Viral Marketing is marketing that has a life of its own - multiplying its recipients as it spreads - rather like a virus actually.
Viral Marketing is the creation of a message or ebook that is self-perpetuating and hence distributed exponentially after its release. Each receiver likes the email or message so much that they pass it on to one or more of their friends or family.
The Internet is full of many classic examples, the most famous one being that of the (cant use the word as it is considered spam) email company - Hotmail.
Hotmail was a (cant use the word as it is considered spam) email service provider so it could control the format of all its outbound messages from every Hotmail account. They came up with a viral marketing campaign that has yet to be beaten and saw their traffic skyrocket and eventually lead to Microsoft buying the company as a result of their exponential growth. So what did they do Simple. To the footer of each outgoing email they attached a signature file that read: To get your (cant use the word as it is considered spam) email account go to www.hotmail.com.
As more and more people received emails from existing Hotmail account holders so the word spread about their (cant use the word as it is considered spam) email service - unheard of at that time and the rest, as they say, is history.
You can copy this format by adding your own signature to your own emails. Include a short advert about your company and add your web site. Make it about 3-5 lines.
In more recent times there was the Jib Jab email - providing a very humorous, but cruel, musical cartoon lampooning the USA presidential candidates. It spread like wild fire around the world and even appeared on international news programs. It was so popular that the servers were bought down several times.
Have a look at the reports on the Butterfly Marketing to see a similar recent campaign. Mike Filsaime himself received numerous emails telling him to buy the product. This was not only superb marketing - and Mike is the genuine, successful marketer as well as being a nice guy - but also viral marketing powered by a great product and good affiliate programming.
So how do you start your own viral marketing campaign Get yourself a great message, mp3, ebook, article or set of pictures. At the bottom of the email, in the ebook, were put your company details and web site. Put your own links in the ebook or on the mp3, put a great resource box on the article - so that they are passed on as your product takes on a life of its own.
What kind of subject should you choose then Humor is the number one - but also great poems and stories work well. Have a look at Interview with God for a great poem that built up a web site business purely on viral principles. Of course, Morgan the owner works very hard marketing it now, but people telling people about the web site was how it grew so very quickly.
Viral ebooks are also very popular - try and make the information unique, catchy and of interest to many. Put your contact links inside of it and encourage people to share it. If you do it well then people will pass on your ebook and thus details of your web site and products as well.
Articles are also viral marketing tools - write a good informative article with a catch headline - make it the right length and submit it to article sites. If you do it right - then others will publish it on their web sites and in their ezines. As more and more see your article and read your resource box - then more people will see your web site and products.
When used properly, nothing can match the power of viral marketing. It is so effective because it is based on personal opinion, much the same way as an editorial carries more weight than an advertisement because its coming from a trusted source. You trust your friends and colleagues to send you material that is interesting, useful, and pertinent to you personally. Trust will always be more powerful than flashy design and expensive ad campaigns, and when information comes from someone you trust, it is much more powerful.
Copyright 2006 Biz Guru LLC
Lee Lister, writes as The Biz Guru, for a number of web sites including her own sites and for all our informational products.
With over 20 years management and business consultancy experience with businesses large and small as well as being a serial entrepreneur, she now helps others set up, develop and market their businesses.
You might like to join our Clikks Ezine: - aimed at the small businesses click or brick with a web site presence. We provide business strategy and marketing assistance and products.
This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.
Its true, the pixel advertising phenomonon seems to have reached almost everywhere in Internet Marketing, but what is it that separates the good pixel sites from the, uh... not so good Theres two things that will increase a pixel sites ability to interest advertisers. The first is traffic, and the second is uniqueness.
Without either of these things, putting your pixel on a pixel site is akin to just sticking up a web page and not telling anybody its there. The pixel site owners need to promote their pages heavily in order to bring traffic to their site, and thus, your ads. This can have added benefits for everybody: it increases the alexa rank and page ranking of the pixel site which in itself will help to increase the traffic.
A higher page rank for the site that has YOUR link on it, also means better search engine placement for you. Of course, we all want to attract visitors and see lots of clicks on our ads, but improving your sites ranking in the search engines will also increase your visitors, so indirectly, pixel advertising can still be a huge benefit even if you dont seem to be getting clicks on your actual ads. In effect, traffic promotes more traffic, and having links on sites with higher traffic can eventually lead to more traffic for you too.
But what makes an advertiser choose one high-traffic pixel site over another They all look the same these days and a lot of pixel publishers arent really doing much more than the default installation. Not very enticing to an advertiser. Places like Ad on The Moon (http://www.adonthemoon.com) have used novel ideas to generate interest. The Pixelizer (http://thepixelizer.com) has a unique twist offering affiliate and random payments for each new signup. Sites like Pixel Fever (http://pixelfever.us) are backed by other income-generating opportunites. There are a few unique sites offering something more than the ordinary and when combined with high traffic, these are the sites that will fill their grids.
For advertisers: To make the most of your pixel ad placement, there are some things to keep in mind. Dont just enter any old description to use as your hover or descriptive text. Make sure your description actually includes the keywords that are important to your site. This will help with search engine placement. If youre considering spending more than just the minimum block amount at a site -- you dont have to place one large ad with only one link. Its beneficial if you have lots of smaller pixels advertising the same link -- creating more backlinks for your site. And they dont have to be next to each other, they could be placed diagonally or with different images or carefully crafted to appear like a continuing image, whilst actually having a number of separate images and separate links.
For publishers: I think pixel advertising is here to stay, but publishers just putting up a site and waiting for visitors will be sorely disappointed. Put some thought into your marketing program and your theme and youll find youll be able to attract many more paying advertisers.
Author:
Robyn
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Robyn Murphy is co-owner of The Pixelizer and owner of . Come and look around when you get a chance.