Yesterday I wrote about 2 ways to massively grow your business in 2008 – putting more value out into your marketplace and becoming more involved in your core market.
Creating attention, interest and tapping into desire leading to higher sales for your information products depends heavily on building a tight bond with your marketplace – a bond where they see you as a shining light on their path toward further achievement in whatever market niche you have chosen.
Think of yourself as a bright, flashing beacon guiding passengers through very foggy weather – you will show them the way no matter what your topic is.
But…there is a very REAL limitation you will run into right off the bat.
You can’t build this credibility, bond and magical relationship with your marketplace overnight – it takes some time. Sure, you can add a few hundred people to your list of fans and sell some products along the way working by yourself, but…there is a better way….
JV with authority figures.
Today, let me show you how NOT to approach a JV request….
I received an email from someone I didn’t know, hadn’t heard from before and may never hear from again that basically read like this…
"Hi Jeff, I came across your InfoProductCreator site and IT ROCKS. I see that you have quite a few loyal subscribers and I think we should do some business. I have sites like XXXXXX and think these products could be of benefit to your subscribers – if you have Skype, give me a call."
OK, what’s wrong with this picture?
Let me give you one more piece of information – the 3 sites that he listed for me were for 3 obvious resell rights products in each of the "how to type", "weight loss" and "link building" niche markets/topics.
Hmmmm….
If Mr. brilliant was so up on my sites then why in the world would he contact me citing a typing and weight loss product that don’t even remotely relate to my target market – neither does link building either for that matter, but that one I could excuse because at least I can see where he may not have picked up on the subtle fact that I don’t go for a lot of PPC, Link building or SEO stuff – I frankly don’t practice much of these and do alright without them.
Then, I take a quick look at these sites – just for fun – and see they are low quality, poorly written sales letters for non-differentiated products at a very low price point.
Let’s see…here are some mistakes NOT to make when chasing a JV or super affiliate:
- Don’t pretend you know there business, actually read their stuff and get to know what they do, what their angle and market is
- Make sure your business lines up well with their target market – if it doesn’t, don’t waste your or their time
- Start by saying hi, asking a question, making a complimentary comment on their site – at least ATTEMPT to form a relationship before you ask for something
- Look for ways you can HELP them in their business and at the same time benefit you. Record an audio with them, write an article for them with a link back to your product, etc…
- Make sure you have a REAL business, with solid products and a passion level that matches your big goals. JV partners smell successful products and people a mile away (at least the good ones do), don’t be a pretender, you won’t succeed
- Think of the RELATIONSHIP not the transaction. When you approach a super-affiliate, the timing may not be right for a promotion – that’s ok. If you focus on building a relationship, then you can get them when the timing IS better
- Look and sound professional. Authority people in your market have spent great effort, time and money building their relationship with their market – anyone they chose to recommend into that private relationship must be of equal or higher standards otherwise it just won’t happen. For me, this is a MAJOR criteria – I am very protective about my relationship with my subscribers and that’s why I turn down about 95% of JV proposals.
Bottom line – YES you want to get very good at attracting and gaining super affiliates and JV’s, done properly this can be one of the best (and only) methods of rapidly building your business into high growth mode.
Follow the advice above, and you’ll be ok.
Inside of InfoMarketer’sZone we have templates of affiliate proposals that we have used successfully to get huge names in various industries in the past – they are there for members to use as they wish.
Jeff
