What's the difference? Joint-Venture and Affiliate

Hi rahmat,


In the real world, there is a great difference between a Joint Venture (JV) partner, and an affiiate.

An affiliate earns commissions based on his/her level of sales.

A JV partner typically contributes in some way other than just selling. They may create portions of the product, or be responsible for certain aspects of the overall business (i.e. an affiliate manager). He/she typically receives a percentage of ALL profits, regardless of the marketing channel.


The confusion comes in the IM world. Many product creators selling online use the terms interchangeably, but there really is a need to differentiate.

It's not uncommon to want to offer increased commission levels to certain affiliates (i.e. those with a proven sales record) in order to help recruit those particular affiliates into your affiliate program, so there was a need to "label" this special commission arrangement just to be able to differentiate between those sellers, and the sellers being paid the "standard" commission rate. "JV partner" is often used to make that distinction.

Note - I prefer to use the term "super affiliate" in this instance, because they are still compensated based on the sales that they are directly responsible for generating.

Of course, occasionally there is still the need for a true JV partner in the online world. Since that phrase is already so widely used to designate a super affiliate, I often use the term "equity partner" to designate someone who is compensated based on total sales/profit (rather than their own referred sales).

Clear as mud, huh?

Basically, what I consider a JV Partner is someone you partner up with in some fashion - a Joint Venture. Whether it be to create a product together, or they help you with setting up your funnel/backend, etc. Either way they're typically doing more than just promoting your product to their list.

Affiliates do just that - promote your promote your product and collect a commission. But as Sid said above, the terms do get interchanged quite a bit. You'll here people looking for "JV's" for their launch, and what they really want is affiliates.

JVs can be very lucrative especially for more junior marketers. If you have specific skills that can complement another marketers list or stable of products then they can benefit from the other's list etc. Also, affiliates don't often get the emails from those purchasing from their links. Usually in a JV arrangement a person can add to their list. Often times this is the entire aim of the junior partner.

A joint venture partner has their business already established outside of yours before you meet them, including a niche email list. And, when you joint venture with that person, you are simply tapping into their crowd of readers to get your sales message to a new audience you did not have access to before.

Thank you all for your kind replies.