What Is Viral Marketing?
 

Ask any internet marketer and they will tell you what a challenge it is to find strategies ways to find targeted traffic, in spite of all the tried and tested methods out there. Web visitors are also getting savvy to the various ploys that set out to attract them to websites across the web. In all the research towards getting more qualified traffic, enter Viral Marketing. This is not a new concept. But then, old is gold and viral marketing is a goldmine as online marketers are realizing quite quickly.

What Kind Of Benefits Can Be Expected From Viral Marketing?
 

Viral marketing is a way to generate massive amounts of traffic for a website. The marketer comes up with something that makes the visitor want to share it with everyone they know. There is no more effort on the marketer’s part since the visitor is responsible for spreading the message. It’s called viral marketing because the message spreads just like a virus, unstoppably. It makes the marketer’s website, product or service highly visible. But for this to happen, the message must be highly effective.

Obviously, viral marketing is free advertising but there is both short term as well as long term gains. It brings a rush of website traffic the moment it is launched. In the long term, it continues to bring in visitors letting the marketer build lists. Millions of visitors are reached at a time. What’s more, the marketer can initiate, automate and watch it work. As a marketing method, it does not cost much more than some time and creativity.

Viral marketing also lets the marketer use it in conjunction with other promotional methods being used. This method does not take a lot of specialized knowledge either.

The Latest Viral Marketing Tools
 

Apart from articles, ebooks, referrals, newsletters, resale rights, etc. which are highly effective in their own right, here are some of the recent trends in viral marketing tools:

• Through RSS Feeds for blogs – with the arrival and flourishing of the Web 2.0 platform, RSS or really imple syndication helps to send content to blogs automatically. RSS is also used to distribute content to websites and newsletter publishers online. With that background, it has become essential for all online businesses to have a blog because a blog is a great way to keep in touch with the business’s niche market, and keep up the flow of targeted traffic.
• With blogs it is very easy for people to comment and link back to it. All the marketer has to do is to post something infectious for people to find it, subscribe to it via RSS, spread it and link to it.
• Viral Videos are fast catching on as a great viral marketing method. With social marketing websites like YouTube, GoogleVideo, etc. anyone can make a video clip and upload it to spread the marketing message to millions of viewers. It just needs to be catchy so that people want to share it with others.
• Membership sites are used as a viral marketing method with marketers either becoming a member at these sites or starting one of their own. Membership sites are not that difficult to set up when there is already a list of prospective members and interesting products to sell. Most internet marketers start a membership site to promote their products, get the buzz started and receive traffic back to their websites.
• Social marketing is another new trend in viral marketing where the marketer signs up with a social networking website like Facebook, MySpace, etc. and the like. Then they begin marketing on these sites. These sites are part of the Web 2.0 platform which means interactivity at a high level. It is possible to post audio and video clips on these sites which make it all the more interesting. Another popular concept is social book marking which is ideal for online marketers to create brand awareness. Social book marking allows website visitors to save, share and organize their information. The marketer selects sites relevant to his products or service and posts useful information. It is also possible to create back links to the marketers’ websites with social book marking sites.

The list is long. Online marketers continuously look for new ways to use viral marketing. It is obvious that no internet marketer can do without it.