Creating JV Info Products
for Profit and Fun …
a Three Part Series!
Dear Business Builder,
Happy Friday and welcome back to In the ‘Net Trenches.
One of the funnest parts of what I do as web marketing consultant is brainstorm new information products. And one of the best and most efficient ways I know to create an information product is through a joint venture. Joint venture products simply bring together multiple experts to provide information about one specific topic.
The types of products you can create are only limited by your imagination. And, they can be developed as e-books, audio, video, live seminars, webinars or teleseminars. They can be business to consumer or business to business focused.
And, the beauty of this type of product is you don’t necessarily have to be an expert in the topic you’ve chosen (it helps to have some knowledge) to present. You just have to recognize there’s a market for it and there are known experts available to speak on it.
You also don’t have to have your own customer or subscriber list or following to make it work. But, it’s a great way to grow a new list.
As I mentioned, this can work several different ways with several different outputs, but for today’s issue I’m going to focus on how to put together a series of teleseminars with multiple contributor experts. In fact, I’m in the process of organizing two of them right now.
Getting Started …
In the beginning of this process, you’ll need to develop an overriding theme for your calls. Consider your theme the umbrella. You want to come up with a theme that is broad enough to have several different aspects to it and that has enough experts to participate.
Now, be careful here. You don’t want to choose a theme that is so broad that the potential universe of people you can market to is huge. For instance, you wouldn’t want to choose a theme of cooking and then slot in chefs to talk about cooking French food, Italian food, Southern food, etc.
The better way to go would be to select a theme such as Italian cooking and then choose chefs from the different Italian regions. Thus narrowing your market to a specific niche … and narrowing your universe of potential prospects.
After you’ve chosen your theme (remember the umbrella), it’s now time to choose the people that will stand underneath the umbrella … each individual topic.
Individual call topics and the experts that will speak to those topics will go hand in hand. It helps to have a loose idea of topics that fit within your theme, but it will ultimately be your guest experts that will truly define each final call topic.
After you’ve developed a list of loose potential call topics (I recommend 3-6 calls), it’s time to start doing some research. You’ll want to look for experts that are qualified to speak on the topics you’ve chosen. Make a list of first, second and third choice experts for each topic including contact information. At this point, I like to start plugging this information into a spreadsheet.
Once you’re done, you’ll have a spreadsheet that contains:
- Your overriding theme.
- Your individual call topics.
- Three potential experts to speak on each topic.
- Their contact information (including phone number).
Invite Your Guests …
People are busy, why in grims name would they want to take the time to participate in my teleseminar series?! The answer is simple …
… exposure. It’s most likely you’ll find your guest experts on the web. Experts with a web presence are looking for one of three things … Cash … Clients … or Names (leads). It’s as simple as that.
When inviting guest experts to participate, it’s important to keep the “what’s in it for me” in mind. You’ve got to develop an appealing and mutually beneficial offer for your guest experts to participate. And, you need to be able to make a promise they’ll receive at least one of the three things from my list above.
Here’s how I like to structure it …
From my guest experts, I want them:
- To participate in a one hour call at a predetermined time.
- To provide a loose list of questions I can ask on the call.
- To promote the teleseminar series to their own customers and subscribers at least twice.
In exhange, I’m willing to offer:
- Their mention in the product promotion with bio information that will be promoted to all experts files (a big cross promotion).
- An introduction e-mail that goes out to the teleseminar series attendee list prior to each call that tells who they are, what their call is about and their qualifications. As well as an opportunity to promote a sign-up for an e-zine or a product of their choosing. This gives guest experts the ability to drive traffic to their own sites.
- An opportunity at the end of the call to promote a product or e-zine sign-up and give a "for more information web address" … again more traffic to their website and potential new customers.
- A dedicated e-mail to the attendee list the same day as their call to promote a product or e-zine sign-up … more traffic to their website … more new customers.
- An advertorial style bonus report with more information about the guest expert that is free to all attendees as a part of the sign-up offer … ditto on the traffic and customers.
