For An Alternative Rush

What is a Joint Venture? A joint venture is an agreement
in which two or more businesses work on a project for a
set period of time. Usually with a specific project or
goal in mind. Joint ventures can be long-term, like
promoting a product together, or some can be short-term,
like bartering or trading products and services. Ideas on
how to joint venture ideas are boundless.

Why you want to start Joint Venture Marketing! Here are
51 reasons why you want to start joint venturing
immediately if you haven’t already done so and ideas on
how you can use joint venture in your business and with
other businesses. Yet, one of the very best reasons you
will want to joint venture is to create richer, more
valuable, products and services that you couldn’t provide
on your own.

With joint venture marketing you can…

1. Build long lasting business relationships.

2. Increase your credibility by teaming up with other
reputable, branded businesses.

3. Receive free products and services.

4. Construct most joint venture deals with little or no
money.

5. Gain new leads and customers.

6. Get discounts on products and services.

7. Save money on business operating costs.

8. Beat your competition.

9. Gain referrals from other businesses.

10. Solve your business problems.

11. Save valuable time.

12. Get free and low cost advertising.

13. Offer your customers new products and services.

14. Survive a depression, recession or a slow economy.

15. Save money by sharing advertising and marketing costs.

16. Target other potential markets.

17. Expand and grow your business quickly.

18. Gain valuable information or skills.

19. Increase and protect your cash flow.

20. Find new profit outlets (ways to distribute your
information).

21. Become rich and wealthy with less stress.

22. Start almost any business at little or no costs.

23. Get rid of your extra inventory.

24. Reduce and eliminate your debts and avoid bankruptcy.

25. Afford to sell your products at a lower price.

26. Increase your opt in or ezine subscribers for free.

27. Get your web hosting and design for free.

28. Save money outsourcing your workload for free.

29. Find hidden income streams.

30. Exchange useless products for profitable ones.

31. Create new business funding and credit lines.

32. You can produce more products in less time.

33. Find and create new distribution channels for your
products.

34. Give your employees more raises, bonuses and benefits.

35. Even trade nonbusiness stuff to improve your personal
life.

36. Increase your sales and profits.

37. Send your ad to huge, targeted email lists at no cost.

38. Eliminate employee hiring costs creating barter
outsourcing deals.

39. Build your customer or opt-in list for free.

40. Build profitable alliances with other businesses.

41. Learn insider information from other experts at no
cost.

42. Have someone else to test your product with.

43. Can out-sell other affiliates easier.

44. Increase the number of affiliates that sign up to your
reseller program.

45. Offer more bonus products and incentives to buy.

46. Get highly credible endorsements and testimonials from
other experts.

47. Quickly increase your ezine subscribers.

48. Offer your products at lower prices than your
competition.

49. Easily find new up sell and backend products to sell.

50. Create products faster and with less effort.

51. Combine efforts and increase productivity.

Catherine Franz, writer, speaker, marketing master,
specializes in infoproduct development. More at:
http://www.MarketingStrategiesToGo.com and
http://www.AbundanceCenter.com. Including articles and
ezines.

Compare PODs Then Choose Wisely!

Technology has advanced in the publishing world. I love it! I have been greatly helped to realize my publishing dreams. I think it’s wonderful that aspiring authors have a greater range of choice. Now you may choose to pursue traditional publishing or quantum leap into self-publishing. Perhaps some would never have the opportunity to see their work in professional print without the arrival of publish on demand or POD Publishing. Print-on-demand means exactly what it implies: the company print books as they are ordered. They use modern technology to store and print your book in electronic form, removing the need for a warehouse and large print runs.

In my opinion, POD publishing does not take the place of its proud elder brother “Traditional Publishing.” As with anything, there are pros and cons of each method. With that said, I won’t attempt to convince you whether POD publishing is a good choice for you. There are lots of good reports out there on that subject.

Back in 2002 when I chose to self-publish my first book, I compiled a report comparing the top 3 companies. It helped me make my decision. I have revised that report for you and offer it fr~ee at the end of this article. If you have decided to publish POD, here are five of those ten top things to consider and compare.

1. Cover? Covers sell books! Of course it’s not the only selling aspect of your book but it is one of the most important. One shot at a good first impression to capture the interest of your potential reader is all you get.

Author’s Note: Look at their covers in on-line bookstores - back in 2002 I liked what several companies offered but their existing author book covers looked like crayon drawings. Most companies have since improved but I still think it’s one of the main points to consider. You are looking for bookstore quality or trade quality.

