Merchant Account Comparison - A Quick Way To Compare Credit Card Processing Accounts
September 29, 2008
Being able to take credit cards is very important to any business that wants to actively sell goods and services on the web. When businesses started selling online it was thought that accepting plastic was a bad idea, because it applying a real world technology to the digital world. Startup companies offered e-currencies eg “flooz”, but the web-based currencies didn’t flourish. The truth is, ten years on from the launch of businesses online, still typing in credit card numbers to buy online and accepting credit cards when offering goods online is still hugely important.
There are basically two different ways to accept credit cards online. Let’s compare merchant accounts. A business can either sign up for a merchant account, which allows them to process credit cards via a bank gateway, or the business can sign up with a third party payment service, who actually processed the credit card orders for the business selling the products. Obtaining a full merchant account costs more initially, but has smaller per transaction costs. Using the services of a third party solution costs less initially, but has higher per item costs.
The decision as to whether or not to get a full merchant card processing account or use a third party payment service is only a question of crunching the numbers. Let’s look at two different business types and compare merchant account benefits…
In most cases, established businesses who are already trading locally and simply want to expand online will be more suited to getting a merchant account. Most likely, It’s most likely that they will already have an offline credit card processing account and will expand the remit of that account to also do “MOTO”, which is “Mail Order Telephone Order” processing and simply means that the cardholder isn’t there at the time of purchase.
For micro businesses starting to sell products online, it’s think about testing their marketing using a third-party payment service. The advantage is that there’s very little initial cost so they can test their market cheaply and easily. If the market is profitable, they can eventually look to decrease the per-sale fees by obtaining their own merchant account. If sales are poor, they can at least exit the market without having spent a lot of cash to get a merchant account.
The “Secret” of Voice Broadcasting Unveiled
September 29, 2008
Voice Broadcasting (delivering a huge number of automated phone calls and delivering a pre-recorded message to them) is a really strong and cheap way to get your message to large numbers of customers.
In spite of its great power, before you spend one thin dime on a phone blast, you surely ought to learn this secret. Without this “secret”, you could easily just blow your cash. OK, you ask, what could this awful secret be? It’s really elementary - Virtually all people don’t like receiving telemarketing calls.
Alright, alright I know that’s not exactly a secret. If you’re looking at using an automatic broadcasting system and you do not take into account this “secret” carefully, it can really hurt your campaign. Here’s why…
The biggest by far majority (90% or more) of folks who get an automated call simply hang up. The next largest group (a few percent) of folks press “2″ (to be removed from the call list). The smallest group, around 1-2%, press “1″ (to be transferred to a live representative, or to listen to more recorded information, or to leave a message).
You may be thinking…”OK, but I’m only paying for the live transferred calls, so what’s the problem?” Here’s the problem.
Just because someone presses “1″, it does’t follow automatically that they’re interested in your message. Some of them only want to request removal from the call list. Those responses are worth nothing to you. But you still pay for them. So you should carefully consider how to maximize the positively interested, qualified responses.
Now, whether you’re advertising merchant accounts to business prospects, or even selling raffle tickets for your charity event, you’ll hear some folks say “take my number off and don’t call again” (or worse)…No surprise there right? And I promise, even if you’re asking for contributions for sick children, even if you’re calling a list of past donors, you will STILL receive some negative calls!
The unavoidable fact is this - out of 1000 folks, there are perhaps 2 or 3 who get so irritated when they receive a telemarketing call, they will press “1″ to complain. To show the result of response rate on the amount of worthless calls received, consider two speculative broadcast campaigns.
Campaign #1 - pitching merchant accounts to businesses - response rate is below average, at 0.6%. Campaign #2 - asking for contributions for sick children - using a donor list - response rate is above average, at 1.5%.
Now, assume that 3 out of 1000 (0.3%) of the numbers called are the kind who will “press 1 for no good reason”… If you work through the numbers, the business campaign gets 50% negative calls, but even the charity campaign gets 20%!
