| I know that pretty much every coach in the country | | | | world because they are one of the best ways to |
| would rather be coaching than having to work on PR | | | | grow your mailing list and increase your sales. The kind |
| and marketing, so why make it extra hard on yourself | | | | of JV's that work best, of course, are the ones where |
| by assuming you have to do all the work? | | | | you already know, like and trust the person you are |
| There are some very straightforward ways to get | | | | teaming up with and you can genuinely recommend |
| other businesses and coaches on board through a | | | | their product or service. |
| spot of mutual support. You scratch their back and | | | | * Simple online joint venture ideas |
| they'll scratch yours. And it's all possible as a virtual, | | | | How about setting up a straight recommendation |
| online activity! | | | | swap? Your promotion partner recommends you in |
| * Basic link swaps | | | | their newsletter at the same time as you recommend |
| At the most basic level, there's the practice of | | | | them in yours. That way you get exposure to your |
| exchanging website links. If you put a link on your | | | | joint venture partner's mailing list and to lots of potentail |
| website that recommends somebody else's site and | | | | new sign-ups to your own list. |
| they do the same in return, you both increase the | | | | Another way is to set up an affiliate deal. If you have |
| number of incoming links to your respective websites. | | | | a particular product or service you want to sell online, |
| The search engines 'like' incoming links so the theory | | | | you can offer your promotion partners a percentage |
| goes that it will improve your Google rankings. | | | | of every sale that comes via their recommendation. |
| Actually I don't recommend that you use this form of | | | | This is easy to set up in (although you do need to |
| virtual backscratching much at all. And if you do, apply | | | | subscribe to the top level package to access the |
| the technique very sparingly. Why? Because it sends | | | | affiliate software) and, again, means that your product |
| people away from your website when what you want | | | | gets promoted to your partners' list as well as to your |
| is for them to hang around and sign up to your mailing | | | | own. |
| list. | | | | * Work with promotion partners you know and trust |
| * Seek out others with the same target market | | | | The really important thing to remember is that your |
| The way virtual backscratching works best is when | | | | good name and reputation are highly valuable to you |
| you team up with others who work with the same | | | | as a coach. So although joint venture promotions are |
| target market as you. At first it seems | | | | an excellent marketing tool, you must make sure that |
| counter-intuitive... surely these people are your | | | | you only recommend products and service providers |
| competitors? But the reality is that if you team up with | | | | that you know and trust. If you send out |
| others who offer slightly different services or products | | | | recommendations for rubbish products, you'll get a bad |
| to the same group of people, then you're in a win-win | | | | name pretty fast, and it's simply not worth taking that |
| situation. Not only can you now support each other | | | | risk. |
| with your marketing activity, both of you can also | | | | Who might you team up with for some virtual |
| increase the value you offer to your own mailing list. | | | | backscratching and mutual benefit? |
| Joint ventures are big business in the online marketing | | | | |