In what I call a “Grand Slam“, you would simply locate two Web sites that are willing to introduce to their own customers by e-mail each other’s non-competing offers.
Instead of just giving you a hypothetical example, I’m going to tell you about an actual real joint venture deal that a guy named Mike recently did. Unfortunately I can’t reveal the Web sites to you, because he will continue to work with these two sites in the future.
Let me tell what Mike did.
He simply located and matched up a couple of suitable, non-competing Web sites that realized the benefits of a joint venture and were willing to e-mail their own customers each other’s offer.
He also negotiated a 50% commission as his fee for helping them set it up. He would only get paid on actual sales being generated by the introductory e-mail offer.
The two Web sites he matched up sell products to the “pet” market.
One of the sites sells a subscription to an e-zine for $60 per year to pet owners that show them how to properly care for certain pets (“Pet Care” site). This site has about 600 subscribers.
The other Web site sells a course for $150 on how to train certain pets (“Pet Training” site). This site has about 400 customers.
As you can see, these two sites have a similar customer base, but different non-competing products.
You probably also noticed that these sites don’t have too may customers either. And maybe you’re even saying to yourself, “How is it possible to make any money with Web sites that only have about 500 customers each”?
But Not So Fast My Friend…
Let me tell you what happened…
The “Pet Training” site sent an endorsed e-mail offer for the “Pet Care” e-zine to their own 400 customers and got 71 subscriptions at $60 each, for a total of $4,260.00 (71 x $60). This is a 18% response rate (71 divided by 400).
At the same time the “Pet Care” site also sent an endorsed e-mail offer for the “Pet Training” course to their own 600 subscribers and got 92 orders at $150 each, for a total of $13,800.00 (92 x $150). This is a 15% response rate (92 divided by 600).
So the total take-in for the two sites was $18,060.00, half of which went to Mike for setting up the deal. So Mike got…
$9,030.00 For A Fun Days Work!
There are three reasons Mike could get that much money from this one deal:
- Both Web sites were strongly bonded to their customers!
- Both products were “information” products, or what’s called “paper and ink” products!
- Both Web sites realized the value of getting new customers for free as well as making newfound money!
Remember what I said earlier, that one of the best products to joint venture is information products because of the high mark-up.
In the case above, Mike arranged to get 50% commission of the sales price of the products. This was possible because both these products were “paper and ink” products, so the markup on these products was a lot higher than 50%.
Also the Web site owners didn’t mind giving up 50% of their profit because they both…
[green_tick_2_list width=”100%”]
- Got new customers without any up-front costs, and
- Made money as well
[/green_tick_2_list]
Where else could they have gotten this kind of deal?
We’ll talk more about this in the next section. It is very important that you grasp this fully as well as for the Web site owners to understand exactly what they have to gain, all without…
[green_tick_2_list width=”100%”]
- Any risk or
- Any upfront costs
[/green_tick_2_list]
Since both of these Web sites already had great sales copy on their sites, the customers were simply referred to the Web site by a link in the introductory e-mail offer.
But they could just as easily have been referred to a special page on the Web site. Or the Web copy on the sites could have been reformatted into an e-mail letter as an attachment to the introductory e-mail offer.
There are several ways of doing it. It just depends what everyone seems to be most comfortable with.
And don’t worry if you feel you can’t write good copy, because if we end up doing a joint venture deal together, I can always write the letter.
Anyway, here’s a sample of such an introductory e-mail sent by the “Pet Care” site to its subscribers introducing the “Pet Training” course:
********************************************************
Subject: Bill, train you pet in no time flat
Dear Bill,
As I subscriber, I feel I had to let you know about something right away that might interest you without having to wait for my next newsletter.
You see, recently I was introduced to a gentleman named John Jacobs. John has been in the business of training pets for the last 7 years, and he really knows his stuff.
The great news is that John has finally agreed to reveal his secrets in an amazing new course called, “How To Easily Train Your Pet In No Time Flat”.
John’s brand new program teaches anyone without prior experience to be an expert pet trainer.
As you know, I have never recommended any program before simply because I have never myself been totally satisfied with any program or system. In fact most of the ones I’ve tried are total garbage, until now.
In my opinion, John’s course contains by far the quickest and easiest way for anyone – even a complete novice – to train their pet in the shortest possible time.
What’s great about this course is that it not only teaches the basics but it also goes into some pretty amazing advanced strategies. It is really that good.
You know that I take my recommendations very serious and I don’t recommend anything I don’t strongly believe in.
So do yourself (and your pet) a favor, and read all about this terrific new system in the attached letter that follows or by clicking on the following link: http://www.TrainYourPtNow.com
I promise you’ll be amazed at all the “insider” information you’re about to discover.
Sincerely,
Adam Smith
P.S. I have also been able to arrange with John a special deal for my subscribers, but only if you act within the next 3 days. So be sure you check it out right away.
********************************************************
A similar e-mail message was also sent by the “Pet Training” site to the “Pet Care” subscribers.
