Archive for May, 2009

Why Do You Need a Backend Marketing Strategy in Your Business?

 

 

 

You have tried every trick in the book but your ecommerce website is not being as successful as you expected it to be. This might be because you have neglected a whole area of business—backend sales. In today’s cut-throat business world, it is important to cash in on backend sales, lest your competition overtake you.

 

Here are a few reasons why backend sales are so important.

 

First and foremost, it is far easier to sell a product to an old customer than to convince a new customer. According to marketing estimates, your chances of success are eight times higher when you sell to old customers.

 

This is primarily because these people have used your products before and know how good it is. They are able to see you as a reliable products and service provider whose products embody some value and usability.

 

So, to succeed in business, you must care for your old customers. While marketing a new product, it is best to start with these older customers as they are not only more likely to buy your product, but will also be more forthcoming about their complaints and comment about it because they are familiar with your brand, know what it stands for and what expectations to have of it.

 

Also, giving your older customers some preference helps build trust and opens up lines of communication that you never had access to before. Through this, you are in fact showing your older patrons that you are privileging them, which is bound to rebound on your business in a positive manner.

 

Offering big rebates to your customers on backend products is also known to be an extremely successful ploy that is often used by internet marketing gurus around the world….and if it’s a model that works online then an offline business can get even better results because it’s not often used!

 

 These discounts give your brand a chance to re-connect with your customers. It also helps revive inactive customers, which is a lot more important than it sounds.

 

You need to understand early in business the opportunities an inactive customer offers you. These customers, while they might not be buying anything right now, have in fact bought and used and appreciated your product before, and are in fact only a phone call or an email away from resuming their business relationship with you.

 

If these are not big enough reasons to get you to understand the importance and worth of successful backend marketing, then nothing ever will. Continuity and a fostering of long-term business relationships is an integral part of a successful business venture.

 

Your business cannot start and end with just one product. You need to keep providing your customers with new solutions and added benefits to keep your business booming.

 

Backend Marketing Method

 

As a Denver Marketing Consultant, I can help you when your business is in need of some kind of a push, you mostly resort to the old method of broadening your clientele. This is not an easy task, and more often than not, you cannot tide over your dipping sales. An easy and innovative answer to your problem is the method of backend marketing. This is the trick that most salesmen have mastered, and it involves nothing but a bit of persuasion to make another sale to a customer who has purchased your product.

 

This is relatively easy for a salesman because once the client has purchased your product he has shown that he believes in your product and has thus invested his money. This also shows that they trust your services and won’t be averse to buying something recommended by you. You do not have to spend time building up their trust in you by proving that your company has excellent credentials.

 

You could work out this backend marketing strategy by suggesting a product that aids in the performance of the product your customer has already purchased from you. The key to a higher profit is to recommend a product that has better performance than the one just bought, and hence more expensive.

 

If you have recently kept an eye on Amazon.com, you must have noticed that a statistical account of the products purchased by each customer is maintained.

 

Suppose you decide to buy a book through Amazon.com, they will display a list of customers who have bought some other book-perhaps indirectly related to the one you chose- while buying the one you are going to purchase for yourself. They suggest you to check out this related book. You might even like the suggestion and go for both the books, even though you set out to buy just one.

 

Similarly, if you follow this simple yet effective marketing strategy, you could effortlessly bring in the profit you require and make your customers feel that their needs are being efficiently met with. Meanwhile your clientele-base gets strengthened.

 

You could offer to knock off a small percentage of the sales price in a bid to sell your expensive product. The customers feel that they are making a good bargain and they buy it!

 

Simply put, this tactic entails nothing more than first selling a reliable product to your client and then suggesting something more expensive yet useful to aid the aforementioned product.

 

Mike Saunders, The Automated Marketing Expert, is a Certified Marketing Expert and began www.MarketingHuddle.com during his MBA in Marketing.

Marketing Huddle is a marketing coaching and consulting firm specializing in helping small business owners set up automated marketing tools and systems in their business to reduce expenses and increase revenues.

