Newbies’ Guide to Niche Marketing

How do you obtain free products to sell on your website for a profit? Join venture marketing has created a venue to obtain free electronic products such as eBooks and Ezines that are given by the authors for free, in exchange for their appearance on your website. Labeled as Master Resell Right’s products and Private Label Rights products, these items can increase traffic to your website and at the same time provide a venue for the marketer? These products are ready to go and need no shipping and handling. You simply accept payment and download the material to your client.

The benefit to both joint venture partners is evident. You receive products to put on your website and they provide the products. When a product sells, according to the agreement made, you will receive a portion of the profits as a advertising agent and the author of the e-material will receive a portion for the creative rights of his or her product. You are essentially a bill board in cyberspace. Where a billboard provides a rental fee, you provide the avenue to push the product and to get the product noticed by your subscriber base.

The negative thing about this kind of joint venture is that you are using your client base and your partner does not have one from which you can draw. It is one sided when you are looking at the partnership from the traditional joint venture view. You would normally get your product exposed to their customer base, but in this endeavor you stand alone on product distribution. You are only the carrier of the product, and your products will remain on your site without any extra exposure.

The positive thing about this one sided joint venture is that you could make a lot of money of the commission of the sold e-texts on your site. If your author is savvy to keywords and has an article that is of great public interest, then not only will those keywords drive the market to your site, but you are reciprocated when they by the e-text. For example if an author wrote an e-text like a common subject about how to lose weight or how to improve a relationship, then you would get the common responses to those looking to fix their plight. If the author has found a special niche in the market that will drive people to purchasing the information offered, then your market base will spread and you website will receive higher number of hits.

In the agreement, you might have to pay the provider of the e-texts with a portion of the profits that you have made because of their product on your website. Then can be hard to prove sometimes, but if you have an accurate representation of what you were pulling in before the product was listed on your site and what you are pulling in afterwards, then you would have a guideline to barter for an interest agreement. You can even add customers by having them sign up for your websites newsletter before they receive the product that your partner is selling them. This will replace the data that you are missing from the traditional joint venture. These types of partnerships are risky if you do not know what you are doing during the proposal stage. Ask advice from professionals and have your lawyer look at the contract beforehand.

So you are internet savvy. You know how to market and to get a product out there, but you have no products to sell. That is okay. You can still form and develop a joint venture partnership that will be productive and make you money. It might be a little tougher than if you did have a product, but with perseverance and a little quick talking you can land that joint venture partnership that will be symbiotic and profitable. Therefore, you have to look at yourself differently. You are no longer selling a product, you are selling the service and that joint venture partner now has a chance to use your skills, instead of some product that you are selling.

First you have to find a business partner with a product that matches your skills. If you do not know anything about financing, you probably do not want to align yourself with a joint venture partner that deals with stocks or bonds. You probably want to go with a partner that has a product that you are familiar with and that you know that you can market correctly. Look at other people’s websites. Look at what you could do to improve them. Contact the webmaster with your ideas and make a proposal that is both doable and is profitable for both parties involved.

Now that you have determined what you can offer a potential joint venture partner, you have to decide what you want from them. Think about a fair deal. Don’t try to gouge your potential partner. They probably know what you are worth and if you try to get over on them it could harm your deal making prowess. Write a formal business plan that will address all issues, negative and positive, and that will address all foreseeable problems that might arise. You may also think about putting in an exit strategy if you or your partner feels that the deal in not working and one or both of you want out.

Another way to enter a joint venture without products is to find someone with products to sell but no venue. This could be done locally or at a trade show where you find local businesses that have the stock that they need moved and do not have the internet experience to move it. Here again you sell yourself as the product. You do not have to have a storehouse of merchandise or a catalog of electronic texts to push. All you need to be successful is the means to open a highway of commerce for that business man who does not know how to do it for themselves.

When you have no product, the product is you. If you do not know what you are good at or what you have a niche for that sells, sit down and write out a comprehensive list that lists all your good attributes that might be worth selling. Start writing them down in a professional manner so that you can show the future joint venture partner that you are experienced and you have the skills to move their product. Just like a writer aspiring to get a new job. They have to show a copy of their work to their potential employer to prove they have skills and knowledge to be a valuable asset to the company. Your skills are your resume and are sellable, just like any other product on the market.

