81 Joint Venture Requests In A Row & Only One Of Them Caught My Eye.......
From time to time someone will create a thread asking how to obtain profitable Joint Ventures. So far this year I've received 81 JV requests and only one of them caught my attention.
I keep track of all these requests and it was my 81st JV request in a row this year in niches ranging from Dating, Weight Loss, Match-Making, Curing Sweaty Palms, How To Find Your Soulmate, and so on and so forth; most of them basically went like this (no matter which side of the request you can envision yourself in, it's pretty obvious what's wrong with this approach):
"Hi there Rod, my name is Emilio. I've got a new ebook that I just finished writing. If you promote it to your list I'll pay you a whopping 60%, ...........contact me if you're interested.
Emilio"
I'm not writing this to make fun of "Emilio". Not one single bit. But for nearly a decade I've been receiving JV request after JV request that goes like the example mentioned above. You would think that after all these years, the information in this forum, the plethora of blogs, e-books, infoproducts, and even just plain common sense, that people would stop approaching others like this.
So.....what I wanted to do was give you a different point of view from someone who receives a lot of JV requests across a variety of different niches in hopes that it will help you secure that elusive JV deal. Keep in mind that my most profitable JV deals that I've sought out have taken me months to obtain (more on that later).
I don't know who Emilio is, he could be a good guy, he might be a bad guy. I have no idea if he knows me or who I am. But if I'm averaging 8 or so JV requests a month and they mostly look the same, who do you think I'm going to choose? Certainly not the ones that all come across the same way. Here are a few things to think about:
* When I first sought out JV partners many years ago I used to take the other person's non-response or "no" personally. I thought to myself "they have no idea that someday I'm going to be successful and they are going to regret not giving me a shot."
Boy, was I really wet behind the ears back then. Not only was I wrong in my premise, but if I had understood where THEY were coming from, I could have secured many more partners when I first started.
I'm going to pick people that I've done business with before because they've already proven to me what they're made of. Let's be honest here, I'd rather do business with my friends or people who have proven to me that they know what they're doing. People that have a solid product, know how to convert and know how to promote.
Remember, every marketer, well-known or not, that has a set of JV partners started off as a newbie at some point.
* I'm going to pick people that have the numbers. Is their product proven in the market place yet? (Remember, the smart JVers have these number sahead of time.) How many sales for every 100 visitors? Every 1,000? Did you at least test this using PPC? Article marketing? Some type of advertising?
* All things created equal, I'm going to go with the higher commission. (Hint: In order for me to land my first JV partner, I offered a "whopping" 100% commission - I know you can't do that with Clickbank, but with my first CB product I offered the max which was 75% at the time and probably still is. I was honest about the WHY and though I got a lot of "no's" I eventually got a "yes". Think Col. Sanders - that guy sold his chicken recipe while living out of his car and hearing over 1,000 "no"s, that guy is my freakin' hero).
* I'm going to pick marketers that make it dead-a** easy for me to promote their product or service. Even if they have a broadcast email that they share with all their affiliates, I can still take it, change it to suite my needs, and it's still made my life a heck of whole lot easier. Let's face it, again....with all things being equal I'm going to take the path of least resistance, hence doing business with friends and trusted marketers that have the numbers, etc.
* I'm going to pick marketers that respect my time. Chances are, I might have other JV requests ahead of them (I usually do), so if I say "contact me in 3 months" I'm not putting them off. I really do need those 3 months!
(Hint: I've done JVs with people who replied with "thank you for reading my email, I would very much like to stay in touch with you." They were genuine about it and did check up on me from time to time. They asked my permission if they could send me their newest numbers in about 3 months or so. For me, this level of perseverance and relationship-building goes a long way with me. This tells me they aren't there for the quick buck and are actual human beings that care about building longterm, profitable relationships).
* Honesty goes a looong way. I JVed with a 22 year old Warrior who contacted me with a short 4-5 paragraph message that stated he was a total newbie who had created a product, used PPC to promote it, made SOME money, and was looking to land his first JV deal. He asked for help in a very honest way. A few months later, we worked out a JV deal that made him a nice sum of money in just a few days. Honesty goes a long way. At least to me it does.
It was also nice to know where he was from, what got him interested in IM, and a couple other personal things that he shared with me. It just made him more human.
* Business & Networking 101. A few months ago Willie Crawford made an excellent post about marketers like Reese, Filsaime, etc. and how HARD they worked at building relationships, creating their own pool of marketing experts / partners, etc. I'm amazed at how few people who contact me even know how to use the words "Hello", "Thank you", "Good afternoon", "Let's talk on the phone", "I'd like to stay in touch", etc. What ever happened to just plain old good business sense?
If you sound like you want access to my list, chances are you sound like every other schmoe that's contacted me.