Do you want a 50 pg. Video E-book on using online marketing in your business? Visit www.MarketingHuddle.com and join our ezine!

 

 

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Taking the Advantage of Backend Selling

 

 

It’s odd that many companies don’t focus on building a database and taking advantage of backend sales.

 

There are, of course, countless examples of the value of building databases: Google, for instance, bought Youtube for $1.6 billion. It is extremely important to maintain and update your database to let your clients be aware of what special promotions you are offering and to keep them forever aware of the existence of your business. Having a good relationship with a large clientele is one of the biggest assets of any business in these consumer-oriented times.

 

Besides, though most companies focus on front-end sales, the backend is where the most money is to be made…..let me say that again….the backend is where the most money is made!

Your database means you can constantly market new products to your clients, allowing them to effortlessly upgrade, and expand your business further.

 

Backend sales are all about adding value to your clients’ purchases and persuading them that their main, front-end purchase would be much improved if supplemented by a number of backend purchases. If you market your backend good well enough, you can make a large profit even while seemingly offering the front-end product at a much cheaper price than other businesses.

 

For instance, let’s suppose company A purchases Toyota Camrys at $18,399 and sells them at $17,999. Company A thus loses $400 on the front-end sale. Meanwhile, other companies, which also obtain the cars at the price company A does, sell them at, say, $18,999. These companies thus technically make a profit of $600.

 

As people are more likely to purchase cars from company A, the others may justifiably complain that they are losing customers, and wonder whether the owners of company A were procuring cars at a lesser price.

 

Of course, company A, not being a charitable concern, is in fact making a profit. What company A is doing is concentrating on backend sales. Numerous extras, which would normally cost, say, $3,000 dollars are being offered with the car, for an extra price of, say, $1,400.

 

 In this way, company makes a profit of $1,000, instead of suffering an apparent loss of $400. In addition, they can offer special discounts on finance, say 4% instead of 6%. This enables company A to build up a loyal clientele and ensure that the customers poached from other car dealerships would not be poached back by them.

 

 You, too, can utilize backend sales and databases to make large profits.

 

 

Getting Started with Your Backend Strategy

 

As a Denver Marketing Consultant, I can help you with a back end product is what you sell your after you’ve sold your main product.

Building a business requires acquiring new customers. However, that is expensive since marketing costs have to be raised to attract new buyers. According to a research by Fortune magazine it’s easier to sell a product to an old customer than to a new one since buyers are always apprehensive in their first purchase.

 

An old customer trusts you and this enables him to buy other products from you. A foundation is created on whose basis you can introduce new products to the customer. This enhances their Customer Life Value and brings greater returns on your marketing investments….you DO know what the “lifetime value of your customers” is don’t you?! If not this is a very important concept, please get with someone who can help you with this, it will really open your eyes!

While determining your back end product, remember to keep it compatible with your main product. If you select an inconsistent product the customers will feel that you lack expertise and this can damage the customer’s confidence in your main product also.

If you are undecided then you can always ask your customers’ opinion regarding different products. Your customers will appreciate the gesture and your survey will bring you valuable information.

 

 

Conducting Surveys

If you possess a customer list then it is practical to conduct the survey by mail, email or phone. Prepare a simple survey questionnaire and mail it to your customers in self addressed envelopes. If you don’t have the required customer list then get your sales clerk to conduct the survey in person with each sale. However, a one-to-one survey might not be preferable to every customer. Another great idea is to grab your webcam and make a quick video email to sent to your list (you DO create and build your email database don’t you?!). In this way you can ask in a fresh personal way!

Another way of determining your backend product is to check what your competitor is selling. If you have the same target customers then their product will work for you too.

Conclusion…

To sell your backend product successfully you must believe in it yourself. If you are ambivalent about your product it will become evident to your customer soon enough as well. Therefore, a genuine love for your product is necessary to make your business successful.

 

Mike Saunders, The Automated Marketing Expert, is a Certified Marketing Expert and began www.MarketingHuddle.com during his MBA in Marketing.