2. Contract? - Most Publish-On-Demand or print when ordered companies are not considered publishing houses but publishing service companies. Therefore, you should expect a non-exclusive contract period.

3. Setup Fee? If you are like most self-publishers you are budget conscious of the initial setup fee of your book. The basic package of the 4 leading companies I researched average about $500. For my first self-published project, I let the other options determine my decision more since my 3 contenders’ basic package was about the same.

4. Distribution? - Make sure they list their books in the leading wholesaler database as a part of the package or at least have an add-on option to list in & distribute through the two leading book wholesalers in the United States: Ingram and Baker & Taylor.

5. Royalty payments? - You may be wondering like an author friend of mine asked, “Shouldn’t royalty be the first thing I should ask about?” Not necessarily, the traditional publishing company industry standard is 5-8% quarterly or bi-annually. The industry average for POD companies is about 15-20% at the time of this writing. Even so, tt’s good to know when to expect your royalty and how much. Most pay quarterly or monthly.

6. Book Price? Find out if they are pricing their books at a competitive market price. It will probably hurt your sales if your book is priced too high above its competitors.

7. Author Support? Know what kind of support the company you contract with will provide. One on One support, representative assigned, phone support, email support are among the options. Find out so you can know what to expect. Make sure you are comfortable with what they propose to provide if you have any problems in the publishing process.

8. Proof Ready? Although most POD companies provide proof way ahead of traditional publishing standard of 1-2 years, its still good to know.

9. Books Returnable & Discounted to Bookstores? Do you plan to sell many books in the bookstore? Books aren’t automatically stocked on the precious shelves of bookstores, you know. You should know upfront, if you publish POD publishing more than likely your books are unreturnable.

Author’s Note: Though that is rapidly changing - there are still lots of companies that still go by this policy in their contract.
Why is this important? Bookstores expect full trade discount and anticipate buying books on a returnable basis. This includes museums, gift shops, libraries, schools, etc.

10. Author Purchase Discount? This is important for your marketing campaign. Yes, you do have to market your book. With any self-publishing project, all marketing is considered your responsibility. Even with the econimies of traditional publishers you only get a portion of your publiscist attention (may be assigned to 10-100 authors) for about 30-90 days.

Author’s Note: Let’s assume you are an excited author that just finished your book-your labor of love, decided to self-publish, saved $2500 but feel daunted about all the things you have to learn about to self-publish. Things you must do like hire a cover designer, book editor, someone to professionally layout your book, hire printer, purchse barcodes & isbn number, etc. We haven’t even gotten to the work of marketing. Why not consider a POD publisher who handles all of those stages and steps for you? You are only left with investing in your book at the lowest price possible to re-sell to your readers at whatever price the market will bear.

I hope these thoughts are helpful to you. It helped me make an informed choice when I knew nothing about the industry of publishing. Here’s to the success of your book publishing dreams!

© Earma Brown, 10 year author and business owner
helps small business owners and writers who want to write their best book now! Author of “Win with the Writer Inside You”, she mentors other writers and business professionals through her monthly ezine “iScribe.” Subscribe now for FREE eReport “Self-Publish Now,Less Time, Less Effort, Less Money” send any email to
iscribe@writetowin.org

P.O. Box 612
Wylie, Texas 75098
877-846–9908

An important factor in making your time, efforts and expenses worthwhile at a trade show is proper selection and training of your booth staff. Here are some tips for being well prepared to work your next trade show.

Choose a Leader

During the preparation and execution of a trade show engagement, there is usually a leader that emerges as heading up the overall show management. However, this is not always clear-cut in all organizations. Before you assign any staffing, determine who is leading the overall effort, and have that person positioned as such throughout the planning and execution process. This person will be your go-to person at the show and should have a major role in booth staffing, training, and follow-up after the show.

Determine Booth Staff

Several weeks prior to traveling to the show, you will have decided who is going to staff your exhibit booth at the show. The number of people working your booth depends on how much space you have, whether you have scheduled appointments with clients or prospects during the show, the number of expected attendees at the show and other factors, but the following is a good rule of thumb: 2 booth staffers for the first 10′ of booth space + 1 staffer for each additional 10′ of space. That equation would work like this:

And so on. A common mistake is over-staffing your booth, which will intimidate visitors. People are more likely to stop and explore your booth when they are free to look around without being “pounced on” by staff.

In addition to knowing who is working the show, you should create a booth staff schedule, giving equal time to all staff people, allow for lunch breaks, appointments, etc.

