Viral Marketing may sound horrid to you, especially with the negative rap that the word virus has on everybody. However, viral marketing isn't something illegal or bothersome. Mostly viral marketing is embedded advertisements on freeware programs or letters. Its how you use the ads in the program that matters.



Viral Marketing is a term coined to describe marketing strategies that have a potential to balloon overtime, it is self-propagating and very cheap as you're relying on the consumer's actions to promote your web site.

When your programs generate pop ups and connect to servers without your clients knowing about it, then your program is called spy ware, if your program bombards the users with pop ups of advertisements, then its called adware, both are very frustrating and illegal.

To be successful in viral marketing, you should know when your advertising is too much advertising, and where to actually put them. Of course there's always research and surveys, but there are things you could do to explode your viral marketing without having to do all the work and research. All you need is five and you'll have enough exposure to go on.

Write Articles

Articles are a good way to promote your website, both offline and online. You can plug your site somewhere between the article if it's about something that is contained in your site, and if its not, then you can always put your URL on the about the author part of the article.

Another plus with writing an article is building your credibility.

When you do contribute an article to a certain website or newspaper, give them the right to reprint it, so long as they include your URL in there.

Edit Your E-mail Signature

Simple, yet effective, this is the simple beauty of this tip. Just make sure that your name and your slogan is in the signature of every e-mail you send out, whether it is formal or informal. Separate it with dashed lines to make it stand out from the rest of the text. And if you can, have the colors of the signature in your website colors. Visual memory is after all longer lasting than text memory.

Keep your tagline short but exciting, something that could embed itself on the reader's mind, kind of like that elevator music that keeps playing in your head over and over again.

Take Part in Forums

Most forums allow for a single picture as well as a signature for everyone that posts. You can use your banner as your picture and your web URL as your signature. Some sites even give you the option of two or more pictures, so you can change pictures for variety.

But don't just choose any other forum. Post in ones that relate to the theme of your site, this is so that those who read your post will actually be interested in viewing what is in your site.

E-mail to a Friend Scripts

For the frugal marketer, you can find free tell a friend script scattered all over the net. If you have the budget, you can have one specially made. You'll be surprised as to how many people actually would want to share their finds from your site. Some scripts even contain short thank you messages that are sent to the referrer. You can even give small incentives to the referrer if he writes a certain number of e-mail addresses. Just be sure that the script you're going to use is user friendly and efficient.

Create a Screensaver

Yes, a screensaver will do you good especially if your website is about something in entertainment, like a boy band or a TV show. Naturally, a celebrity is more likely someone's crush, and that someone won't bat an eyelash just to get his/her beloved, forever immortalized in his computer through a screensaver.

You can make a screensaver that features a reel or a random slideshow, with effects of course, of pictures of the boy band members, or scenes from the TV show, or even exclusive pictures that will only be found in the screen saver. Along with these pictures would be one clickable slide that links your potential viewers to your website. It's subtle and it's cheap.

You can then give away copies of the screensaver and make it available for download in your website.