Marketing Huddle is a marketing coaching and consulting firm specializing in helping small business owners set up automated marketing tools and systems in their business to reduce expenses and increase revenues.

Do you want a 50 pg. Video E-book on using online marketing in your business? Visit www.MarketingHuddle.com and join our ezine!

 

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One of the most difficult things you have to deal as you think about starting your membership site is which niche you should start it in. Many Internet marketers automatically think they should start one in the Internet marketing niche. However, there are many untapped opportunities out there in an incredible number of niche areas!

The most important thing is that you choose a niche that is passionate. The niche needs to be something that is on their mind all the time. This might be a hobby, or some kind of problem they want solved. Ideally, the people in the niche should be used to spending money, and do so regularly. This will help ensure you’ll have plenty of members signing up for your membership site who will not balk at having to pay a fee! If you’ve been building niche websites for a while, you might already have some ideas of what you want to go with.

Also, while you don’t want to necessarily follow your own passions, you should choose something you’re interested in. Otherwise, you will likely start the website and lose interest in it — which will be frustrating to you and your members!

It can be a good idea to choose a subniche of a certain niche. For example, instead of creating a “weight-loss” website, you might create a membership site focused on “weight loss for new moms.”  This calls out to a certain group of people, and you can more easily break into a competitive niche this way.

There are as well downsides to choosing smaller subniches. One of the biggest downsides is that the customer base may not be large enough to make it worth your while. You can make your focus more general, but just keep in mind that it will be difficult to grow and make a name for yourself in the beginning. Still, that doesn’t mean you can’t make it work!

Basically, it’s very important to research your niche thoroughly before you get started creating content or investing a lot of time and money. Take a look and see if there are already competitors with membership sites in the niche, or at least people already making money in it. This is a good indicator that you will be able to make money in that niche is well.

Of course, it might be that you want to create a membership site in the Internet marketing niche. This can definitely work for you, and can be highly profitable. This is especially true in these times where money is tight for a lot of people. People are willing to spend a little bit of money in the hopes that they can make a lot more money in the long run.

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With each Internet usage increase, many companies are doing what they can to make everything known to as many internet users as they can.

And what other way better than online advertising is there?

PPC marketing is just one of many other possible forms of advertising products or services online. It refers to ads that are uploaded by search engines, blogs, advertising networks and regular web sites to make publicity.

The expression pay per click advertising points out that advert agents pay the host web site or blog only when the ad is clicked on or accessed. These ads may not be clicked at all, in which case no money will be transferred between the host and advertising provider.

With content web sites, each click has a fix charge regardless of how many times it is made.

In the case of search engines, things with pay per click advertising get a little more complicated than with web sites because the system is different and advertisers propose a certain payment on keywords and phrases that would match their target markets; they actually bid for these keywords, and he who bids highest will own the keyword.

On the other hand, web sites rely on the list of phrases and keywords given by the advertiser in order to show an ad and the fixed charge makes it all easier.

If a certain keyword or phrase is introduced by the person viewing the site, the web site recognizes it and immediately displays the pay per click advertising as there would be higher chances of gaining click-worth money.

This is known as sponsored links and they can display where it will fit the advertiser.

Altogether there are many pay per click advertising providers and you can imagine the level of competition that there is between them. Three of the most important providers of such ads are Microsoft adCenter, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google AdWords.

You can also find many different methods of marketing on the internet, some of them will give you an instant cashflow. If you would like to find out which one can pay at much higher levels, go to www.BeMaverickMoneyMaker.com and follow some step by step videos.

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Have you imagined being engaged with the marketing world and get to marketing small business accordingly? If you have a business online or an ordinary business offline you should be aware on how important it is that you get to know how you will be able to bring people notice that your business exists, right?

In marketing small business, you need to know certain strategies which would assist you in building a reason for the people to patronize the products of services that you offer. Aside from having people know about your business you must develop interest from the online users. You can look into building a website which would bring people to it and from there you can create ideas on how you will be able to increase profit for your business.