The reality is, if you are connecting your calls to live answered phones, and taking live transfers, you {will never,simply cannot} dodge negative calls, regardless of what your pitch is about. And the primary way to reduce them is to construct a message with a higher response rate.
We’ve shown how getting negative calls is a fact of life in this business, and how increasing the response rate will decrease the number of bogus calls.
Posting to forums tips
September 29, 2008
You have decided to build your fortune with an online business and you have designed a fabulous website, produced a bunch of products to sell and now you are just waiting for the customers to show up and reach for their credit cards to make you dreams come true. You wait, wait and wait some more but no one shows up.
How discouraging it that? It seems that no one ever told the majority of new online business people that the most important aspect of internet business is not the glitz at all but the down and dirty chore of getting prospective customers to their site.
Advertise, Advertise and Advertise some more. Posting on Forums will bring visitors by increasing your sites rank and that allows those searching for your type of material to find your site.
A very successful friend of mine once told me that the proper way to begin your business is with a budget. Doesn’t matter how much you have to spend it is always the same If your budget is $100 the breakdown should be as follows:
1. Site $10
2. Inventory $10
3. Advertising $80
It didn’t make much sense to me then but I have come to realize that he was right. No advertising no sales but how do you advertise on the internet? One of the many answers to that question is to post on Forums that pertain to your product niche.
* Why use forums?
Think about it for a minute, where can you find the largest number of prospective customers interested in your product? On forums!These are customer just waiting to hear about your products!
And there are lots of them, take a look at the forums for your niche. If you were involved in selling golf balls for instance, a Google search shows 1,840,000 golf forums that are filled with golf nuts that could be your customers simply by posting to the forum with a link to your site!
that’s a bunch of new customers.
You can use this method to bring prospects to your site no matter what you are promoting. Affiliate forum marketing, General forums, discussion forums, game forums, internet marketing forum, seo forums, software forums, video game forums all might be good places to get familiar with forums and posting to them.
Posting to forums takes too much time?
Lets be realistic, to post to just a fraction of the forums available would take a bunch of time. It is possible to eat this elephant a small bite at a time by organizing a list of forums and posting to a few per day. That would sooner or later have the desired effect of building the back links you need to bring customers to your site but if you are like me I want the results yesterday so you are going to need to have something that will accomplish this task in a quicker fashion.
* Is there a quicker way to post to forums?
Most are too expensive. I am cheap so I need a cheap software product to do the work.
There are several if not many software products that fill the bill but I use Forum Submitter Pro. Inexpensive and easy to use.
* How do I use a posting to increase my back links
A simple link to your site with the sites main keyword does the trick. If you were posting to a golf site you might ask a generic question and place the link to your golf site below your name.
For example: “Question: Is it a good idea to recommend to have clubs fit to you? If so who should fit them?
Jerry Hubbard using a regular href link and the term Great golf tips
Your sites main keyword is Golf Tips and so Google really likes it when someone clicks the link. This builds the best links for ranking. A link from a relevant site like a forum is like gold.
One other great benefit of creating back links through the use of posting to relevant forums is that so few website owners will take the time and effort to do it. The competition will never know what hit them.
Naturally, forum posting is only one of many methods to build traffic to your site but it is one of the very best. I am sure you will like the results.
Get more forum posting info here
Jerry Hubbard is a full time business owner of several websites and an interested student of all types of marketing methods.
Small Business Credit Cards: Do They Help or Hurt Your Business?
September 28, 2008
One of the common financial instruments small businesses often use is a business credit card to keep things moving forward. Small business credit cards carry many advantages, the biggest one being a ready source of funds for your businesses. You'll have a much easier time keeping track of your business expenses when using the credit card. Small business credit card companies will offer many features to help make doing business easier in order to encourage you to use the card more often. It is very possible to get a low interest business credit card if your company has a good credit rating.
However, like any other business decisions made, it is good to know the possible disadvantages of using business credit card so you can make informed decisions in selecting the best business credit card. The biggest problem small business owners have is mixing business and personal finances. This is probably the biggest problem with the small business owner. In most cases, lenders often require owners to sign a personal liability agreement before they issue a small business credit card. As consequence, business owners often take on more liability than they should have to. In this particular situation, your personal goals depend on your businesses success. However, you are in control of this? Be responsible the business credit card. The keys to establishing good spending management are to keep your expenses low and paying on time to avoid getting your credit out of control.
