In my recent articles, I’ve given you all the tools and techniques you need to find, set up and operate great joint ventures of your own. Butactual, real ideas are always great to have.
So here – in this article – I’m going to outline not just one but five great, actual ideas for JV’s you could set up right here and now!
Now some of these ideas might work just great for you. They’re already up and running and proven, so all you need to do is ‘copy and paste’ them into your own business. But even if they don’t, they will help get your creative juices flowing …. and help you to find fantastic JV ideas of your own.
JV Idea One:
Match Up Two or More Service Providers
It goes without saying that the Internet business is a very fast growing and lucrative one. But it tends to be made up of many, separate and often quite small specialists. JV’s are a great way of bringing them all together for everyone’s benefit (including yours!).
For example, if someone needs web hosting the chances are they will also need services like these:
- Web design.
- Programming.
- Domain name registration.
- Merchant account/credit card processing.
…. to name just a few!
The basic idea is very simple: Have a web hosting company endorse one or more of the above complimentary service providers to their customers – with you acting as a broker between the parties.
Here’s how to set up this type of deal:
First, find a good web hosting company. The best way to do this is to look at one of the many independent web hosting review sites such as Hostfinder at www.hostfinder.co.uk There are lots of others.
Now, the problem with many hosting companies is that they miss profitable opportunities because they aren’t good at back end marketing. Many of these
companies are satisfied with the monthly fee they get from each of their users – which often isn’t very much – and don’t realise the £££’s they could make from selling extra services.
Once you find a hosting company that you would like to work with contact them and ask to speak to the owner or manager. Tell them you know a great way for them tomultiply their monthly earnings per customer with no extra work on their part. (If they are interested, have them sign a non disclosure agreement before you reveal your
ideas.)
Now, find service providers that compliment but do not compete with the hosting business – such as the ones mentioned above. Again, ask to speak to the ‘boss‘ and tell them you have a proven method for bringing them thousands of new customers with no extra work or investment from them. Ask them:
‘If I can do this for you absolutely free of charge how much of the profits would you be willing to share with me for each new customer I bring you?’
Again, have them sign a non disclosure agreement before revealing the full idea to them.
Once everything is agreed bringing the partners together is pretty simple:
1. After the customer orders a hosting package they should be redirected to a‘thank you for your order’ web page that also introduces the customer to the complimentary service provider(s). This should be in the form of a well written endorsement and a ‘special …. only for you’ discount too. (I’ve already discussed how to do this.)
2. Also, send out regular mailings endorsing and recommending the other service providers. You can do this either by e-mail, conventional mail, or by using a newsletter. This will catch any customers who missed the original endorsement.
What you need to do as the broker:
- Negotiate the commissions that the partner companies are willing to offer to the hosting company.
- Work out with both parties the commission you will earn.
- Ensure both parties have efficient affiliate software that can track orders and commissions.
- Help by providing professional, high impact copy and marketing materials. Again, I’ve already covered how to do this in other articles.
This idea is based on JV-ing Internet services. But really, when you think about it, you could do it with almost any industry!
JV Idea Two:
Cash In With A Joint Venture Newsletter
Here’s a short and simple idea: I’ve already covered most of the techniques you need to do it in other articles!
One of the best ways to make your mark in the JV business (or any Internet business) is to publish your own newsletter. When you provide useful content that benefits your customers they soon begin to see you as the authority in your particular business and learn to trust and value your opinions. This relationship makes it easier to do business with them
Unfortunately, for many experts in lots of different fields, creating a newsletter is either too difficult or too time consuming. That’s where you can jump in!
First, find a lucrative product area. (I’ve discussed how to do this in other articles.) Then, go out and find an expert who has a good knowledge of this subject and can provide you with newsletter content in that subject. Then, publish the newsletter for them – a simple e-newsletter is fine, it doesn’t have to be printed. (You could even bring in another JV partner to do this work if you like.)
The next step is to go out and find companies who are selling products and services in this subject area. Ask them if they would like to sell their products in your new newsletter – with profits split on a JV basis rather than a conventional advertising charge. (like an affiliate arrangement)
The most important part of your work here will be arranging a cut of the profits with which all parties are happy …. and of course your commission!
JV Idea Three:
Fit A Product To A Market
Do you know how many website owners don’t know how lucrative their sites could be? Well it must be millions! There are masses of websites (and newsletters for that matter) that serve various niches and attract a huge amount of targeted traffic. Unfortunately, many of them wither away because they have absolutely no idea how to generate revenue from their visitors and subscribers.
At the same time, there are lots of businesses selling products and services for these different niches who could cash in on this great targeted traffic.
In other words, the perfect idea for a JV!
To get started, choose a niche you want to focus on. Then search for websites and/or newsletters in that particular niche by searching for whatever terms apply to that niche.
Again, as described earlier, you can use Alexa, Copernic and of course Google to find all the contacts you need. Alexa will tell you how much traffic a site receives. You should be looking for sites with a traffic rank of at least 250,000 or lower. The lower this number the more traffic the site receives. But if you use Google look for sites that have a page rank of at least four. You can’t tell exactly, but these are usually very busy sites.
Now draw up a list of 20-50 high traffic sites. Then contact the owner either by e-mail or phone and ask them the following questions:
- Do you sell advertising?
- How much do you charge?
- What products and services sell best to your list?
- Have you tried endorsement marketing?
(NB: Some people you contact might not have a clue what endorsement marketing is …. so take some time to educate them!)
Draw up a spreadsheet with all the answers you receive.