This time around you will now have an idea on how to generate revenues through this website you created. The whole process would entail you building a marketing plan for marketing small business and wait for its successful outcome.

Keep in mind that if you are marketing small business online, chances are, you’ll encounter large-scale businesses online that may even be one of your competitors, now what are you plans in keeping the business of your clients? That is the role that your marketing plan partakes. So it is important that your marketing plan for marketing small business would be able to create goals for you as well as keep you updated on what developments you already have for strengthening your business.

Let’s say that you are not much confident in creating a marketing small business plan, you should be able to ask help from professionals that are willing to help you out with formulating plans for your business. You will then be informed regarding the strategies and options you may use for marketing small business. You will then also have an idea on how long will you be able to keep your business and be ready in the future.

If you want to gain a favorable outcome in marketing small business you need to be strongly motivated to succeed in reaching your target market. Remember that, that is your main goal in attaining improvement for your business. If you are capable of utilizing a very good marketing strategy for your business then you’ll definitely enjoy gaining profit for it from time to time.

Go ahead and do some research in marketing small business and see what changes it can do for your business. Your determination will lead you to success!

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pop up displays

Tips On Buying A New Trade Show Booth
In the market for a new trade show booth? Purchasing a new custom  display used to be easy. You would find a local custom trade show display builder, study a few designs and place the ordder. These displays were made of plywood, covered in laminate, and packed in crates.

Now there are many more options. It may even make more sense to work with an out-of-state company that operates closer to your shows. A big advantage of this approach is that if you live in a state with sales tax you won’t have to pay it. Even better is the fact that pricing on custom displays is still much lower than start from scratch plywood customs. The challenge, however, is for you to figure out how to get the most exhibit for your budget (hopefully you have one) that will be functional, aesthetically pleasing and well branded. This page is designed to provide some clues as to what is available and as to how you might start.

One of the most important starting places is to figure out a budget. What is it going to take  to get noticed next to your competition? For this reason, some sample prices are included in this article. To be clear, all of the links lead to my company’s web site for two reasons; 1) Ours includes sample pricing and 2) Promotion. I admit that it is a little self serving. Please take this into consideration. I encourage you to also look at other web sites.

Trade Show Truss Displays Are Now More Portable: $6-7,000.00
An exhibit category that didn't exist only a few years ago are Trade Show Truss systems. They are available in a variety of kits that include lights, graphic production, and shipping cases. Custom designs can be done.

Think you may be interested in a truss? Truss provides an upgraded look from the less expensive Pop up displays, which has now been around for nearly 30 years. Truss is very functional, sturdy enough to hold large plasma screens and other products and at the same time display graphics very well. The pack out is not as convenient as a Pop up or simple panel system, but the more sophisticated your booth, the more likely it is that you are going to compromise the ease of shipping. A truss booth is modular so the components you buy now can later go into a larger island exhibit.

Upside of truss: Sturdy looking, a step up from what most starter companies purchase. Functional. Good with graphics. Good choice if you need plasmas. Downside: Set up is doable by one person but might be challenging. Shipping is more expensive than a pop because most  truss displays are heavy and comparable in weight to the higher end customs.

The good news regarding truss is that a brand new, light-weight truss display was introduced at the recent Exhibitor Show in Las Vegas. It actually qualifies as a portable display in that the kits pack into standard clamshell cases as opposed to tubs too large to ship via UPS.

Pop Up Displays: Prices Have Dropped To Under $2000.00, But It Still Delivers $1200.00 to $2000.00.

Pop up displays remain very popular. They should be listed in wikipedia.com as a definition of the word “portable”. ship ship via UPS, they set up in under 30 minutes  and, especially with mural graphic panels, they still excel at communicating a message. The popularity of the portable pop up display is also a down side. There will be a lot of them at a large show, making it more challenging to stand out in a crowd. Amazon uses them for smaller regional shows like those in hotels and smaller convention venues. Nonetheless, given that you can spend $1000.00 renting one from a show, they remain an excellent value if you are testing the trade show waters or building your business.