The Gift of Stories

Jimmy Buffet once sang, “Ahh, the stories we could tell.” Each of us has a story we can tell that will comfort, guide or simply make others laugh.

Our stories make up who we are. And we all can learn from stories.

One of the reasons the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” books are so popular is they tell stories that uplift, comfort and inspire. The greatest teachers in the history of the world taught by telling stories. Sometimes the greatest teachers/story-tellers are right in front of us, and we don’t even know it.

The Gift of “Giving Away”

We’ve all heard it said that “it is better to give than to receive.” Most religions of the world talk about the importance of giving.

Did you know there is a solid psychological reason for this? When you give something of your self away, especially on a regular basis, it teaches your brain that there is more than enough for you. Some call that feeling contentment.

The Gift of Perspective

Richard Bach wrote, “Perspective - use it or lose it.” We so easily lose our perspective, which leads to majoring in minor things, which leads to frustration and feeling stuck.

The Gift of Mentoring

Mentoring is a notion that has received much attention in recent years. In its simplest form, all it really means is to show someone the way, to pass on some of your life experiences and lessons to others.

The Gift of Experience It has been said that “success comes from good judgment, good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.” Sharing the gift of your experiences can help others avoid the same mistakes you made.

The Gift of Wisdom

Every person I’ve ever met has his or her own wisdom to share with others. Just because you don’t think yourself to be wise, that’s called humility, be careful not to rob others of the gift of your wisdom. Each one of us is ignorant about something.

The Gift of Rest

My physician friends tell me that many physical ailments can be traced to lack of sufficient rest. Rest does not necessarily imply laziness or lack of motivation. It’s a requirement for not only the body, but also for the mind and spirit.

Three other guys and I once drove a car more than halfway across the United States, stopping only for gas, meals and other traveling essentials. The day after we got back, my friend’s car just died. The mechanic said it was the result of not allowing the car to rest.

So, if even machines need rest, what about you and me? Give you and yours the gift of genuine rest this season.

The Gift of Memories

One of the most valuable and lasting gifts to give is pleasant memories. Think back to some of your favorite holiday seasons. Do you remember all the gifts you received that year, or are your memories of time spent with family and friends, of good times together?

Long after the gifts are part of a landfill somewhere, the memories you are making will be what abides. They are truly gifts that can last a lifetime.

Consider: What would it be like if you both gave and received each of these gifts this year?

Visit The Article Guy for more leading edge tips and tools for writing articles that bring you prospects, publicity and profits. You can also subscirbe to our monthly Article Empire Tips Newsletter. You are also invited to visit my Express-Start Article Writing Program for more information on the next article writing tele-seminar.

How many leads have come into your business since the beginning of time that never closed? That is a salient question. Who knows how many, but I bet there are a lot.

Whether a small company or a large one with a sales force, the leads that are always best are the ones that are easy to close. But what about the prospects that were reached but never closed? They are in an abyss - The Unclosed Sales Lead Abyss, technically speaking.

What are you doing to follow up? Are you following up? Do you have a fixed idea in mind about some time frame that those leads then become dead?

What does it cost you to get that lead? Let’s look at a hypothetical analysis:

• Postcard marketing experts will tell you to send out 5000 postcards.

• It costs you $2000.00 to send out those postcards.

• Say you do that and you get 50 calls;

• That is $40.00 per lead.

The Return On Investment (ROI) of this example is as follows…

• You make $2000.00 off of every close.

• You close 20% out of those 50 calls (10 sales).

• You made $10, 000 less the 2G’s for the postcards = $8000.00.

That is decent Return On Investment (ROI), but what about the 40 leads that never closed? That is $1600.00 sitting out there on table, spent with no return.

Now ask yourself, how many of your leads don’t close per month? Take that theoretical situation and multiply $1600 by the other 11 months. That is a chunk of change that you are basically blowing.

Don’t get discouraged. Getting educated in marketing and determining your ROI is a major step in the right direction. Great ROI is what you should be going for, but don’t stop there. There is more to sniff out.

So, what are you doing to get all of those that initially reached for your product or service?

How many phone calls do you make before you decide that a lead is “unclosable” - zero, two, three? Did you leave a message on their voice mail and they didn’t call back so you dropped them?

Most likely a one-man-band or a two to three-person operation is working harder than a sales force in following up on their leads. How many in a sales force are simply cherry picking their leads, so to speak, and not closing or following up with the rest? How many of these dropped leads do you have built up? Can you see the waste?

