I’m not sure how many of you may have heard of James Brausch.  To be honest with you, I hadn’t heard of him until relatively recently when a marketing friend introduced me to his blog.

I would class him as a rather eccentric marketer.  He’s a multi-millionaire who lives a rather secluded lifestyle with his wife and he basically doesn’t really much give a damn what most everyone else is doing.

His mailing list basically just tells you when he’s written a new blog post and you can check it out.  That’s it.  He’s very blunt, to-the-point, no hype, no BS and he doesn’t pull any punches.

I’m still not sure what I think of him… LOL I read his stuff regularly, sometimes I like it, sometimes I don’t.  I’m quite sure he couldn’t give a damn about that either.

Anyway, he wrote an post yesterday on Joint Ventures that really got my attention.  He been through all the usual IM ups and downs in the past, subscribed to all the info overload and BS of this one and that one telling him to do this and that and in the end, after being ‘taken’ and screwed, he decided he’d do things his own way and everyone else could be damned. I LOVE IT!

James doesn’t do ‘Joint Ventures’ for a number of reasons, no doubt one of them being that he’d been screwed in the past and another being a lesson he learned from another marketer, David Frey of Marketing Best Practices.

He basically talks about the ‘law of reciprocity’ which is more of an idea than a law.

If you honestly believe in a product, offer your honest recommendation for it.  Don’t worry about affiliate links and payouts and tracking and all of that.  Perhaps, just perhaps, the marketing whose product you are recommending may do the same for you.

Now, you don’t want to do this with that expectation in mind.  You do this because you truly believe in the product and you truly want to offer something to your readers/subscribers that is honest and straightforward.

The example he used was marketer Terry Dean.  In one of Terry’s most recent newsletters he recommended one of James’ product, no affiliate links, nothing.  James was not even aware that Terry would be doing this until he read it in the newsletter.

Then James pointed out how powerful this technique was;

Let’s consider how powerful that is though.  As compared to a formal joint venture…

1. He didn’t have to call me and make arrangements.  He just did it.

2. He didn’t have to find an affiliate link.

3. His readers didn’t immediately get suspicious and ponder his motives when they saw an affiliate link.

4. He did, in fact, activate the law of reciprocity and will likely receive some kind of favor from me in the future.

5. He didn’t have to struggle with the ethics of the inherent conflict of interest between his obligations to his subscribers and his obligations to me (since he has no obligation to me).

6. The recommendation is much more powerful for me because everyone can easily see that it is simply an honest recommendation without any strings.

7. The recommendation is much more powerful for his subscribers for the same reasons.  They know it is an honest recommendation for their benefit.

8. Terry earns more trust with his subscribers for the same reasons.

9. Honesty is always the best policy.  He will never have to remember the things he has recommended for less than 100% honest reasons.  He has eliminated some stress from his life.

10. He doesn’t have to worry about my honesty and the likelihood that I will be tracking his referrals honestly and will pay him on-time and the correct amount… because there is no tracking nor any agreement that I will pay him anything.

Wow!

Why would anyone do “joint ventures” and lose all of the above advantages?

Kinda makes ya think, doesn’t it? 

Take the time to read James’ full post on Joint Ventures and see what you think.  It’s worth the time it will take to read it. Like I said, some of his stuff I like, some I don’t but he usually does make you think and that’s always a positive!

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