Portable displays: $5-10,000

Portable display design stagnated for many years starting in the late 1990’s. Some displays that were being referred to as portable wasn’t really because they couldn’t ship via FedEx. That has changed. Over the last two years several new portable kits have been introduced that have moved this genre forward.

This should provide you with an overview as to the different types of Exhibits that are available. Keep in mind that the prices given are for a 10 x 10′ space.

 

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Running a successful online newsletter or Ezine can be one of the most effective means of marketing your product or service. Even though blogs have almost taken over this practice there are still many successfully run online newsletters that pack a powerful marketing punch. Below I share some of the secrets to maintaining a faithful subscriber base and grown your Ezine.

1. Give your newsletter a name that will tell what it is all about. The name should also be memorable and catchy. You are trying to build a readership and also a brand that will spread as quickly as possible. If you use your own name in the newsletter this means that you’ll have difficulty selling the business later on, so keep this in mind.

2. Provide your subscribers with valuable content but don’t tell them all. If you tell them all then they don’t need to buy your product. You articles should tell them the ‘why’ of your product or service but not the ‘how’. If you give away too much the subscribers will get accustomed to getting everything for free and be less inclined to buy your product.

3. Give your Ezine some personality. You want the Ezine to say ‘you’. You are the owner and this is how you give your newsletter a personal identity. If you sound like everyone else then you’ll get lost in the mix. If you inject your thoughts and opinions then you can stand apart from the crowd.

4. Ask your subscribers’ opinions to engage their involvement. People like to know that their opinions matter. You can run a survey and then give the results in a follow-up issue. This gives the readers something to look forward to and your Ezine a better chance of getting opened.

5. Speak in the language of your subscribers. Use the same jargons that they use so that you can build a sense of community. You will be viewed as one of the group and not just a cold outsider providing information.

6. Provide a fair balance of articles and ads in your newsletter. If your newsletter appears to be just a big classified ad section then you are likely to lose subscribers. Nobody really read a paper for the ads so give them what they need and make your ads a ‘by the way’.

7. Ask subscribers what subject they would like you to cover to make sure that you are scratching where it itches. Rather than hoping that you are catering to their needs ask and know instead. The response you get will also give you an idea of the effective reach of your newsletter.

8. Do joint venture deals where you can offer your subscribers special subscribers-only deals. This will build readership loyalty and also show that you are looking out for their best interest. People like to know that they are a part of an exclusive group.

9. Give a preview of the upcoming topics to keep curiosity high. This is much like the newscasters that tell you what’s coming up next to keep you glued to the TV set until the commercial break is over. You can cover a topic that requires a series of articles to build reader loyalty among new subscribers. So those who sign up for a weekly newsletter wouldn’t have to wait the entire week before they get their first issue.

10. Provide a link in your newsletter to where the archives can be accessed. The products that you promote in the past could still bring you sales in this way. It’s also a place to showcase the quality of the information that you provide.

11. Publish your newsletter in both text and HTML format so you can give subscribers a choice of the format they wish to receive. Also because the newsletter will be longer than a normal promotional email (and so more difficult to bypass the SPAM filters) you can email both the full newsletter and another with the link to the web-published version.

12. Test your email open rate to determine which days of the week are the best to send out your newsletter. Some marketers claim that Fridays followed by Tuesdays give the best open rate. But each Ezine publisher will have to test for themselves. This is one factor that shouldn’t be overlooked though.

There are still many online newsletters that I cannot wait to open and read not only because of the information they provide but because they have established themselves as a source of news and even entertainment. Don’t neglect the power of a well written ezine.

Ray L. Edwards is a freelance copywriter, copywriting coach, Internet marketing consultant and published author. He has made his clients millions of dollars online and can be contacted about his services at http://www.webcopy-writing.com

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In this article we look at other ways to drive traffic to your website that are targeted and ready to purchase your product or service. Although all these strategies are not free many are and can be very effective when used consistently.

