Viral Marketing, if carried out properly, can be a non stop train of traffic to your site; however it can initially be quite time consuming.
Viral marketing refers to the act of creating something that once launched into the network continues to grow and expand with very little or no input from you.
Successful viral marketing is also referred to as V-marketing; Organic Marketing; Word of Mouth or word of Mouse. Some good examples of VM come from email clients like Yahoo or Hotmail and social networks like You Tube. One person sees/uses the service and is encouraged to pass it on to their friends who will pass it on to their friends and so on and so on, allowing the original service to spread across the network just like a virus would. There are a few different ways to execute good VM techniques some of which include emails, word of mouth and e-books:
VM using E-books:
This can be very time consuming in the beginning, depending on your writing skills, but carries some of the biggest rewards. An e-book is a piece of literature, fictional or otherwise, that is presented in electronic form for use online. Absolutely anyone can write an e-book and they are a great way to secure your position as an authority in your field, but it is important to remember a few salient points.
Only write about what you know - This may seem obvious but it is important not to over reach. If you are broaching a subject that you are not confident about make sure you do your research, one way to make sure you really do know your stuff is to explain the topic to a friend or family member who has no knowledge of your business and if they can understand you then you've got it, if not then you may need to have a rethink about how you are going to approach things.
Make it interesting - Whilst you should stick to what you know you must also remember that just like a book you might pick up at the book store if your content isn't interesting nobody is going to want to read it. Whatever your product/service, make sure that the content of the book is not only relevant to it but also contains information that people might not get elsewhere or is presented in a way that makes people want to keep reading.
Advertise yourself - Keep in mind that the reason you are writing your e-book is to bring people back to your site and while your e-book must not be a 30 page advertorial don't be afraid to tell people what it is that you do and encourage them to visit your site. For example imagine you are running a pet care site for people away on holiday you may want to pepper the pages with sentences like: "Considering all the effort you put into caring for your family friend, it is important that you know he will be well taken care of when you go away: feeding, grooming and exercise are just a few of the must haves. For a full list of our services click here to visit Pet Palace"
Downloading quality e-book compiler software will allow you to make the book completely integratable with the internet and you can find many free sources just by running a search, Adobe is a good place to start. Most e-books are created in PDF as this is the most widely compatible format, once again you can download free software to help you with this by doing a search. Viral PDF and Cute PDF are 2 well used sources.
Make it free - For your e-book to become truly viral you must consider the benefits of making free for anybody and everybody to use. The costs to you of creating your book are minimal to none and if you do decide to sell it you would be looking at 100% profit. However, the purpose of your book is to show people that you are a leader in your field which will encourage them to visit your site and make a buying decision, if you charge a fee to download and read the book it will reach less people. The great thing about a viral e-book is that people like to share a good resource with their friends and colleagues and they are less likely to do so if there is money involved.
All in all e-books are a great Viral Marketing method and one that should be fully utilized wherever possible.
