Creating True “Win-Win” Joint Ventures

Issue #2020

• WEALTHY: Save time, earn money getting rid of tasks you hate (Yanik Silver).
• HEALTHY: 4 reasons not to miss this mineral (Dr. Al Sears)
• WISE: David Ogilvy on being a successful marketer

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

• Our "amazing" experience at Colorado College (Michael Masterson)
• Are you too complicated for your readers? (Krista Jones)
• It’s Fun to Know… about U.S. currency
• Add "gormless" to your vocabulary

 == Highly Recommended ==

Confidential Report: Disillusioned Trader Opens ‘Money-Floodgates’ to YOU…

Rob Banks Legally… With an Inside Job!”

Are You Ready for a “Smash and Grab” on The World’s “Hidden” Money-Mountain?
Great! The getaway car’s leaving…

"First, make yourself a reputation for being a creative genius. Second, surround yourself with partners who are better than you are. Third, leave them to get on with it."

David Ogilvy

Creating True "Win-Win" Joint Ventures

By Yanik Silver

If you are using only one or two methods to market your product or service, you are not maximizing your profit potential. Getting involved in a "win-win" joint venture is the perfect way to add more to your bottom line.

You hear the term "joint venture" bandied about - but most people don’t really understand what it means. A true joint venture is a partnership where two or more parties come together to create something that’s better and bigger than what they could do on their own.

Joint ventures have been very, very good to me, to the tune of millions of dollars in extra sales. In fact, this is has been one of the driving forces behind my business growth (without hiring additional employees).

I don’t have room to cover all aspects of joint ventures, but I want to introduce you to one idea that could have a significant impact: a joint venture where your partner provides a profit-making service for you.

Think of all the money-producing tasks that you don’t have time to do or don’t have an affinity for. Here’s a quick list off the top of my head…

• AdWords/PPC
• Direct Mail
• Product Launches
• Buying Advertising
• Testing
• Telemarketing
• Affiliate Management and Recruitment
• Product Creation
• Search Engine Optimization
• Publicity
• Copywriting
• Coaching

Each of these - and many more - can become a joint venture of sorts with a trusted individual who will help you make more than you could make on your own. In fact, that’s one of the criteria for a good service joint venture: identifying a task that can be done by someone else… who then gets paid out of the additional profits he brings in. I like that.

For example, I know one information marketer who joint-ventured with a telemarketer to run a phone room. He pays the telemarketer a large percentage per sale for the events and high-end products they sell, and that’s it. This joint venture brings in millions and millions of dollars in additional revenue, but he doesn’t have the headache of babysitting and training a bunch of telemarketers.

I’ve worked with several partners on service joint ventures, including one with a friend of mine, Rob Olic, to help me run all my direct mailings.

Now, I am not a big fan of doing things like tweaking copy, handling my mailing list, coordinating with vendors, etc. If I had employees, one of them would be handling those details. But since I don’t want to have employees (at least, not at the moment), I worked out a partnership with Rob.

Rob not only does all the little things necessary to get a direct-mail piece out, he’s also a good copywriter, so he writes envelope teasers, lift-notes, etc., too. And I pay him based on the results of each mailing.

We are both in it together. If I do well, Rob does well.

I pay him a percentage of profits - which are figured by taking the gross sales from the promotion and subtracting all mailing costs (postage/printing/graphics), credit card fees, and cost of goods. Rob’s percentage is based on a sliding scale, depending on the total volume of sales generated.

I had another good joint-venture experience during my recent Underground DVD launch. I recruited one of my former apprentices, Chris Zavadowski, to help coordinate and run the promotion.

From working one-on-one with him, I knew Chris would get the job done. So I offered him a percentage of gross sales in exchange for taking care of things like running my blog, posting to my blog, helping with messages on the blog, getting the video clips edited and online, coordinating with affiliate partners (we had individual pages/links for each partner), working with my tech guy, etc. Basically everything I didn’t want to do.

