The catch is that most want to charge you for the information. While some of their techniques do produce results, there is an easier and cheaper way to start growing your own opt-in list. I use joint ventures to encourage people to give up their name and email address.

There are two kinds of joint ventures.

One is where you actually mail another person’s offer in exchange for the same from them. More or less this type of joint venture is a partnership.

The other type of joint venture is the one I use. This is where you sign-up as a joint venture partner and provide a gift to give away to anyone who is interested. So how do you get people on your list by giving them a gift? The short answer is that to get your gift, they must provide you with their name and email address. So for every person that wants your gift, your opt-in list has grown by one. And every time your list grows by one, your online business has just acquired a new customer.

You should always strive to give away good gifts. Some joint ventures will require that the gift be a certain dollar value. The problem with most joint ventures is that they tend to offer the same products over and over. So when participating in a JV, try to offer different products. If you are just starting out with your online business and you don’t have anything to offer, then sign up for one download some free gifts and then begin giving those away. Always make sure that the product is allowed to be given away. Some contributors will state in the opening page of the e-book that the book is not to be given away. Always respect the wishes of the author of the e-book, software or membership. To do otherwise will get you nowhere quick.

To collect the recipient’s name and email address, I use a lead capture page. This page is tied to my autoresponder. In my case I require the person verify they requested the info before sending them my first email which includes the link of the item they requested. It sounds a bit complicated, but after a couple of times you will be capturing more names and email addresses for your online business than you ever thought possible. And it is totally FREE. Joint ventures are truly one of the last best free resources for growing your online business. So the best way to learn is to just jump in and sign-up for the first one.

There are usually several jvs working at any given time. Once you get started, you will be receiving invitations regularly so I always keep a folder full of freebies. I even list all the current joint venture give-aways I am aware of on my website. This is a great way to help those on your list stay up to speed on the latest and greatest ventures.

One final note about joint ventures: Most only last for a limited time and the more people you send to the site that sign-up, the higher up the list your product is placed. So it is in your best interest to promote the venture in order for you to get your gift ranked as high as possible. If you don’t have a list to promote to at first, don’t panic. You can use safe lists or other ads to promote. Once you get your list established, just send out the promotion to your lists and repeat the process over and over.