When it comes to doing joint ventures on the Internet, you need certain software programs, or tools, in order to do it easier.
There are only a few programs you need and fortunately most of them are free or very inexpensive, even if you decide to upgrade to the pro versions.
E-mail Program
The first tool you need is a good e-mail program. This will become invaluable for you in your business when you contact potential Web sites and carry on your correspondence.
The best and most powerful is Eudora by Qualcomm. I use it extensively and I consider it the best e-mail program available. You can send and receive messages while you read and write your e-mail. It has a real-time spell checker that underlines misspelled words. It also comes with a powerful search feature, plus lots more.
The Eudora Pro used to cost about $40, but I believe it might be free now. But if not, you can download either Eudora Light which is missing some of the features of the Pro version or get the Eudora Pro for free as long as you don’t mind it displaying advertising messages in the bottom left-hand corner of the interface.
Eudora is my preference; you can of course use Outlook or even GMail just as well.
Text Editor
It’s important that you write all your e-mail messages in a word processor text file using a text editor such as Text Pad or PSPad.
A text editor will compose your e-mails in plain ASCII characters.
ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It’s pronounced (ASK-ee) and it’s the name of a coding scheme that represents letters, numbers and symbols used by computers.
If you compose your e-mail messages in a non-ASCII word processor, certain characters and/or lines will not be standardized. Your message might look funny to the recipient by the lines not wrapping correctly or your message might end up looking all cut up and strange. Again, it’s important that you always compose your e-mail messages in plain ASCII in a text editor.
You could use MS Notepad, the editor that you already have on your computer system.
I personally prefer and use a program called Text Pad. It’s a powerful replacement for Notepad because it does so many more things. It’s a great tool. You can download it and try it out before buying.
Search Tools
When finding potential Web sites to do joint ventures with, you would start your search on the Internet using search engines. You could simply use different search engines when looking for sites using specific keywords or key phrases.
Your best bet, however, is to use search tools such as Copernic or Web Ferret.
These search tools will query several large Web search engines simultaneously to find whatever it is you’re looking for quickly and efficiently and then discard any duplicate results.
They will then summarize the matched documents and Web sites, producing instant reports. They will even filter out useless information and dead links and give you all the relevant Web sites in a list form.
You simply ask your questions in plain English or use keywords or key phrases.
You’ll get relevant, high quality results faster this way, rather than using individual search engines, because they access and search several search engines simultaneously.
Information Gatherer
The next tool you’ll be using is called Alexa.
Alexa is basically a “toolbar” that makes Web surfing smarter and easier.
You’ll use Alexa to determine the traffic and contact info of a particular Web site as well as finding other related links to similar sites. Alexa is a free tool.
Spreadsheet
Next you need a simple basic spreadsheet program. It could be Excel or OPEN OFFICE. Just a simple program without all the bells and whistles.
You need this program to keep track of the Web sites you contact. There are only three things you need to gather from a potential Web site:
- The Domain Name
- The Contact Name of the decision maker
- The E-mail Address of the decision maker
A Domain Name is a unique name that identifies an Internet site, such as www.jointventuredeals.com.
The…
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- “www” signifies this as a site on the World Wide Web
- “jointventuredeals” identifies the host of the site, in this case Joint Venture Deals
- “com” denotes a commercial site.
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Other domain extensions include “edu,” “org,” and “gov,” meaning, respectively, educational, organization (nonprofit), and government.
A Domain Name can also be referred to as a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) or simply a Web Address. Basically they all mean the same.
So, in your spreadhseet, you only need these three fields, plus a few others such as:
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- The date you made the initial contact
- The date you made the follow up contact
- The result of your contact
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As I mentioned, the spreadsheet you use can be a very simple one. You only need to be able to input a few details about each Web site and then be able to sort and search these fields. That’s it, nothing complicated.
You could even do it by hand. I guess you don’t really need a spreadsheet. You could even use Word or something similar. Just do whatever is easiest for you. Don’t try to complicate things.
Tracking Program
First let me tell you that it’s not at all necessary to use a tracking program. I am mentioning it here because I have gotten a lot of questions about it.
In fact, you can track, and I have done it most of the time, by simply using a specific URL so all can see where the sales are coming from. So for example if the URL of the product happens to be FerretTicks.com, you could simply use the URL www.FerretTricks.com/jv.
There are several “affiliate” tracking programs available. Although you’ll be using an “affiliate” tracking program to keep track of your (and your Endorser’s) commissions in a joint venture, don’t confuse a real joint venture with an affiliate program.
It’s just that the same software is used to track sales and commissions whether you’re doing a real joint venture or participating in an affiliate program.
Here are a few of the better ones I’ve used. I’m sure there are other good ones; just do a search for “affiliate software”.
http://www.qualityunit.com/postaffiliatepro
Also, these programs track referrals by both cookie and IP address – making it virtually foolproof to lose any commissions. The programs have detailed statistics pages to view referrals, traffic, sales and commissions.
The tracking program can be set up on your server or on your partner’s.
Autoresponders
An opt-in e-mail and follow-up strategy is key to boosting sales.
Simply use one you are familiar with. My favorite is AWeber.
You can run follow-up sales campaigns, courses, newsletters, e-zines and other opt-in e-mail marketing campaigns.
Now that you know what tools I’m using and what I recommend you use, it’s finally time to get into the nitty gritty.
In the next section, I’ll be actually showing you the exact step-by-step process you should be following, in order to achieve your first joint venture.