Last weekend’s Warrior Forum event has me thinking a lot about joint ventures and affiliate marketing these days.

While the words “joint venture” and “affiliate” are often used interchangeably, technically, there IS a difference.

Of course, WHAT that difference is depends on who you ask. I know one marketer who draws the line in the sand based on whether it’s for list building (a JV) or for money (an affiliate).

Joint Ventures. To me, joint ventures represent more of a mutual commitment–such as “I’ll interview you and invite my subscribers” or “let’s create a virtual bootcamp together.”

And they can be with the goal of building a list, providing content for subscribers/members, earning commissions or some combination of the three.

Affiliates. On the other hand, affiliates are typically less formal and more hands-off types of relationships–always with the goal of making money.

Usually, one person signs up to promote the other’s product for a commission through an online shopping cart or third-party service. So there’s no one-on-one communication unless the promoter becomes a top earner (aka “superaffiliate”) for them.

Yet either one can be a powerful way to build your business…especially if you avoid five common mistakes.

Mistake # 1 — Forgetting the “What’s In It for Me?”

While you don’t want to approach someone like you’re begging for their participation, remember that they could be using those emails or blog ads for one of their own products or services…where they get to keep 100% of the sales rather than an affiliate commission.

So be sure to address how else they’ll benefit from working with you.

Exposure to Your List

One obvious bartering chip is your email list–not giving them your list, of course, but promoting something for them to your subscribers either in your newsletters or via solo email blasts.

Even if yours is relatively small, people with much bigger lists may agree to email part or even all of their list if your audience is one they’re eager to get in front of.

So being able to give specifics about who’s on your list and what they’ve shown interest in hugely helpful.

One way to find out more about your list is to survey your list for some type of incentive.

Another is to mine the gold in your email marketing reports, which can tell you:

• Where your subscribers live (based on the location of their Internet service provider)
• What topics they’re most interested in…based on which ones got opened the most
• What type of products and services they’re interested in…based on click-through rates

I also go through and tag names by gender in my Aweber email marketing account.

And if you have a lot of subscribers, your blog audience may be appealing to them as well.

Other Value Adds

Also, three questions to think about are:

• How can working with you make them look good?
• How can your product or service help them retain customers?
• What else can you do for them?

The last one may be as simple as providing the audio and transcription of your interview that they can sell or offer as a bonus.

Or, one of the speakers at the Warrior Forum event mentioned that he’d consider working with someone who could provide some content for his membership site. (Tip:  people with membership sites always need content!)

So avoid mistake number one by showing how working with you will meet THEIR needs and wants, as well as yours.