1. Use Solo Ezine Ads. Solo Ezine ads remain one of the most low-cost but effective means of advertising on the Internet. A solo ad is sent out by itself to the entire Ezine database and therefore gets good exposure compared to a classified ad.

You can simply do a SE query for Ezines in your market segment that offers solo advertising. You can also check out a site such as litsz.com for a number of widely read Ezines. With over 300,000 Ezines published online you should have little trouble finding advertisement space.

2. Buying Leads. Buying leads or mailing list is traditionally associated with Network Marketing and the direct mail industry. However, this is not so anymore. Many Ezine publishers are now buying subscribers from so called “co-registration” companies that send you subscribers at a price.

This is also known as “pay-per-lead” or “pay-per-subscriber” services and they offer a guaranteed way to build your optin list for a very reasonable fee. You can then market to these leads and offer your affiliate program to them. A few such companies are leadfactory.com, hiplists.com and worldlist.com.

3. Offer low-ticket items at auction sites. It’s no secret that auction sites such as ebay.com receive a ton of traffic. If you offer cheap products you can build your customer list very quickly. You can then offer back-end products to increase your return-on-investment.

At least this is one case of “If the mountain cannot come to Mohammed then Mohammed will go to the mountain” Go to where the traffic is and the traffic may follow you!

4. Run off-line ads. Many of the companies that do very well on the Internet are those companies that already had an off-line presence. They had their branding done before they entered the dotcom world.

It is very easy to forget newspaper classifieds and magazine ads when marketing on the Internet. You can use a car decal with your website address and tagline for example to lead visitors to your site.

5. Run an affiliate program. Once you’ve set up a website and a product that sells well you can organize an affiliate program with a generous commission structure. Those who sign up for the program will have to send traffic to your website to get sales. You can then invite those new customers to also become your affiliates and the viral effect takes it from there. This is really a marketers dream come true because you may have to do little promotion yourself.

6. Provide a Press Release. Do you think that you have a website or service that the world should know about? Then maybe they can know about this. You can pay a company such as pressreleasenetwork.com to do a press release for you. You can never tell which online and off-line news network will pick up your story and give you that shot in the arm that you are looking for.

If you need help in the writing of your press releases you may check a service such as ereleases.com.

7. Use Google AdWords. Google AdWords are what feeds the ads that show up to the left as ’sponsored links’ on Google’s search results. This is a type of PPC search engine except that you pay only after your ad is clicked instead of making a deposit. You are able to set your budget-how much you are willing to spend per day-so you can keep your spending in check.

The same tips as applied to normal PPC will apply here, except that your position or ranking depends on more than the amount of your bid for the keyword. You also have to indicate if you are an affiliate in the ad text itself.

If your ads are not getting a set minimum click thru rate (CTR) then your ad can be dropped from the listing. Some marketers will click on their own ads to avoid them dropping from the listing.

8. Perform a linking exchange campaign with other webmaster to get incoming link to your website. The number of incoming links from pages with high ranking can boost your own page ranking in SE like Google. Determine your present linking popularity by using http://www.linkpopularity.com and then contact other webmasters to ask for a link exchange.

9. Use the social network sites such as YouTube and MySpace. This is a more indirect way of getting traffic as you’ll not want to directly advertise your business but provide entertaining nuggets of information that would lead interested viewers and readers to come to your website to get more of you. The type of videos that work best on these sites are short (less than 10 minutes) and very entertaining. So you’ll want to inject some personality in these traffic generators.

10. Give away free ebooks and reports seeded with your website links and make them viral by providing an incentive for other webmasters to distribute them from their websites or give away as bonuses.

Traffic generation is becoming more and more competitive and expensive but at the same time those who make a consistent effort to generate traffic will be the ultimate winners in the online marketing game.

Ray L. Edwards is a freelance copywriter, copywriting coach, Internet marketing consultant and published author. He has made his clients millions of dollars online and can be contacted about his services at http://www.webcopy-writing.com

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I stumbled upon My Article Network recently, and consider myself very lucky for having done so. My Article Network has greatly boosted my internet marketing efforts.

