8 Tips to be Successful with your own JV offer

Most likely you have already heard other people getting all excited about JV's and how they can help you build your online business.

Or maybe you belong to that group of people who are not familiar with JV offers, which is short for joint venture offers... also known as business proposals.

Either way... you can benefit tremendously from the following 8 tips to be successful with your own JV offer. Let's get started...

1. A JV offer doesn't require a JV partner to buy your products or services to become a JV partner.

Asking you potential JV partner to buy the product or service would be considered a sales offer and not a JV offer. A JV partner is usually offered a free review copy of your product or service.

Doing that drastically increases your chances to gain a JV partner as this makes him or her feel obligated to return the favor by doing his part of the partnership and e.g. promoting your product or service to their lists.

Why am I mentioning this? Yes, you guessed it right... I had people contact me to do a JV with them and when I asked for a review copy to check first the value of the product... I was referred to their sales page!

2. A JV offer has to be a win/win or better a WIN/win. :)

A JV offer has to provide your JV partner with one or more additional benefits for becoming your partner... his WIN. Your win will e.g. be to be able to tab into your JV artners list and gaining extra sales.

A JV offer that offers a win/win could e.g. be:

"I am looking for JV partners that can promote my product or service to their list of contacts.

In return for you are recommending my product or service to your list, I will not only provide you with a free review copy of my product or service, but also pay you a 10% higher commission than regular affiliates."

Another example... a JV offer for a service you provide could e.g. offer this:

"I am looking for a JV partner who needs a small to medium sized software product developed in Visual Basic. I can offer to do that for you free of charge in return of 10% of the profits you generate selling that software for the first year starting at your first sale and 5% for the time after the first year."

Again, a win-win situation... the JV partner has a product without out of pocket expense that he can sell exclusively to his lists, his WIN. And you can earn royalties for live without your own list.

3. Don't make the initial JV proposals too lengthy. Especially when you propose to a well know marketer, this can be the JV kill. Those people often have very limited time and will not even read your message all the way to the end if it's pages long.

It is better to send a short teaser email first and then follow up once they reply with all details.

4. Make your potential JV partner feel like you're a peer and not a salesperson.

Do your research before you send your first email to a potential JV partner.

Make the style of your JV offer personal, mention details about their business and how the JV offer can help them in what they want to achieve.

5. Don't let your JV partner do all the work, participating in the JV should very as little work as possible for them.

Be prepared and offer them to provide marketing material for your JV partner. This can be solo-ad copy, banner and text ads and other materials your JV partner can use to share the word about your product or service.

The less work it is for them, the more likely they will become your JV partner. It is that simple.

6. Don't just go only for the big player.

Overlooking smaller publishers that have a very loyal and responsive list can be another mistake. Besides, those will be much more likely interested in your JV offer as they are not flooded with them (yet).

7. Show them how you can help their clients and customers.

Give an example how your product or service compliments your potential JV partners own products or services. This way you help them to provide an even better service to their clients and customers.

This will also build trust that doing a JV with you will not only earn you and them money, but show that you are interested in helping them to look good in front of their own clients and customers.

8. Test your web copy and conversion rates and provide details.

By letting them know your conversion rate, they will know that sending traffic to your is not a bottomless pit. They can estimate how much they will be able to earn by doing a JV with you.

If you know e.g. that you will generate 1 sale out of every 70 targeted visitors your sales page gets, then let them know that you have a 1.4% conversion rate on targeted visitors.

Knowing all of the above, your next question might be... where do I find JV partners to contact?

Here is a list of resources in alphabetical order that will help you getting started:

- Anthony Blake Online - Entrepreneurial Success Forum: http://www.ablake.net/forum/

- JV-Network: Free membership site to become a JV partner of top marketing experts or to post your own JV offers for a fee: http://add2it.com/see.pl?JVnetwork

- jvAlert: Paid membership site to become a JV partner of top marketing experts, post your own JV offers and search their offers database: http://add2it.com/see.pl?jvAlert

- jvAlert Member Forums: http://www.jvalert.com/forums/

- JV Money Makers Forum: http://jvmoneymakers.com/forum/

- Mark Hendricks's Inner Circle Marketing Forum: Free section to post and find JV offers: http://www.hunteridge.com/forum/members/

- Mark Hendricks's JVdealmaker Players Club Forum: Free section to post and find JV offers http://www.jvdealmaker.com/members/

- Michael Green's "How To" Internet Marketing Forum: http://www.howtocorp.com/forum/

- MikeFilsaime's Marketing Forum: Free section to post and find JV offers http://www.1sitemanager.com/forum/

- The Warrior Forum: Free section to post and find JV offers (Note: Before posting, first post helpful feedback in other sections of the forum) http://www.warriorforum.com/forum/

- Warrior Discussion Forum: Free section to post and find JV offers (Note: Before posting, first post helpful feedback in other sections of the forum) http://www.warriordiscussion.com/forum/

Benefit from differentiating market niche and offer

One of the reasons that professionals resist choosing a market niche is that they confuse niche and offer.