Here’s what I provide:
- All creative that each guest expert will need to promote the series to their customer and opt-in subscriber files. I provide all the copy, web design, etc.
- The coordination of the whole project including order taking, the delivery of all e-mails and instructions that needs to go out to participants during the series, a moderator for each call and the expense of each individual call.
After you’ve determined the theme of your call, each individual call topic and how you’re going to structure the joint venture with each individual participant it’s time to map out the live calls on a calendar. I like to schedule approximately two weeks ahead of the start of the call series for my marketing efforts and then schedule each live call in the series one week apart. But, feel free to vary this as you need to and determine a schedule that works for you.
After you’ve determined your schedule and slotted each individual into a particular date, it’s time to pull it all together and invite your participants. If you’ve made a list of three potential choices, you’ll want to start by contacting all your first choices and so on down your list. In my experience the 80/20 rule applies. 80% of the experts you contact will be willing to participate … 20% will decline. But, you’ll be prepared for that because you’ll have a back-up expert for each topic in your series.
Start by sending an e-mail to each guest expert outlining your offer. I recommend a sincere approach here with a genuine interest in what the guest expert is working on. Here’s a short example to get you started:
Dear Joe Expert,
I really enjoyed your recent articles on the "Flavors of the Tuscany Region." I especially enjoyed your recipe for Linguine with White Clam Sauce. I’m planning a teleseminar series on Italian Cooking and we plan to explore all the different regions of Italy. I thought you’d be perfect for the call on Tuscany.
I’d like to invite you to participate and here’s how it will work …
Then of course you’d fill them in on the series, who else you’re hoping to participate, the call schedule, the what’s in it for them, what you’ll provide and what you need them to do.
After that, follow up with a phone call. After you get a yes, slot them into your schedule. If you get a no, move on to your second selection. Rinse and repeat for every topic in your theme.
Hope that helped and stay tuned …
Because next week in part two of Creating JV Products for Profit and Fun, we’ll discuss the next step of the process … structuring your offer and marketing your series.
Until next week,
Julie McManus
Editor, In the ‘Net Trenches
THE TOTAL PACKAGE
And Web Media Goddess
P.S. Are you in the ‘net trenches? Do you need help? Send
me an e-mail to AskJulie@MakepeaceTotalPackage.com and
I just might answer your question in an upcoming issue.
P.P.S. Have you checked out The Total Package affiliate program lately? We’ve added tons of new creative to help you earn cash on any new subscriber you refer and we’ve opened our archives up for the pilfering… Click Here to check it out NOW!
Looking for resources related to this article? Try some of these.
Looking for more of Julie’s articles? Check these out.
Looking for past issues of The Total Package? Click here for our archives.
 |
Want to share or reprint this article? Feel free. Just give us full attribution and a link to our Home Page when you do. |
Attribution Statement: This article was first published in The Total Package. To sign-up to receive your own FREE subscription to The Total Package and claim four FREE money making e-books go to www.makepeacetotalpackage.com.
Related posts
1 Comment »
Join the Discussion!
Let us know what you think. Or ask us anything. Or offer your own sage advice.
The only rule: RESPECT THIS HOUSE! Postings that contain abusive language and/or personal attacks will be cheerfully VAPORIZED. One cross word and – POOF! – your well-thought-out post will be gone in a puff of smoke.
– Clayton
Comment by Stan — July 6, 2007 @ 11:45 am
Hey Clayton,
Well, as usual, you\’ve given us some real \”meat\” to chew upon! I love the idea of getting experts to help me create my product; however, here is my \”sitch\”:
I\’m positioning myself as the \”Contrarian Health Coach,\” and as such, I\’m taking a \”me vs. the gurus\” approach in my marketing and product creation. Therefore, my \”infoproducts mentor\” has strongly recommended NOT interviewing, nor otherwise involving other \”experts\” until I\’ve positioned myself as one to begin with.
But this presents me with a perplexing problem, and an uphill battle: In a very competitive field, where I\’m a virtual unknown at this point, I\’m trying to establish myself as an expert without enlisting the aid of other experts! What\’s an infopreneur to do?!?! Many thx in advance …