What's a JV or Joint Venture?

I know what you mean about being confused by that, when I first started to travel Internet Marketing circles, i too got confused about people talking about Joint Ventures, or "JV's" all the time. I have a business background -- including an MBA -- so when I think of a joint venture, it's not quite exactly the same thing.

In the Internet Marketing world, a JV is what I would call an affiliate relationship, but perhaps JV sounds more sexy? For example, if you and I wanted to "do a JV deal" then you might resell my blogging course to your community. That's it, no "venture" involved at all.

By contrast, in more serious business circles, a joint venture is typically something where both companies involved put money into the venture and literally create something new, something where there was no business or product previously.

Here's an example of two corporations getting into a joint venture: Starbucks Experience Coming to Argentina, wherein they explain "Starbucks Coffee Company (Nasdaq: SBUX) today announced that it has signed a joint-venture agreement with Alsea S.A. de C.V. to form Café Sirena S.R.L. Café Sirena S.R.L. will operate Starbucks retail locations throughout Argentina, with the first store scheduled to open in Buenos Aires in the second half of fiscal 2008."

As you can see from this small snippet, the two companies have formed a new third business, Café Sirena S.R.L., that didn't exist before. That's what I consider a joint venture.

Search Google for internet marketing jv, by contrast, and you'll see that there are plenty of opportunities for you to sell other people's packages or courses, though no new business will be created in the process.

Is one therefore better than another? Not really. To me it's just a point of confusion: a "joint venture" just isn't what's happening in the Internet Marketing community. It's just a reseller arrangement or affiliate relationship (those are actually quite similar too).

Hope that helps clear things up.