Joint ventures are similar to the “talking to the owner” technique mentioned in the “Link Exchange” section. This honestly boils down to advertising each other’s products in an effort to earn money for both of you.
Contact the owner of a complimentary site to set up a cross-selling type relationship. This means that if any of his customers ask where they should buy their next Ipod, the owner will refer them to you. This also means that you have to do the same. In exchange for this, you give each other a percentage of the money earned from your relationship. Developing relationships will do amazing things for your business.
You must set up a way of tracking joint venture efforts to ensure you get paid. There are many ways of tracking these efforts, but the easiest way is to set up a specific page for that customer for them to send their customers to. That way you can track which orders come from them. If you have a shopping cart with numerous products, most have affiliate modifications that can be applied that will tell you when an affiliate makes a sale and how much you owe them.
Remember that you don’t have to have an affiliate program in place to do a joint venture. If you have a mailing list and your potential partner does too, check to see if they would be willing to send a recommendation to their list without a link to get paid. As long as you’re willing to do the same, this works to benefit both of you.
Many potential partners will be willing to do something special for you to promote their products. You should be willing to do the same. Teleseminars, Webinars, custom emails, etc…
Over deliver to a JV partner and they may just refer you to their friends and other people that they may know in your niche.
Also, a JV doesn’t just have to be to promote each other’s products. It could be working together to create one! Digital information products are easily created between two or more people that have knowledge on a subject!
To send someone to your JV partner’s website, add a folder to your website titled “recommends” Create a blank page for your website and insert the following code into the meta tags (between the <head> tags):
<meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="0; url=http://youraffiliatelinkhere.com">
Save the page with a simple one word title you will remember in the “recommends” file and the url will be formatted like this:
http://www.yoursite.com/recommends/page
This is an acceptable practice for affiliate marketing, as well.
Secret Tip: Always make sure that every folder of your website has an index page. Otherwise thieves can find and take any files easily.
Joint Ventures are more about networking than anything else. Having friends in your industry will do nothing but good things for you and your business. Being a loyal friend online will help you gain success quickly and keep it.
The first step in setting up joint ventures is to build relationships with others in your industry. Doing this should consist of researching your potential partner to understand their hobbies, dreams, families, and everything else you can find on them. Next, contact them via the most personal contact method you are capable of. The order of preference would be email, phone, and face to face. Attending seminars and trade shows are hands down the best way to build relationships with others in your niche.