When trying to find a joint venture partner that is right for you, sometimes it takes weeks and maybe months of research to come up with the right partner, with the right customer base, with the right terms for your agreement. When you meet someone who might be a potential joint venture partner, you might get snowed if they are not on the up and up.

They can tell you that there site receives more traffic than it actually does or their keywords are not the ones that they claim. You find this out through time taking research, but there are tools out there where you can assess the website of your potential partner and assess the websites of your competitors.

Www.copernic.com offers a great joint venture tool that not only contributes to the success of the joint venture partners, but also helps the solo entrepreneur find the partner in the first place. This device searches multiple search engines and uses keywords that you would find useful on your personal website. This takes all the guessing out of the keyword process and allows you to find the keywords that you need without taking a chance on using key words that don’t. If the keywords that you choose match up with a potential partner, the tool will let you visit their website so you can contact them. All the pertinent information that you need to contact this person will be provided by the search tool.

Another great tool can be found at www.alexa.com. This fantastic tool downloads right on top of your browser and gives you the real time information that you need to know that you are picking the right joint venture partner. You will see how one site compares to another. So when you are making the list that will start you on the way of picking a joint venture partner, you will how one site ranks against another and you will be able to pick the ones that are the most desirable. The sites that have the greatest number of hits are yahoo.com and google.com. They would be listed in the top five. You would feel comfortable with picking a joint venture partner from those ranked one to one hundred thousand. Like the tool for www.copenic.com.

You will also get the information that you need to contact the person to set up your joint venture deal.
Another wonderful asset to finding a joint venture partner is email. This is not a tool, but an essential in finding the right joint venture partner. The secret to email is to not to mass email or spam your potential partners, but to make each personal so that the potential partner will feel that you are taking a time to make a personal request for their time and potential partnership. Use group mail to personalize each of the mailings with the information that you have stored in your database. You will be able to store and use their personal contact information and the Ezine name. Just place in their name and personal information in the name tag and you will add that personal touch that will draw attention.

With these three tools and others that are out there, you can pinpoint that potential joint venture partner and know that they have the clout on the web to draw business to your site. You can also use the tools to keep a close eye on your competitors and find out what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong.

Now that you have a joint venture partner, what can you and they do to capitalize on the partnership. Not only do you have to look at the customers and extra traffic you receive but you also have to look at what your competitors are doing and how you can beat them at the punch. You and your partner or partners can set up competitive barriers that will not allow competitors to catch up with your progress and at the same time you may flood the market with your product leaving them to catch the scraps. You will lead your and your partners to a level that is untouchable by people following in your footsteps.

The first step of setting up a competitive barrier is to find out exactly what your competitors are doing. If you are selling dog toys, then get on the internet and put in the keyword dog toys. Look at the first page of links that is presented. Look at how the page is set up. What key words are they using? What repetitive phrase or word do you see over and over? Look at how the page arranged. Is there keyword articles or links that will take you to an article or is there a search engine friendly phase that puts this at the top of the heap?

They are on the first page for a reason. They have already done what you are about to do so now you have to find a strategy to get your site on top. This may be adding more articles or keywords or finding a unique niche in which your site will be the prototype to follow. You may have to rework you marketing strategy, but with the help and the support of your joint venture partner you may have the volume to overcome the person you are trying to compete with. The more out of the box ideas you come up with, the more competitive you will be.

After finding out what the competition is doing right, find out what they are doing wrong. See if you can find a problem in their system like poor customer service or late deliveries. Whatever they are doing wrong you can do it right and maybe sway their traffic and customer base over to your site. If the competition is combining shipping costs for multiple orders, then you and your joint venture partner can devise a way to make shipping cheaper and more user friendly than your competitor. Since you have a larger customer base with your partner, you might be able to cut a deal with UPS or other package carriers that could undercut your competition.

The barriers of competition are a never ending cycle to remain top dog. As you are planning the demise of your competitor, you will have several people looking at your site and seeing if you are doing something right or wrong in which they can exploit. It sounds cut throat but it is apart of doing business. Sometimes your greatest competitor can become a joint venture partner themselves. This will eliminate the quest for their spot and you can focus on other people that are not apart of your joint venture network.
Competition breeds business. You must compete to survive in the business world whether your business is brick and mortar or virtual. The online environment is fierce and you have to be at the top of you game to survive. Surround yourself with good joint venture partners and the fight for customers will go easier with allies.

