I’m honestly amazed at some of the requests I get from people when it comes to their asking me to be an affiliate, JV or simply to help them promote something. Enjoy my “rant” and would love to hear your pet peeves here as well!
Want me to help you promote something? Here’s how NOT to do it…
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So hey Tina… I have this great idea for a partnership. Sorry for the late notice, but you will need to only do 5 solo broadcasts in the next week.
Truth be told, I only want you for your list.
Oh and you’ll have to create your own materials.
I’ll have my VA reach out to you.
PS: Can you introduce me to your speaker friends who also have a big list?
(What? You’re saying this is the wrong way to do it?)
he he
k, I truly LOL’d at that Lisa… 😉
Hi Tina,
This was a great video, on what not to do. I am in the process of learning all of these kind of things and I agree with Maria, I would love a follow up video on “What To Do, The Right Way”. I really enjoy receiving your emails.
Thanks Maria
Brisbane AU
I enjoyed your video. Thank you! You are a great inspiration to the entrepreneur community.
I wanted to throw out an idea out there for your consideration…
I was a bit taken aback my your reaction to the word partner. I guess because I have the same response to affiliate (“can I use your list in exchange for making a few bucks”).
I approach business relationships with peers from a “what can I do for you” or “how can I support you” way and asked for the consideration that the law of reciprocation was in place for as you said “I’ll scratch your back if you’ll scratch mine.” I’m asking for them to want to join together to collaborate in supporting each other. Not just for the short-term affiliate income but for ongoing partnership.
I suppose have the same reaction to “affiliate” as you have to “partner”. For me affiliate is such a slimy word especially because it feels to me like this is a one-way street all about how much money can be made, not in supporting one another for the better good of helping our prospective communities. It reminds me of slick marketers who teeter at the top of the marketing world and got there by being “vetted” by other top marketers through recommendation to their community.
Partnership is defined by wikipedia as: “an arrangement where parties agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests.” So indeed the way in which I am inviting “(affiliate) partners”, is in fact a partnership.
I’m sure you would agree this is not the same as a joint venture relationship. Which wikipedia defines joint venture as: two parties enter a business agreement in which parties agree to develop, for a finite time, a new entity and new assets by contributing equity.
Affiliate or Partner….potatoe or potato….thoughts?
Totally get it Tonya – I guess it’s less about the title/word and more about the intent. I’m fine if someone asks me to be an affiliate in the sense of “promote X and i’ll give you some $$” because that is simply calling it what it is… but that doesn’t mean i’ll say yes to it. I agree that there is something off in the general world of affiliate stuff, can be icky.
I think your point about partnership is bang on in that I want to hear from someone *why* this is of value to me and – more importantly – my folks BEYOND the money. Money alone isn’t enough for me, if you want me to help promote something for you (or if we want to truly JV and create something together – which I do on a regular basis) then it HAS to be something that I believe is of value to my folks… or I don’t want to do it, regardless of how much $$ I could make being an affiliate. At the end of the day it’s about the trust that the people on my list have in me – if i’m going to promote something I need to be able to stand behind it and authentically recommend it, and if that isn’t the case then I risk damaging the relationship.
My biggest peeve builds off of your “waiting till the last minute”. So many times we are told that “sorry, our calendar is booked out months in advance, we can’t promote you (either at all or not for 7 or 8 months). Then those same people will email and say “hey can you promote me next week?” >.< (And it's worse when they get to the client, she says yes, and I have to tell her we already have someone booked).
I love what you are saying here, Tina. It’s all about relational communication. Even if you have a small list or are relatively new to biz you can have something wonderful to offer a more seasoned entrepreneur that will be attractive to them. I think people get that “gimme” scarcity mentality when they don’t have a rich enough understanding of their own value. They think they “need” you to push them forward instead of believing they something really cool that you would actually be interested in. Plus, always love a good rant! 🙂
I would absolutely LOVE it if you could do a follow-up video regarding how to approach people you don’t already have a relationship to do a traditional partnership (e.g., sharing blog posts with each others’ followers, providing bonuses for each others’ programs, co-creating programs together, etc.). This is where I feel like I am stuck and it sounds like you have a lot of wisdom and experience in this area! Thank you, Tina 🙂
sure! Love that idea Marla, happy to do so.
I understand what you are saying in this video, but I feel that a “How-to (ask to be an affiliate, create a JV, etc..)” would have been a great way to present this info in a more professional and helpful way. You could still use your personal stories for providing engaging and humorous examples of what people should NOT do. Same content, just a different, more positive and professional way to approach it.
As always, thank you for your content and teaching!
I hear you Jennifer – we are actually looking at doing a training program in this area, which has been “sparked” by some of the stuff we’ve been seeing.
Personally, I enjoy a good rant once in a while 🙂 And, Amen! Especially the last-minute requests, or where they only give you a small window of time in which to promote…we’ve actually been told that “that is the launch model that works”. Well, not for my audience!
A big turn-off? Someone who’s too big for their britches and not willing to give a hand up to someone smaller than them – obviously forgetting that they needed that same hand up a some time in their past.
That certainly does happen Kevin – I know for me it’s not the size of the biz (or their list), it’s so much more about what they are offering and is it something that my folks would benefit from.
We’re not huge in the online world (yet) but we work with some people we believe are, and we believe in how they’ve helped us, or even catapulted our business, so often we’ll agree to be an affiliate if we think they fit our niche. But oh boy, you hit on my #1 affiliate pet peeve: don’t ask me to support you and then not be prepared. WHAT is THAT? Send me material. Have an affiliate site. You might only get one or three people from us that don’t know you – but still – prepare! Ugh! When people don’t have a clear idea of what they’re asking us to promote, I don’t think they realize how damaging it starts to become. Event though we might love what we’ve been taught, used, or bought, from some of these power people, when they show up unprepared, I’m WAY less willing to tell our hard-earned audience to check them out : because what if that happens and they STILL aren’t prepared for our audience? Well, then we’ve lost out, too. Big time. (So yes, there are people I love, resonate with, learn from, but NO LONGER affiliate with for this reason!!)
Totally agree. This is a great area to get support in as well – have your team prep materials, communicate with folks and such.
Great rant Tina. I wholeheartedly agree with everything you say in this video! I have organized many, many telesummits for clients and I have also been on the receiving end of the requests to be a part of events for myself and for my clients. I am consistently surprised when people do so many of the things you mention here. It’s important to remember that your event is important to you, and it’s great for you to get excited about it, but that you are always, always asking for a favour from the JVs or speakers you are asking to take part or to promote. Great tips! I would add only that if you are going to ask anyone to take part or help promote any kind of event that you give them LOADS of notice (two months minimum!) so that they can slot it into their promotion calendar easily – last minute requests (which I see way too often) are just inconsiderate. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
YES! so glad you mentioned that too Tracey. Many folks have their promo calendars planned out months in advance (sometimes even a full year) so the sooner you can ask the better.