Grow Your List with Joint Ventures

   Joint venture talk is all the rage on the internet now. You have probably heard about it in several forums and websites and might be wondering if you can actually use this concept. Definitely.

   While there are many uses for joint ventures, we are going to focus in on one specific area, building your opt in list. It really doesnīt matter how big your list is now, you can grow it by joining up with others who host related or even competing lists.

   First, you need to find someone with a similar theme. The easiest way to do this is to do a search on Google for your keywords. For example, for my website, I would put in "opt in list". Check out the results and choose the ones that you would like to work with. You could also check out ezine directories, e-course directories and select the companies that most interest you.

   Each of the businesses that you have chosen has an email list and this is important. They may have some of the same subscribers that you have, being that your themes are similar, but the majority will be new emails, fresh ones.

   In order to get some of those subscribers to subscribe to your list, you need to give the other website something of value . . . some of your subscribers. Neither of you will lose, since your lists are probably quite different and people value information from different sources. Instead, you both gain new subscribers, you both grow your opt in list. Itīs a win-win situation.

   So, how do you go about making this joint venture happen? You can begin by sending a friendly, professional email to each of the websites that you chose, detailing your plan and explaining the benefits to them. Itīs important that they feel they are receiving at least half the benefits, or they wonīt join you.

  Here are a few ways you might suggest swapping subscribers:

-         Ezine ads. Each of you runs an ad for the otherīs ezine in your own. Be careful not to take on too many JVs in this case or your ezine will be nothing but ads for other ezines.

-         Thank you page ads. When someone finishes subscribing to your ezine or ecourse, let them know on the thank you page that there are several other great opt in lists to join and give them the option of doing so immediately. Your JVs will do the same on their thank you pages.

-         Exchange website ads. Each website would have the otherīs ezine or opt in list ad displayed in a prominent area. This is a bit more dangerous since people can get confused and join the other personīs newsletter thinking itīs yours.

-         Article swap. You could each put an article from the other in your newsletter. This article would include a resource box pointing back to the authorīs website where the reader would have the choice of signing up to their list.

   As you can see, there are lots of ways to expand your opt in list by using other peopleīs lists! Start off slowly, working with other sites that are about the same size as yours and expand from there.