If you build an Internet marketing business, you will start to get frequent requests from people asking you to promote something of theirs by sending an e-mail to their list.

Or perhaps you are on the other end of that transaction, asking successful Internet marketers to promote your book or event.

When they say ‘no’ or ignore you, as most probably do, you become dismayed or even angry.

In this article, I want to increase your chances of convincing other online marketers to promote you or joint venture with you.

To begin with, you have to understand slots and their monetary value.

A “slot” in Internet marketing is one of the finite number of opportunities during the year in which the Internet marketer can send a promotional e-mail to his list.

I say “finite” because you can’t send too many e-mails to your subscribers.

If you do, you’ll annoy them. They’ll unsubscribe, and your valuable e-list will grow smaller.

For those of us who publish our free e-zines monthly, twice a week is about the maximum e-mail frequency our subscribers tolerate from us.

With two slots a week, that means we have approximately 100 slots a year.

Let’s say I gross $400,000 a year in my online marketing business.

That means each slot is worth $4,000 in revenue.

If I take up one of those slots sending an e-mail promoting something of yours for which I make no money (e.g. a free tele-seminar or a book), it costs me $4,000 in lost revenue.

Even if you offer me an affiliate commission to sell one of your paid products to my list, I have to ask myself whether it’s going to make the $4,000 I need.

Often, the products people ask me to promote are priced too low…and the commission is too small…for me to give up a slot.

And when I turn them down, they are disappointed or even offended.

TC sent me a review copy of his new book with a letter asking me to promote it to my list.

It’s a paperback book with a $19.95 cover price…and TC was offering me a 20% commission.

That means my commission on each book sold is about four bucks.

So I’d have to sell 1,000 copies for it to be worth taking up a slot for. And the chances of me selling a thousand copies of someone else’s book to my list are slim to non-existent.

OK. Let’s say you want to convince me…or another Internet marketer with a list you want to reach…to promote you to his subscribers.

Here are the questions I would ask you…and the answers that would get me to consider doing a deal with you:

>> First, who are you? How do I know you?

If you subscribe to my online newsletter, or read my books, or we met at a seminar, or have a mutual acquaintance, say so.

This is important, as I generally promote products only from people I know or have some connection with.

>> Second, tell me how your product would benefit my subscribers—how they would profit from its content.

This requires a familiarity with my list, which you can easily get by subscribing to my free e-zine at http://www.bly.com/reports.

>> Third, assuming I agree the product might interest my readers, I will ask for a review copy.

This is mandatory. When I promote your product to my subscribers, I am recommending it to my readers. And I can’t recommend something I haven’t seen.

>> Fourth, what is the product price and the affiliate commission?

If the price is too low—less than $20—my commission will be too little to make any money from it.

I give a 50% affiliate commission on all my products—and I look for a 50% affiliate commission on products others ask me to promote.

The rule of thumb for pricing products sold via direct response—online and offline—is that the sales price should be at least 8 times the cost of goods.

This formula allows you to give up 50% of the purchase price to an affiliate and still collect 4X your cost of goods on each unit sold.

On extremely high-priced products, say a thousand dollars or more, an affiliate commission of 25% is acceptable to most potential joint venture partners, because it gives them $250 for each $1,000 unit sold.

As an entrepreneur looking for joint venture partners online, you need to understand that for most Internet marketers, their e-mails are the primary way they make money and put food on the table.

And the number of opportunities they have to make money by sending e-mail offers to their list is limited.

For an Internet marketer with 100 slots a year, each slot represents 1% of his gross annual income.

Unless these online marketers are your best buddy, why would they give up 1% of their total income for the year to promote your book, webinar, event, or news just because you think their subscribers should know about it?

Internet marketing is a serious game, and to get the players to joint venture with you, you have to propose a deal that’s profitable and beneficial to you both.

Bob Bly is the author of “World’s Best Copywriting Secrets” and has written copy for more than 100 companies including IBM, Boardroom, Medical Economics and AT&T. He is the author of more than 75 books and a columnist for Target Marketing, Early To Rise and The Writer. McGraw-Hill calls him “America’s top copywriter”.

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