Another disadvantage of business credit card is the possibility of employee abuse, such as using it in making personal purchases. Avoid this scenario by limiting their access to business credit cards and have proper documentation and tracking every time purchases are made.
It is also good to manage your small business credit card by having a credit agency track every transaction and make them your partner in building good credit scores. When you are researching business credit cards for your small business you should be looking at the best rates and terms. Business credit cards carry a higher interest rate compared to personal credit cards, so focus on getting a low interest business credit card.
It is also important to remember that lenders also offer less protection when you make purchases with this type of financial instrument, even small business credit cards. You should also know that disputing transactions with a personal credit card is much easier. This is not always true with business credit card users. Therefore, be frugal when you decide to use credit cards to pay for company expenses. With proper management and keen decision making, you can easily use business credit cards to its highest potential while limiting its pitfalls to virtually nonexistent.
If you are a business owner and want to know how to get low interest business credit card? Then please visit http://www.buildingmybusinesscredit.com, a web site dedicated to building your business credit.
How Can I Process Credit Cards Online?
September 28, 2008
Becoming a creditcards processor is not hard. All you have to do is to decide on the correct third party service provider. They take care of the payments made at your website and will usually manage any instances of credit card fraud. It’s critical to understand that not every one of these businesses are the same and you must do your groundwork vigilantly before you opt for one.
Here are some points to help you.
Understand your particular needs: think about your niche market. Does your business have a certain quantity of global clients? Then be sure the payment processor will be willing to service different countries without problems. Will you be taking paid ads on your website? Some companies like 2Checkout will not deal with advertising transactions. Is your business beginning your business or established? Check out start up costs and add up your operating costs accordingly. You may be happy to use a no cost company like Paypal or a different Internet credit card processing company.
Whatever you decide you should have a secondary payment service: paypal is famous for making the decision that you are receiving a lot of transactions and just putting a hold on your account. If you have an e-book which could be a best seller be wary and have a 2nd payment processor ready. This will also increase your trustworthiness in your client’s eyes and you’ll make more sales.
Read the fine print: be sure there aren’t any hidden costs. Some creditcard processing companies will make the whole thing look attractive in the beginning, however when you look a little deeper you will observe that you have to pay separate fees every month. Worse still you might even have to pay extra fees when you make less than a definite sum. If you are a start up business you do not want to get caught with this arrangement.
Make sure the enterprise is not going to bind you in an annual agreement. You don’t know what your position will be in 1 year or how good the new payment procesor will be. Try to find a payment service that will let you change when you want to.
The Real Reason Small Businesses Survive
September 25, 2008
These days, it seems to be widely accepted that to be successful in business, you need your own online presence; your own business website address. There is nothing that solidifies the credibility of a business more than a professional looking and performing small business website; your own online internet presence.
If you don’t have the skills, abilities or knowledge to create an outstanding website, there are a few courses of action that you can take, bearing in mind that the old adage of “you get what you pay for” rings very true in this arena.
A website can make all the difference between a successful small business, or any sized business for that matter, and a business that is struggling. But in saying this, you are far better to have no website at all than to have one that is shabby and unprofessional. It's like drawing attention to your lack of webmastering skills and abilities. What is worse, it starts the conversation in your customer or client’s mind as to whether your core business is as unprofessional as your small business website appears.
Advertisements online from web design companies generally state they can have your small business website online quickly. There are also business website templates that you could use that give you the skeleton, you just have to add your own finishing touches. But, of course, you have to know what you are doing.
Owning the business gives you insight into your business, services and products that others are not privy to. Apart from having other benefits, this places you firmly on the map of credibility. While you may not believe it, customers and clients are quickly figuring out who knows their stuff, and who is just quoting theory.