Chris was happy, because he got a chance to work with me again and learn some new things. I was happy, because I was off running with the bulls in Spain a week before the launch… confident that it was going smoothly without me.

One of the secrets of a successful joint venture is not to be greedy. I gave Chris a very fair percentage of the sales from the Underground DVD launch. I don’t want to reveal the specific amount, so I’ll put it this way: It was enough to buy him a new car.

Another secret is to be specific with your joint-venture partners about their duties and how they are going to be paid. Chris knew he was going to be paid for every DVD set sold except for those sold via direct mail, which Rob was paid for.

Good joint-venture partners bring their own ideas and initiatives to the project. Chris helped me come up with the idea behind our "real-time inventory countdown script," and he spearheaded developing the whole thing on RentACoder.com.

One last point I want to make about joint ventures is to get your agreement in writing… even if you are best friends with your partner (especially if you want to remain friends). Memories fail but a simple written agreement (which could be nothing more than an e-mail outlining key points) will clarify any discrepancies or misunderstandings that may crop up in the future.

[Ed. Note: Yanik Silver, an expert on creating money-making websites, reveals one of the most profitable "hidden" Internet income opportunities around in the Secrets of Easy Internet Money teleconference series. Check out his simple, fill-in-the-blank sales letter designed to sell any product or service here.]

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Weird Science?

How the Hedge Funds Make a Killing

While the markets were getting crushed in 2001-2002 the Prosperity Quest Fund returned more than 1,500% to its investors. The Turnberry Capital Partners Fund has returned well over 5,000%.

People often wonder how the most successful hedge funds make their money. Rest assured… they might use a variety of strategies to maximize return and minimize risk, but they are not magicians and there is no weird science. Keep reading and I will show you how to emulate the best practices of the world’s top hedge funds with a very simple financial tool.

Notes From Michael Masterson’s Blog: How - and How Not - to Sell a Product

"You guys already know a lot about the academic program here at Colorado College," Max said. "So we can skip some of the routine stuff and get to know each other. You probably want to know about me. And I’d like to know something about you. So why don’t you tell me something amazing that happened to you this year."

The college had appointed Max to lead an informational session with prospective students and their parents. "I wonder if they know how he is doing this," I thought.

Number Three Son (NTS) answered the question dutifully. "The only amazing thing that happened this year was that I found out how I can’t trust some of my friends. Senior year does that," he said. "You see a lot of backstabbing."

Max was taken aback. But he handled it perfectly. "Aha," he said. "So what sports are you interested in?"

NTS told him, and then Max turned to me. "So what amazing thing happened to you this year?"

"I’m here as NTS’s parent," I explained. "You want to know what amazing thing happened to me?"

"Yes, definitely," he said.

I didn’t want to explain to Max that I’m not the type of person that amazing things happen to - and even if they did, I certainly would never attach that adjective to them. "I don’t feel comfortable answering that question," I told him.

He seemed okay with that. For the next 30 minutes, he talked a lot about himself and his amazing experiences, and we got to like him. But we learned very little about the school. When we did ask specific questions, he gave us what I could only describe as honest but ambiguous answers. As in…

"What do you think about the bloc program?" (A unique learning program where you take only one subject at a time.)

"Well, it could be good," Max said. "Or it could be not-so-good. It depends on who you are and what you want in terms of an education."

"Oh. Okay. Thanks."

The day before, at the University of Denver, we’d had a different sort of informational session. A young woman showed us a five-minute film about the university, gave us a 15-minute PowerPoint presentation, and then spent a half-hour answering our questions. It was a well-prepared, well-polished, completely integrated sales pitch. And it worked. We ended the session feeling very good about the school, its educational programs, and its many amenities.

After talking to Max, on the other hand, we felt kindly toward him but ambivalent about the school.

This is not what Colorado College should be doing.