To be successful online, you and your joint venture partner needs to know what is steering the industry today. Most people call these secrets, but these secrets are out and you and your partner or potential partner needs to jump on the band wagon to be successful in the market. Most of these elements are free, but they do take a little time and effort to get them up and running. Using these three elements will have any joint venture partnership up and running to record sales and profits.

The first element that is essential is article marketing. This is a free add-on to your website that will draw millions of visitors to it. With this element, you need to write and submit articles to article submission sites that will draw the reader of the article to your product. By using keywords and listing your articles in various sites and using your website as a reference or a citation, you will be able to draw visitors to your site in droves. This will increase the number of inbound links to your page and then you will have a percentage of those readers actually become clients.

If you have little or no writing talent, there are many writing services out there that will write the articles for you for a fee. These articles can be stuffed with as many keywords as you wish and each keyword will not only bring the audience to the article, but link the article to your site.

Most writing services are reasonably priced and offer professional writing that will not only draw customers, but will give the readers worth while information that, again, will be passed on and draw more customers. It is a domino affect that will crash toward one goal, making your site more obtainable.

The second element to your joint venture project is to use Ezine publishing. This is like using the article based element but this requires you to provide your subscribers and your readers with valuable, enriching content that will give them a solution to their problems. The vitamin and supplement industry has used these Ezine articles successfully in the past because they give the cause, the treatment, and the cure of a certain person’s personal problem. People are looking for answers and your Ezine publishing gives them those answers.
The third element to a successful joint venture is search engine optimization. This tool will drive not just traffic, but quality traffic to your website. You just have to know how to please the search engine gods. Again you have to use keywords throughout your content to ‘optimize’ your exposure. When the average Joe puts in the key word, bipolar disorder, the site that will come up first on the search pages is the site that uses the word bipolar more often throughout the page. Use the keywords in your article, title, and any tags that might people to your site.
These elements are good for a single website, but when used in a joint venture partnership, then the chances for customers and subscribers to come to either site is increased greatly. If you have multiple joint venture partners, these three elements used together can build a mighty business force that can hardly be reckoned with. Double the exposure means double the chances for increased sales and bigger profit.

You are on your way to work. You are sitting in a car and watching the pedestrians walk by. Unbeknownst to you, each person that is walking by could be a potential customer or joint venture partner. This amazing fact is true. The best way to find a joint venture partner is to get up close and personal. Face to face encounters is the best way to exchange ideas and to promote your product or service to be displayed on another person’s website. A verbal exchange at a bar or in the locker room of your gym can give you the pre-knowledge of what the potential viability of that person being a joint venture partner.

There are several venues in which you can meet people of like mind and that are looking for a joint venture partner themselves. Trade shows and other gatherings are excellent places to find a joint venture partner, because that is what most trade shows and professional conferences are geared for. Have a pocket full of business cards on you and be prepared to talk and convince other people that your product or service is right for their needs. They then will try to convince you of the same thing. It is a booming opportunity in which you should include yourself every time you have a chance.

The trade shows are a benefit, but as a potential joint venture partner, you have to look at everyone you meet as a potential partner. If you are sitting at a restaurant alone at the bar, strike up a conversation with the person next to you. After pleasantries, ask the age old question, “So, what do you do?’ You will be surprised at the number of people that you meet that are in the online marketing industry or at least has some kind of sideline that is in the market. It might not be but one or two out of ten people you meet, but that one or two could change your profit margin hugely.

When you press your product face to face, try not to sell the idea. Propose the idea and then ask how the other person thinks that the idea will be successful for them. Let their mind start to generate possibilities and dollar signs. It will be easier to go into a conversation with the potential partner if they are not of the defensive, but are thinking about how they are going to come out on top of the deal. Sit back and then when they start asking you questions, you can shine as you tell them how both of you can profit together.

Other social situations like parties get togethers, or family reunions can be an excellent source in finding potential joint venture partners. So what if you haven’t seen Uncle Bob for ten years. Find out what he is doing now and how can his actions and business help promote yours. Get out, open your mouth and talk and ask questions. If you do not put your self out there and network.

It is reported that only 2% of all joint venture proposals sent by email are looked at. That is a very small percentage and you have to get out there and bring that percentage up. Email is fine, but the face to face encounter will build a joint venture partnership with personal interactions, trust, and eventually profit.

