Are you still catching fish one at a time? I hope not.

Gone are the days where you sit by the edge of the lake with a fishing pole hoping something will bite. Don’t do that! There are better, more powerful ways of doing things today.

Use a net instead! Then, go to a spot where the fish are plenty and they’re jumping up at you!

One of the fastest ways of building your customer base is to seek out mutually beneficial joint ventures.

The key words here are “mutually beneficial”. Find marketers and business owners who already have large “responsive” mailing lists and make them an offer they can’t refuse! Just make sure your offer benefits them as well – in a big way.

Many people have tried using this strategy. Most have failed miserably. I’ll tell you why.

The problem with most people is that they are only focused on what they can get out of the deal. You’ll never get it if that’s what your focus is on.

When you’re working on forming joint ventures, focus on the other party and ask yourself “What do they need? What can I offer them that would be of value to them?”

Sure, you can just offer the other person a cut of the profits if they agree to endorse your product to their list. But that’s what everybody does. And these days, that’s not enticing enough. How is your offer unique?

Here’s a better way of doing it…

What if you were to create a product specifically for one marketer. Offer them exclusive rights to distribute the product as they see fit.

You don’t have to create a hundred page masterpiece. It’s not the number of pages… it’s the content! You can have a 5 page report that contains solid gold. And you can have a 100-page mammoth filled with garbage.

Want to do one better?

Offer to help the other party with something first. Anything – without bringing up your joint venture offer. Then, when you’ve created some value for them, you can ask them to help you out with something. (Say a joint venture, perhaps?)

Do you see how this strategy differs from what most people try to do out there?

Heck, I’ve even seen people requesting joint ventures by just sending a one-line email note to the other person which reads, “Want to promote my product? Here’s my link…”

Do they really expect the other person to even respond to that note? It just doesn’t work!

Be unique. Create value for them. Make it worth their while. Make them an offer they can’t refuse!

Keep in mind that…although the above strategy increases your chances of striking a deal astronomically, not everyone will say “yes” to your offer.

I’ve approached some people who just had too much on their plate to begin with and just weren’t able to work with me. It happens.

Don’t take it personally.

The trick is to not quit after the first “no”.

Forming powerful, mutually beneficial alliances with successful marketers is the best strategy available to us. And it is well worth your time to continue pursuing joint ventures until you strike a deal or two. But, you don’t have to stop there either. Get as many as you can.

Remember, you are not just seeking a one-time deal here either. You’re seeking an alliance. Great ongoing business deals and friendships can be formed this way.

Hi:

Internet marketers, when making a list of the things they think they need in order to successfully run an Internet business usually include the following:

1. A Web Site

2. Ads

3. Articles

4. Money For Promotion

5. A Product

6. An E-Zine

And the list goes on and on. But 95% of them forget one thing, and it’s probably the one most important thing you need to have if you’re going to succeed.

It’s called credibility.

Instead of trying to define what that is, I’m going to give you a very simple example of how not having it will shoot down any chance you have of being successful.

You’ve just signed up with this great new program. It’s the hottest thing since sliced bread. You’ve got your ads out all over the place. Finally, somebody emails you or even calls you on the phone if you’ve provided them with a number, and they ask you about this wonderful program. And you start telling them all about it. You can’t rave about it enough. And then comes the question that makes it all meaningless.

“How much money have YOU made with this program?”

Do you see where this is going?

Sure, you can lie. But trust me, that lie will come back to haunt you in more ways than you can imagine. Or, you can tell the truth.

What do you think is going to happen when you tell this person that you haven’t made a DIME?

Without credibility you are NOWHERE.

So, the $64,000 question is, how do you get credibility? How do you show people that you ARE a successful person online when you haven’t made a buck?

The answer is simple, but you’re not going to like it.

You’re going to have to go out and make a buck.

If this sounds like a catch-22, it’s not. There are ways out there to make money without having to promote a product or recruit. You just have to find them. My book has a number of ways to get that credibility so that you can show people that you HAVE made money online.

Fortunately, my Honest Income Program ebook, which you can find in my signature, WILL give you ways where you can get credibility and be able to easily promote your business with some degree of success.

The point is, there ARE ways to make money online even if you don’t get my book. Just do a search engine search for online jobs or something like that. Some jobs pay okay, some not so great. You’re not going to find anything that’s knock ‘em out of the ball park.

But, before you can go out hawking your “biz-of-the-week” you will have needed to earn at least a few hundred to a few thousand dollars before you’re going to have ANY chance to get people to believe you.

If you think I am kidding, try getting people to sign up to your program when you haven’t made a cent online. You may get lucky in one out of a thousand responses, but by the time you get your next sign up, the guy you just recruited will be gone because he too didn’t make a cent and got fed up.

I hope everyone will take the issue of credibility seriously. I had no success online at all until I got it.

Trust me, it is the number ONE thing we all need.

Internet marketing, running a home based business, making money online, whatever you want to call it, it can be a VERY scary experience and downright expensive.

How expensive?

You can lose your shirt, drive your wife and kids into the arms of the nearest hotel and make your best friend your worst enemy.

In other words, proceed at your own risk.

And what makes the whole process that much harder is that there is so much misinformation on the Internet that people are easily taken in and parted from their money. Hopefully, this article will dispel some of the myths so that you’ll at least have a fighting chance should you decide to try to make a living online.

The biggest lie when it comes to Internet sales is the one that says, “Build a site and they will come.” This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Just having a web site on the Internet is no guarantee that people are going to find it. With all the web sites out there, what makes you think that anybody is going to stumble onto yours without some serious advertising, search engine optimization, and hard work? They won’t. So let’s dispel this myth right off the bat.

Another big lie, that scares people off, is the one that says, “Starting a business on the Internet is expensive.” It doesn’t have to be. Yes, it can be, depending on what it is you want to do. If you’re thinking of becoming the next Amazon.com then you better have some serious bucks at your disposal. But the truth is, to start a modest Internet business doesn’t have to take a fortune. Yes, you will have to spend some money to get started, such as web hosting costs, domain costs and web design costs if you’re not good with HTML, but in comparison to the real world where businesses need thousands of dollars to get off the ground, your costs are a drop in the bucket in comparison.

A lie that you will hear so much is the one that says, “You don’t have to know how to sell to make good money on the Internet.” Think about the total illogic of this. You’re starting a business to sell a product or service to somebody. So how are you going to be able to do that without knowing how to sell? People who tell you this are just after your money.

But one of the best myths is the one that goes like this, “You don’t have to build a mailing list.” This is just laughable. How do you think companies like Sears and Macys make their money? Those catalogues that they send out every month or so are not for show. They’re to let you know what sales there are and to get you into their store to buy. If this method of advertising wasn’t effective then why would the biggest companies do it? This is not to say you can’t make money without a list, but you’re not going to really make big money until you have an in house list of people who trust you to buy from you.

There are of course more myths online but these should give you a pretty good start in the right direction.