If you are going to present a product (whether it’s a college or a can opener) to a prospective customer, keep in mind the basic rules of advertising:

1. The customer is not interested in you. He is interested in himself. Don’t tell him how great you are; show him how your product will improve his life.
2. Don’t sell your product in a lukewarm fashion. If you don’t think it’s worth selling, don’t sell it. But if you are getting paid to sell, sell.
3. Your customers are smart enough to understand that they’re getting a sales pitch. They expect you to show enthusiasm and present the benefits of your product the best way you possibly can… not as a combination of good and bad. So long as you aren’t coercing them in any way, they prefer to get your strongest reasons to buy and then make the buying decision themselves.
4. If you want to warm up your customers, don’t embarrass them. Most people like to talk about themselves, but not in front of strangers. Create a safe and intimate environment and let the warming up happen naturally.

One more thing: After you have graduated from college, don’t allow yourself to describe your experiences as "amazing."

[Ed. Note: To read more of Michael’s unedited, uncensored (and sometimes unexpected) ruminations, check out his blog here.

Relieve Your Aching Joints Naturally

By Al Sears, MD

A common mineral called MSM safely relieves the inflammation that causes chronic pain. MSM stands for methylsulfonylmethane, a form of sulfur that your body can absorb.

Scientists at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine and the Arthritis Health Center in Arizona tracked 50 adults over the age of 40 who had been diagnosed with osteoarthritis of the knee. One group took MSM twice a day; the other group took a placebo.

At the end of the study, both groups were evaluated. Those who used MSM enjoyed a dramatic decrease in arthritis pain and impaired physical function. MSM also improved their ability to perform daily activities. What’s more, the MSM group saw reductions in both homocysteine - a risk factor for heart disease - and malondialdehyde - a marker of oxidative stress.

[Ed. Note: MSM is just one of the powerful natural pain fighters in Dr. Sears’ new formula, Primal Flex. To find out how Primal Flex can relieve your pain, click HERE.]

A Tool to Make Your Writing Easier to Read

By Krista Jones

You may have heard that most Americans read at a 7th-grade level. Sounds pretty scary to me, but it does show us why we should keep our writing clear and simple.

If you use Microsoft Word, you can test the "readability" of your writing by clicking on "Tools" then "Options" and then "Spelling and Grammar." Then click the check box at the bottom that says "Show readability statistics."

After you spell-check your document, a box will pop up showing the number of words you used, the number of paragraphs, the number of sentences, the number of sentences per paragraph, the number of words per sentence, and the percentage of passive sentences. It will also give you two indicators that are based on the Flesch-Kincaid formula for readability. These indicators measure reading ease (based on 100 points, with 100 being the easiest) and grade level.

I use these stats all the time. My writing used to be in the 50-55 range for reading ease, and now it generally ranges from the low 60s to the mid-70s. When the reading ease is 65 or higher, that tells me I have a good chance of connecting with my reader.

[Ed. Note: Krista Jones, a former environmental scientist, is a freelance copywriter specializing in personal development and business opportunity. She and Monica Day are the co-founders of The Copy Protege, a free twice-weekly e-letter for up-and-coming copywriters.]

It’s Fun to Know: About U.S. Currency

The largest currency denomination ever printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing was the $100,000 Series 1934 Gold Certificate, featuring the image of President Wilson. Not circulated among the general public, these notes were in print for less than a month.

(Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury)

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Word to the Wise: Gormless

"Gormless" (GAWRM-lis) is an informal British word that means dull or lacking intelligence and vitality.

Example (as used by Roger Ebert in a review of the movie Shaun of the Dead: "I like the way the slacker characters maintain their slothful gormlessness in the face of urgent danger, and I like the way the British bourgeois values of Shaun’s mum and dad assert themselves even in the face of catastrophe."

[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker … build your self-confidence and intellect … increase your attractiveness to others… just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR’s new Words to the Wise CD Library.]

Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007