One of the most common types of joint venture is the exchange or sharing of opt in lists. There are many possible scenarios where this type of exchange can be beneficial for your business.

#1 If you have a new product to sell, one possible email list opportunity would be to use your partner’s email list to promote to. In exchange, your partner receives a percentage of the profits. This is an extremely common tactic used by many businesses. In order for this to be handled without your partner breaking any privacy promises to their customers, the promotional email will have to come from your partner.
This doesn’t mean your partner has to write the sales letter and create the promotional content – that part is up to you, however many businesses expressly tell their list members that they will never, sell or rent out their names.

#2 Here’s another opportunity. If your partner regularly contacts their email list and they’re sending out a promotion, you can piggyback their promotion with a little ad or promotion of your own in exchange for offering them the same opportunity with your email list or sharing a portion of the profits with them.

This concept is similar to the direct mail scenario where someone is already mailing out flyers or statements or invoices and you ask them to insert your flyer into the envelope with the agreement that you pay them a commission on any resulting business you receive. The benefit to you is that you don’t have to pay for postage or mail stuff or buy lists – let someone else do it and share the profits! The benefit to them is that they don’t have to incur any additional work and they make extra money.

#3 Here is one final possible scenario – though I’m sure you can come up with many more. Swap email lists with your partner to double your exposure. You promote your partner to your list and your partner promotes you to their list. It’s an even exchange and there’s no money tracking or paying out that needs to be handled. You simply reap your profits and your partner reaps theirs.

One thing to note, it is probably beneficial to write your promotion for your partner to use and vice versa. That way you are solely responsible for your conversion rate. If you’re a better copywriter than your partner and you write his promotion and he writes yours, your partner could end up with better results and you could end up frustrated. Not a good way to start a business relationship. Agree to create your own promotional copy, with the understanding that it has to be approved by the person sending the email to their list.