Often people use words in ways that they really shouldn't use them.
Everything that is called an affiliate program might not actually be an affiliate program. There are some multi-level marketing (MLM) programs that call themselves affiliate programs because of the bad reputation MLM has. But they aren't affiliate programs.
The "joint venture" term is also used in some strange ways.
Cross promoting is often involved. But one common method involves a list owner and someone who has a product. The list owner will send information about the product to people on his list then the list owner and the product owner both share in the sale. A script called a "joint venture" script is used to properly handle the money split. This can become a little complicated when a customer wants a refund.
The term "joint venture" is also used in other arrangements as well which might not be the proper use of the term and a "joint venture" script can be used in some of those arrangements as well.
Remember with affiliate marketing you never need to pay in order to join an affiliate program. You are right about legitimate affiliate programs from legitimate retailers.
You could have access to a large number of affilaite programs by joining Commission Junction, ShareASale, LinkShare, etc.
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