Join Up With The Best

By Bob McElwain
Posted Thursday, January 30, 2003

If you can identify great sites compatible with yours in some way, consider building a serious relationship with them.

Gathering The Ammunition

As you visit sites for whatever reason, bookmark those that stand out in some way. Those for which it might be profitable to build a more significant relationship, beyond a simple link swap.

Maybe they're lighter and brighter some way. They may seem better connected to their task. Look for those that show serious intent. Those that demonstrate a determination to grow. Make note of whatever grabs your attention.

Ponder over your notes as possible. Revisit these sites. And add to your notes. What you are looking for is a way to interrelate with such sites far more intensively than with a simple link swap.

This takes a good deal more doing than arranging a link swap. You need a good plan that will work for both of you. You might consider swapping advertising on your site and in your newsletter. Or go so far as to put up a page on yours pointing to your partner site in exchange for yours on theirs.

The 60-40 Rule

Many opportunities go awry and many deals unravel because one or both of the parties is not acquainted with this rule. It holds to some extent in all human relationships.

If you commit 60% of the effort to make the deal work, and you feel the other person commits 40%, it will work.

Let's not get bogged down with psychology here. But do take a look at what this means. It begins with YOU. YOU are the center of your world. And this is the exact position in which you need to be.

But from this position, the contribution of your partner will appear to be less significant to you than it does to your partner. This can't be avoided. It's a part of every human relationship.

But those who recognize this, will be content with an arrangement in which they feel they are contributing 60% while the other party is adding only 40%. So long as both are content with the proportions, the deal will hold. If either party is not sufficiently mature to grasp this rule, the arrangement is bound to collapse.

It's doubtful a perfect relationship exists. But if both parties do feel they have contributed 60% to the arrangement, an external observer might note both have contributed equally.

In building profitable arrangements such as suggested here, however, you can afford to give considerable more than your potential partner. For you will be the greater beneficiary, as pointed out below.

Cutting The Deal

This is not a task to be left to email. Grab the phone. Australia? The UK? What's the difference? Make the call.

First, though, set it up. If you're planning to swap ads on your home page, put up a draft copy. As in link swapping, you have already made a move. Your potential partner can see the benefits easily and will be more likely to go along.

Further, offer to send copy you think would be appropriate for your potential partner site. And explain why it will work. Be sure to follow the 60-40 rule. Be certain what you are offering is significantly more at least to you, than what you are asking in return.

In the first step, keep it simple. Relationships take time to evolve. Given a simple beginning, success is more likely. And this adds to the interest your partner will have when considering subsequent plans. Success automatically enhances their confidence in you and suggests the likelihood of further success with your latest plan.

A Grand Fringe Benefit

If you do the work to set things up so that it's easy for your potential partner to accept the deal, chances are good your offer will be accepted. Don't kid yourself. To make this work takes some serious planning, which takes time.

But as you become more accustomed to making such offers, you'll find each is easier to arrange. You'll become aware of pitfalls. And avoid them. You will come to see more quickly what can be done effectively, and what is not likely to work.

There is a significant bonus in all this that will pay off for you big time. You will become the center of a hub of a wheel of interrelated sites. Most of your partners will not take the time to work out such relationships. They become more dependant upon you than you are on them. And collectively, you'll draw far more traffic through the spokes of the wheel than you deliver through them to your partners.