I’ve been getting more and more proposals for joint ventures and possible challenges and I tend to turn most of them down. Don’t get me wrong, I like a challenge just like the next person, and if you know me, you know I’m extremely competitive. But there are plenty of reasons why I simply will reject your offer or even ignore it.

Some of you guys may remember when I wrote “5 Reasons Why I Won’t Sponsor Your Contest” and some of those reasons apply to these joint venture proposals or possible challenges or whatever.

Don’t get me wrong, I consider a lot of challenges and although I may contact some of you guys about it in the near future, currently it’s on hold for me.

Anyways, let’s go over some reasons why I will reject your potential challenge or joint venture proposals:

1. E-mail message is a generic one (not personal) - This is the same exact thing as the contest sponsoring, why would someone want to reply to you at all if you’re sending some generic message you probably sent to a bunch of other people? At the very least, you can find out who you’re writing to and address it to them.

If your e-mail begins with “To whom it may concern” or “Hello” or something equivalent then more than likely you won’t get a response. I mean, when you write a cover letter for a job and you’re writing to the hiring manager, you usually address it to them, right? Like “Mr. Somebody: I am writing to you because…”

2. Not Very Organized – I’m not saying I’m the most organized person but I know how to be. And if you’re really serious about a proposal or challenge, you should at the very least know what you’re going to do before you contact your challenger.

You don’t want to contact someone with a challenge and it’s half-assed and not even complete. It’s like “hey, I challenge YOU but, um, I’m not fully sure how this is going to work?”

3. No Benefits at All - What’s the point of a challenge or proposal to someone if their are absolutely no benefits? I mean, a competition or a contest usually follows with a reward, right? Don’t get me wrong, you don’t have to have a physical prize or anything but there should be some sort of benefit like links, publicity, money, possible networking partners, etc.

Any type of benefit should be included.

4. You Have a Bad Reputation - Believe it or not, but you can actually look people up on the internet. If you’re a somewhat reputable online entrepreneur, then you are definitely searchable online. And if you are or were a previous spammer, no thanks! I don’t think I would consider spammers that went through rehabilitation either because I think it would lead to something that may potentially hurt my own reputation.

5. Other Reasons (no time, not worth it to me, etc) - Lastly, and hopefully this is the only reason why I reject your proposal or challenge: because its my fault.

I’m hoping this will be the main reason why I reject your offer, its because I don’t have time to commit to another project. And although, I love working with other people, most of my online partnerships usually end in some sort of break and doesn’t work out fully.

Anyways, I hope it helps clear some things and hopefully it doesn’t scare people away from proposing!