Find out your potential JV partner's sweet / weak spot. Mine is talking on the phone, though there's a rumor out there somewhere that making money is important too (tongue-in-cheek). If someone is willing to talk with me on the phone or via Skype (audio not IM) I'm far more inclined to talk to them then some anonymous email. Some people insist on only communicating via email...sorry, but that puts up a red flag for me, even if there's no reason for it. Remember the person who is hungrier than you is going to talk on the phone or talk via Skype voice chat.
* Leave the Arrogance at home. I've had people contact me calling me crazy because they're a "multi-millionaire" or they can help me make thousands of dollars or add another "six figure" income stream to my bottom line. I love it when people tell me "don't you know who I am?" (actually, those make me burst out laughing). Because isn't the reverse logic also possibly true?
I've even been called some bad names because I would not accept their poorly conceived JV. One guy even accused me of not being a "real man" because I didn't have the "balls" to promote his product. I simply told him he'll never be a real success with that ego-centric attitude and hung up on him. Today he's running away from the authorities. I'm not surprised.
Arrogance turns people off. Big time.
* What makes you stand out? In the sea of emails and IMs and phone calls of JV requests that are out there, what makes your offer stand out? Really think about that one. You might have to get really creative. Here's how I landed another JV deal when I first got started back in late 90s. I offered this marketer in a non-IM niche original content because I noticed that he was asking for it for a fee. I was honest with him and told him that I read Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki when he asked me why I would do it for free. I wanted to prove to him how serious I was about landing my JV deal.
After he received a few articles from me, he was so impressed with the work he gave me another "assignment" to do. That JV deal is still earning me about an extra $200 a month. This marketer also introduced me to several of his friends. Those connections put another six figures in my pocket over the years.
The six degrees of separation is very real. Here's why making yourself stand out works so well; there is a sea of mediocrity out in the market place. If you're willing to work a little harder, be a little more persistent, be a little more creative, focus on building relationships (it usually does take time), you're going to stick out from the 95-99% that don't do this). Then it's just you and the other 1-5% that have the same outlook and attitude.
Here's one last example: every once in a while you will see a knock-your-socks-off WSO. You can tell the person put a lot of time into it, their product is top notch, and they charge like $7, 9, 14, or whatever for it. I've had some high profile marketers buy my WSOs before. Remember, they're watching. They're looking. If you approach what you post here, what you offer here, and what you do ANYWHERE with a long-term mindset, you'll eventually get to the point where you'll have JV requests knocking down your door.
I'm living proof of it. After 6 months of hard core networking and building a variety of relationships in this forum, with competitors in a variety of niches, and even in my daily life, I no longer have to seek out JV partners....they come and seek me out.
Apply these principles because they really do work.
My 2 cents for this week,
Rod "I-Quit-Coffee-Now-I'm-High-On-Life!" Cortez
I keep track of all these requests and it was my 81st JV request in a row this year in niches ranging from Dating, Weight Loss, Match-Making, Curing Sweaty Palms, How To Find Your Soulmate, and so on and so forth; most of them basically went like this (no matter which side of the request you can envision yourself in, it's pretty obvious what's wrong with this approach):
"Hi there Rod, my name is Emilio. I've got a new ebook that I just finished writing. If you promote it to your list I'll pay you a whopping 60%, ...........contact me if you're interested.
Emilio"
I'm not writing this to make fun of "Emilio". Not one single bit. But for nearly a decade I've been receiving JV request after JV request that goes like the example mentioned above. You would think that after all these years, the information in this forum, the plethora of blogs, e-books, infoproducts, and even just plain common sense, that people would stop approaching others like this.
So.....what I wanted to do was give you a different point of view from someone who receives a lot of JV requests across a variety of different niches in hopes that it will help you secure that elusive JV deal. Keep in mind that my most profitable JV deals that I've sought out have taken me months to obtain (more on that later).
I don't know who Emilio is, he could be a good guy, he might be a bad guy. I have no idea if he knows me or who I am. But if I'm averaging 8 or so JV requests a month and they mostly look the same, who do you think I'm going to choose? Certainly not the ones that all come across the same way. Here are a few things to think about:
* When I first sought out JV partners many years ago I used to take the other person's non-response or "no" personally. I thought to myself "they have no idea that someday I'm going to be successful and they are going to regret not giving me a shot."
Boy, was I really wet behind the ears back then. Not only was I wrong in my premise, but if I had understood where THEY were coming from, I could have secured many more partners when I first started.
I'm going to pick people that I've done business with before because they've already proven to me what they're made of. Let's be honest here, I'd rather do business with my friends or people who have proven to me that they know what they're doing. People that have a solid product, know how to convert and know how to promote.
Remember, every marketer, well-known or not, that has a set of JV partners started off as a newbie at some point.
* I'm going to pick people that have the numbers. Is their product proven in the market place yet? (Remember, the smart JVers have these number sahead of time.) How many sales for every 100 visitors? Every 1,000? Did you at least test this using PPC? Article marketing? Some type of advertising?