Next, you will want to find existing products and services that you could promote to this particular niche. (Important: Always find a market first before finding a product to sell to them!) You can find products and services in the same way you located the market.
Approach the business owner and ask them if they would be willing to share some of the extra profits …. if you can introduce them to thousands of new customers for no extra effort or investment. (That should be a very easy sale to make!)
Now, you go back to your spreadsheet of website owners and match websites with products and services. Tie up a deal to share the extra profits between all the parties.
Once you’ve exhausted the list of people willing to do endorsements you can approach the website and newsletter owners who sell advertising. Create an ad. to send to their lists and the revenue generated is split between you and the product owner. Remember, the website/newsletter owner gets paid to send out the ad. so they do not share in your profits!
You can do this for almost any niche and do it as often as you like!
JV Idea Four:
Recruit An Army of Joint Venture Partners
Running an affiliate programme can be a good way to make money from the Internet. Unfortunately many of them need a lot of time and money – and generate a relatively small return.
You can make much more money from much less work by setting up joint ventures instead of affiliate programmes.
The way to do this is to recruit joint venture partners into an affiliate programme, offer them a substantial share of the profits and have them endorse the products and services to their lists. Unfortunately for them, many affiliate programme owners have no clue that recruiting joint venture partners is the key to the success of their affiliate programme. Even fewer know how to find potential joint venture partners.
That’s where you come in!
With a bit of thought, you can give a sickly affiliate programme a ‘power boost’!
If you know of any affiliate programmes that could benefit from your JV expertise, approach the owner and tell them that you have a risk free way of making their affiliate programme 10,000% (at least) more profitable.
If you do not know of any affiliate programmes, all you have to do is go to Google and search for affiliate programmes. You’ll get a list of around 50 affiliate programme directories listing thousands of programmes.
Contact the affiliate programme owners and tell them you have a proven method of finding what you call super affiliates. Tell them that these are affiliates who have the potential to bring in thousands upon thousands of £££’s in extra sales. All you want in exchange for recruiting these super affiliates is a share of each sale that they bring in. (Ask them to sign a non disclosure agreement before you reveal any techniques to them.)
Now look for some prospective super affiliates. I’ve discussed the techniques you need in other articles. Visit their websites and find out as much information about them as you possibly can, including:
1. Do the products and services they sell compliment the products and/or services of the affiliate programme you are involved with?
2. Do they have a system for gathering visitor’s e-mail addresses? For example, do they publish a newsletter?
If they seem to be good prospects all you need to do is send these super affiliates a JV proposal letter – I’ve already covered this is another article. (Be sure to customise it to suit this particular situation since you are a broker rather than the product owner.)
Once agreement has been reached you can automate everything with a few simple steps. This is easy to manage if the affiliate programme is set up as a two tier programme. This way, all you have to do is sign up for the affiliate programme yourself and get the super affiliates you recruit to sign up under you. (Ideally, request a higher commission rate for yourself and for the super affiliates you bring in.)
You can make even more £££’s by taking a hands-on approach. Since you are dependent on your super affiliates for bringing in huge profits for the programme owner and also for you, you want to make it as easy as possible for them. So try some of the following: Offer to write the endorsements for them, arrange special bonuses, special discounts for them only and provide follow-up e-mails for them to use.
Finally, when using this idea I suggest you work with no more than one or two affiliate programmes, so you can devote your time to making them as profitable as possible.
JV Idea Five:
Profit From Free Software !
Have you ever downloaded free software from the Internet? I bet you never realised that it could lead to a profitable JV opportunity!
Free Internet software is usually shareware. Shareware is free to use for a certain time and then you must pay to register it. Actually, not many shareware users ever pay to register their software (official figures put it at about 2%). And most shareware authors aren’t too concerned either. Many of them appear are satisfied with simply creating great software.
This means that there are tens of thousands of extremely useful shareware programmes out there that are overlooked – and not generating money – simply by not being marketed. In other words …. a golden JV opportunity!
As a JV broker search the shareware archives looking for unexploited shareware then look for a targeted market into which to sell it. Have a look atwww.download.com and www.tucows.com for ideas. But there are lots of other sites.
For example, lets say someone has developed some design software that is currently being promoted as shareware. The software is great but few people pay to register it. If you can find a site that targets people interested in design (there are thousands) you could broker a deal between the site owner and the shareware author to market it to their visitors. If the site owner has a great relationship with their
audience then an endorsement of this software could potentially bring in thousands of pounds in business.
Remember: Always fit a product to a market. If people want what you have to sell the sale is already half made. So, you should find a market and find out what the people in that market want to buy before you find software to sell them.
Here’s a second way to profit from shareware ….
Some companies are quite happy to give away their shareware for ever and never sell it. So, how do they make it pay? Simply, by selling advertising space in their software. It’s said that AOL makes over US$500 million a year from advertising on their software products.
Just as the big companies make money from advertising so the small shareware author can too. Once again, your job as a JV broker is to find advertisers selling products and services targeted to the same audience as the shareware users. You can match up these advertisers with the shareware authors and make money two ways:
1. Take a percentage of the fees the advertiser pays the shareware author to place an ad. in the software programme.
2. Take a percentage of the sales generated from the advertising itself.
The types of ads. that work best with shareware tend to be banner ads., splash pages and pop-up or similar advertising. Tip: To make them really effective present them as endorsements not just ads.
Note: Don’t limit yourself to matching up shareware authors and markets. You can also track down the authors and publishers of other useful, free products such as: e-books, games, screensavers and anything else that is given away online.
You can repeat this idea over and over again in tons of niche markets!