One of the most overlooked “secrets” of my success over the last 10 years online has been my relentless pursuit of good partnerships.
I’m not talking about the “call a lawyer and write up a contract” type of partnership. I’m talking about the kinds of partnerships that can be established for virtually no risk and with potentially huge rewards by all involved.
Partnerships which are established with simple, yet mutually beneficial terms are the fast track to success. Creative partnerships have been vital in growing my business.
Here are some real examples of how simple partnerships have made my business easily 10 times bigger than it would be otherwise:
- We turn our most creative and successful students into teachers and coaches. We pay them well, give them incentives to represent us well, and turn them lose to represent my company and me. We also learn from their experiences and insights every day. Most of my best partners started out by reading one of my books and then taking baby steps to establish something powerful online. When they contact me with their story, we talk about taking it all to the “next level” by teaching others how to do what they just did.
- When I lack a skill that my business requires it’s rare that I’ll go buy a book or take a course on the subject. Instead, I find a way to partner with a true pro in a mutually beneficial arrangement. It’s easier than ever to find “true pros” online.
- OfflineBiz.com is a partnership. The agreement between the co-founder Andrew and I is as simple as a single short email sent several years ago. Our well established online reputations were the handshake and it’s been smooth sailing since then. We’ve never spoken in person or even on the phone, yet the site continues to thrive with well over 11,000 members.
- When I have a product to promote I can easily send an email to my list of partners and give them an incentive to help spread the word. This is accomplished through automatice tracking using an affiliate program like clickbank.com or nanacast.com etc.
- We are starting a webinar series based on one of our more popular courses over the last 2 years. I won’t be teaching it, but two of my most successful students who both started with that very course will be teaching others how they did it.
Some vital ingredients that allow me to set up so many powerful partnerships:
- The stuff I teach works
- I’m always looking for three way wins
- I protect my reputation so I’m easy to partner with
Fans and followers are nice, but they are also fickle. You need a system for turning the hardest working and most successful followers you have into partners.
Great blog post. I will take that advice.
Soooo….the one word is “partner”
How would you suggest a small online retailer “partner” with his/her customers?
Thanks : )
Small retailers online can partner with their customers by making it easy for them to spread the word. Remember – they each have a megaphone that they can use to tell their social networks how great you are. Make that easy for them to do. Ask for and expect referrals. Give customers an incentive to spread the word.
More specifically though, I’m not talking (in this blog post) about individual customers being your partner. I’m talking about finding larger partners that have audiences of people, or finding experts that you can arrange a mutually beneficial partnership with, or other successful businesses in your niche that are open to creative cross promotions.
You’d find several specific ideas and more details on the ideas I’ve listed above in my book sold at 101FreeMarketing.com
Thanks for the thorough response Jim. Something I do (learned from your book) is to end every email with “If you ever get a chance to mention (my website name) on a forum or YouTube, it would really help me out” I’ve had a few customers take me up on the request.
Thanks again for the great insights as always.
I have used Jim’s book and it is growing my business. I have only used it since May of 2012, I can see solid customer’s in my hair business. I am only using just some simple facebook suggestions! Thanks, Jim
Thanks for the feedback Becca. Keep me updated on how your business is doing!
This article doesn’t seem finished? So what is the word? Partner? System? This leaves me confused.
partnerships
Great book Free Marketing 101it has been helping me alot on my business of Organo Gold…thank you very much.
It is magic to understand good communication. When you look at the flow of people, desire, and service, as Jim does, you behold opportunity. To be more aware of opportunity than of need, that is a sweet state to dwell in. Jim is articulating here that state.
Hi Jim,
Why won’t you comment on eBay’s new “Sponsored Links” that have killed business for the small seller? I haven’t sold anything since they started it. They put links on my listings that sell the same items for ridiculously low prices, along with a wholesale jewelry site that shows customers what I paid for my merchandise. I have never heard of anything so pompous and unfair. Small sellers made them!!!! They want us gone now and this is the last straw. I’m gone. Would you please advise me where I can list old and new merchandise that has the most traffic?
Thank you,
Wanda K.
Our ebay sales are holding steady. I’m sorry that you are experiencing a drop off. We are also very excited about selling on amazon. Have you use FBA yet or tried to sell on Amazon? It’s more for new items with barcodes, but anything that can be barcoded can be sold (for the most part) on amazon. Detail here : ProvenAmazonCourse.com
eBay and Amazon still hold the largest audiences of shoppers by far, but depending on what items you are selling there may be other venues out there…it’s a matter of doing some research though. I suggest you do some google research on the items you are selling to figure out where other similar products are being sold.