What's a Strategic Alliance?Give and take: Need more traffic? Offer your content.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
I'm a big believer in teaming up with partners to getsomething done. A strategic alliance is a partnership that ismutually beneficial to both partners and is structured to furtherthe parties' strategic business goals. Do you have content andthey have more Web site traffic? Give them some of your content inreturn for a prominent link back to your Web site. Now you canattract some of their traffic to your site.
According to Alison Berke Morano, president of bworks, anInternet business solutions company, "A written agreement isalways preferable. Make sure you both parties have a clearunderstanding of [the alliance's] goals. It's a big letdownwhen you find that your strategic partner is also working with yourcompetitors to 'leverage' their own position."
Solution? Add an exclusivity clause to the partnershipcontract.
Aliza Sherman is an entrepreneur and author ofCybergrrl:A Woman's Guide to the World Wide Web(Ballantine Books).She is currently working on her next book and new company.
