4 Things You Have to Know about Joint Venture

Joint ventures in business are a wonderful thing. They can allow you to make money you wouldn’t otherwise be able to make on your own, they enable you to tap into other people’s expertise and knowledge, and potentially they can speed up projects, whilst making them more successful and

sharing some of the risk. Joint ventures are talked about a great deal in the internet marketing world, but despite the many benefits there are also a number of drawbacks. Here are 5 things to think about before doing a joint venture:

1.       Joint ventures mean shared profit

Say you decide to join forces with another marketer and create your own product together. You can share some of the development costs and utilise both of your respective expertise, however assuming the joint venture is split straight down the middle then it also means you’ll only make half of what you would if it was solely your own product. Of course in many scenarios this is irrelevant because the project might have been impossible on your own, but it’s something to think about.

2.       Jointventures can go wrong

It can be the case that your joint venture partner simply doesn’t share the same commitment to the project as you do. This can be extremely frustrating if you’re putting in lots of hard work yourself and your partner simply doesn’t do their bit.

3.       Before you start, make sure you have an agreed timetable

It is all too easy for a joint venture project to slip behind schedule because your partner is not good at doing things on time (relating back to the point above) or simply that you both have other commitments and the project never gets finished. Before you start make sure you agree a timetable that both of you are happy with and are sure you can commit to.

4.       Choose your joint venture partners carefully

Are you compatible with the other party? Should you even be considering working together? There is little point in doing a joint venture with someone who has a completely different skill set or way of thinking. Whilst joint ventures allow you to tap into other peoples expertise, it is also essential that you have SOME shared knowledge, skills or common ground since otherwise the venture will become impossible. Similarly it is usually of little value to join forces with someone who has exactly the same skill set or market access as yourself. If, for example, you have a product but no list to sell it to then look to joint venture with someone who has a list but no product to sell to them!  

Blogging for Profit Begins With a Long Term Plan

Many people dream of blogging for profit, and this goal is not far beyond the reach of someone with average intelligence, a willingness to work hard, and a basic grasp of blogging technology. However, very few people manage to reap the profits they want from their blog. Most people who attempt to make money with their blogs do not succeed for two reasons. Often, bloggers have unrealistic expectations of how fast their readership will grow and how much money they will make, and when these expectations are not met the disappointment can crush the desire to continue blogging. The other trap that many bloggers fall into has to do with lack of planning. If you want to turn a profit as a blogger, the key to success is to make a realistic plan and stick with it.

To succeed at blogging for profit, the main thing that you will need is a large readership. The higher your traffic, the more advertisers will agree to pay you. However, cultivating the regular visitors that you will need in order to make a profit isnt easy. As more and  more blogs appear each day, having a great idea or a wonderful writing style is no longer enough to get attention. You need to be able to market your blog effectively.

Too many bloggers spend all of their time writing posts and almost no time marketing their project. To be certain, updating as often as you can is a great way to keep your blog high on blogrolls and high in blog search engines like technorati, and once your readers know that you update frequently they will return to your site on a regular basis. However, it does not matter how often you update if nobody is reading your page, so dont skimp on the time that you spend drawing visitors to your site. To make your dreams of blogging for profit a reality, try decreasing your number of posts and using some of that time to draw new visitors by setting up link exchanges with other bloggers, making contacts in
the blog community, and following other established modes of winning traffic.

Of course, even if you are a marketing genius or have a really great idea for a blog, success is not going to happen overnight. Building the kind of readership that blogging for profit requires takes time, and in all likelihood it will be at least several months before you are able to turn much of a profit. Try to stay committed to your blogging project during this initial rough period. To stay motivated, set goals for how often you will update and how many readers you want to attract, and
then reward yourself for sticking with your plan.

Writing a Good Autoresponder Sequence

So you’ve got people to opt-in to your list and you’re building a subscriber base. This is probably the autoresponder sequence then you’re pretty much putting all of your list building efforts to waste…

single most important thing you can do in your online business BUT if you don’t follow it up with a good

A good autoresponder sequence builds a relationship with your subscribers. It (hopefully) gets them to buy products from you and engage in what you’re all about. Many people get it wrong. They stack up the messages without giving much thought to what they are actually doing. 

Here’s how to do it right: 

Put yourself in your subscribers shoes.

Easier said than done I agree, but do you really want to be receiving sales email after sales email each and every day? The first step towards writing a good autoresponder sequence is to put yourself in your subscribers shoes and think about what they would like to receive. What interests them? What will benefit them?

 Give content. Don’t just sell.

It’s a funny thing but the truth is that the less you sell, the more you’ll sell! Give quality content in your autoresponder sequence and look out for your subscribers interests. Tell stories, give them helpful advice that they can put into action straight away without needing to buy anything

Carefully time your emails.

Autoresponders let you space your messages in any way you wish. All you have to do for each message is to specify the number of days between that email and the last one. Try delivering them every day for the first few days, and then space them out a little longer after say the first week. Why? Because immediately after subscribing people are ‘hot’ about you and it’s a great time to sell to them

     Think about what they originally signed up for.

Most people build their list by giving away some sort of freebie in return for the opt-in. A top tip for writing a good autoresponder sequence is to make sure that your emails relate back to the original thing they signed up to receive. If your squeeze page ‘bait’ was about blogging then they are obviously interested in blogging or they wouldn’t have subscribed!

Above all – give quality content and deliver to your subscribers content that you know they will enjoy. Take a look at other marketers autoresponder sequences. How do THEY do it?

How To Create an Interview Product

Production creation is something which many people struggle with when starting an online business.

Getting the information to actually put into a product can be difficult, as can be finding the time to write or produce it.

A great way of creating a quality product quickly however is to do an interview with an expert in your niche and then package it up as a product...

