Joint Ventures (JVs) are partnerships between two businesses in which they pool their resources to increase the chances of success of a particular project.

The actual results of JV projects run all the way from hugely lucrative to just passable to a major business mistake. You must evaluate every situation carefully from both an emotional and logical perspective before entering any JV.

Here is a list of areas to consider BEFORE you get into a JV with another solopreneur.

1. Values

What values are most important in your business? Does this other business demonstrate (not just talk about) similar values? Are the two businesses heading in similar directions and have compatible goals?

Your email list can launch your business and help you achieve your biggest dreams. It's the key to a long-lasting and successful business.

However, some people struggle to build their list. Others struggle to make money from their list.

Here are seven tips to build an email list that brings results.

1. Make them an offer they can't refuse. The best way to motivate someone to sign up for your email list is to make them an offer they can't refuse. We're talking about a super valuable giveaway. For many online marketers information products are a good motivating giveaway.

Ebooks, reports, online courses and even videos or audios are a good list building tool. They provide the subscriber with instant gratification. And when the freebie is a top quality item, they're sure to remain an avid subscriber. This means subsequent emails sent to them will be opened, read and acted upon.

Your email contact list is a vital part of your business if you do any marketing online. It allows you to stay connected with prospects as you develop a relationship with them over time and move some of them towards becoming customers. Here are 10 ideas on how to grow your list:

1. Most importantly, offer a great freebie in exchange for contact info. Not a newsletter subscription, but an ebook, mp3, or report that solves a big problem in your target market.

2. Keep your signup form simple – just ask for first name and email address and include your privacy policy. Then put the form on every web or blog page that you have.

3. Present teleseminars or webinars and require contact info to get the dial-in details for the call.

For maximum effect in growing your list, you will want to promote both your free gift and your newsletter. Here are 14 ways you can immediately begin:

Promoting Your Free Gift

1. Add the compelling description of your free gift to your email signature.
2. Promote your free gift in any videos you create.
3. Guest post on other blogs and use your compelling description of your free gift in your author box.
4. Mention your free gift on all your social networking profiles.
5. Post a link to your free gift periodically on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

One of the most beneficial things you can do to market your business online is to create a free item to entice people to sign up for your email list.

Here's the idea: you create a bonus item that has high perceived value. You give this item away, but in order to gain access to it, the interested person has to give you his/her email address.

The key to this strategy is to have a strong free item. It can as much as double your email signups. This is vitally important, as you must build a community of people interested in your information to grow your business. It is a mistake to use your email newsletter as the incentive to provide contact information; newsletters are no longer seen as valuable in themselves.

What are some powerful opt-in freebies?

No longer for big business only, the joint venture (JV) can be a solopreneur's most effective secret weapon. By pairing up with a JV partner to create and launch a new product, membership site or course, you can double (or more) your audience, your reach—and your sales.

But before you can do all that, and enjoy the profits that a JV is uniquely positioned to bring, you first have to find the right JV partner.

(NOTE: the term "JV partner" is often mistakenly used to describe a simple affiliate relationship, in which a person promotes your product or program but doesn't have a hand in creating it.)

Here's how to find a great joint venture partner...

Identify Your Goals

What are you trying to accomplish with your prospective JV? What you're selling has everything to do with who the right partner might be for the project.

You've probably heard that when it comes to Internet marketing, the money is in the list. This saying is nearly as old as marketing itself, but it still rings true. While a great website and killer sales copy will certainly increase your chances of making the sale, your mailing list gives you the opportunity to keep reaching out to those visitors who do not buy right away.

When it comes to list building, a dedicated opt-in page is your most powerful tool. The concept for this is pretty simple. It essentially consists of a small amount of copy and a form where visitors can enter their names and email addresses.

But simple as it sounds, you can't just throw up a few words and a form and expect people to relinquish their contact information. Here are some ways to encourage your ideal prospects to sign up to your email list.

Promoting your website gets the word out about your online business. If you are already making sales, using other, more advanced, promotion methods can increase your targeted list of potential buyers and hopefully sales, too. Affiliate programs are designed to do just that.

The idea behind affiliate programs is simple: other businesses promote your products on their website. They are doing the legwork, while you reap the benefits. But, they also get a commission when people click on their link and head over to your website, ideally making a purchase.

If you're looking to increase your visibility among your target market, starting an affiliate program is a win-win situation.

One of the hardest things in business is actually drumming up the business. Whether online or off, you need people to DO SOMETHING if you want your business to be a success. For online business, one way to reach the people that will be most interested in your product or service is through list building.

What is List Building?

In the fewest words possible, list building is the process used to create an inventory of people who fit the niche market you are promoting. The assumption usually is that if you cast a wide enough net, you will eventually find who you are looking for. This method is not only backwards but also costly. Instead, start with your business market and go smaller.

Let's imagine that we have two business owners who know each other. One has a great product that she believes will sell very well, but she has no mailing list. The other is a great marketer with thousands of subscribers in his mailing list, but the problem is he has nothing to sell to them.

The very obvious solution here is to let the great marketer with lots of contacts promote the product and split the profits with the maker of the product. This is the essence of the relationship known as "affiliate partners."

As more people start (or put) their own businesses online, the market is getting more and more saturated and the competition is growing. One of the most effective ways to build your business can be through these affiliate relationships. That is, join forces with other marketers, entrepreneurs, infopreneurs, coaches, etc. to sell your product.

People want good information. If the seekers are looking for something in your niche, you want them to find you. One way to gain new leads is through newsletters.

Wouldn't it be great to get the information you need delivered right to your inbox? You can, or at least your readers can if you create a newsletter.

Your website contains content that will help draw your target market to you. You use keywords (that you've carefully researched), catchy headlines and other tricks to provide interesting tidbits for your readers. Do you have some awesome marketing or technology tips for your target market? Save those for the newsletter.

Benefits of a Newsletter

What makes a newsletter so special? It gives the reader more detailed information than they can find on your website. You can upsell it as being exclusively for subscribers. That alone can get your readers to opt-in for it and also tell their friends.

As your business grows, it makes sense to consider adding an affiliate program to your website. Getting other businesses to promote your products on their website or via emails (in exchange for commissions) is like building a small army of sales soldiers, all working to get your products and programs out there.

However, there is such a thing as "too soon" to implement an affiliate program for your products. Here are the most important considerations that will help you determine the right time for YOU to add an affiliate program to your website.

Do You Have a Product or Service to Sell?

You don't need to wait until you have a full product catalog. In fact, just about any product on ClickBank is a single information product, and tons of affiliates work to earn commissions on them. So the first criteria for adding an affiliate program is to have something for them to promote.