heights:To contact see details below.
webmaster@goldbar.net
http://www.goldbar.net
1. Ezine Joint Venture Networks: I believe this is the future of ezine marketing.With a glut of ezines focusing on the same topics, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to attract and, more importantly, keep subscribers to your newsletter. Instead of fighting with other publishers for the eyeballs of your demographics, why not band together with them to share the wealth? Here is a simple way to do this:
Recommend each other on a Thank You page. After your website visitors subscribe to your newsletter, they can be sent to a thank you page where they can subscribe to other related ezines. This can be set up very easily using a CGI script. Why not contact other publishers who share similar circulations and focus on a similar target market to yours and suggest that you recommend the others newsletter on your respective Thank You page. This greatly enhances your exposure and gives you both a competitive edge over your competition.
As I mentioned in last weeks newsletter, William Bontrager has a fantastic script for setting up ezine joint ventures, if you want to set something like this up, I highly recommend it: Master Subscriber Pro script (http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?goldbar/willmaster)
2. Website Advertising Networks: Are you really selling all the advertising space on your website? I bet you aren't. Why not contact other marketers and offer them free advertising on your website in exchange for advertising on theirs. This is really different than the traditional reciprocal linking strategy. Instead of contacting everyone under the sun and shoving people on a links page on your website; setup small, highly targeted exchanges between complimentary sites. I suggest that you give (and request in return) premium placement for each others advertising message. For example, a text link or button (combining this with an endorsement of your product from the owner of the website is even better) on the side or top of a homepage will make this a highly profitable revenue sharing venture.
3. Sigfile exchanges: Talk about simple but effective. I noticed a famous article writer started doing this a while ago and I am sure it has done quite well for him. This method is most effective if you write your own articles and submit them to other ezines. Contact a prospective partner and suggest recommending each other in your sigfiles/resource boxes. So you say something like:
*****Article by Joe Blow, of www.joeblow.comb Read the "Marketing Report" at Joes website \ every Friday and then stop by Bill Bixby's site at www.thehulk.nett and subscribe to the highly recommended Green Machine newsletter*****
Have him do the same in the reverse order and you will both be maximizing your website visitors and subscribers.
4. Ezine Ad Swaps: This joint venture technique can be an effective way of increasing your ezine's circulation. The idea is quite simple: rather than selling all your available ad space, you trade some or all of your space to run ads for other ezine publishers, in exchange for the same from them. How useful can this be to you? How does free advertising for whatever you like for as long as you want sound? Most publishers find that way to maximize this technique is to get new subscribers but I have also used it to advertise my products and services in the past with good results.
5. Solo Mailings: Opt-in lists are sometimes the most valuable asset a website can have (see last weeks newsletter). Other marketers would love to have the ability to mail to a list with a circulation in the thousands but they either do not have the time or the inclination to grow that list. So many rent out their lists to other marketers so they can send out a sales message to the members of their list. This is effective but not nearly as effective as joint venture endorsements. The list owner can send out a private message to their list recommending the marketers product/service. If the list members respect their opinion, it will generally result in very good response for the other marketer. The list owner can take a cut of the profits or charge for the mailing but usually, a revenue split is the preferred payment method for this type of joint venture.
If you agree to endorse someone elses product or service to your list make certain that it is a quality product or the short term revenue gain may result in a long term loss of reputation.
6. Private Web Rings: I am sure that many of you know that webrings provide a way for sites that have viewers with a common interest to pass visitors directly to each other. What you want to do is join a ring that consists of web sites that would attract your target market.
That is fine but unfortunately you do not control the content of the other websites or who can join (your competion may be in there or inappropriate sites may be a part of the ring). By setting up a private web ring, you can control who can join based on their content and you can keep the members small so you all benefit.
Web rings are easy to setup, you can choose from several free CGI scripts at a site such as perlarchive.com (http://www.perlarchive.com/)
7. Upselling on Order Forms: One of the niftiest techniques that direct marketers use for making money is the upsell. When a prospect is ready to order your product, you make them an offer for another related product costing only a little bit more, this is an upsell. If you have ever ordered anything from television then you have more than likely experienced an upsell. For example, usually, just as you are placing your order, the operator will offer you a related product for only an additional $10. Upselling works well because, theoretically, someone has already made the conscious decision to buy from you and so they are more receptive to spending a little more money.
I know some marketers who have worked out joint ventures to offer each others products at the point of sale (the orderform) for a small additional fee to the customer. So for example, if I am selling chainsaws and a customer is about to make a purchase, I can work out a joint venture with someone who sells a chainsaw lubricant. I then place a small checkbox on my orderform saying for $15 extra you can have this lubricant to keep your chainsaw running in top form for the life of the product. Most times the customer would spend the extra dollars for the additional product.
8. Free Submission service upsell after submit: If you have ever used any free submission service (i.e. to submit your site to search engines, ezine directories etc.) you know that you often get a thank you letter in email or end up on a thank you page on a website. If you offer a similar service on your site consider this joint venture: Contact someone with a related product and ask them if they would like to put their product/service on your thank you page so your customer sees their pitch (whether it be a banner, text link etc.) right after they have used your service. And the two of you can split the profits.
You could not get a more targeted prospect! The best example I saw of this JV was when I submitted my affiliate program for The Ultimate Marketers Resource manually to the various Affiliate program directories. After I went through the form and typed the same information over and over, I ended up on a Thank You page where there was an offer to have this service done for me for only $40. Do you think a lot of people buy this service? I am quite sure of it.
9. Combining products/services and sharing the revenue. If you have a great product or service that is making you a lot of money why not contact someone with a similar product or service and offer to combine their product or service with yours and sell it as a package to both their audience as well as your own. You could discount the price of the combined product due to the potential increased volume of sales. The best example of this type of joint venture comes from Mark Joyner of: ROIBOT
Mark approaches many famous marketers and copywriters such as Conrad Levinson and Joe Vitale who are already successful internet marketers in their own right and then offers to add their products to the wildly successful Roibot program at a reduced cost and sales go through the roof.
If you are looking to find a potential JV partner to try out this strategy, here is a suggestion for you. Contact someone who sells a great product such as a book or audio tapes. Offer to convert their product into a digital format so they can sell on the web and have no delivery or fulfillment costs and then split the profits. Don't you think that someone who is not so web savvy would love the opportunity to increase their sales and decrease their costs? I think so.
If you can do well on your own, it's great and I highly encourage it, however, if you could take your success and combine it with that of other successful people you would dominate your market. Doesn't that sound even better and more profitable? It has certainly proven to be for me. So what are you waiting for, you need to start Joint Venturing today!
About the Author
Article by Marc Goldman, Goldbar Enterprises subscribe to The Marketers Resource Weekly: The Free Internet Marketing Resource for the New Millennium. Subscribe at http://www.goldbar.net Discover the exclusive members only website that will propel your business to dizzying heights:To contact see details below.
webmaster@goldbar.net
http://www.goldbar.net
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