Joint Ventures...

To understand this opportunity you need to understand the meaning of, and value of, a List; if you haven’t already read through the appropriate section of this web site on List Building, I encourage you to do so, then return.

Welcome back!

Generally speaking, my consulting business provides enough “people contact” for me. In my Internet businesses I prefer to deal with nameless, faceless masses. Well … I’m exaggerating a little, but you know what I mean. I like the "no touch" aspects of doing business on the ‘Net.

Which means that Joint Ventures (JV) aren’t a “natural” opportunity for me.

And that’s unfortunate because in many ways they can be the simplest way to making some serious money, quickly, without a web site, a product, or a List. For someone with the right attitude (count me out) and the right know-how.

But don’t mistake “simple” for “easy!”

The most successful JV proponents are prepared to work very hard to make their deals work.

With a wide variety of variations, the three most common Joint Venture opportunities talked about in the Internet Marketing world are:

1. You own a List, you find someone who has a Product that will appeal to the people on your List, you agree to work together to promote that product and share the profits according to some split.

2. You have a product, you find someone with a List of people who will find your product attractive, you agree to work together to promote that product and share the profits according to some split.

3. You have neither a product nor a list; so you go out and find someone with a product, and someone with a List, and you pull them both together and do the majority of the work associated with making the Joint Venture a success … and you claim a significant share of the income. Instead of being a Joint Venture partner, you would be a Joint Venture broker.

In fact, JV’s go far, far, beyond this. For some multi-million dollar businesses, almost everything they are doing is a form of Joint Venture; seminars, conferences, new products, new services, etc. For some marketers, Jay Abraham being the “King” at this, Joint Ventures are the basis for massive deals … deals worth tens of millions of dollars, even.

In reality, the Internet aspect of Joint Venturing is probably the smallest fragment of the JV world. So by focusing on the three strategies I mention, be aware I’m really limiting the scope of this discussion. If you decide to dive deeper into the topic, particularly if you do it via any of Jay Abraham’s material, you’ll gain a sense of just how the whole world’s business can be effectively viewed from a JV perspective.

However, I’m going to keep Internet JV blinkers on here. In this case, for a JV partner, the JV is simply another way of doing business, another channel for income. For a JV broker, the JV may be a full-time source of income.

But for all concerned, the single thread running through every JV is “trust.” And that comes from establishing a relationship. For obvious reasons, people like to do JVs with people they know and trust; and the JV’er can invest a great deal of time establishing the relationships and the trust. You’ll find that many JVers take the attitude that “The secret is to find good people, do some Joint Ventures with them, then keep looking for more opportunities to do other deals with them after the promotion is done.”  (This quote is from T.J. Rohleder, whose business is one of those I mentioned … where almost everything they do is a JV of some kind, and they make millions doing it.)

So you can see how I contrast this with the semi-anonymous nature of so much Internet Business.

Now, it’s important here to recognize that the Internet JV world is divided into two.

On the one hand, there are JV opportunities between expert marketers. These are people who know the value of a visitor to their site, know the conversion rates of their different web sites, the conversion rates of their lists … the language of a JV is simply business.

On the other hand, there are far more numerous JV opportunities with Joe Blow, or Jane Doe, the owner of a web site and a mailing list or of a "regular world" product or service, but someone who actually knows very little about Internet Marketing, and nothing about Joint Ventures. The opportunity is great, but the way you have to turn the opportunity into a reality is entirely different than when you’re dealing with experienced marketers.

If this arena interests you, you should seriously consider buying a course because you don’t know what you don’t know in this facet of doing business; and what you don't know here can hurt you.

If you do some research on the topic of JVs on the Internet, you'll come across the name of Marc Goldman. With the exception of Jay Abraham, you’ll see his name mentioned more than anyone else’s in the Internet JV world.

One of the first purchases I made to understand the JV world was a CD-based product called the Joint Venture Brokering Mastery Teleseminar, put together by Marc Goldman, and while it was good, and worth the US$177 I paid at the time, it was the wrong thing to buy.

Goldman’s e-Book JV Secrets Revealed, which is a lot less expensive, is a better product in my opinion; it's more of a practical "how to" for newbies, and among other things the package includes sample contracts (including a Non-Disclosure contract) which are themselves worth the cost of the eBook many times over. JV Secrets Revealed is simply packed not only with the concept, it’s packed with practical advice and resource guides that are worth their weight in gold if this opportunity interests you at all.

The Goldman material was a complete eye-opener for me. For example, how do you get the attention of the people you want to do the JV with? And, what can you do to make it almost impossible for them to say “no!” once you have their attention?

Goldman points out that you want to make it as easy as possible for a JV partner, you want to remove almost 100% of the risk from them, remove almost 100% of the effort from them. So you’ll make sure that any sales copy is already written. You’ll make sure that any affiliate deals are made. Any tracking mechanisms are set up and in place. You’ll contact the person they use to publish their newsletters, and you’ll give them the ad copy, and you’ll make sure it includes their affiliate id, and etc. Basically, you want their role to be to say “Yes” to the deal, and to collect a check. You do everything else.

If you’re the JV Broker, you do this for BOTH partners. Make it impossible for either of them to say “no!”
And Goldman points out to just what extent you might have to educate the players … even if they ARE expert, experienced marketers.

As I say, you don’t know what you don’t know until you dive into this stuff, and I can’t recommend JV Secrets Revealed highly enough if this is an area that interests you.

Then there’s the other aspect I mentioned; when you’re looking to do a JV with a “normal” person, someone who’s not at all marketing savvy, just happens to have a valuable List or a useful product that fits a certain market niche that you know offers some real opportunity … almost everything that applies to an “expert” JV goes out the door. The way you introduce yourself to the players; the timing; the shape of the JV offer, and … yes, almost everything.

Not only the best, but the ONLY know-how I’ve seen documented on this is a US$47 e-Book by Jimmy D. Brown and Ryan Deiss, called Niche JV “How to Quickly Promote any Niche product Without Spending a penny!”  I highly recommend this one, too. A lot of what they say can be applied, with great value, in almost all elements of your business, and especially any Joint Ventures; but they offer insights to dealing with JVs in the Niche Market world that are pure gold if this opportunity interests you. When I read them, my reaction was basically “Thank God I just read what I did, that’s EXACTLY the mistake I would have made otherwise …” That’s when you know the material is good.

Finally … I recently unsubscribed from my newsletters from a youngster called Jason Cox, mainly because his style simply grates on me. I’m getting old and curmudgeonly, I suspect. Whereas he is young and brash and ... sort of LOUD.

But two things for sure … first, he has balls, and second, he knows how to make money from Joint Ventures. This is a 20-year old, making thousands (he was making thousands even in High School), in part because he has no fear. In some of his material (you could get it at "howtobrokerjvdeals.com", but this link is no longer working, and you had to go through a name-squeeze) he walks you through the research he did to find JV partners, and how he went about getting their attention … and as I say he has no fear, no intimidation factor whatsoever. So despite my discomfort with his style, I recommend you sign up for whatever he’s offering for free, then decide if he's your cup of tea.


Summary of Resources I mention on this page

JV Secrets Revealed - A Joint Ventures How-to eBook from an expert; excellent, includes contract samples

Niche JV - an excellent eBook explaining how to do JV's with "ordinary" people on the 'Net

Jason Cox's Name-Squeeze page - A 20-year old offers JV know how