A joint venture ( JV), for our purposes, is an agreement between two Internet marketers, one of whom agrees to endorse and promote the other ’ s products or services. Here we will call them the endorser and the endorsee.

Many Internet marketers got started building their lists by entering into joint ventures with other site owners. For example, when Jillian offered her fi rst few classes, Joe was her endorser. He sent out e - mails to his list recommending the classes. In return, Jillian paid Joe a percentage of the tuition for every one of his customers who enrolled. She entered into similar JVs with other site owners and, over a few months, built up a list of her own. Joint ventures continue to be a lucrative source of income for each of us.

There are various types of joint ventures. The endorser can use an e - mail or an e - mail series sent out to his list to sell the endorsee ’ s product.

Joint ventures can be done through teleconferences, usually combined with e - mails. The endorser interviews the endorsee by telephone, over a teleconference line, and invites his readers to listen. An endorser can also display the endorsee ’ s banners or links on his site, or offer a coupon to promote the endorsee ’ s offers. In most cases, the endorsee collects the orders and payments, sends out the merchandise if necessary, and then pays the endorser.

Sometimes JV partners will develop a product together or offer companion products. They can bundle products and offer them as a package. There are as many kinds of joint ventures as there are creative ideas generated by the partners. Everything on the Internet is constantly growing and changing, and we are limited only by our imaginations.

The benefi ts of a joint venture to the endorser are income, of course, and the opportunity to offer new products. In addition, your readers are always interested in having you tell them about new opportunities, as long as these are congruent with your primary business message. Finally, a joint venture brings a new relationship with the potential for reciprocity.

Chief among the benefi ts to the endorsee is access to new, prequalifi ed customers. If you are selling a product related to real estate, and you enter into a JV with someone who has a list of real estate investors, chances are high some of those readers will be interested in your product. They may choose to buy or not to buy, and they will form their own opinions about you and your product after they hear you and visit your site. But they are prequalifi ed — they are not on the Internet to buy shoes.

Joint ventures offer much higher potential conversion rates than cold sales. Statistics show the overall standard conversion rate for Internet sales is 2 percent. As we mentioned earlier, the conversion rate refers to the number of sales of a product, divided by the number of people who came and looked at the product. So if 100 people come and look at your sales page, 2 people might buy, in the general order of things. On a teleconference in a joint venture, conversion rates run about 15 percent.

Another benefi t to the endorsee is traffi c, and it is understood by the endorser that he is sharing his traffi c. There are a number of ways you can gain access to the traffi c of your JV partners. On the

Conservative side, you may offer a sign - up box to the visitors to your sales page. In a more aggressive mode, you may set up a squeeze page to collect e - mail addresses before visitors can access the sales page. The endorsee may also set up a registration page for a teleconference, if one is planned, and use a the registration page as a squeeze page to collect e - mail addresses. Once the visitor registers, he is taken to the information he needs to access the teleconference.

Your JV relationships can be of immense value to you, so you want to respect the preferences of your endorsers. Different site owners will vary as to how protective they are with their lists. But even in a case where the endorser does not want you to use a squeeze page of any kind, you will always pick up some new people for your list. The endorser ’ s readers will see what you have to offer, and some of them will decide to go to your site and get more information.

There are some standard conventions that cover the compensation structure for joint ventures. Generally speaking, 40 to 50 percent of any sale generated through a joint venture will be paid to the endorser. When the product is a class, or some other item that involves exceptional time or investment on the part of the endorsee, the endorser may be paid 30 percent of the proceeds of the sale.

Frequently when we are doing a joint venture, we will just send our JV partner a check, or make a payment into his or her PayPal account. However, some JV partners prefer to be set up as regular affi liates through the endorsee ’ s affi liate program. They are then able to go online and check their statistics to see how many sales they have made and how much money they are due. Successful joint ventures often turn into long - term affi liate relationships, in which both parties consistently promote each other ’s products.

There are many ways to fi nd a JV partner. Using the search engines, look for site owners whose readers will be interested in your products. If you are selling automobile seat covers, for example, look for web sites related to cars and car accessories. When you fi nd a likely site, determine whether the site owner has a mailing list. Amazingly, many web site owners do not. If they are simply an affi liate sales site, they may well not collect names. However, if you see a sign - up box or the offer of a newsletter, chances are the owner has a list of people who may be interested in your products or services. A list of any number over 1,000 people is a potential market for you. Then approach the site owner with an idea as to how you can make money together.

Some people who do business on the Internet haven ’ t quite grasped the cooperative business model. So you may encounter some who will say, “ Well, my site is in competition with yours, so I don ’ t want to do a joint venture. ” Sometimes you have to educate people a little bit. It ’s a learning curve, especially for folks who have left the traditional business world or expanded from traditional business to the Internet.

Newsgroups, forums, and message boards may be another source of joint venture partners. Networking is always one of your most powerful tools for accessing partners. Ask fellow marketers for referrals. The more people you know doing business online, regardless of whether the other businesses are remotely related to yours, the greater your pool of resources.

Existing JV partners are also a good source of referrals for new joint ventures. If your current or previous partners trust you and are comfortable with you, they will probably be happy to introduce you to new partners.

There are now a number of JV brokers, who represent a new and growing business model on the Internet. Brokers will put you in touch with potential JV partners. They may charge 10 percent for an introduction. The charge may be as much as 15 to 20 percent if they are going to provide assistance with the deal, such as setting up the date, giving you the teleconference lines, and writing some e - mails. The use of JV brokers is a perfectly viable way of doing business. Find out what their reputation is. Look at their agreements and be sure that you ’ re comfortable with them.

Often new marketers will meet established web site business owners at conferences, and these contacts may eventually result in joint venture relationships. If you ’ re meeting someone at a seminar, you might have only a few minutes to establish contact. Since it is likely that your list is much smaller than his, and you are an unknown quantity to that person, we recommend you simply introduce yourself and say a little bit about what you do. Then ask for permission to contact them again. You might say, “ Could we exchange cards? Do you mind if I call you sometime when you have a few minutes, so we can talk? ”

We ’ ve found that Internet marketers are incredibly generous with advice, support, and time. Perhaps that ’ s because we are all relatively new to the business. Even those of us who have been on the Internet the longest only have 12 years or so under our belts. We have all learned from other people. That spirit of cooperation is one of the things we most enjoy about working on the Internet.

But people are also clearheaded about the business proposition. So an established marketer is probably not, in two minutes, going to commit himself to sending to his list of 50,000 people news about your new product that may or may not do very well. But if he knows you and thinks you ’ re a nice person, he will be open to fi nding out more. This may be particularly true if you say, “ I ’ d love to ask you a couple of questions. I ’ d love to learn a little more from you. ”

Established marketers are frequently approached for joint ventures, and we do want joint ventures. We are not resting on our laurels. We want to make more money tomorrow, and JVs are a way to do it. But intelligent marketers are always discriminating about joint ventures. We are protective of our lists, and we only want to offer our readers products and services in which they will be genuinely interested.

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