I have previously touched on the subject of doing Joint Ventures in your online business, and over the next few weeks I am going to concentrate my articles on this specific subject, enabling you to see how I aggressively use joint ventures to drive traffic and sales to my websites.

Over the next 14 articles I will be discussing the following joint venture topics that will hopefully ignite some ideas for your own business.

1. Online joint ventures explained.
2. Benefits of joint venture partnerships.
3. Joint ventures for service providers.
4. Joint ventures and legal agreements.
5. Joint ventures and affiliates programs.
6. How to create lasting joint venture.
7. Joint Venture Recruitment 101.
8. Possible joint ventures to pursue.
9. Turn competitors into joint venture partners.
10. Find joint venture partners with assets you don't have.
11. Delegating responsibility in a joint venture.
12. How to announce your new joint venture.
13. Dealing with joint venture rejection.
14. How to find the perfect joint venture partner.

OK, so let's get right into the first article… Online joint ventures explained.

Joint venture is defined as an agreement joining together two or more parties for the purpose of executing a particular business undertaking. All parties agree to share in the profits and losses of the enterprise. An online joint venture pairs two or more parties together to specifically do business online.

Okay so in plain English an online joint venture happens when you join forces with another online business to make some money. There are no tricks to joint ventures other than finding a good partner, and joint ventures can and do take a variety of forms.

For example, a simple joint venture, which is also quite common, is for two information marketing businesses to bundle their products together and promote them to their combined email lists.

The benefit to this type of arrangement is potentially huge. Each business increases their exposure and customer base, each business makes money, and each business gives their customer and email list an opportunity to get benefit from a new product.

This type of joint venture is only one of a thousand possibilities. If you have a great opt in list and someone has a great product, you can promote their product to your list for a percentage of the sales.

Or you may be excellent at marketing products and have a great idea for a product your market would buy, but you do not have the time or the inclination to create the product. You could then partner with a programmer or a writer to create the product, you sell it and you split the profits. Like I said, there are many options.

As stated earlier, the real key to a successful online joint venture partnership is finding the right partner. Online networking is an excellent place to find a partner.

Perhaps you already work with a business you could partner with. Once you find a potential partner, your first step (before you pick up the phone) is to draft a proposal. Highlight what you bring to the relationship and what your potential partner has to gain.

Once you have your proposal ready, and you've done plenty of research about your potential partner, give them a call, send them a letter, or zip over an email introducing yourself and outlining your proposal.

Remember to make your proposal about them, what they have to gain and what you have to offer, rather than what you have to gain.

If they're not interested, part on good terms. You never know when your paths might cross again and you could work together in the future. If, on the other hand, your partner says yes, enjoy the experience and hopefully the profits!