It’s a horrible word isn’t it….marketing? No, only joking, I mean “viral” of course. Mention viral and one tends to think infection, illness and disease – or for the geeks among us, computers messed up. But viral marketing is nothing so negative or unpleasant, viral marketing is good!

What is Viral Marketing?

As the name suggests, it’s a way of spreading your marketing message from person to person, rather like the flu virus is passed on. You give the germ to, say 5 friends/colleagues/family members, who in turn each pass on the bug to 5 more (5×5=25), who then spread it to another 5 (25×5=125) and so on until after just 8 levels, you reach the staggering figure of 1,953,125.

The classic example of viral marketing is Hotmail.com, one of the first free Web-based e-mail services. The strategy is simple:

1. Give away free e-mail addresses and services, 2. Attach a simple tag at the bottom of every users email message sent: “Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com” and, 3. Then stand back while people e-mail to their own network of friends and associates, 4. Who see the message, 5. Sign up for their own free e-mail service, and then 6. Propel the message still wider to their own ever-increasing circles of friends and associates

What makes marketing ‘Viral’?

A viral marketing plan usually has some or all of the following basic elements:

1. Provides a product or service free
2. Makes for easy transfer of the message to others
3. Allows easy growth from small to very large
4. Exploits common motivations and behaviours
5. Uses existing communication networks
6. Utilizes the resources of others

Let’s look at each of these in turn.

1.Provides a product or service free

“Free” is the most persuasive word in marketing. Most viral marketing campaigns give away a product or service to get peoples interest. Free email service, free software, free information etc. Then, when you have their attention, when you have their trust, sell them something. Hit them with a sales pitch first, chances are they won’t be interested.

2. Makes for easy transfer of the message to others

Viral marketing works so well on the internet because quick communication has become so easy and cheap. Your marketing message must be simple so that it can be passed on without loosing its effectiveness. The simpler and shorter the better, remember the hotmail example: “Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com.”

3. Allows easy growth from small to very large

To grow rapidly, the necessary infrastructure must be available. The best viral marketing makes use of the resources of others. This was the only weakness in the hotmail example, the service required its own mailservers. Not a problem with the resources of Microsoft behind you, but for mere mortals like you and I, best to plan on spreading the message using others recourses, see number 6.

4. Exploits common motivations and behaviours

What motivates people to use certain products or services on the web, and to recommend these to their friends? The practicality of a product, sure, but more than that – the desire to be popular, thought of as cool etc. Greed also motivates, hence the power of the word ‘free’!

5. Uses existing communication networks

Most people have around 5 to 12 people in their close network of friends, family and work colleagues. On the internet, nearly everyone has email addresses in their contacts list, and favourite websites stored in their web browser. Utilise this fact in your marketing campaign. For example, when you give away a free product, ask the recipient to provide the email addresses of others who may be interested.

6. Utilizes the resources of others

Get your message into other peoples emails and onto others websites, that way their recourses are being used, not yours. And once your campaign has enough momentum, sit back while your customers do the marketing for you.

Conclusion

Viral marketing costs very little, in fact if you go to the right places it can be free. Given that, and the huge potential benefits, you marketing campaign really should catch the viral marketing bug!

I am almost 10 years now FULL TIME working from home on the internet making money online and I have put together the following website to share all of my secrets with you at http://www.DecideYourIncome.eu

Regards Always

Mark McCulloch

http://www.CoachOfSuccess.com – mark@markmcculloch.com

Internet Marketer and Entrepreneur, Committed to creating success

(UK) 07875 647 867 (Call Me Anytime), Skype – mark.mcculloch1

Internet traffic is the life of any website or e-commerce business, and if you are an internet marketer, you already know that good traffic is not always easy to achieve. There are however, some simple and effective strategies for getting quality traffic to your site, and most of them are FREE or low cost.

1. Good old fashioned search engine optimization. This is perhaps, the most cost effective way to get many customers to your site, because it does not cost a thing. A web site with top ranking on even a mildly popular term, can get thousands of visitors per month. Visit any SEO forum or article database and you can find hundreds of effective search engine optimization tips and tweaks to apply to your website for free.

2. Pay-Per-Click Campaigns (PPC). Almost all of the major search engines offer some sort of Pay-Per-Click marketing. This is a great way to get targeted traffic to your site, and with some bids as low as $.01 per click, it can also be very economical. Although Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly Overture) are the main players in the PPC market, there are really good deals to be found with some of the smaller search engines, such as ExactSeek.com and GoClick.com.

