Promote Your Site With Partnerships In the internet business world, the phrase partnership conjures up any number of images, depending upon who’s sitting in on the discussion. Every business has had an individualized experience with partnering, but the base interpretation is the same, regardless. Partnerships are an arrangement of mutual benefit between either two persons, or two organizations. Achieving such arrangements for your company can be a versatile and effective means of growing your business into its highest of potentials. Partnership arrangements common to the marketplace today include a number of complimentary agreements, such as: content sharing in exchange for additional exposure advertising to another’s mailing list in exchange for similar ads within your mailing group advertising to another’s mailing list in exchange for on-site ads at your property marketing of another organization’s products within your property in exchange for like treatment of your products site advertising on another’s property in exchange for the same style of advertising at your business site standard "affiliate" agreements collaborative advertising efforts, mutually marketing both properties to garner reduced costs of visibility mutually funded contests and promotions This list is by no means exhaustive, as the nature of arrangements between organizations are ever-changing, and entirely dependant on the type of companies involved in the collaboration. When exploring the idea of partnership with another company online, there are a few key items to keep top of mind. Is There True Value? In preparing a partnership request, or reviewing an incoming offer, carefully consider the ramifications of affiliation. Is the organization being given consideration well respected? Do they bring traffic numbers to the table that are equivalent, or preferably greater than what your property can provide? Are the numbers provided confirmed? Is your aim the branding of your market, or sales increases? What is the potential impact on sales, based on given traffic numbers? Is there a possibility of sales lost to their product, even if complimentary? What is the impact on your customers? Will your hard fought for mailing list suddenly experience a massive unsubscribe when exposed to an influx of outside advertising? What is the impact of on-site advertising? How will the ads impact download times? Page views per visitor? Presentation? How targeted is the advertising/exposure your company will receive in exchange? What timeframes are being recommended? Is there a means of leaving the arrangement if found to be unsuitable? Finally, a word to the wise – though the majority of online business operators are upstanding, there certainly do exist those who will misrepresent themselves in the development of partnership arrangements. In these scenarios, locking into a poorly performing affiliation can put your business at a significant disadvantage, by negating your potential to negotiate other, more lucrative arrangements over the life of the agreement. Serious number crunching, and some significant company research are an absolute necessity prior to signing off on any partnership agreement. Once all facts have been verified, and the true value calculated, you can move forward by trusting your instincts in the selection of only the best affiliations, targeted at ensuring your company’s online success. Related Subjects: Internet Marketing – Pay per Click Advertising Internet Marketing – Press Releases back to partnership agreement help page