Newbie To JV

Hi Alan, here are a few ideas

1. When looking for partners, you might start with contacts that you already have. They are often a million times more responsive to any offer you have than someone that you approach cold. In fact your contacts might be able to at least refer you to a potential JV partner.

2. When approaching someone for a JV deal, take the focus off of what you are getting out of the deal. Talk only about what they are getting and how it will help them. Most (all) people are more concerned with what they are getting from the deal and could care less about your gain.

3. Really get to the heart of what this person wants. It's easy to make the mistake of thinking your potential partner's only motivation is a fat affiliate commission. This is often (surprisingly) not the case. Sometimes they want more subscribers, more fame, a better reputation, and many times they just want to build a better relationship with their list.

One idea is to flat out ask them what they want. I was talking on the phone with someone in charge of a large list about three months back. I went in thinking that the mediocre commission I was offering (50%) was why the person was hesitating to promote the product. I figured money would be the main motivator for them to run this promotion. I finally just asked something like "What would have to happen for this to work and be a great deal?" She flat out told me she wanted me and the product owner to do a blast to our list that would promote their ezine and print magazine. So here I was wrong to think that her motivation was to make money on this deal. She wanted to promote her company's magazine. Things went a lot smoother once I identified her needs. One thing that this taught me was that you need to ask a lot of questions and listen to the other person.

4. Get the deal in writing! This is a personal preference of mine to use agreements but then again I've been burned in the past. Some deals can go well on a handshake but it's nice to have everything written down so there is no miss communication. This is not just so you can take legal action if they break their agreement (you can if you want) but more so all party's involved know exactly what is required from them. At the very least send them a basic outline that they can agree to.

5. Build relationships with people in your chosen market. Don't wait till you have a need to make the introduction. Offer to help them out. I've built one or two relationships just flat out offering my services to them for free. At the time I was working with graphics so I sent one internet marketer a bunch of new graphics and ebook covers for his site. This might be over doing it but I don't think so. He was happy to have them and the next time I need something from him I know he will be there. Another option is to become their affiliate and make a few sales. Even if you only made one affiliate sale, this puts you on a whole other level with them then some outsider who only wants to get at their list. You could also just buy something from them, like a coaching session.

6. Think outside of the box. Don't get stuck in the product/list trap that some people get caught up in. They get a product and all the sudden the only way to promote it is to find someone's giant ezine to promote it to. There are a billion different types of JV deals out there you can set up both offline and online. Traffic exchanges, offering your item as an upsell on someone elses site, coming together with a big name to create a product etc. In fact there are so many kinds of joint ventures that the term JV has become a vauge and non discriptive term that usually describes promoting someones product to someone elses list. The sky is the limit with the kind of joint ventures that you can set up.

Nolan