You need to follow up. Even if you didn’t get the ROI you anticipated or needed, you still need to follow up. But how? More specifically, what kind of campaign should you do to get even more ROI? Good question. Here’s the answer.

First of all, realize that these prospects reached for you, your product or service and you CAN rehabilitate that initial interest. They are much easier to close and more valuable than someone who has never shown interest in your product or service before. Build on that.

You don’t now have to send out a mass mailing of postcards again to revitalize their interest - we’re only talking about 20 to 100 leads that need to be followed up with a catchy message each month.

Yes, they responded to a postcard (if that is what was sent) and will respond again if it is the right communication. The same postcard may work, but what you are trying to do is send repeat communication to those initial “reachers” and word it in such a way that they will want to reach again. Send a direct mail postcard or an email or both - follow up with repeat mailings to that small cluster of people that is a different, more personal communication than what got them to reach the first time.

What would that message be? When you get calls off of your initial mailing, get as much information as possible - cull the data.

Have you ever heard of “Database Marketing” or “CRM” (Customer Relationship Management)? This means getting data about each one of those customers/leads and putting them in a database.

What is it that you need to find out? All kinds of things, such as, but not limited to:

1. How they found out about you in first place?

2. What kind of product they are looking for?

3. Do they have a deadline for that need? (This tells you how hot they are as a lead.)

4. What is going to cause them to purchase or not purchase? Ask!!

5. What makes them want to do business with someone or not? Again - ask!

You can find out all of this information while talking to the person on the phone when that person first calls. The more interested you are in that lead the more they will like you and will want to do business with you. It is not how interesting you are or how low your price is, or how great your company is - it is how much you actually are interested in them. Your initial closing percentage will actually go up and likewise you will have simple information that can be put into a data base (or a simple Excel spreadsheet) about your leads and you’ll be able to find out what is the common denominator about those people. Then do a communication to those people based on those common factors.

By the way - this is what the big companies are doing, they already know about this. If you want to get big - do what the postcard marketing experts are saying and doing.

Take the information that you gathered and send out tiny little mailings. These particular mailings are for different segments of the people that have already reached for your product or service; the message is based on what they have told you.

Wouldn’t it be great if it was really easy to send out a full-color glossy postcard that was specific to that one customer, all from your own computer? Where are you going to get beautiful postcards that have variable data and can get your small mailing out? Usually you have to send out the same piece and order a large quantity - companies have minimums. The reason why they have minimums is because that is the way it is cost effective to sell to you. At this juncture, though, you want to get your mailing out more inexpensively and still get results.

“Variable Data” is data that is printed on a postcard that is variable - it changes from postcard to postcard and can be taken from any database. What if you could put that on the front of a full-color glossy postcard and not have to type a specific letter?

Like “John Murphy, it is time for your dental cleaning” or “John Murphy, how about that pair of sunglasses you wanted?” or of you’re doing mortgages, “John Murphy - what about refinancing that house for Johnny Jr.’s college tuition?”

On the back of the postcard, you could say:

“Dear John,

I understand that you were interested in “product” for the purpose of “purpose”. (It is in the database - fill it in.)

Call me if I can help you make a decision.

Sincerely,
Your name,
Your number and information”

You can find companies that do this. Research on the internet and look for companies that allow you to stay in touch with variable data postcards. Research well and make sure they are going to do a good job for you. Get referrals, check samples - will they give you a chance to try out the product and see their turn-around time?

A final tip is that different people need different amounts of communication. When postcard marketing experts tell you to hit your target list of 5000 postcards over and over again, the reason why some call after just the first time and some others call after the second time and others call after the 5th time, etc., is because people move at different speeds in life and in business.

Now, with those that have called in you have closes that are slam dunks, but others operate differently when it comes to closing. So don’t just waste those leads. Consistently put out your communication in the same way you did with your initial mailings, but with a more personalized message.

That is Database Marketing. That is how you get people to buy from you after they have reached by following up with them enough.

Put in your calendar to make three different follow up phone calls; if you get voice mail then leave a message that really communicates to them. Send a variable data postcard, send an email, but stay in touch. You will be glad you did - in fact you’ll be smiling all the way to the bank.

Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania in 1998, her only assets a computer and a phone. By 2004 the company did $9 million in sales and employed over 60 people. She attributes her explosive growth to her ability to choose incredible staff and her innate marketing savvy. As an Expert Author, she is always willing to share her marketing advice through articles, interviews and speaking engagements; visit http://www.postcardmania.com