Just because someone has a great idea, neat product or service, or even a big mailing list to pitch to, doesn't mean it is a good idea to form a JV partnership. Intentional or not, there are Internet marketers (including some of the big ones) who cheat their JV partners. The reasons vary but the results are the same. You work and your JV partner takes all the profit. Fair? No. Reality? Yes. Do your due diligence beforehand. This means you should check out how your potential JV partner has acted in the past. Find out if others have been cheated. Check out the Internet marketing and copy-writing forums for comments. Use Google and Yahoo! to check the name with key words like ?fraud,? ?scam,? etc. Note that even reputable marketers can have dissatisfied customers or competitors write nasty things about them on the Internet...particularly when the comments are anonymous. However, you should be able to spot a trend of favorable or unfavourable feedback concerning prior business deals. If your potential JV partner has no track record, i.e. you can't find anything or you're dealing with a new Internet marketer (?newbie?), you're going to have to make a business judgement call. Trust your gut instinct but don't ignore the facts in the process simply because a deal looks too good to pass up. There are plenty of good JV deals...good JV partners are harder to find. Seek the advice of marketers you know and respect before entering into a deal. They're more likely to weigh the pros and cons (risk versus reward) of a deal more objectively. Consider using an escrow service or an attorney as your escrow agent to hold most of the JV proceeds for you until expenses have been paid, affiliates get their share, etc. In all instances, take steps to make sure that your JV partner doesn't have the right to take the funds and skip out on you. Try explaining to unpaid affiliates and other creditors that you don't have the money because your JV partner spent all the money to pay his gambling debts, support his drug habit, or moving to another country to avoid the wrath of the Federal Trade Commission. You won't get much sympathy. However, you'll probably get an unwanted crash course on lawsuits.
