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Blitz Ezine # 181 September 23, 2002

Note: This is an archived issue. Some links and/or content may be outdated

The Blitz-Promotions News Letter.
Issue no. 181, Sept. 23, 2002
************ In This Issue **************
Comments
Food for thought
Articles
The Classifieds
Next Issues
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Blitz Comments
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New this week -

An excellent example of a letter asking for a joint venture - also if you have a pet related shop you may be able to add another avenue of revenue.

Our Newbie guide - may help some of the Old-timers as well.

We'll be dedicating our October Issues to ways you can increase your sales this holiday season.

Gus Update -

He is now here at our local hospital getting rehab. Thanks again for everyone's support.
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Food for thought
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You don't have to get it right the first time.
Barbara Sher
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A Great Example of a Joint Venture Letter
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If you've been a subscriber long, you know that I really love joint ventures. I got this e-mail a couple of weeks ago and I'm including it here, not only as a great example of a JV letter, but if you have a pet related then site, then hopefully you can help him out.

Dear Tim and Lisa,

I discovered your profile and your web site while I was on the Think Joint Ventures web site. I would like to throw out an idea in your direction that has joint venture in mind.

Please look at my little site
http://www.friendsforlifelifeforfriends.com/

I own a small retail gift store in Florida called Vanishing Breeds and we do lots of wildlife rehab work and are actively involved with many things having to do with animals. I created the tee shirts on my site as a way of helping to raise funds for some of the local pet rescue organizations and I have some lofty goals. Between running the store and trying to get my line of tee shirts off the ground on a wholesale level I have more than enough to do. I only have the shirts in a few retail locations at present but I do have two different national chain stores in the very strong consideration stage of taking on the line.

Here is a proposal. (I do not want to operate a store on the WWW but I would like to joint venture with someone else who might.) I have what I believe is a great product. I have inventory. I can deliver the shirts (and more products, if we can grow) to the retail consumer.

I would love to find someone who could create a web site and promote it by whatever means possible. I would like the site owner to make a contribution of some amount, say one dollar or so, to The Humane Society, the ASPA or some other worthwhile organization. They would collect the retail selling price of the shirts, let's arbitrarily say $15.00 plus shipping charges. They would pay me the wholesale price of the shirt, $7.50, plus the cost of shipping.

I would stock the inventory and do the shipping; the web site owner would generate sales and make a small contribution and everyone could come out a winner.

I honestly believe that the site could work extremely well if promoted properly. I would make out good. The site owner would make out good. The animal welfare organization would make out good and best of all, the animals would get some help.

That's it! I am certain that you can use you own imagination about this type of situation. I am certain that whichever organization, or even more than one, would be more than willing to have a link from their site to another, especially with being able to earn a donation without having to do anything. I would love to have a link on my site where the consumer could purchase at retail. I just don't want to do this myself. I am not a web person nor do I want to be.

I am however, aware of the tremendous reach of the web and the tremendous possibilities if this could be done right. There are 68 million dog owners and 75 million cat owners in this country alone. Most are very concerned about the pet problem that exists almost everywhere.

We are in a very small retirement community in central Florida and have sold 18 shirts in the past five weeks. That doesn't sound like much but it really is, considering half the residents are up north during the summer and tourists don't even know we exist.

Anyway, I thought that you might be able to help or refer me to someone who might be interested. This is a situation where everyone can benefit and there is lots of money that could be made by all. I am most willing to consider any thoughts or ideas you may have and I hope that you will at least consider the possibilities.

Thanks....... Rick Lewis

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Newbie Guide to Start a Website
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I get letters all the time from folks who are wanting to start an online business. So what are some of the keys in starting and building a successful business. We'll start this week with picking your niche.

1. Picking your niche.

This is the most important aspect of starting a new business on the net, choose wisely and you are already two steps ahead of everyone else. Choose poorly and it will be an uphill battle all the way.

So how do you choose the right niche.

A) It should be something that you love to do... otherwise why would you want to do something every day - even on days when you don't really feel like it. So how can you turn something that you love into a business. Warning this may take a while - but it will be worth it.

-- Take a sheet of paper and write down your hobbies, what you really like to do.
-- Now ask your spouse or significant other what they think you like to do. List those as well.
-- Now put that sheet of paper away and forget about it for a few days. Actually you'll be thinking about it more... just not actively thinking about it. As you come up with new ideas jot them down.

Now for the rest of this week till the next issue, start thinking about things that you're good at and ask people what they think you're good at. Next week we'll continue our lesson with Part 2.

A note about Persistence.

It is really easy to quit, it is hard to persist. You won't build your business in a day, week or months, so you need to keep a few things in mind.

- Keep in mind why you are building your business.
- Network with other folks - the Internet can be a lonely place sometimes so hanging out with others will help you in more ways than one.
- Make tiny goals for yourself, it is much easier to achieve smaller steps, than larger ones. When you do make one of the small steps, be sure to celebrate.
- Dreams do come true, but not before a whole lot of work.