Go for the big fish first. Don’t waste your time going to a hundred companies that are the same size or smaller than you. If you land a big joint venture partner, it will overshadow the profit or the subscriber base you will find in a plethora of smaller ones. Don’t be intimidated.

Most people are intimidated to submit a proposal to one on the internet giants. Because of this intimidation, many people do not try. By just sending a proposal to a big fish, you are stepping out from the crowd and you will be noticed for taking a chance.

Go after a joint venture product that has a like product as yours. You wouldn’t want to sell fishing lures on a makeup site and vice versa. Look at the big fish, but the big fish that have a customer base that will match your market. If you take a fishing lure proposal to a make up company, you will be not only declined, but your integrity as a business man will be hurt. See what’s out there. Make a list of all the companies out there that are similar to your product or service. Don’t make it to big because you need to be able to keep control to who and where a proposal is going.

Once the list is made, put the companies in order from the biggest to the smallest. This can attained by the position they were in on the web page you pulled up with your product keyword. The first five positions mean that someone knows how to put their products out there with the right keywords and has enough internet savvy to market. Contact the people at the top of your list first. You might want to make a daily goal and send out five to ten proposals a day. Don’t be discouraged if you get a negative reply or no reply at all. Keep plugging and soon you will find a joint venture partner worth waiting for.

Don’t just rely on the internet to find possible joint venture partners. The most successful unions have been met in a bar or golf course. Get out and network. Tell people what you are doing and what you want to do.

It is amazing how many people you will find with a like mind that will be able to appreciate and help you find a partner or have the things and skills you need to become a partner themselves. Casual acquaintances that become business partners have had a track record of being more successful than just professional business junctures.

Once you put out your proposals, you might find that it is accepted by more than just one partner. Great! You do not have to be exclusive and it is sometimes unwise to sign an exclusive agreement with anyone. If you have five or six offers and they look like they will be beneficial to your company, then take them. The more joint ventures you have the more customer base you will have. You will have a chance to showcase a number of products on your sites that might lead to additional sales on yours. Think of ways you can incorporate your joint venture partners products with yours and with a little research and development, you and your partner could come up with a new product that both of you could feature and split the

When you are looking for a joint venture partner, you have to ask yourself, “What are they looking for?” You would think that they are looking for money from you to expand on their own needs and wants. This is not always true. Sometimes the joint venture partner wants a symbiotic relationship where both partners will benefit. They may need someone who is business savvy and can push their products in a new direction or expand their sales base. It is cheaper to have you as a partner, usually free, then hiring a marketing expert or even a secretary to hunt up leads and potential customers.

When you are dealing with a potential joint venture partner for the first time, don’t jump right into bed with them, but feel them out for their potential sincerity. Never make a deal on a first meeting or on verbal interaction.

Get the information that you need verbally, and then ask them where to send the proposal for the joint venture. This will give them the idea that you are a legitimate business and that you are not going to be led by their ideas but your own. The written proposal will set down a legal back trail incase something goes negative in the relationship.

When you present your proposal in a written form, there are still some people in today’s society that appreciates the written word instead of the electronic version. Their inboxes are probably filled everyday with other joint venture proposals and to receive a professional document by hand could be the edge to get the proposal looked at if not accepted. By slamming the internet full of proposals you are just another fish in the ocean trying to get fed. A well thought out and planned proposal will turn the eye of any serious future proposal.

You can find joint venture templates on the web using the template as a keyword. They are easy to download and fill out and they look professional. If you are really ambitious you might want to try to build your own form or use the templates as a guide to build your own unique form. Either way, you need to have your lawyer look at your proposal and make sure there are no loopholes that will come back to bite you in the future. A simple misspelling or a grammar error could cause you to lose a lot of money because of an ill worded proposal.

Once the proposal is submitted give it about three days after you think it would have been delivered. Call the prospective joint venture partner and ask if they have had a chance to go over it. If they have, be prepared to make amendments or other changes to make the partner happy. Have a copy of the proposal in front of you as you talk on the phone or run the document into a PDF file and you can conference call with Adobe to change the document online while both of you are looking at it. Before signing any changes, again have your lawyer look at it to make sure the changes did not destroy the integrity of the document.

Once Okayed and signed, be the first person to initiate the first phase of your project. Your partner may not have the time to jump right out there and initiate the start. By going the distance and starting the process yourself will instill more trust between partners.