Advertising with article marketing is a powerful tool. The best advantage it has is that advertising is free! You are able to write articles about your business, product, or website, and post it for thousands of people to see.

While the principle is simple, harnessing the potential of article marketing is a difficult task. There are many things that need to be considered when using article marketing:

  • What is the best way to write effective articles?
  • How do I drive traffic with my articles?
  • Where do I publish my articles?
  • What is the best way to maximize my articles?
  • What is the best way to get more readers?

This is only a sample of what you might need to take into consideration when considering article marketing.

One of the biggest difficulties with article marketing is getting enough articles presented to readers to make a difference in your business. With My Article Network, you can force-feed your articles to over 10,000 websites and blogs. This gives you the potential for creating unlimited backlinks and turbo-charging your Google Search Ranking.

I started using My Article Marketing, and got more results from my first 2 hours of work than I did with my first 5 weeks of working 6 hour days with traditional methods! I had more backlinks than I ever had before for my websites, and traffic was already reaching previous highs.

Step-By-Step Review Of My Article Network

My Article Network gives you the tools and training you need to make the most of their amazing network. You can write or paste your article, and easily ’spin’ it to create hundreds of variations of your article, so every article you post will be unique. After creating your article, it will continually be published on new websites and blogs for as long as you keep it up.

My Article Network also provides great tutorials to get you started and guide you through article marketing step-by-step.

Learn More About My Article Network

Additional Resources:

My Article Network Review At Squidoo

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Pursuing a joint venture is a great business strategy that could result in lasting profits and friendships. However, as much as we like to trust other people, especially those with whom we do business, you should always approach a potential JV partnership with a mindset of protecting yourself and your own business.

Why Protect Yourself?

Why should you want to protect yourself when entering a JV partnership? Through activities that may be intentional or accidental, you could face losses that could set your business back or even devastate it.

  • Lost Income – Unscrupulous JV partners may be untrustworthy in revealing true profits resulting from the JV, or even outright steal your share of joint income.
  • Lost Secrets – Your business secrets and proprietary methods and information may be susceptible if left in the wrong hands.
  • Lost Employees – Your best employees may even be tempted to leave you and work for your JV partner.
  • Lost Customers – Your established customer base may be swiped and convinced to switch their loyalties away from your business.
  • Lost Reputation – In a worst-case JV partnership, you and your business may face malicious attacks or unfounded accusations.

Taking a look at this list should give you plenty of incentive to protect yourself and your business in every step you take. There are no guarantees that your business partners will always be upfront, forthright, or even ethical with you. 

What You Should Include in a JV Agreement

The number one thing to remember is to ALWAYS get an agreement in writing not only to protect you, but also to ensure there are no misunderstandings. Here are just a few important items you should include in a JV agreement:

  • NDA – If you have any proprietary secrets or intellectual property you want protected, include a Non-Disclosure Agreement. An NDA will give you legal protection in the case where your business secrets are revealed or stolen.
  • Indemnity – Another set of protections you may want to include in a JV agreement is indemnity. An indemnification inclusion will indemnify or hold harmless you or any of your business associates, managers, or even your family, from any liabilities, claims, or lawsuits resulting from the other party.
  • Other Liability – Know how your JV will be liable for other business practices, such as customer returns or vendor accounts payable.
  • Term of Agreement – Your JV agreement should include whether your JV is expected to run in perpetuity or if there is a specific timeframe for the venture. This portion could be written as a “let’s see how it goes” condition, with a limited initial term that would extend if both JV partners are satisfied with the venture.
  • Money Handling – Set up in writing who will handle all the monetary transactions and how information will be fully disclosed and shared between JV partners. This includes all sales, chargebacks, refunds, accounts payable, and profit distribution.

A joint venture should be a pleasant and profitable experience for both parties.  But setting up some of these important protection clauses before your JV begins can save a lot of heartache and unpleasant business experiences.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

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