The Great JV Scam

Want to strike an imbalanced deal to your advantage?  Dress it up and call it a Joint Venture.

A Joint Venture, or JV, is simply a deal in which two parties get together and strike up a mutual deal.  It's the oldest concept in the world, and it drives commerce.  But a weirdly screwed-up version of this has been taking over the online marketing world like wildfire.

JV is the new currency of marketing deals.  And it's the most fashionable of words around.  Next to trendy words like "robust, "platform agnostic," and "powered by," it's also becoming one of the more annoying words around.

It seems like every day I hear about another marketer approached by a counterpart proposing a bogus or imbalanced "deal."

All dressed up and called a "JV."

After all, it's all about what you can do for me, right?

Here's How the JV Scam Works

Prosperous Affiliate Marketer "A" approaches less-than-prosperous Marketer "B."  Mr. A says something like, "If you supply me with 6 blog posts per week, I will give you something very small and insignificant like...

• A text link; or
• Byline; or
• "Negotiated Payment"; or
• The Mere Association with My Greatness.

It's the last one that really gets me.  Within this industry, there are so many self-appointed gurus and rockstars that they feel that others will gladly do free work just to be near their wonderful presence.

How to Avoid the JV Scam

The most important indicator of whether this is a good or bad deal for you is:  who approached whom?

If you're the up-and-comer, and you're approached by the Big Dog - sorry to say, but this deal will be less to your advantage.  Still, depending on what the Big Dog has to offer, even a crummy deal might give you the traction to get started.

If you have a lot of time on your hands, it may be feasible to push out those blog posts in exchange for a text link.

Accountability Cripples Many a JV

But the biggest problem is how do you prove accountability?

If the Big Dog is handing over profitable keywords in exchange for you writing an ungodly number of blog posts - how do they prove that these truly are profitable keywords?

Your end is easily accountable - you deliver those blog posts.

Their end is more wishy-washy and vague.  Screenshots?  Spreadsheets?  Short of having the log-ins to their AdWords account, you'll probably never know for sure if they are handing over real information, or if they are holding back.