Understanding and working with people in business can be daunting, but with the right partner to support the efforts, the work can be worthwhile.

As we have seen in so many media companies this year, partnership leverages and shares the work of others, while bringing together two or more different audiences to one joint financially-lucrative offering. Music labels are joining artists, directors are working jointly on films and television, studios are leveraging their competition for support ? all in the hopes of reducing costs, leveraging alternate ideas and attracting a new audience.

Collaboration can be time-consuming, and overwhelming when simply trying to figure out where to start. But the best place to start is with the multitude of tools and connections available to you right now. As your e-commerce partner, your payment processor should be your first stop to enable and support your new business partnerships. If your processor is an e-commerce platform, they should be able to provide you with the back-end, features and a team of experts to help make the most of these new relationships and marketing efforts. Remember, most processors don't make money unless you make money, so leverage the power of their knowledge to cultivate your connections.

Questions to consider:

Mailing lists? Could similar or different sites to yours fit well with your own membership base? Could sharing your member lists between partners possibly pull in a larger audience?

Expired or Cancelled Member lists? Since they were once members, would your expired base of members be interested in a new offering from a partner or other program?

One-Click CROSS-SELLS with other merchants? Are there comparable sites with content of interest to your base or would your content be valuable to other merchants with a simple click to purchase? Does your processor offer this option with a seamless user purchase?

One-Click UPSELLS for additional Offers? Are there complimentary products which could be easily offered to existing members? Are tangible items, publications, toys, or other products an easy layer onto your current offering?

Co-branded support options? Your processor is your partner as well. Can you provide a custom support experience with co-branded support pages?

REACH OUT FOR MORE SALES. Don?t know how to do any of these things? It?s okay. Contact our 24/7 Merchant Support Team for help getting started with any of our variety of reports and data tools at merchantsupport@ccbill.com.

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