Now that you have started your online business, you are looking for ways to grow.

Often, making additional profit is a matter of capitalizing on underutilized assets.

I am going to tell you about one way you can take an asset you already have - your opt-in mailing list and the goodwill of your existing customers - and turn it into a new revenue stream through joint-venture marketing.

Developing and pursuing joint ventures with appropriate marketers will:

* Grow your business at little or no cost * Generate pre-qualified leads so that you can stop wasting your time with cold lists * Let you leverage your relationship with your customers to make additional revenue * Allow you to begin making additional money from your traffic or opt-in mailing list

What is a Joint Venture?

A joint venture is simply a strategic alliance between you and another business. To develop a joint venture you must:

1) Find a good, non-competing company in the same niche that you serve and form a partnership.

2) Contact the owner of the business and introduce yourself.

3) Tell him or her that you have been in business X number of years and that you think his product or service offers a great benefit to your customers.

4) Suggest a partnership. You will recommend his products or services to your customers in return for a fee or commission on new sales. You can also structure deals in the opposite direction, where you identify businesses that already serve your target customer.

6) Ask them to endorse your products to their customers. An endorsement will generate a much higher response rate than a link or banner ad.

7) Offer to share 25% - 50% of the resulting sales. In addition to increased sales you are building your own customer database at very little cost.

Or you might ask a company to cross promote your products to its customers. You win, your partner wins, and your customers win because you have introduced them to a quality product that brings them great value.

Why Joint Ventures Should Be Part of Your Overall Strategy

One of the greatest and most long-lasting assets a company has is its relationships to its customers.

You can derive additional benefit from this asset by entering into joint venture agreements with other quality marketers. Joint ventures allow you to:

* Increase your credibility through relationships with other reputable companies.
* Structure deals with little or no money upfront.
* Gain new customers and qualified leads.
* Survive the economic downturn.
* Stop wasting your time with cold lists that will get you a 1-2% response rate.

How Can You Find Partners?

1) First of all, know your ideal customers. Find out what they like, how they shop, what they read, where they hang out online.

You will find opportunities by taking the time to identify other businesses that have contact with your target market.

2) Network. Raise your industry profile.

Participate in forms and mailing lists; publish e-zine articles. Join a local business networking group.

Even though they are traditionally thought of for offline companies, meeting someone face-to-face at a business function can speed up the developing relationship.

3) Search for potential partners through Search Engines. Find other businesses that come up with your targeted keywords.

Don't forget to look at local businesses and web sites. Not all Internet business is global.

4) Find partners in businesses and publications who serve the same geographical customer base that you do.

Just make sure that any business you contact has a substantial customer base (at least 1,000) and a great reputation.

Remember, you want to identify partners who have the same credibility and trustworthiness with their customers that you do with yours.

How to Use Joint Ventures

1) Use co-registration pages. Offer your partner space on your thank you page to promote his product.

2) Swap e-zine ads.

3) Exchange bylines. Sign articles with your name and then mention your partner's product with a recommendation.

4) If you are a web designer, contact your web hosting company and ask them to recommend you to their customers.

5) Don't forget offline partnerships. Visit a local merchant and offer to endorse his business in exchange for a discount for your customers if they purchase one of his products or services at your recommendation. Or offer to be an Internet portal if he doesn't have a web presence.

Once your have established a few successful joint ventures for your own online business, think about branching out.

Leverage the skills you acquired in structuring these deals to be a broker for other online businesses looking for ways to expand.

Add another income stream to your bottom line!