Depending on the size of the joint-venture web host’s company, you might be expected to conduct a formal presentation of the benefits of marketing your product to a group of staff with your plan. If you start small, however, many joint ventures can be assembled over a cup of coffee at your local coffeehouse or sometimes even via a phone call.
Use your instincts to read how formal the meeting should be. But be assured that the more professional, organized, and successful you appear, the more seriously your project will be considered.
The first step is putting together a nice iPad or PowerPoint presentation (or binder with printed pages) with materials that your host will likely want to see. Be sure to include the following:
Printout of the sales volume you’re experiencing
One-page report of your affiliates and how much they make by selling your product
Visitation statistics report showing how many people visit your website on a monthly basis and where those visitors are coming from
Full copy of your sales letter or product sales page
List of testimonials from happy customers
Report of returns and refund requests
Photos of you with high-profile experts in the industry (if you have them)
Sample joint venture host agreement, which typically includes
The terms of the revenue sharing: What percentage of the sale are you willing to offer your host, and how long after the promotion occurs are you willing to pay commissions for sales generated?
For example, if you get a phone call from someone a year from now who saw a promotion run by your host offering a special price, will you accept the sale? Will you pay your host the due commission for that sale?
You have to promise a high-enough percentage to attract the attention of a good host in the first place: 50, 60, and sometimes even 100 percent of the revenue is given to the host for his support of your product.
The expectations for each involved: Because you know your products, offer to write sales copy. Add a sentence in the agreement that the host will “use my promotions as written or slightly modified to meet her natural speaking tone,” for example.
Any limitations: Most likely, you will sell the same product outside your hosting agreement using your own promotion efforts, affiliates, or other joint ventures. Your agreement needs to claim your right to ownership of your product and the right to continue to sell it in any way you choose. And it should state that your host will not be receiving commissions for sales generated from alternate promotions.
Commission payments and returns: What date of the month will you be reconciling orders and making a payment to your host? And, how will you account for returns? Make your payment at the end of each month following the date a sale is made. This gives you enough time to process any returns and deduct those orders from the amount of commission due your host.
Disputes: Decide how a formal dispute will be handled.
Intellectual property rights: Remember that this is your product you’re offering to your host’s followers. Be sure to include in your agreement that you still own all rights to your products.
Confidentiality: During the course of a joint-venture project, you will likely be exposed to insider information as to how your host conducts business, such as access to the host’s online shopping cart to set up your product promotion on his website. Now that’s trust. You will wind up revealing some secrets of your own as well.
It will be comforting to your host that you hold his practices in high regard and will not share any of his personal or business information with others.
