With several thousand new web sites being started every day the typical site owner has to be aware of the many different avenues that are available to promote their site.



Some are more traditional than others such as search engine optimization and submitting your site to directories related to your particular niche. Others take a little more imagination to implement.

One such tactic is creating a viral report or ebook.

This has nothing to do with passing a virus to the computers of unwary surfers.

Going viral simply means that the report or ebook is given for free with the encouragement to the reader to pass it along to others who may be interested in the subject matter which is covered in the text.

This can usually be accomplished by offering an incentive to the reader through a gift, bonus item or monetary reward.

In most cases the viral concept works in conjunction with an affiliate program where an affiliate link is embedded into the report itself or through an email from an autoresponder.

When used with an autoresponder it is usually with what is called a tell a friend script.

These are basically scripts that automatically place a piece of code into a link in an outgoing email. The reader is rewarded when entering the name and email address of three or more friends. When the link is clicked on by the recipient the click is credited to the person who referred the respondent.

Another method used is with what is referred to as branding software.

In this scenario the report or ebook is written with one or more clickable links that lead to either a sales page or a squeeze page.

Squeeze pages are simply pre sales pages that are set up with an autoresponder form on them so that visitors will leave their name and email address.

This is an incredibly useful tool that puts interested prospects into a sales funnel and allows the site owner to contact them with follow up messages at set intervals.

However some links will simply lead prospects directly to the sales page which then adds a cookie to their computer for tracking purposes.

When a sale is made the affiliate who sent the prospect then gets credited with the sale and gets the commission.

Rebranding software is a great tool because it can be used with PDF documents which are widely used on both PC and MAC platforms and are hailed for their security. This means that you are reaching a bigger audience than if you were to use software designed for an EXE application.

By writing good informative reports and short ebooks with brandable links and encouraging or rewarding readers to pass them along, you too can build a large viral marketing system that can bring prospects for months and possibly years to come.