Three Heads are better than One: Affiliate Joint Ventures
You can’t fail to have noticed in the last week that several affiliates have invested in House Price Spy, a House price website, and so far Clarke, Shane, Fraser and the Two Chris’s have one by one shown their hands and declared their interest in the affiliate joint venture. Well, I’m not about to join them, as I’m instead going to be the first affiliate to declare that they haven’t invested!
What Clarke and the rest of the consortium are doing is going to be fantastic for House Price Spy, and bodes well for the future - Affiliates can build bloody successful sites on their own, so when they all club together and pool their resources, the sky really is the limit, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see this website become a major brand that is very much in the public eye.
I’ve been working on a Joint Venture with a couple of affiliates for a little while now (I’ll leave it up to them whether they want to declare their interest or not), and so far it’s working really well. Between the three of us, we’ve had some fantastic brainstorming sessions, bouncing ideas off each other with great effect. We also have very different skills, which compliment each other nicely. We are able to use my in-house techie and designer to build the site and banners etc, and my new-found link building/SEO skills to get the site ranking better in the search engines.
The other affiliates include an expert in the site’s field who will be writing most of the content, and someone who knows their way around the social networking websites. Also between the three of us, we already have a fair bit of relevant traffic that we can guide towards our JV site. We may not have the clout or the investment levels of House Price Spy, but we have taken a site that was stagnating earning a couple of hundred pounds a month, and given it a chance to really flourish and become a very successful affiliate site.
Working as part of an Affiliate Joint Venture has been really refreshing - Aside from the brainstorming and complimenting skills benefits, it’s also incredibly motivating as no-one wants to let the other partners down, or appear to be shirking their part of the workload. I’d certainly recommend working on a Joint Venture with other affiliates to anyone who fancies something a little different, but with a greater chance of success.
As is the case with most affiliates, I’ve got too many sites, and not enough time, so there are a number of properties that have been neglected for one reason or another. IA number of these sites could be suitable for a joint venture, so if anyone does fancy working with me on any of these projects, just let me know:
Valentines Day - Quite obviously, this is a fairly seasonal website that does very well in February for some reason lol… The site has very little content, and very few links pointing to it. It currently gets around 8,500 UVs a year, with 3,000 of these coming in February. There is huge scope to take this site forward with a partner who can add some good content and monetise it with product content units, whilst we focus on the off-page SEO factors. The site is Number 1 in MSN for “Valentines Day”, and clearly if we could replicate that with Google, we’d have a mammoth on our hands!
Our Survey Said - This one has a trickle of traffic (100-150 UVs a month) from very longtail terms and earns £20-50 a month. It has good scope for growth if kept up to date with new offers and sending some traffic its way. Would suit a JV partner with an existing complimentary site that can be used to channel traffic its way. There is also a small mailing list attached to this site which converted very well on a test mailshot we did last year, so there’s potential to grow revenues there.
Save Pounds - Another site with a trickle of traffic, and earning a few quid here and there. Might be a good domain to convert into a discount/voucher site? Again, would suit a partner with the time to keep a site like that up to date. We can handle the development of the site into the finished article, and get the SEO/Link Building sorted.
Cashback Club - A White Label cashback site, that is starting to see the results of our SEO work, but could do with some regular TLC - In particular there is a mailing list that we are building a newsletter facility for. The main infrastructure is all there, it is just screaming out for some traffic, so would suit a partner(s) who can push traffic/signups from a complimentary site and/or send weekly newsletters to the existing member-base and ensure that regular content is added to the site’s blog.
All that remains to be said is…
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Super post as usual John.
I’m pleased to see so many leading lights get involved in the House Price Spy project and wish it and your joint venture much success.
While there are undoubted benefits to getting involved in JVs, as I’m sure you’d agree it’s also important to tread with caution and find like-minded people. For every one ambitious, hard-work entrepreneur, there’s 1000 people who think they can do it but can’t.
I headed into my first JV in eight years this year and it is the first business venture in eight years I’ve lost substanial sums of money on. The reason is because the partner was unable to deliver on this side of the business.
I must have been offered 1000 JVs and commission-based projects over recent years, and have always turned them down. Even before online marketing, when I was a writer, I would regularly get people saying they want to co-author a book with me. But I knew that I would be the one doing 80% of the work because of my work ethic and they would be ‘too busy’ to put in the required 12 hour days, but would steal half the glory and income.
It’s the same thing with online marketing: people who’ve barely been in the game for a few years and have just a so-so knowledge of online marketing bombard me with requests for partnerships and commission-based ventures. I get at least one a week. I always say no, as I know I’ll end up doing at least 80% of the work. My current business partner reassured me repeatedly that wouldn’t end up being the case, and that he would deliver on his side on the bargain, but it has turned out to be as I feared. Heck, as least he’s had time to go on four holidays in the last four months
Of course, all you guys are doing JVs with fellow affiliate marketing superstars, guys who have a proven track-record in creating successful online businesses and have the ability and work ethic to do it again and again and again, so I’m confident you’ll succeed.
Keep us updated on how it goes
Nadeem
Great Post Lammo, Affiliate JV’s have certaintly hit the headlines, with the heavyweight tie up of some of the most respected affiliates for the house spy project.
I remember seeing this site a few years back, and it would seems with the backing and expertise behind it, it will succeed big time.
I don’t have my own blog but would like to use your blog to announce I am part of the Joint Venture you mention in the blog above. I agreed to work together after being softened up by some Rum and Cokes at an affiliate G2G, but my head was clear enough to know it was a great idea, which by pooling expertise it could be very successful.
The project is still in its early stages, but we have made great ground already. The members of the JV compliment each other well, and I am sure they are just as excited as me about the project.
I have started a couple of JV’s this year and they have really helped me stay focused, and also keep me going as I dont want to let others down. The life of an small affiliate can be lonely so working with others mean you can get the company feeling with out the offices politics etc.
Read more about Joint Ventures on this blog
http://www.leemccoy.co.uk/2008/03/benefits-of-affiliate-joint-ventures.html
Too many cooks….
We have several but generally we avoid them at all costs. Even good people have different agendas and hence get easily distracted.
We have I believe 5 JV deals, but 4 of those are with people who have worked for me at one time or another. Basically we have supplier funding, knowledge and access to our resources. the other party then run it on a day to day basis. But all of these deal I must stress are with people we like, have respect for and we believe in and hope they get it right as we would love to see them succesful. So far one has worked well, one ticks along and 3 are in growth stage.
Doug
Thanks to everyone who’s been in touch regarding working on some JVs - I’ll be getting back to everyone this week.
@ Nadeem - Couldn’t agree more.. some people will see a JV as a way of getting others to do the work, but I do believe that by working with people who have a strong work ethic and having a small team of three or four ensures that no-one wants to be “the one” who doesn’t pull their weight, and everyone can focus on their own strengths.
@ Purple - Glad to have you on board with our JV mate, although you realise that means I’m gonna be bugging you to push traffic every five minutes lol. Seriously mate, i’ve got real high hopes for this venture, and there’s no way I could reach those heights with this site without you guys.
@ Caroline - Many hands make light work?
@ Doug - Yup, it’s important to work with people you like and respect.. you certainly shouldn’t jump into a JV just for the hell of it. I’ll keep you up to date with how our JVs are going.