* All things created equal, I'm going to go with the higher commission. (Hint: In order for me to land my first JV partner, I offered a "whopping" 100% commission - I know you can't do that with Clickbank, but with my first CB product I offered the max which was 75% at the time and probably still is. I was honest about the WHY and though I got a lot of "no's" I eventually got a "yes". Think Col. Sanders - that guy sold his chicken recipe while living out of his car and hearing over 1,000 "no"s, that guy is my freakin' hero).
* I'm going to pick marketers that make it dead-a** easy for me to promote their product or service. Even if they have a broadcast email that they share with all their affiliates, I can still take it, change it to suite my needs, and it's still made my life a heck of whole lot easier. Let's face it, again....with all things being equal I'm going to take the path of least resistance, hence doing business with friends and trusted marketers that have the numbers, etc.
* I'm going to pick marketers that respect my time. Chances are, I might have other JV requests ahead of them (I usually do), so if I say "contact me in 3 months" I'm not putting them off. I really do need those 3 months!
(Hint: I've done JVs with people who replied with "thank you for reading my email, I would very much like to stay in touch with you." They were genuine about it and did check up on me from time to time. They asked my permission if they could send me their newest numbers in about 3 months or so. For me, this level of perseverance and relationship-building goes a long way with me. This tells me they aren't there for the quick buck and are actual human beings that care about building longterm, profitable relationships).
* Honesty goes a looong way. I JVed with a 22 year old Warrior who contacted me with a short 4-5 paragraph message that stated he was a total newbie who had created a product, used PPC to promote it, made SOME money, and was looking to land his first JV deal. He asked for help in a very honest way. A few months later, we worked out a JV deal that made him a nice sum of money in just a few days. Honesty goes a long way. At least to me it does.
It was also nice to know where he was from, what got him interested in IM, and a couple other personal things that he shared with me. It just made him more human.
* Business & Networking 101. A few months ago Willie Crawford made an excellent post about marketers like Reese, Filsaime, etc. and how HARD they worked at building relationships, creating their own pool of marketing experts / partners, etc. I'm amazed at how few people who contact me even know how to use the words "Hello", "Thank you", "Good afternoon", "Let's talk on the phone", "I'd like to stay in touch", etc. What ever happened to just plain old good business sense?
If you sound like you want access to my list, chances are you sound like every other schmoe that's contacted me.
Find out your potential JV partner's sweet / weak spot. Mine is talking on the phone, though there's a rumor out there somewhere that making money is important too (tongue-in-cheek). If someone is willing to talk with me on the phone or via Skype (audio not IM) I'm far more inclined to talk to them then some anonymous email. Some people insist on only communicating via email...sorry, but that puts up a red flag for me, even if there's no reason for it. Remember the person who is hungrier than you is going to talk on the phone or talk via Skype voice chat.
* Leave the Arrogance at home. I've had people contact me calling me crazy because they're a "multi-millionaire" or they can help me make thousands of dollars or add another "six figure" income stream to my bottom line. I love it when people tell me "don't you know who I am?" (actually, those make me burst out laughing). Because isn't the reverse logic also possibly true?
I've even been called some bad names because I would not accept their poorly conceived JV. One guy even accused me of not being a "real man" because I didn't have the "balls" to promote his product. I simply told him he'll never be a real success with that ego-centric attitude and hung up on him. Today he's running away from the authorities. I'm not surprised.
Arrogance turns people off. Big time.
* What makes you stand out? In the sea of emails and IMs and phone calls of JV requests that are out there, what makes your offer stand out? Really think about that one. You might have to get really creative. Here's how I landed another JV deal when I first got started back in late 90s. I offered this marketer in a non-IM niche original content because I noticed that he was asking for it for a fee. I was honest with him and told him that I read Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki when he asked me why I would do it for free. I wanted to prove to him how serious I was about landing my JV deal.
After he received a few articles from me, he was so impressed with the work he gave me another "assignment" to do. That JV deal is still earning me about an extra $200 a month. This marketer also introduced me to several of his friends. Those connections put another six figures in my pocket over the years.
The six degrees of separation is very real. Here's why making yourself stand out works so well; there is a sea of mediocrity out in the market place. If you're willing to work a little harder, be a little more persistent, be a little more creative, focus on building relationships (it usually does take time), you're going to stick out from the 95-99% that don't do this). Then it's just you and the other 1-5% that have the same outlook and attitude.
Here's one last example: every once in a while you will see a knock-your-socks-off WSO. You can tell the person put a lot of time into it, their product is top notch, and they charge like $7, 9, 14, or whatever for it. I've had some high profile marketers buy my WSOs before. Remember, they're watching. They're looking. If you approach what you post here, what you offer here, and what you do ANYWHERE with a long-term mindset, you'll eventually get to the point where you'll have JV requests knocking down your door.
I'm living proof of it. After 6 months of hard core networking and building a variety of relationships in this forum, with competitors in a variety of niches, and even in my daily life, I no longer have to seek out JV partners....they come and seek me out.
Apply these principles because they really do work.
My 2 cents for this week,
Rod "I-Quit-Coffee-Now-I'm-High-On-Life!" Cortez
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