Seven Things #4: Joint Products

During lunch at the Warrior Event in April, I was with the group at a really cool Mexican restaurant and I sat next to an attendee who was an NLP copywriter.

No, it wasn't Steven Schwartzman, actually I can't remember the guy's name.  He was new to the warriors but he really knew his stuff.  (He taught coaching in the dating and hypnosis niches).

I explained to him that one of the weakest points in my business system is joint ventures.  I am not a people person.  Even though I have a large buyers list and people like Eric Louviere said I was a really popular, I didn't believe him because I don't have any really good contacts.

Some of those people on my customer list include Allen Says, Paul Myers, Willie Crawford, Marlon Sanders, Marc Harty, Mike Filsaime, Armand Morin, Tony Blake, Ewen Chia, David Valleries, Dave Miz, Kevin Riley, Paul Kleinmeulman... I could go on.

I'm still a nobody because these guys are flooded with joint venture requests... I don't offer any high ticket, high commission, recurring, multi-tier products.  I still have a long way to go.

This NLP guy gave me a cool idea to start small... and that's to create joint products... but not in the usual way.

As Willie Crawford said in his talk about joint ventures at the seminar, you need to hand everything to them on a silver platter.

NLP guy's suggestion: Ask the joint venture "target" to ask his list for their best question about your topic... whatever topic you are an expert in.

Then, answer those questions and give it to that list owner as a product... that they have exclusive rights to... that ends in a call to action to buy YOUR product, with their affiliate link.

You could host a teleseminar or even just record a skype conversation where you discuss the answers.  Maybe cut them up and make a podcast.

Transcribe them so you have an autoresponder series.

That's how you create a joint product.

That's what Jason Fladlien and I did later this year after the Philadelphia JV Alert seminar in June.  We recorded a bunch of Skype interviews... and guess what... we'll be adding them to Daily Seminar every single week.

Have you created any joint products?  Do you have any joint product tips to share?

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Comments (11)

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  1. John Taylor says:

    When considering Joint Ventures, many people seem to tie up with people with similar skills and talents. They end up with a homogeneous team of “clones”.

    The real trick is to work with people with a wide diversity of skills. Within that diversity you’ll find much more creativity.

    Take a risk.. try working with people you respect but don’t really get on with. 😉

    John

  2. Robert Plank says:

    Very good point John, I joint ventured a long time ago with people who were also programmers. There was too much overlap and we both felt like we were doing all the work.

    But when one guy is a programmer, or the other guy is a copywriter, or one guy has the big list, it’s pretty clear who’s supposed to do what. Plus more creativity, like you said.

  3. Izzy @ MI says:

    Robert my Hero,

    That’s genius. I have never done such a product, but will definitely start now!

  4. Robert,

    What software do you use to record your skype calls? Pamela?

  5. Robert Plank says:

    Recession,

    After trying out different Skype recording software, I like Skype Recorder the best.

  6. Joint products have totally changed how I do business.

    When I first met Robert, I thought — man this guy is just a cool guy, he’d be fun to work with. And we shared a lot of the same values. We create a ton of products, we don’t hit our lists with a bunch of affiliate promotions, and we both are focused on taking action all the time.

    And what’s even better is I have my strengths and Robert has his, and when you combine them together, you get something greater than the parts.

    What’s great about joint products is that if you do one together successfully, the natural progression is to do another. And another. And then pretty soon, you have a whole new side business together.

    For example, the first joint product Robert and I did didn’t work. We never even got it finished. But it opened up the door for our second product. And then we started not only doing joint production creation, but joint group coaching and now a membership site with http://www.dailyseminar.com

    The value we’re able to provide our members is amazing, because of the fact we both brought all our strengths to the table.

    And it really opened my eyes to the power of joint products. I’ve since expanded into three other niches with joint products, where again I was able to combine my strengths with my business partners to create something amazing.

    Finally, it’s a great way to build friendships. Robert and I now not only creating products together, we’re joint-vacationing together as well. We’re going to Hawaii together with our girlfriends in 9 days!

    -Jason

  7. @copywriting says:

    Great tips Robert. Thanks for sharing!

    I just got one question for you:
    What’s your list biggest question about copywriting? 😉

  8. Lance Tamashiro says:

    Awesome post Robert!

    I used to always wonder why everyone made such a big deal about JV-this or JV-that, until I started “experimenting” with different types of JV’s that were mutually beneficial.

    It’s funny how you guys that know what you are doing can pound something into us newbies and we just ignore until the “light bulb” goes off.

    Thanks for the post!
    Lance

  9. Robert,

    to correct your post above–

    you Do have a recurring product- http://www.dailyseminar.com!

  10. Robert Plank says:

    Recession,

    That’s true, I do have a recurring product, but I haven’t rolled out the affiliate program for that, so it’s no good for JV’s right now. 🙂

    It’s also not very high ticket (above $97)… but all that point means is I haven’t increased the price yet.

  11. James Neil says:

    Would be interested to hear comments (good, bad, ugly) on the JV deal coming out (soon) from Steve and his buddies that developed the NicheBluePrint Program?

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