I’m not sure when the move will take place, as Hostican assure me that they’re working on it (they need time to setup the dedicated, I guess)… anyways, as I can’t work on any websites until they move, thought I’d update TUK

No matter how long you’ve been on the Internet trying to make money online, you’ll be faced with many opportunities for partnerships – often with like-minded people, with a common goal – getting the most for themselves. Partnerships are one of the biggest parts of business today – while you may fare reasonably well on your own, the big business projects require more than one person working on them – without help, you’re unlikely to succeed.

I’ve been involved in quite a few partnerships in the relatively short while I’ve been online – nothing major, however even though they were small projects they were generally pleasant to be involved with. These days, I’m working as a partner in slightly bigger projects – ones that still retain their ease to contribute and share the bulk of the work.

The big money is in big projects, and you can’t take up big projects without some help. What should you look at when deciding whether or not to get into a partnership?

1) The size of the project.

Setting up a large website that you expect to be visited by thousands of people (*cough*blogging magazine*cough*) is different from a small page only created for you and a few friends. If you can do the work yourself, do it – don’t be lazy and ask for help. On the other hand, if you’re aiming for the next big thing to hit the Internet, it’s probably better that you ask someone to give you a hand, as more often than not you won’t be able to do it alone.

2) The type of skills needed.

When entering a partnership, make sure the other person’s skills complement yours. For me, for example, I cannot code for anything – whereas it is fairly easy to hire a designer for small amounts of work, if you are working on projects that involve a fair degree of difficulty for an extended period of time, it’s better that you try and work with someone that has the skills you don’t. Working in a partnership with someone that only has the same skills as you is not as effective, as well… put in the work, and you can do all that such a partner will be able to do yourself.

3) The amount of trust involved

Now, I tend to trust people fairly easily – I’ve only been burned a couple times, and with scammers usually tending not to be the smartest people around it is not that hard to tell if someone is going to try and screw you. If you’ve only known someone a couple days though, and he wants you to get involved in something huge, I’d suggest you lay off, unless you’re in control. Although you should hold people innocent until proven guilty, you don’t want yourself at the mercy of someone unscrupulous halfway through a project – what if you partner with someone who has control of the domain and website files, and he decides to stiff you in the middle? There’s very little you can do. Of course, people you know for a longer period of time can do the same, but it’s less likely. The more trust you have, the safer the business you’re entering into is.

4) The amount of money involved.

No matter who the person is (unless you’re related, or something) you should think twice about entering into business partnerships with others that involve a fair amount of money. At times you can use your gut feeling, however in most instances you shouldn’t go with a partner where the initial cost is more than a few hundred… there are times when you can do more than that, but you should be very sure about what’s happening and the potential of the project – all things should be clear before you begin.

When does a partnership suck?

- Little work involved.

Seriously, if there’s only a little work involved, you shouldn’t get into a partnership… remember, you’re losing half your revenue, so if it’s something you can actually work for and complete yourself, don’t partner off with someone.

- When you do most of the work.

Sometimes it just doesn’t work out – you do most of the work, and they still expect to be paid half, or vice versa. If you face that problem, just politely tell your partner what’s happening and should he feel otherwise and you guys can’t come to a conclusion, liquidate the business and split whatever you make 50/50.

What partnerships have you been involved in, and how did they go?

At the moment I can’t do much due to the server move, however I’ve just been hit with ideas, ideas that popped out of no where… if all goes well, you’ll see some decent stuff happen over the next few months.

A couple shoutouts -

I was mentioned in the Top Bloggers Under 21 list over at Retire@21, and although it’s an interesting list (to say the least) I’m happy with my ranking of 5 (will be higher, soon enough ). Check it out here or help it get big on Digg.

And more importantly, here’s what the logo of Blog Premiere will look like…

I like it. Re – TUK tshirts. I found out about getting them made – it’ll cost approximately $7USD/shirt and the minimum order quantity is 100 shirts – that’s fine. The problem is shipping – cheapest I can find it at is $16USD/shirt and to be honest that is a crazy ripoff – I’m not aiming to make a profit on these, even breaking even or a slight loss would be good enough… but unlike others I don’t have bottomless pockets and charging $10/shirt and making a $13 loss every single time – sorry, can’t afford that.

I will probably look at getting some Blog Premiere shirts made – they’ll be cheaper to produce (less colour) and ship them out when I go to India or something. If anyone would be interested in one of those, let me know – high quality shirts, don’t worry