You can be considered an expert when you share the special language and understanding that develops with your customers and clients. It becomes quite clear to your customers and clients whether you know what you are talking about.
The key to successful business, of course, is to establish credibility and trust, establishing security between you and your customers and clients. Gaining their business comes second to gaining their trust. It's best not to have a website than to have one that detracts from your business.
As with any enterprise, the more work you can do yourself toward your website, the easier it will be on your wallet. Your credibility can be further enhanced by having your own personal input!
TopRated-Biz.com provides one of the very best solutions if you don’t already have your own small business website
Your website is not only personalized and customized to suit your own small business needs, it is completely search engine optimized, which is vital if you want your customers and clients to find you.
It appears to be easier to get results through the internet than using the yellow pages. To ensure the success and sustainability of your small business, it is vital that you are not left behind and that your business exposure occurs where your customers and clients are looking and searching for information.
Similarly, if you already have your own business website, it must have the ability to keep up with the trends that change at a lightning pace. You need to find out what attracts your customers and clients, and the newest technological kid on the block is adding video to your website. Once again, TopRated-Biz.com/video is the answer to ensuring maximum exposure of your business website to your targeted customers and clients.
How Your Dreams Can Help You Win
September 25, 2008
(How to unleash your entrepreneurial spirit)
by Muhammad Sayyid
It Always Begins As A Dream
At some point in our lives, we all have the desire for improvement. This urge may be driven by circumstances or a genuine analysis of our potential versus our reality. But taking action is not always easy. However, your dreams of a better life can become a reality only if YOU take full responsibility for making them real. You must accept a vital concept: Every man-made object in existence began as a dream. It became a solid, 3-dimensional object through action. Your dream is also subject to this rule. To realize your dreams of a better life requires a decision to go into business for yourself. Every existing business is nothing more than a dream that would not quit. Your business is no exception.
Maybe you desire to create a wonderful life for yourself and your loved ones in the near future. But you may be in a slump and need some motivation. This message will give you some insights to harness the power of your dreams. Study it as often as you need. Hopefully it will spur you on to make your dreams work for you.
Your Future Is Your Responsibility
Where do you go from here? Understand this: The life you have today is the future you worked for yesterday. Today you are constructing tomorrow’s future. Whatever your business idea, understand that YOU are THE creative force within it. YOU are creating it. YOU have to visualize how big it is going to be. YOU have to visualize how much money it is going to bring you every day, week and month for the rest of your life. YOU have to visualize what you are going to do with the money that it will provide for you and your loved ones. YOU have to decide where, when and how YOU are going to build this business. Above all, YOU decide with whom YOU will do business. This responsibility cannot be overlooked. YOUR conscious choice to start a business requires an immediate adjustment of your thinking-patterns from those of a wage-earner to that of a business-owner. Henceforth, your actions must be driven by your dreams and desires for the future you want to create. Your friends influence your dreams. Your dreams influence your actions. Your actions determine what kind of future you create. You are responsible for the environment you create around yourself and your business. You must choose companions who will assist you in realizing your dreams. Remember, you can’t soar like an eagle if you surround yourself with turkeys.
Your Money Creates Your Lifestyle
As a business owner, YOU need to understand money. Wage-earners view money as a means to pay bills. Business-people know money as a tool to buy the materials we need to create the lifestyle we want. It takes money to create the lifestyle you want. Money earned from your current job is designed only to pay last month’s bills. The money you earn from your business will pay for your future lifestyle. The realization of your dreams is totally dependent on the success of your business. That is the process you are now beginning. When you start your business or join an existing business, your signature on the dotted line means that you believe your future is worth fighting for. The question is: Will you commit yourself to overcoming the challenges (and there will be challenges!!!) that will confront you on the way to making your dreams come true?
Price Your Dream.