3. Traffic Exchanges. Traffic exchanges offer a website owner an instant, free way to get traffic to his/her site. Traffic Exchanges come in all kinds of themes and forms, but the underlying principle remains the same: I view your site, you view my site. The ratio of sites you view to your site views can be diverse, depending on the individual exchange, however it is recommended you find one with a 2:1 ratio or better. Traffic exchanges also offer a multi tier referral program that gives you a percentage of traffic earned by affiliates you bring into the program. Traffic Swarm.com, NoMoreHits.com, and StudioTraffic.com all offer a website owner great ways to increase traffic, or you can simply search the term “traffic exchange” in any search engine to find an exchange that fits you.

4. Link Exchanges. Link Exchanges are a fantastic way to increase web traffic, and the benefits are two-fold. Not only do you get traffic from the linking website, you also get the added benefit of better search engine placement with every link that is pointing to your site. Reciprocal linking has always been a major component of effective search engine optimization, with more and more weight being placed daily on the quality and quantity of links pointing to your site. Be sure your anchor text is the keyword(s) you are targeting, but at the same time, periodically phrase your anchor text differently so that all of the links pointing to your site do not say the same thing. This makes your links appear more “natural”. Linkalizer.com and Linkmarket.net are some good, free services to help you with your link exchange campaigns, or you can also visit any SEO forum or article/ezine database for more tips.

5. Banner Exchanges. Banner Exchanges work on the same principle as Link Exchanges, and depending on the banner you decide to promote, can be very effective at drawing targeted web traffic to your site. As with link exchanges, look for ratios of 2:1 or better, with some banner exchanges providing a 1:1 ratio. The banner you decide to use is very important, as many internet users ignore most banners they see. Your banner needs to be catchy and needs to compel the user to take action and click it right away, but at the same time you do not want it to be too flashy as to turn off potential customers. Most banner exchange programs also have an option to purchase banner impressions at very low prices, usually a few dollars for thousands of impressions. This is a great way to put your business in front of many customers, and helps to increase your “brand awareness”. Click4click.com and ThebannerExchange.net are some free banner exchanges that can provide your site immediate advertising and traffic.

6. Write Articles. Writing articles is a great, free way to promote your online business, and can bring in a substantial number of targeted customers to your site, usually within a few days. The key is to submit your article to as many databases and directories as possible. Hundreds of thousands of webmasters and other internet users worldwide search these article databases and directories daily, usually looking for quality content for their own websites. Every webmaster who reprints your article has to include your resource box, which should include a link pointing to your site. Not only will this give your business tremendous exposure, it also improves your search engine ranking with a free one-way link that your article provides. ZapContent.comm and GoArticles.com are very popular article databases with free submission and fast approvals.

7. Paid-To-Read Campaigns (PTR). Paid-to-Read campaigns are an extremely low cost method of getting real, guaranteed visitors to your site quickly. With PTR campaigns, people are paid to view your site for a certain amount of time. Because most PTR campaigns are not targeted, this is not the most effective way to advertise. It is however, a great way to build an opt-in list or ezine subscriber base inexpensively. Usually for only a few dollars, you can send an ad out to all of the members of a program. It is always a good idea to find PTR programs that are well established, with many members in its database. Most programs have the number of subscribers and other stats prominently displayed on the main page of their web site. Donkeymails.com and Maxprofit.org are well established, have thousands of members, and low advertising prices.

8. Email Campaigns and Safelists. Email campaigns and Safelists provide yet another great option to increase web traffic. These campaigns can run the entire pricing spectrum; from free, to hundreds of dollars per email blast. Although spam concerns seem to have some advertisers reluctant to use email, if you use a proper third party or safelist, you can have targeted traffic to your site in hours. BusinessWorldList.com and Herculist.com are some safelists with huge number of opt-in subscribers.

9. Create your own Opt-In List. This is a terrific way to get your own group of ready-to-buy prospects to your site. Getting the content for your list is as easy as searching any ezine or article database, and an easy way to get people to join is to simply give something away. Another way to build a list is through viral marketing. Sites such as ListFire.com can help you build a large list quickly with proper advertising.

10. Purchase Web Traffic. There is not a more “hands-free” way to get traffic to your site, than to just buy it. Pricing for quality, targeted web traffic can vary greatly from site to site. It is recommended to look for web traffic campaigns that offer targeting to your specific audience, and real time stats. This way you can better manage and track your advertising dollars.

As you can see, With a little effort, and not much money, you can bring quality web site traffic to your site right away. Although not every technique is appropriate for every site, choose a few that fit you and watch your traffic surge.

I am almost 10 years now FULL TIME working from home on the internet making money online and I have put together the following website to share all of my secrets with you at http://www.DecideYourIncome.eu

Regards Always

Mark McCulloch

http://www.CoachOfSuccess.com – mark@markmcculloch.com

Internet Marketer and Entrepreneur, Committed to creating success

(UK) 07875 647 867 (Call Me Anytime), Skype – mark.mcculloch1