If you have been building a list and building a business for any sort of time, no doubt you have heard about co registration. You have either heard it's the best thing since sliced bread, or you have heard it's the worst thing to come since along since Adolph Hitler and the Third Reich and you would be best to avoid it. But what you probably have not heard are the facts.

This is because co registration itself is a totally misunderstood subject. Even some of the so-called experts have trouble really defining it, and I have personally seen some really wacky definitions on it, including:

•Joint Venturing

•Spamming

•Buying Leads

•Cross-Promotion via email

•Linking Swapping

Some in the above list are close (but no cigar) while others are the exact polar opposite of the truth. And others are 'just out there'.

So, what really is co registration? It's really nothing more than an advertising technique where you put some method of getting people to sign up for your list on a website owned by someone else. It is set up where a person can sign up for your list either at the same time they sign up for another one (via a check box on the opt in form) or immediately afterwards via a separate opt in form on the 'thank you for subscribing' page.

As you can see from the list above, it's the opposite of spamming (they have to give you permission before you send them anything). It can be done by either joint venturing or by paying someone to do the 'dirty work' for you (via purchased co registration leads). The other two are just other methods of marketing that have nothing to do with co registration itself.

Co registration also is not a new, earth shattering technique as it's almost as old as the internet. And it's also endorsed in one form or another by every marketing guru on the planet (or they are lying). But what is really telling is co registration is not just used by small time marketers either. Large businesses such as General Motors, Sony, and the internet giant Ebay also use it.