The Traffic Snowball will feed of itself!

Unlike a computer virus that will destroy your software and damage your business, a traffic virus isn’t harmful at all…except to your competition. A traffic virus is NOT a computer virus but the concept is the same. A virus can spread around the net very quickly. This form of Marketing can be the most effective and far reaching.

Everyone who uses the Net will have heard of Hotmail.com which uses the concept of Viral Marketing to build a massive customer base.

How?

Well, everytime you send a message using a Hotmail account there appears a footnote at the end of each message promoting the Hotmail service. Imagine how many emails are sent out every day promoting their service.

Lets take a look at how we can emulate the same technique to create our own viral marketing plan.

Create an email signature:

As you will be using email a lot you should always make sure that you leave your mark on every message that you send. A signature file is a short message that goes out on the bottom of each of your emails. It should give people your contact info, usually your email address, and contain a benefit .

Here is an example:

————————————————–
Colin Hartness: admin@web-at-work.com
Web-At-Work Ltd
The Cheapest Domains: www.web-at-work.com
Traffic Builder Systems: www.trafficbuildersystems.com
TrafficBuilder can guarantee search engine listings with the potential
to deliver thousands of high targeted visitors to your site
—————————————————-

Of course there are many ways of presenting a signature file. You can basically post as many links or information as you wish as long as you think it will be useful and not distracting from your email content.

A good idea is to direct to an autoresponder rather than a website for providing further information on the products that you are promoting.

You can set-up your signature file(s) within your email client so that you are promoting your business each time you send a message.

Start Your own FREE Web based email service

To take this concept a step further consider again the Hotmail module. Every user that signs up for a Hotmail account will be promotion Hotmail services. We can do exactly the same by offering a FREE email service and branding our clients email with our own promotional message. This service is provided at www.everyone.net

Write articles for ezines

How would you like to reach a couple of million people with your products and services…for FREE? That is exactly what occurs when you start writing articles and submitting them to hundreds of ezines online. Currently there are tens of thousands of ezine publishers online and almost all of them have one thing in common. They are all looking for good content to publish in their newsletter.

If you have good content (not a sales letter cloaked as an article), then you can be their savior. You can give them exactly what they need. Then, they will give you what you need in exchange. They will give you exposure for your business. Every article comes with a resource box attached at the end of it. While your article should not be an effort to promote your business, your 4 to 6 line resource box should be an outright ad for you and your business. You are free to advertise your web site, your products, your services, or any affiliate program that you are a member of.

Recommend a friend

The main obstacle for any online business to completing a sale online is the element of trust. A sale can ONLY be completed if the customer feels secure and safe with parting with credit card information. The problem with online business is that the visitor does not have any idea as to the nature of company that is behind the website. For all he or she knows it could be operated from a back bedroom by a one man band and they may well be correct. Once we have established trust then the visitor will feel good about purchasing from our website.

You have probably heard the phrase “the best form of advertising is word of mouth”. Well this is certainly applicable to Internet business and even more so due to the total lack of physical presence .

Therefore recommendation is very, very important.

There must be a customer testimonials on the website. Get into the habit of storing any positive comments in a separate folder and publishing with permissions on the website.The testimonial is a vital feature and could sway a buyer to go for the purchase. But even more effective is the use of “Recommend a friend” feature.

This is a simple form of viral marketing that uses the “word of mouth” principle of advertising. A visitor may wish to inform others of your website using such a tool installed on your site. You can even offer a prize as an incentive to send the recommendation.

Check out www.recommend-it.com for a remotely hosted service of this type.

Logos

Your logo is important - close you eyes and think of McDonalds and what do you see? A logo will immediately establish identity and confidence. Your logo should be visible on your website but be careful not to over expose it. The logo should be there but not intrusive and subconciously the visitor will remember it and link the image with the product or service. On the Net image is all important . A good business site will be a mixture of corporate identity and sales pitch that establishes confidence with the potential buyer and at the same time pitches the sale.

The offer must be irresistible with a unique selling point and the full benefits laid out with explanations why for every listed feature. Remember the customer is thinking only one thing “What’s in it for me !”

eBooks

eBooks are amongst the most effective methods of viral marketing as they are products since they are both informative and can be used as bonuses for purchases. An ebook can given away free or sold with re-sell rights.

The ebook will be a collection of informative articles that are related to our products and services and will include links to our main website plus additional links to affiliated products that we are indirectly promoting through the leading articles. Once the ebook is completed and complied in the correct format then we can decide whether to give the ebook away as a freebie, either as a bonus for subscribing to our list or for purchasing our products, or we may wish to sell the ebook.

If we decide to sell the ebook then we need to produce a good sales letter and explain that the purchaser will receive the re-sell rights to re-sell the ebook on if they wish. If we decide to give the ebook away we need to include within the content of the ebook a statement that the reader can feel free to give the ebook away as a freebie to compliment their products /services or for any other purpose.

eBooks are a perfect for adding value to products and services and if the ebook is worth reading then readers will be inclined to use it and the word will spread fast!

The advantage of providing the ebook free of charge is that it will be downloaded and may be used many times over. The disadvantage is that it may not be read as often as the paid version. Why? Because there are so many free ebooks out there that lots are downloaded and not really read thoroughly. However if you have paid for the information then you are more likely to read it !

Customizing

As a real incentive for your readers to distribute your ebook you may like to include a customizing feature. This could allow the reader to be able add their own web address.