The benefits of doing this are massive. Providing you find the right person to interview you should be getting access to an instant pool of knowledge which can go into your product.

The first step is to find your interviewee. This is not as difficult as it sounds either because they get tons of free exposure and the chance to sell themselves, meaning that many people will jump at the chance to be interviewed! Approach people in your niche and ask them. You can find them in the usual places like blogs, forums, etc.

The next thing to decide is what format you want to conduct the interview in:

You could firstly do an email interview. You simply email over your questions and let the other person respond in paragraphs, and then put the interview responses into a report or ebook. This is something I've done quite successfully in the past.

The other option is to do a 'live' interview and then record it. This could be done over Skype or telephone for example. Of course this has the advantage in that you can create two products out of the interview - the audio recording, and the transcript of the audio recording. If you choose this option it's always best to pre-plan and have a guide in front of you so as you know what you're going to talk about in the interview. You also need to let the other person know what you want to talk about in advance so that they can do a bit of pre-planning for the interview too.

Thinking of questions or topics to discuss:

This is easy - just think about what people in your niche want to know. If you don't know what's hot then just take a look at forums, blogs, or websites in your niche. For example, people in the internet marketing niche might want to know how he/she would build a list, or how they got started with an online business. Ask questions about the hot topics in your niche and you won't go far wrong with your interview.

However you decide to do it, creating an interview product is one of the easiest ways of creating a product, and it's also one of the best because you should end up with a product that is genuinely of high quality.

The Power of Testimonials

Convincing people that your product or service is actually any good can be difficult, especially online

where people may have been burned in the past. Most people won’t buy from you without some sort of pre-existing relationship, and anything that boosts your credibility can clearly only be a good thing.

Before people invest in your product or opt-in to your list they want to be sure that they aren’t wasting their time or money.  This is why testimonials are so powerful - they have far more credibility than anything you write yourself simply because they are someone else’s opinion.

So how do you get testimonials? Start by getting into the habit of asking anyone who buys from you to give you their opinion. If your product or service is actually of good quality then the feedback you get should be overwhelmingly positive. Try producing a short questionnaire and send it to all your customers. Obviously not everyone will oblige, but  those who do may give you valuable quotes that you can use as testimonials in your business.

Another strategy is to give away copies of your product to other marketers on the basis that they will give you their honest opinion – and make sure it is honest as well! It is quite easy to get people to give you testimonialssince it is free advertising for the other person and boosts their own credibility.

Where should you include testimonials? You should definitely put them onto your sales pages and squeeze pages, but there are other places too – in emails to your list or posts on your blog.

You can also go beyond the testimonial by producing case studies. Has one of your customers had a success story because of your product? If you can produce a good case study you’ll help people to understand more about your offering, whilst also re-assuring them that it is the right thing for them. 

Case studies can make excellent press releases too, giving your online PR a boost and getting you some valuable free advertising and coverage in the media if your press release gets picked up by publications.

Why Build a Membership Site?

Membership sites seem to be all the rage in internet marketing circles. Let’s face it – you can barely open your inbox without seeing an offer promoting the launch of yet ANOTHER new membership site or continuity program. So what’s all the fuss about? Why build a membership site?

Let me start by saying that if you are an internet marketer and you DON’T yet have your own membership site, you are missing out… big time.

The main benefit is that it gives you a recurring income (and I am sure you’ll agree this is a massive plus point! You get paid each and every month for as long as the person remains a member of your site. One subscriber paying you $27 a month is worth $324 to you over the course of a single year, and here is the best bit – you only have to sell to them ONCE. How much easier is that than trying to sell to the same people over and over again? All you need to do is to get them to continue their membership by providing quality content. This is much, much easier than selling.

You will of course find that people cancel their memberships. It doesn’t matter how fantastically amazing your website is – it WILL happen and in fairly large numbers too. But whilst we’re on that topic just take a moment to think about this - if you recruit more people each month than you lose then your income is going to rise each month. This is very cool stuff and once you have a continuity program you’ll be addicted to them and the possibilities they bring for your business.

There are other benefits too. Build a membership site and you’ll also build a very strong relationship with your members. It helps you to be seen as an authority source in your niche and builds your credibility, and they are also very attractive to affiliates. They too are compelled to promote your product for the chance to earn a recurring income.

If I was starting out from scratch today as an internet marketer one of the first things I would do is build a membership site. It gives you the security of a regular income and there are absolutely vast amounts of money to be made if you are offering the right sort of content for your target market.

What Can Mentoring Do For You and Your Business?

Starting an online business is a huge learning curve. The idea is initially very exciting, but soon the excitement and interest can turn into frustration and confusion as you plough your way through a minefield of information. It’s all too easy to suffer massive information overload and give up the online dream before you have even started.

Does the following sound familiar? You buy an information product, read it, and think to yourself ‘I’ll put this into action.’ The next day another offer plops into your inbox, you buy it, read it, and again you start to feel excited that ‘this is the one.’ A few days later and you’ve completely forgotten about that product, you buy into the next big launch… and so the cycle continues.

Why is this? It’s partly the dream and idea that there is a magic button or silver bullet out there; a big ‘secret’ that if you find it you’ll become rich. The other reason is information overload and not knowing where to begin.

How do you get out of this cycle? For many people the answer is mentoring. By finding a good mentor you literally have someone to hold you by the hand, ‘join the dots’ for you, and ensure that you stay focused. By working closely with someone who is themselves already successful you stand a much greater chance of achieving success yourself. Reading an information product or strategy and actually doing it are two completely different things. Often things sound easy but implementing them is a whole different story. If you have a mentor there to guide and support you they can ensure you get up and running quickly.

Some people argue that success breeds success and I can’t help but agree. If you’re struggling online then getting a good mentor may be one of the best decisions you ever make.