Just wanted to drop a quick line about some things I have been noticing about alot of peoples "SPECIAL OFFERS"

1) USP Unique Selling Position... Anybody with any kind of real world marketing training knows that one of the first things you need when engaging in the practice of marketing a product, online or off, is a unique selling position! What this does not mean is that your product truly has to be completely different from every other product out there, you just need to have a good(unique) angle or way of presenting it.

It seems to many people are calling their product special, or new, or whatever when it has absolutely no originality, and your USP is non-existent. So keep in mind that if your product does not at least appear to be distinguishably different than the vast majority of products that are available, or the ones overly abundant in the IM niche, then you are going to have a difficult time finding JV partners.
Just something to keep in mind...

Now for the Fundamentals,
It seems to me that too many IMers are tryin to reach for the stars, hit a home run, shoot the moon, etc, etc, with their product launches. Basically trying to do to much to fast, when they would be better off sticking with learning the fundamentals!!
The fundamentals, as I list them include, in no particular order:

1. Web Design at least some minimal skills.
2. Payment Processing i.e. clickbank, paypal, etc (this is actually multi-faceted)
3. lead generation or traffic creation(ppc, article writing, videos etc)
4. List Building
and probably the most underestimated and over looked skill...
NETWORKING!!!

Think about that for a minute, networking is as important as any of these other skills that you can develop as a online marketer. Ask any of the top marketers on the planet and they will tell you that there is no possible way they could have achieved their level of success alone, not one of them. Yet time and again I see people, newbies in particular, not giving this a second thought or a first for that matter. So when you think about the fundamentals and learning as a beginner, DO NOT OVERLOOK NETWORKING...

and for you more advanced marketers with decent sized lists and followers, make sure that your people know the fundamentals. This is of utmost importance when you do alot of product promotion to your lists. For example, if you continually promote to your list more advanced products when they do not yet have a firm grasp on the fundamentals, then you are actually leaving money on the table. So every once in a while it is good to send out an email like this;

Hey xxxx
I found this excellent product that really teaches the fundamentals that we all need to know as online marketers. Even if you really know what you are doing in your niche you might want to check this out,
a little refresher never hurts either...

You get the idea, anyway just some food for thought