Joint ventures are one of the most enjoyable ways of promoting your business. Working from home can be pretty lonely. When you start to set up joint ventures not only do you get access to the customer bases of other entrepreneurs, you also build up a network of other people working in the same industry. There are benefits every way you look.

The whole point of joint ventures is to generate customers. But even more important that getting them is keeping them. It costs much less and bring in much more money. Before we go on to talk about products, I just want to stress the importance of marketing to your existing customers.

At the end of every month I sit down with my stats and sales figures, and try to figure out answers to the following questions:

1. What percentage of my sales came from repeat customers?

2. Do my customers believe that they are important to the success of my business?

3. Did I go out of my way to learn all about my customers and keep them interested in my products?

4. Did I check out my competitors to see if they’re offering customers something that I’m not?

5. If a customer complained, how quickly and adequately did I respond?

6. Were orders filled correctly and did I offer bonuses to particularly loyal customers?

7. If I heard about a customer who went elsewhere, did I try to win him back?

It doesn’t take long to answer these questions, although it does take a bit longer to put new procedures in place if an answer comes up ‘no’. But it’s definitely worth the effort. I’ll confess, I went into this for the money, but I love getting letters from satisfied customers praising me for my service. The fact that it pays to do that too, is a real bonus.

Essentially, there are two golden rules for providing great customer service: punctuality and politeness. Always answer your customers as soon they write to you and send out their goods as quickly as you can. And always maintain a professional, business-like manner with them. It doesn’t matter how much they complain or moan, or how unreasonable they are, remember that you’re a professional and keeping your cool is part of your job. It’s all about customer satisfaction.

So now you know of a whole range of different ways to promote your website. You know how to use search engines, buy advertising and build affiliate programs. You understand the benefits of newsletters and how to set up joint ventures with other people selling on the web. In the next two chapters we’re going to look at precisely what you can sell on the web, starting with information products.