Joint Venture Marketing Tips

What's A Joint Venture Anyway?

You hear it all the time. "I gotta get me a joint venture!" And then I ask the person what they're interested in. And they come back at me with something like, "I got this really great product. If only I could get some big gun to promote it." I see. Well, I probably should have sent him this article, except I hadn't yet written it. Fortunately for you, I have written it and you can at least read about what a REAL joint venture is. Then you won't be so anxious to get some "big gun" to sell your product.

A joint venture is something that you go into with another person exclusively. It is the combining of resources and talents to make one whole product that you share equally as far as profits and expense, or at least as equally as possible. It is not you creating something and then trying to get somebody to peddle it for you. That is finding a super affiliate, which is not the same thing as finding a joint venture.

A joint venture is quite honestly, at least in some ways, more work and harder work than doing something on your own. Why is that? With a joint venture, each side of the joint venture gets an equal say in the project. It isn't a "We're going to do it my way" kind of deal. Inevitably along the way, you're going to have disagreements. There will be aspects of the project that you're not going to be able to get together on. Maybe it will be the price. Maybe it will be the way the web site header looks. Maybe it will be who you decide to outsource the sales copy to, assuming neither one of you is adept at writing sales copy.

Many joint ventures never even get off the ground because of these type of disagreements. It doesn't matter how great your product is. And sometimes, you can't even agree on that much. You decide that you want to put a chapter in on safelist advertising and your JV partner says that it's too geared to new people and you want this to be a higher end product for more advanced users. Yes, sometimes it's easier to just do things by yourself.

A joint venture is a true partnership in every sense of the word. There has to be give and take on both sides. If you have a great product that you want a big gun to promote, the only issue will probably be the commission percentage that you are willing to pay him. If you really want his help, you'll give him what he wants. Remember, you need him more than he needs you. But again, this is not a joint venture. The only risk he's assuming is sending the offer to his list and hope that they don't think it's the biggest piece of junk on the planet. But he's putting in no money, except maybe for some ad expenses if he really believes in the product. You, on the other hand, have put in all the work and funds into creating the product. Certainly this is not an equal partnership.

So the next time you say you want to do a joint venture with somebody, remember, it's not a pitch to sell YOUR product.

It's a pitch to create something together.

Creating A Joint Venture Contract

Okay, you've decided to go into a joint venture with a person or group of persons. Fine, but do you have a contract? Do you even know what should go into the contract? Well, unless you do, you could be opening yourself up for a world of hurt and some legal battles that you probably won't win. Many joint ventures have gone south because there was no written contract. This article will point out some things that you should include in your joint venture contract. This is by no means all inclusive and all joint ventures are different. But this should at least give you a good start on putting something together.

The first thing you should do is sit down with your partner or partners and decide exactly what it is that you want to do. Sometimes joint ventures don't get off the ground simply because the parties involved can't agree on the general direction of the joint venture itself. So that's the first step, Decide what the joint venture will be, whether it's creating an ebook, membership site or whatever, and put it in writing. This way, nobody can say, "That wasn't what we agreed on."

The next step is to iron out the finer points of how this joint venture is going to come together. For example, if you're going to create an ebook, you will need graphics for the book, a sales page to sell it and a merchant account of some sort. You will need to have in writing who will be working on what parts of the joint venture. This needs to also be clearly spelled out so that there is no misunderstanding on who is doing what.

The next thing you need to have written out is the timeline by which you expect each part of the project to be completed. Naturally, you don't want to rush anybody and put unreasonable time demands on a person, but you do need to get estimates as to how long each thing will take. If your graphic designer says that he can have an ebook cover done in a week, then you have every right to expect it to be completed within a reasonable amount of time, at least close to that estimate. If no ebook cover is even delivered for review after several months, that is not acceptable. Deadlines need to be part of the contract, though flexibly written. A lawyer can help you with that.

Finally, you need to have, in writing, how long this joint venture is for, who retains rights to the project, and should the project fall apart or the product stops selling and you should decide to take it off the market, who retains ownership of what. In addition to this, you need to have, in writing, how the profits are to be divided. If it's a joint venture of two people, usually profits are divided in half. With multiple participants, it's not so easy, especially if the work and expenses were not divided evenly.

Naturally, there is a lot more to a joint venture than the points above as all joint ventures are different. But the above points should get you started and thinking of other things you want to include in your written contract. After you have it completed, bring it to a lawyer and have copies made for all parties.

Creating a joint venture contract can be a lot of work, but if you go about it in a logical, step by step manner, there is no reason that it can't be done with little trouble.

How To Broker A Joint Venture

Brokering a joint venture is a lost art. Very few people really have what it takes to do this successfully time after time. When you think about it, that's a sad thought. Joint venture brokering can be one of the most lucrative deals going, and you don't even have to know anything about building web sites, creating digital products, writing sales copy or any of that stuff. Your job is simply to bring the people together who do those things and are looking for joint ventures. As I said, it's a lost art. And while this article can in no way teach you all you'll need to know about brokering a joint venture deal, it will at least give you some idea of what's involved and what you need to be able to do so that you'll have enough info to make an informed decision as to whether or not this is something you want to get into.

Brokering a joint venture is no more than finding two or more people with diverse talents and skills and bring them together for the purpose of creating a business together. In order to do this, the first thing you need to do is find out who is looking for joint ventures. This isn't as hard as it seems. See, on many of the Internet marketing forums, especially the great Warrior's Forum, there is a whole section of joint venture proposals. All you need to do is check out some of the ones that have been there for a while and see which ones aren't getting any bites. Once you've found one where somebody is looking for a partner with certain skills, you then go out looking for that partner. How? The same way you found the first person. Look in forums. Look at classified ads. Eventually you'll find a match.

Now, that's the easy part. The hard part is getting these two people together. And with joint ventures requiring multiple persons, it gets even harder. What you have to do next is contact one of the parties. Tell them that you have found somebody who may be interested in your proposal. Ask this person to give you a complete description of what it is you want to be done. Tell him that you will then present his offer. Tell him that if he wants to pull this off, he has to be flexible. If he really wants this bad enough, he'll do as you say.

The next step is to contact the other party. Tell that person that you have somebody who is looking for a joint venture that may just fit in with what they're doing. Present him with the offer and see what the person says. He may say no. If he does, don't take no as the last answer. Ask him why? Ask him what he would need. Tell him that you could go back to the other party with a counter offer. The person may say that he has no interest at all still, but he might make a counter offer. If he does, bring it back to the original person. Tell him that this is the only way that this is going to go down.

Eventually, one of two things will happen. Either the deal will fall apart or both parties will accept. This is where you inform both of them that there is either an up front fee for you to bring them together or that you need a certain percentage of the venture, or both. You're pretty much in control here. These people have want they want but only if you deliver. You've pretty much got them by the throat. But be reasonable. If you ask for too much, they'll both tell you to take a hike.

Yes, brokering a joint venture is definitely a lost art, but if you work at it, you'd be surprised at some of the deals that you can pull off.

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