I recently got a new wireless phone along with new service from AT&T. The thing is, I didn’t call AT&T, go into an AT&T store, or sign up online. I simply went to Wal-mart and while I was buying my groceries I picked out a new phone and signed a 2 year contract. Within minutes, I was talking on my new Blackjack. What I did was take advantage of a joint venture between AT&T and Wal-mart. Wal-mart allows AT&T to set up shop in their superstores and they get a cut of the profits.

Create a Win/Win/Win Situation

This type of venture, the joint venture is a staple of the global economy. Businesses all over the world, high-profile and otherwise, are involved in joint ventures every day. This type of venture creates a win/win/win situation. The customer wins because he or she is offered goods or services either at a discount, or in the above referenced situation, a more convenient method of purchasing something I would have purchased anyway. Each party that participates in the joint venture wins because they have made a sale.

Joint ventures don’t just happen in brick and mortar establishments; they are online as well. Big businesses and small business alike form joint ventures every day to increase their bottom line and their customer base. Regardless of the type of online business you have, it is worth considering whether or not you can profit from forming a joint venture with another Internet marketer. Even if you’re just starting out in your Internet marketing business you can form a joint venture and make money – even if you don’t have a product to sell!

Internet Marketing Without a Product

Perhaps you’ve just created or are about to create your first website or added a website to your Internet stable but don’t as yet have a product to promote. What’s an Internet marketer to do? Simple. Just team up with someone who does have a product to sell and you’ll get a cut every time someone makes a purchase from you. Now, if this is beginning to sound a lot like affiliate marketing, while the two are similar, joint ventures are usually between just two or three companies or people and they normally last for a predetermined amount of time.

For example, suppose you have amassed quite a list of prospects for marketing purposes but you have as yet to develop a product. You might then team up with someone who has the latest, greatest product to hit the Internet yet has no prospects to market to. BOOM! A joint venture is born. You should have a contract, of course, that nails down all the particulars, but in a nutshell you market the other person’s product to your list of prospects and each of you make a profit when the item is sold.

Finding Joint Venture Prospects

Where do you find someone with whom you may be able to form a successful joint venture partnership? Look in the forums and/or message boards that service your niche. If you don’t exactly have a niche you can start with Internet marketing forums. Chances are, you’ll already see examples of joint ventures taking place and you’ll be able to learn the names and websites of those with whom a joint venture partnership might be possible.

Take your time and do your homework when you are looking for someone with whom to form such an alliance. You want to make sure that they are selling something that you don’t mind having your name associated with. You also want to make sure that they have a good reputation in the business world or at the very least that they don’t have a negative reputation. Once you do your homework and settle upon the right joint venture, you’ll likely form many joint ventures in the future to propel your Internet marketing business to new and profitable heights.

There’s nothing more frustrating when shopping online than spending a good amount of time picking out just the right present, gadget, or whatever it is you’re shopping for only to find the business doesn’t accept credit cards, debit cards, Paypal, or whatever form of payment you are trying to use. There’s enough competition out there without shooting yourself in the foot by not accepting the most common forms of payment. After all, you’re asking your customers to part with their hard earned money; the least you can do is make it easy for them to do so.

Credit cards and debit cards are among the most popular types of payment used online. To accept these forms of payments you’ll either need to open a merchant account with a bank or use a third party merchant company to process these payments for you. You’ll have to pay this company a percentage of each transaction; however, deciding not to accept these forms of payments could cost you big time in lost sales.

Some online merchants still accept checks and money orders and many accept e-check payments, which are taken directly from the purchaser’s bank account. If you do decide to accept checks and money orders you’ll want to make sure the payment clears before you ship the product to your customer. Make sure you highlight this in the terms and conditions so there will be no surprises.

Safety First

Do take the time, effort, and expense necessary to make your website a secure place for customers to conduct transactions. After you do so, note the security measures your site takes so that your customers will feel secure doing business on your website. If you decide to outsource your payment processing do your homework and make sure you are dealing with a reputable company that uses state of the art security methods. With the subject of identity theft in the headlines on a regular basis, you need to take all the precautions you can to ensure your customers’ safety.

Some people, regardless of how safe a website is simply will not give out their credit card number and other billing information online. Be prepared for this and be prepared for an alternate way for these customers to still pay using their credit cards. Can they phone their order in? Fax it? Mail it? By anticipating the needs of your customers and being ready to serve those needs, you will go a long way toward building customer loyalty.

While you’re thinking about payment methods also think about whether or not you will be able to service international customers. Not all businesses do but if you are not able to conduct business internationally, do reveal this in a prominent place on your website so no one will waste their time selecting their purchases only to discover they are unable to make a purchase after all.

If you’re selling a product that must be shipped, what forms of shipment will you offer? Again, will you be able to ship internationally? Will you ship to post office boxes? These are all questions you will need to answer long before you complete your first transaction. Whatever you decide, note your payment and shipping terms in an easy to find place on your website and offer your customers the utmost in security measures.

As with most any venture, learning takes place over a period of time. No one starts a business and does everything right the first day or even the first year. You’ll likely make many mistakes along the path to success. The biggest mistake beginning Internet marketers make is believing they can slap up a website and immediately make a living selling products. There is far too much competition for that to work as there are already millions of successful websites that sell products.

Your website has to be more; it has to give more or it will be obsolete from the beginning. Not only does your website have to be attractive; it has to be informative as well. You have to be chief bottle washer and problem solver if you’re going to survive on the World Wide Web. Following are 5 things you can do to help ensure your success as an Internet marketer.

Become an Expert in Your Niche

Consumers aren’t just looking for goods and services; they’re looking for answers and information to help them do something, do something better, faster, or cheaper. Whatever niche you’re marketing in, it is to your advantage to become the authority on that subject. This takes time; it won’t happen overnight but it will go a long way towards ensuring the success of your Internet empire. You can accomplish this in a variety of ways. You can post articles and other pertinent information on your website geared toward informing your visitors and you can even invite their questions and comments.

Another way to become known as an expert in your niche is to develop a web presence at places other than your website. Forums and message boards are good places to get started doing this, especially those that are geared toward your niche. Forums are great places for users to help each other by relating their own experiences and asking and answering questions. By making regular and relevant posts with the URL to your website in your signature line, you can become a respected member of forum communities and message boards and at the same time drive traffic to your site.

Optimize Your Website for Customers – Not just the Search Engines

If you’re an Internet marketer or even if you’re an aspiring one, you’ve heard of search engine optimization or SEO. The problem many Internet marketers have however, is that they’re so busy optimizing their websites for the search engines that they completely forget about their customers. After all, what good is it going to do if your potential customers find your site at the top of the search engine results list only to click on the X moments after landing on your site?

What successful Internet marketers have learned, and some of them have learned it the hard way, is that when customers like your site, the search engines generally do also. So while you’re thinking about all the keywords that the search engines will respond to, keep in mind that your customers have needs too. If those needs aren’t met, they’ll just go on to the next site on the list. Satisfy your customer’s needs and you’ll satisfy the search engines as well.