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Local Business thought just ran through my head

by Corwinnx
6 replies
Hi warriors,

I have been scarce around here the past few days due to a HEAVY writing schedule for a new line of products I'm creating using a system I've developed, but I digress....

One of the books I was writing was about product creation, and as I was writing this book, a thought came into my head about doing joint ventures with local businesses.

This then led to the thought of how to use this to approach them for their business, if you do any local IM servicing.

Basically, here's the skinny. Let's see you have a new chosen niche that you are going to start creating product for and promoting. Well one of the ways we create products is through JV's right?

So, when faced with a new niche, open up your yellow pages, and find a brick and mortar store in your back yard that sells items that complement whatever you are going to promote on your site. Tell them you have a website that services their market and would they mind a meeting with you to discuss their inventory/services, etc. Ask them for an interview where you can ask questions about their products and their customers, that you can record, audio, video, (have transcribed too,) and then if they have a site, tell them you will be sure you link to it and tell your customers about, that it will be mentioned in the video and the audio. And if he has a website, you'll be sure to link to it for him from your new niche site and offer to give him a free website analysis.

If he doesn't have a website, give him one.

Once you've built this relationship, now you can offer SEO services for his site, copywriting services for his site, traffic generation services for his site.. etc etc etc...

I am going back to finishing my books now, just wanted to share this tip while I was still thinking about it.

-Marcus
#business #head #local #ran #thought
  • Profile picture of the author Jason Fladlien
    a technique similar to this works great for public domain works. Let's say you got a public domain work on fitness. Well, to add to the offer, to make it better, you could throw in a series of teleseminar interviews.

    To get those, just whip out your yellow page ads and find some personal trainers. Even better if you can shoot some videos with them. Total value enhancement for hardly any effort.

    -Jason
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    Co-creator of WP Twin. Perhaps the most expensive yet most reliable wordress cloning tool on the market. We've definitely been used more successfully than all other options :)

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  • Profile picture of the author giveusallfreedom
    Marcus,

    Sexy. I like it. My only question is wouldn't your customers be national as opposed to their customers being local. They may only get a few or none of your clients. I'd add that you educate them on the value of being an expert, and then offer to promote the interview in the local area. It will help you get more customers anyway and it will give them a clear benefit.
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    • Profile picture of the author Corwinnx
      Jason, I had thought of that too. *wink. I just saved that part for the book... but I guess the cat's out of the bag now and I'll just have to take it out.

      giveusallfreedom, well, yes and no. Depending on what the niche is, there's always physical products and shipping. Wouldn't work for a furniture store, but then again, I wouldnt be selling couches over the Internet as a 'niche'.

      Think you can't do a JV with the local pizza parlor just cause he's local and the web is world wide? Think again. He could collaborate with you on pizza recipes and even maybe make a video of how to make homemade pizza pie... complete with dough twirling sequence.

      You just need to get a little creative to figure out how to take a local businesses business model and spin it for a world wide market.

      -Marcus
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      • Profile picture of the author Doug McIsaac
        There are lots of examples of people generating local leads online. It's a good, solid business model that is only going to get stronger as the local Yellow Pages loses out to online search..

        Doug
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        • Profile picture of the author Kelvin Brown
          As far as the furniture you can't ship, wrong. How did it get to you? Look at all the furniture sold on ebay. So, it could be done via dropshipping, etc.

          Or if they don't want to be involved in shipping, they could produce a report on how to find_______ furniture. How to clean _______ from _________. Or how to inspect _____.

          Then you arrange to help position them as not only a national seller, but a local resource. So, now instead of just selling furniture, they are in position to become consultants to those looking to buy furniture on large scales. Then he would just happen to be in position to broker the deal as well.

          kelvin
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          Kelvin Brown

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          • Profile picture of the author myob
            This is an excellent business model. What we do for major metropolitan areas is contact local businesses, and offer to build them a website on a portal, or link their existing website to it. For example for each city we would have local listings for real estate, accountants, attorneys, auto repair, etc (closely mirroring the Yellow Page headings for that particular city). Charge them $50 monthly for a 5 page web site on the portal, and you should easily get 2,000 - 5,000 for each city portal. We do the advertising, SEO, and traffic generation for the whole portal, and they get the exposure.
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