Then a few weeks later the same e-mail letter was sent to the customers that did not respond to the initial e-mail, by changing the subject line and the “lead-in” of the message…
********************************************************
Subject: Bill, in case you missed out before…
Dear Bill,
Due to the overwhelming response, I have twisted John arm to extend his offer for another 3 days.
So if you missed out on this offer before, you still have a few more days to jump on this opportunity. But only 3 more days.
Yadda, Yadda, Yadda…
********************************************************
That’s the beauty of joint ventures. After the initial e-mail introduction to customers, you can – by waiting a couple of weeks in between – continue to e-mail basically the same offer to the same customers just by changing the offer slightly.
Then every few weeks, or once a month, you could simply change the offer and keep it running until it’s not profitable anymore.
After all, not all the customers will read their e-mail on the first go-around. Some people might not have received the e-mail offer for one reason or another. Or some might be on vacation, or for whatever reason they did not act the first time the offer was presented to them.
Now, let’s briefly analyze who got what, and why these joint ventures are such a win/win situation for everyone.
The “Pet Training” site got 92 new customers that they now can sell additional products to over the years.
They also made $6,900.00, (92 times $150 = $13,800.00 minus $6,900.00 that went to Mike) less the small cost of producing the product and shipping it out.
The “Pet Care” site got 71 new customers they can now sell additional subscriptions or products to over the years.
They also made $2,130.00, (71 times $60 = $4,260.00 minus $2,130.00 that went to Mike) less the cost of producing the monthly e-zine.
Here’s a recap of what everyone gained by doing this join venture:
| Web Site | Pet Care | Pet Training |
| Product | E-zine | Course |
| What was in it for the Web Sites? | ||
| # of new customers | 71 | 92 |
| Profit | $2,130 | $6,900 |
| What was in it for Mike? | ||
| Profit | $2,130 | $6,900 |
To do these kinds of joint ventures, you would simply contact potential Web sites with an e-mail message similar to what I showed you in the Home Run example in section 5.
As an agreement between the Grand Slam parties, you can use the following sample joint venture agreement as a guide and just change it to suit your particular needs.
********************************************************
Joint Venture Agreement
This agreement made an entered into by and between:
Company:
Address:
Web Site: “Pet Training”
E-mail:
hereinafter called Endorser A
AND:
Company:
Address:
Web Site: “Pet Care”
E-mail:
hereinafter called Endorser B
AND:
Your Name:
Your Address:
Your E-mail:
hereinafter called Associate
It is agreed as follows:
On (date), Endorser A will send the attached e-mail endorsement (schedule A) to his 400 customers, endorsing Endorser B’s “Pet Care” e-zine subscription.
On (date), Endorser B will send the attached e-mail endorsement (schedule B) to his 600 paid subscribers, endorsing Endorser A’s “Pet Training” course.
The Associate who have assisted Endorser A and Endorser B in this joint venture will receive a commission of $75 for each “Pet Training” course sold to Endorser B’s “Pet Care” customers.
The Associate will also receive a commission of $30 for each “Pet Care” subscription sold to Endorser A’s “Pet Training” customers.
The Associate will contribute any and all efforts necessary to execute this joint venture and insure its success to the best of his ability including but not limited to follow up mailings, phone calls and whatever else.
All parties agree to fill and ship out all orders in a timely manner.
None of the parties involved will have claim to any back-end sales or sale of other products offers on the above mentioned Web sites or on any e-zine renewal subscriptions.
Signed: __________________________ Date: __________
Endorser A
Signed: __________________________ Date: __________
Endorser B
Signed: __________________________ Date: __________
Associate
***********************************************************
The “schedule A & B” mentioned in the above agreement is simply the e-mail message that was sent to the customers of each Web site. All parties approved this message also.
To do a Grand Slam joint venture, you really don’t need a fancy tracking program set up because this is a one-time mailing with possible future follow up mailings.
However, you definitely want to know how many orders these sites are getting so you don’t lose out on any of your profits.
So, the orders could simply be sent to a special e-mail tracking program and then automatically re-directed to the proper Web site for processing. Again this is very easy to set up by the Webmaster.
Or even simpler, it could be set up so every time a customer places an order, all parties involved, including you, would automatically get notified by e-mail. This is also pretty easy to set up. Your e-mail address would simply be added to the order form script of both Web sites.
You would of course mention which ever way it’s set up in the agreement. You also need to mention in the agreement when you will get paid etc.
When doing a Grand Slam, you would normally try to get a commission from both sides. Of course there are no rules. If you can only work out an arrangement with one side, that’s good enough. But if you can work out a commission arrangement with both sides, so much better.
Remember, if you’re too strict and you’re asking for too much, and you can’t get everyone to agree, something terrible happens…
Nothing!
In the next section we’ll discuss why Web sites should be ecstatic to accept your offer and what’s really in it for them. And why this is such a win/win situation for everyone.
The info in the next section is very important for you to grasp and equally important for the Web site business to understand so they truly realize the importance of getting new customers without any upfront money…
Something They Are Definitely Not Used To!