Joint ventures (JVs) are gaining popularity throughout the business world. Perhaps that's because they're such an effective way to make or increase profits -- even if you don't have a product to sell.

A joint venture is nothing more than an agreement between two legal entities, be they individuals, companies or corporations. Joint ventures are open to anyone with something for sale -- even if it's not a physical product. The idea behind joint ventures is simply that both partners benefit from the arrangement.

The concept behind a joint venture is obvious if you have a product to sell. You would simply want to find a partner who could help you increase sales. Maybe you would look for someone with an established set of regular customers who could sell to them for a portion of the profit. You might also find someone who sells a product that offsets your own to sell together in a package. In this scenario, it's clear that both sides benefit from the partnership.

If you don't have a product to offer, you may have a harder time understanding or helping others to understand how a JV works. When you don't have a product, you're most likely offering skills and knowledge. In this case, you'll be marketing yourself as a "dealmaker."

The first step toward entering into a joint venture is to find a company that offers a product or service that compliments your business or skill set. For example, if you are an expert at online marketing, you could search the Net for quality products that need marketing help. There are plenty of sites out there selling excellent products that just don't know how to market them. Once you find a few of these, begin planning how you could help them.

Once you determine how you can benefit a potential partner, it's time to think about what you will ask for in return. When you think of a deal that sounds fair to you, write out a proposal to present to the company. If they accept, then it's time to begin the process of creating a joint venture, including writing a business plan, a binding legal contract and an exit strategy.

Still another way you can use joint ventures when you don't sell products is by using them to actually obtain products. Traditional methods of obtaining products can be very costly. However, when you use JVs, you can get products for free.

Joint venture marketing, or JVM, is also becoming more popular as more and more people move to working online. JVM allows you to download free e-materials to sell on your website.

There are a lot of E-products and services available at no cost via the Internet. Many of them come with Private Label Rights or Master Resell Rights, which means they come ready to go. They have all the graphics and packaging necessary -- you just need to add your contact information. Once you've done that you can upload them to your website and offer them there.

The benefit to you, as the small business owner, is offering a product on your site, and the benefit to the creator of the product is free advertising. You might also have an agreement that the product's provider receives a portion of the sales of the package on your site.

There is also a growing crowd of people joining what are known as joint venture collaborative pools online. These groups of Internet marketers' policy is: "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine." They all advertise on each others' sites, thereby giving each other access to everyone's visitors and customer base. If you joined one of these groups, you might add a link on your site where a customer could sign up for an email list or newsletter in which members of the collaborative would advertise. These subscriber boxes help to build a large subscription list -- which means more potential customers. Plus, any e-products you sell can include your ads and links as well.

Whether you have products to sell or not, you can pad your bottom line and increase your customer base by leaps and bounds by entering into a joint venture. As always, the most important thing is to understand the legal ramifications before entering into any business deal. If you do your research and enter into a JV armed with knowledge, your business may never be the same.