Your dream can never become real until you collect the physical materials to create it. Begin pricing materials as soon as possible and start collecting what you can afford. Before you know it, your dream will begin to manifest itself. Everything has a price. Begin pricing the things you desire. Create a vision board and put pictures of the things you want on it. Calculate the cost of the lifestyle you want. Put a dollar value on it. That is the financial goal of your business. Structure your business to generate that kind of money month after month, year after year for the rest of your life. Put a dollar sign on every action you take in building your business. You need to milk every dollar you can get out of your efforts. Every potential customer you contact has a dollar value. Go after high value prospects as fast as you can. Capture them first, then go after your charity cases. Discard your fears. Be decisive. Get serious about your dreams. Do not make temporary setbacks into permanent obstacles. Deal with events as they happen. Reject negative futuristic thinking. Confine negative events to the time and place of their occurrences only. Handle today’s challenges today and tomorrow’s problems tomorrow. Above all, be willing to fight until you conquer whatever negatives stand between you and the realization of your dreams.
Live In Your Dreams, Not Your Limitations
Most people discard their dreams because they think they cannot afford them. They make their present financial limitations permanent obstacles to the realization of their dreams. They are victims of poverty thinking. Instead of creating the financial structure to support their dreams, they abandon the dreams that cannot be bought with their current paychecks. As a business-owner, you must reject poverty thinking. Business people never submit to financial limitations. We persevere until we find the way to create incomes large enough to afford our dreams. We never quit moving towards the day we can realize the dream. We use whatever tools we can to keep our dreams alive. And one of the most powerful tools is visualization: seeing yourself having what you want in the future. Learn to see yourself living the life you want, having the things you want, enjoying the fruits of your labor. Allow yourself to feel the joys of being the person you are striving to be. Believe with every fiber of your being that you will have the things you are striving for. Remember that every magnificent creation of human society begins as a dream in someone’s head and becomes a material reality only because the dreamer refused to quit dreaming. Commit yourself to dedicated action to realize your dream. Committed dedication brings massive success..in time. Give yourself time to succeed. Infuse your mind with thoughts of the success you are creating for yourself and your loved ones and mentally diminish your present limitations. Today Is Only 24 Hours, Tomorrow Is Forever. You can always change your life tomorrow. Do not hold your dreams hostage to today’s temporary events and conditions. Make your dreams durable enough to endure the worst of today’s challenges.
Put Your Mind To Work For You, Not Against You
Success in business is 99% mental. If you think you can’t do something, the facts do not matter. You are your own worst nightmare. It does not matter how capable you are. If you doubt your ability to succeed, you will fail miserably. Your mind belongs to you and will work only for you. Your education and physical abilities cannot compete with your power of thought. Your mind will carry out your every thought with extreme prejudice and unerring accuracy. If you want success, it will find the ways for you to succeed and if you want failure, it will find the ways for you to fail. Your mind works only for you. Do not use it against yourself. If you put positive, success-oriented thoughts into your mind, it will find ways to make you successful. Fill your mind with visions of the lifestyle you are creating. Anticipate the joy you will bring your loved ones once you are financially capable. Give your mind food for success. Dream big and dream beautiful. Give your mind the environment you want it to create around you and it will. Make yourself failure-proof. Attitudes are contagious. Avoid negative-minded people like the plague, especially relatives. Don’t hate them. Just avoid their company until you are successful enough to show them how wrong they were. Do not let negative-minded people infect you with their defeatist attitudes or you will begin to view life like them. Misery loves company. Don’t become sympathetic for a negative-minded person. The best way to help negative-minded friends is to achieve massive success in your business and then show them how to do the same if they want to.
A Word Of Caution:
Do not waste your mind-power with thoughts of revenge against those who doubt you or belittle you. Instead concentrate on how well you will live and the looks of surprise on their faces as you drive by them in your dream car or truck. Massive Success Is The Best Revenge Ever!
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Muhammad Sayyid will soon be releasing his book “The Success Chronicles (Unleash your entreprenuerial spirit)”. He produces 2 blogs: “Sound of Success” (http://www.simplefinancialsuccess.com )and ”Computer Repair Tips” (http://muhammadsmoment.blogspot.com/)
Save Time and Money: Buy Office Supplies Online
September 25, 2008
Although there are probably many office supply stores in your immediate area, you may want to consider buying your office supplies online. There are many advantages to shopping on the Internet for things such as paper, computer equipment, software and even discount office furniture. Here are four reasons to do your office supply shopping online.