Think of your market niche as the location or domain in which you make your offer.
By contrast, your offer is who you are and what you do. Your niche is where and with whom you do it.

Here's an example of differentiating market niche from offer based on my own coaching practice.

My niche is working with independent professionals and artists to craft prosperous businesses or careers that fully align with their values, aspirations, and desired way of life.

The offer that I am in this market niche distinguishes me from hundreds of other business coaches. As an offer, I am a gifted somatic coach, helping my clients embody success. I am an artist and a business owner myself, and my coaching springs from a deep personal engagement with the concerns that my clients bring to our work.

The offer that I am also includes my spiritual beliefs and practices, my training as a singer, my skills as a writer and editor, my passion for learning, and much more. The offer that I am, in short, encompasses a lifetime of experience - past, present, and future.

When I tried to discern a market niche based on the offer that I am, I was stymied. Was I a somatic coach? A creativity coach? A spiritual coach? Every niche seemed to be a too-small box, a dead end that limited me as an offer. When I conceived of niche as a location relative to the people I can best serve, niche became a refined point-of-focus for my unlimited and unique offer.

Having chosen a niche (or, more accurately, having acknowledged and accepted the niche that chose me,) I am now committed to honoring standards and boundaries that support that niche. I refer prospective clients who do not fit my niche to other coaches. I am careful to clarify my market niche whenever I write or talk about my work.

By focusing my market niche in this way, I can make a very strong impression. So can you. What's more, referrals have increased substantially. Every time I refer a prospective client who wants career coaching or some other service that I could easily do but that does not fit this niche, I create a source of referrals. The client I turn away knows where my offer is of maximum value. He knows that I have the integrity to work within the domain in which I offer the greatest value. He won't hesitate to send people my way when they want business or marketing support.

Showing Up in Your Market Niche as a Powerful Offer
I used to see people's eyes glaze when I tried to tell them what I did. I knew I was losing them, but I didn't know how. Now that I name my niche before I describe my services, it is easy for people to connect with what I am saying.

There's a paradox in naming your market niche. When you give people a category to put your products or services in, it is easier for them to get a handle on what you do and to remember it. It's also much easier for them to appreciate how you differ from other professionals in that category. In other words, by putting yourself in a category, you can also make yourself stand out because you distinguish yourself from others in that category.

Credit card offer

So many credit card offers, what to do?

Just browse through the daily newspaper and you will be overwhelmed by the number of credit card offers advertised. Move around the town and you will find credit card offers being advertised everywhere. Same is the case is with television which seems to host a number of credit card offers too. So, the credit card offers are there everywhere. Why are there so many credit card offers? Well, quite simply because credit card business is a highly profitable business for the credit card suppliers.

In this situation, when there is no dearth of credit card offers, which is the best credit card offer?

There is nothing like a best credit card offer, really. A better question to ask would be – ‘Which credit card offer is the best for me?’ The spending habits of one person are different from that of another person. Their living styles vary and hence their needs vary too. So for deciding on which credit card offer is best for you, you need to evaluate your needs vis-à-vis your lifestyle and your spending habits (and not go just by the recommendation of someone). For example, if you frequently travel by air, a co-branded airline credit card might be more suited to you than the general purpose one. These airline credit cards offer discounts, rebates and other kind of rewards when the credit card is used for making payments (the rewards are even higher when these credit cards are used for paying for the airline tickets or other airline products). Similarly, if you have a favourite retail store where you do a lot of your shopping, it would be beneficial to check if the retailer is a credit card supplier too and if there is a credit card offer that suits you. A lot of big retail chains do offer co-branded credit cards to their customers and these credit cards offer rebates/discounts etc when they are used for making payments at the retail store. As such, you get reward points for making payments at any place but the rewards are higher on the payments made at retail store. On similar lines, we have credit cards for gas stations and grocery stores too, which you can opt for if you have a favourite gas station or a favourite grocery store where you shop a lot.

So, if you look around, you will find a lot of lucrative credit card offers. However, this doesn’t mean that you enrol for all the credit card offers. You need to first evaluate your needs and rank them. Then you need to evaluate what all credit card offers suit your needs. And finally you can make your choice and go for a credit card offer that covers most of your needs and gives maximum benefits.