Comparison Shopping Made Easy. Shopping for office supplies online allows you to quickly do comparison-shopping without leaving your home or your office. Instead of driving from store to store looking for the best deal, you can find it with just the click of a mouse. As you probably already know, there can be big differences in price for common supplies depending on the brand and the retailer. Using a site like Froogle.com allows you to easily compare the price of an item across several different shopping platforms. If you’ve always wanted to know which store has the best deal on ink for your printer a shopping comparison site will help you.
Save Money with Coupon Codes and Free Shipping. Taking your search online can also help you save money. Many online office supply retailers offer free shipping and deep discounts on common items. Instead of spending money on gas to drive to and from the office supply store, you can have your items automatically delivered. Stock up on necessary items by buying in bulk and save even more money. Depending on the time of the year, you can often find coupon codes for office supplies and special offers that will allow you to take as much as $30 off $150 office supplies purchases. And many of the larger retail office supply stores offer free delivery on purchases over a certain amount (usually $50 or more.)
Hard to Find Items. Online office stores may be able to provide specialty itmes that are not available in your local store. If you need a particular type of file,for instance, to fit into your antique file cabinet, you might just be able to find what you need online. The same goes for unique or designer office supply items. If the office supplies at your local chain store leave you yawning, try searching online to find just a desk, pens or the wipe board that will match your personal sense of style.
Reminders and Auto Shipments. Once you have established an account with an online office supply store, you can choose to be reminded on a regular basis of consumable products that need to be purchased again and again. For example, the store’s system will contact you every two months about purchasing ink for your printer. If you’re doing the purchasing for a large office, this can be a great timesaver. Instead of you needing to keep track of the different brands of printer ink you need and whey you need them, the online office supply store may be able to do this for you. Even if you’re just buying for your personal home office this aspect of buying online is a welcome feature.
When you need office supplies, search online first for the items you need. You’ll be getting quality supplies without the hassle of wading through the crowds and wasting time comparison shopping among different stores. Whether you’re shopping for yourself or for your employer, experiment to see how much money and time you can save.
Why Entrepreneurs are more stable then Employees
September 25, 2008
Its no secret, small businesses have significant impact on our economy. Its raining “doom and gloom” in the world of the super-huge mega-conglomerates. “The sky is falling” and we are on the verge of financial catastrophy.
Personally, I left the corporate world.. where the only real people making any money at all are at the top levels of management, and nobody from top to bottom has any significant quality of life as they devote most of their waking hours at their jobs, and miss out on the really IMPORTANT things that matter, like family time and stress reduction.
Did you know that the most common time for folks to have fatal heart attacks is on Monday Morning? Not many people are fortunate enough to really love and have passion for their jobs.. and quite literally they are killing themselves for the job, spiritually, emotionally and physically.
Last weekend, the news went from bad to worse for a few “big names” in the corporate world. We will save my opinions about the value of super large conglomerates for another day (hint: I don’t think any organization that has a legal obligation to increase shareholder value over serving customers needs by cutting costs wherever possible is good for anyone save its principles!). I could also comment on the Merril Lynch takeover and the forced restructuring of AIG in lights not shared by the media (well, guess who is in charge of the media?). Suffice it to say… we are undergoing a major and much needed market correction, and I believe at the end of the day, its actually a GOOD thing, although for the short term many “little” people without six figure salaries and healthy savings accounts are going to be suffering due to careless management and poor structuring. Lets face it, people stop being promoted when they have reached the top of their capabilities.. so its does stand to complete logic and reason that the bosses’ in ANY organization are in fact, incompetent. Often worse when they haven’t worked their way up from the bottom to the top, and skipped right into middle management with their university degree, or perhaps transfered into company B from company A and have no idea how things really WORK below and beside them.
Everyone is worried about their job stability.. like there was ever any stability in working for someone else, unless you happen to be the someone who OWNS the company.
Lets wake UP! You KNOW you can’t depend on the weather, you can’t depend on the government and you can’t depend on your employer. As a responsible adult, the ONLY person you can depend upon in this or ANY economy.. is YOURSELF!
You can depend on yourself, and in fact.. you MUST depend on yourself!
You know that in every economy, there ARE winners and loosers. The general mass population, steered into fear and mass mentality are the ones who loose out. You do NOT need to be one of them… you can take control of your own future regardless of what is happening in the economy. You can be a part of one of the largest industries in the world, that HAS grown in 2008, despite the economy and rising gas prices.
People are stressed out and miserable right now, more then EVER… people have the need to relax and recharge- they go on vacation. People always buy what they want over what they NEED.. so it makes absolute sense for those people to be able to buy travel at true wholesale, rock bottom prices. The home based travel business industry is BOOMING, because not only can our product provide people with the travel they WANT, but the security that they NEED! Its a fact, that dispite the “doom and gloom” in the media about the economy, over 300 Million Americans travel over the summer of 2008.
Look into the future, and it looks bright for the SMART people, the self reliant entrepreneurs that help other people solve their problems, and give them a powerful, positive vehicle for hope and change in hard times.. AND helps business owners do their part to stimulate the economy.>
Take the first step right now, and learn how you too can travel well, travel right and build security for yourself during a market correction, visit this website. Take action NOW, and find the right travel home based business for yourself!
Simple Endorsed Joint Venture That Any Business Can Execute
September 22, 2008
At the end of this short document are the five steps you need to go down to start you on the road to joint venture success. You may be tempted to jump to the bottom of this post read the five steps but I would encourage you to understand what is happening at a slightly deeper level.
Imagine that you have a product to sell that retails at $97on how to stay increase your business profits and live the life of your dreams.
You contact your nearest list broker and buy or rent a list of 10,000 names. You then craft a sales letter that explains your product and why people should buy it from you. The letter is sent out to each person on your list/database.
Amazingly you find that your letter pulls in a 2% response, in other words 2% of the recipients decide to buy from you. Lets do our sums; two percent multiplied by 10,000 prospects equals 200 orders. This gives us 200 Orders which retail at $97 or a gross profit of $19,400
Do you think that a 2% response is a bit on the small side? This may seem a bit on the low side, but 2% isn’t really that bad, or is it? Think about this for a second, the people don’t know you, they know nothing about your business, they probably don’t know anything about your product.
In short, they are concerned with being ripped off - Is there a better way?
Sending out a cold mailing like this is not normally going to work very well because they don’t trust you. Here is a way to improve it.
Just supposing you found an owner of a similar list who often contacts his subscribers and has a good relationship wit them. Imagine what would happen if this person wrote a to his subscribers and mentioned how great your product is and what a great person you are.
Do you think the response rate would be higher?
There is every likelihood that this type of endorsed letter is going to get a far better response rate than a cold list. The reason is simply that these subscribers trust the person who is endorsing you so the trust is transferred to you.
If your Joint Venture endorsement has been properly thought through there is a very good chance that you will get wa more than a 2% response rate. If your conversion rate only increased from 2% to 6% (a three fold increase) just imagine what that could do to your bottom line. Think of your bottom line, even if it only increased from 2% to 6% that’s a 3 fold increase. So instead of $19,400 you are now getting 6% of 10,000, multiplied by $97, equals $58,200 gross profit.
If you are incredulous about the increase then please try it out yourself. Here is what you could do; Test 1000 names from your cold (list broker bought) list and then analyse the difference when a joint venture partner endorses you.
Step 1 - Identify what type pf customers you are targeting
Step 2 - Find a Joint Venture partner who already has a relationship with these types of customers.
Step 3 - Agree a % split of the profits
Step 4 - Do a small test endorsed mailing
Step 5 - Do a small test to a cold list (same No’s and customer profile)
Compare the two results. There is a very good chance that the joint venture endorsed mailing did far better and brought in more profit.
All you need to do is repeat and leverage the one with the best results and you will make more money in less time.
Have fun with your next joint venture